2000 “criminals” exonerated in 23 years, including many who faced execution or very long terms of imprisonment.

  Just checkout this story, if you would. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WRONGLY_CONVICTED_CRIMINALS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-05-21-00-10-51 Shocking. OK, let’s be glad these people were freed, but one has to ask. How many more? How many more are killed or incarcerated when they’ve done nothing wrong? The American legal system is a disgrace. Yes, the same is true in many other jurisdictions, including [...]

This Mother’s Day – send hope, not flowers.

I reproduce this story verbatim from Julie Ulbricht at mamamia.com because I believe in and profoundly agree with every word. It doesn’t really need any further comment from me, and it deserves to be very widely read and acted upon. I know what my wife – a fantastic, caring, creative and thoughtful mother, I think [...]

Australian Dreaming. Or rather, Australian rude awakening.

Today, I was woken, as I often am, by the sound of the Australian magpie, sitting on my roof, carolling away. When I first came to Australia, some 25 years ago, having only been in the country a few days, I was taken camping by friends at a very pretty spot called Lake Learmonth, near [...]

A poem for Anzac Day … Remembrance Day … Memorial Day. All the days. And all the men and women. And those they left behind.

I wrote this poem, remembering attending so many Remembrance Day services with my mother, whose husband, the father who I never knew, died at 46, a cheerful but essentially broken man, after six years of service. I am very proud of this poem, both as a poem, in and of itself, and as an authentic [...]

The Lazy Way of Doing A Blog Roll

  I am far too lazy to tweak my layout to fit in a blog roll, so I thought I’d reproduce – without asking permission, but that’s what lazy people do – my friend Val’s, who has some wonderful sites on her list. And not just because she’s kind enough to be nice about Well [...]

It’s not just me – Turnbull laments state of US politics

I am often criticised (in 99% of cases by ironed-on conservatives or Republicans) for being too critical about the quality of American politics, (which I freely admit fascinates me), and the performance of the right in particular. So I was pleased to see today’s report that the most popular politician (by opinion poll) in Australia [...]

Even I take a photo occasionally

OK, Dear Reader, of what is this a photo? (I actually wrote “what is this a photo of?” originally until I heard Winston Churchill bellowing in my ear “Never use a preposition to end your sentences with!” and rapidly corrected it.) OK, thinking caps on …     Is it some strange marking or pattern [...]

4G or not 4G? That is the question for Apple’s new iPad

As previously flagged in this blog, the new Apple iPad does NOT – currently – hook up with Telstra’s 4G in Australia (or Europe, or Asia) – although it hooks up to 4G standards in the USA and Canada. This Age article and video interview does an excellent job of explaining the issue and why [...]

Read this standing up

From Yahoo Health For better health, try standing up more, a new study suggests. Those who spend 11 or more hours a day sitting are 40 percent more likely to die over the next three years regardless of how physically active they are otherwise, researchers say. Analyzing self-reported data from more than 222,000 people aged [...]

And sometimes we pause, and just say thank you. Thank you, Jim Stynes.

Thank you for a life given to the community. A life lived with humility, grace, and courage. And we say thank you that we live on, while others pass on. We grieve for his children, his loving wife, his friends, and for everyone touched by his life. But most of all, we give thanks for [...]

Smelly, dirty, polluting, climate-changing, ugly, asthma-inducing coal. Oh, how we love it.

OK, no environmentalist is actually proposing to shut the coal industry down. But is it really that strange or irresponsible or revolutionary that some people should express concern about the largest (and pretty much un-checked) mining investment boom in Australia’s history? At present Australia digs up around 400 million tonnes of coal every year. While [...]

Kevin Rudd has his Lee Iacocca moment

Lido Anthony “Lee” Iacocca was famously head of both Ford and then Chrysler after he was fired by Henry Ford II – grandson of the founder of the company – despite being probably the most successful Ford executive of all time – with the simple words “I just don’t like you.” At the time, the [...]

If a week is a long time in politics, then bloody hell, a weekend is an age

So the Foreign Minister of Australia resigns in a fit of pique over criticisms that he is not being loyal to the Prime Minister – surely the worst kept secret in politics – and it’s on for man and boy as they say over here. Well, woman and boy, actually, the woman being Julia Gillard, [...]

Clever, clever, *bleep* clever politics. Maybe.

Keen students of Australian politics will recall that just prior to the Kevin07 election that saw him triumphantly elected as Australia’s Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd was “outed” for having been taken along to a New York club frequented by scantily (ahem) clad ladies,  some four years previously, after a late night dining and drinking too [...]

Nothing to this global warming crap: go to sleep, everyone, go to sleeeeeeeep …

Nightmare storms on Christmas Day, and now …. http://m.theage.com.au/victoria/new-year-set-to-ring-in-swelter-of-the-century-20111228-1pcan.html Sheesh. Roll on bushfires, flash floods et al. Personally, I am staying in the pool for two days, wrinkly fingers or no wrinkly fingers.

I know what will win the Melbourne Cup. Your personal guide to the race that stops a nation, horse by horse!

I don’t, of course. Just another nonsense headline to grab blog hits. (I am trying to prove a point here.) But big ups to Yahoo 7 sport for the excellent coverage of the field for the Melbourne Cup, (very useful for our overseas readers), and a day for which, thank the Lord, we actually have [...]