I used to have this romantic notion that Australians were fun, laid back and interesting, but after meeting a lot of them over the years I have come to a very different conclusion. They are incredibly irreverent, obnoxious, viciously anti-american and annoyingly self-absorbed with their country. I've wondered if it was just bad luck (over and over again). My British pals have told me that it's sort of common knowledge that Australians are, sorry to say, annoying xenophobes.

Their anti-americanism goes way before Bush came around. When they get started talking about the US they are so sneering, smirking and cocky. It's almost visceral. They also like to throw around that the US is a racist country-- an interesting accusation from a country that is 90% white and has an immigration policy to keep it that way. Nice little eugenics experiment down there.

They claim that they dislike Americans because they are so stupid, which is why most of the top 10 universities in the world are in the US. The last time I looked, merely one university in Australia made it into the top 30 list. Harvard isn't in Australia, nor is Yale, or Princeton, U Michigan, U Penn, UVA, Williams, MIT, U Chicago, Northwestern, etc.

Needless to say, when I found out that sneering Julian Assange was Australian, I wasn't surpised at all.