BAD IDEA OF THE WEEK: Being a racist prick

A middle-aged woman unloads a racist tirade at fellow passengers on a train in Sydney, and again Australia's attitude to racial diversity comes under scrutiny. The woman was arrested on the New South Wales Central Coast on Thursday, one day after a commuter captured her racist tirade on camera on the train between Central and Strathfield stations. She has been charged with using offensive language and will be forced to explain her actions in court later this month, and I don't think she'll be able to come up with one good enough to justify her stupid outburst. Investigators are appealing to any passengers who witnessed the incident to come forward. In the video, the woman taunts a man and an Asian woman sitting together. The invective is caught on camera and posted online. "Can't you get an Aussie girlfriend? You had to get a gook, you sad, poor pathetic man... Is it really that small you can't get an Aussie girl?" she said. "What's wrong with Hong Kong? Why'd you come to this country? This is our country." The woman also mocked the passenger's accent and pulled at her eyes in a racist gesture. That ain't cool. One needs to remember that more than a quarter of Australians were born overseas. Theirs is a land that considers itself a multicultural success story, but it is one tainted by an indelible stain of bigotry. When you see someone really out of control letting fly with all those prejudices and hatreds, it definitely is depressing. So if you're also acting like such a racist bellend, STOP IT. It's not nice.