If you doubt, for an instant, that America is still a racist society, read this story.

The jury took 12 minutes to convict. 12 MINUTES. No one died. No one was even hurt. A woman defended herself against abusive violence by firing a warning shot, in a state where such action is explicitly permitted by law. Today, she faces 20 years in jail. TWENTY YEARS. Read the story, and weep that [...]

Police Handcuff, Charge 6-Year-Old Girl For Tantrum

  I reproduce this article in full, without further comment, except to note my utter astonishment. By Paul Joseph Watson. Infowars.com Tuesday, April 17, 2012 Police in Milledgeville, Georgia handcuffed and charged a 6-year-old girl (seen above) with assault for throwing a tantrum in school but instead of apologizing for such unnecessary treatment, the chief [...]

British member of Parliament announces bounty on Obama and George Bush.

It is alleged that British Lord Nazir Ahmed put a £10 million (US$16 million) bounty on both President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush Friday, according to The Express Tribune, an English language Pakistani newspaper. Nazir, who is of Pakistani heritage and a controversial Labour Party member of the British House of Lords, (he [...]

Rush Limbaugh lies? Actually, like, LIES? No, surely not!

On his radio show Rush Limbaugh admitted that he has gotten exactly 7 new advertisers to replace the 160+ who have dropped, or no longer want to be associated with his show. Limbaugh said, “This is the first broadcast week in April. Let’s go back a month. The month of March in the United States [...]

Well, look. It’s like this. ARE Republicans stupid? You tell me.

More than half – you heard that right, more than HALF – of likely Republican voters in Mississippi say they think President Barack Obama is a Muslim, according to a survey conducted by Public Policy Polling. Fifty-two percent said that Obama practiced Islam, while just 12 percent said he was a Christian. Thirty-six percent said [...]

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 [...]

Care about American freedom? If you do, read this article.

I don’t often simply reproduce other people’s work, but I think this story from CutDC.com is not only well-written but it raises vital questions about freedom in America. We need to remember that freedom is rarely lost in dramatic moments, but in innumerable little restrictions on freedom to organise, free assembly, free speech, and freedom [...]

BULLYING. If you ever forward a post, please pass THIS one along …

As we hear the news that a 16-year-old Australian boy who had been bullied so much that he tried to kill himself has finally died from his injuries, and of an Ohio school student who was marginalised and bullied and who tragically took a gun to his classmates, we are again reminded of the awful [...]

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 [...]

Syria – the update. Er: nothing’s changed.

I am re-publishing my original article on the situation in Syria, originally published on 23rd December, and before Syria became the issue du jour on the nightly news, because my conclusion then seems even more pressing today. Sadly, what I predicted them – a full-scale civil war that threatens to spill over into neighbouring countries [...]

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 [...]

Radical American Muslims are not terribly prevalent. Or competent, for that matter. And nor is the burka. So what?

Regular readers will know I am pretty much against generalisations – “all generalisations are false” being one of my favourite aphorisms -  other than those that are supportable by the obvious empirical evidence, such as “The Republican Party have selected a bunch of vicious right wingers and idiots for people to choose from in 2012 [...]

You know it, I know it … time we all said it

I get so irritated with the smug, self-satisfied, careless commentary I see on this so-called News channel. And for Fox News, you could read the entire current field of Republican Party Presidential candidates, and a whole heap of commentators who should know better, too, who have all replaced incisive analysis and creative ideas with thoughtless [...]

As Catholic leaders accuse Gingrich and Santorum of “ugly racial stereotyping”, a few words on the TRUTH about American welfare.

As a bunch of prominent Roman Catholics call on their fellow conservatives in the Republican candidate ranks to stop criticising welfare payments in a racist manner, a quick wander around the internet reveals the truth about who gets what from the American welfare pie. The Myth: People on welfare are usually black, teenage mothers who [...]

Why women must vote

If you’re female, and live in America, please read this http://www.rense.com/general83/whywomen.htm Well, frankly, if you’re female anywhere you have the vote, please read it. Actually, we have compulsory attendance at a polling station here in Australia, which regularly comes under attack from the right as it inflates the centrist and left-wing vote, because they consider compulsory [...]

Gabby Giffords: in a tired old world, this is what courage, dignity and grace look like

So nearly killed by an assassin’s bullet, those among us who value legislators that exhibit true visionary potential and leadership will have watched Gabby Giffords’ painstaking recovery with a mixture of fear and compassion. Fear that she may never fully recover her faculties. Compassion for her and her family’s struggle. It is easy – too [...]

One small protest in many

Right, three long stories posted today. But now, as it approaches 8am on the Eastern seaboard of America, I am joining the worldwide internet strike for 24 hours. I cannot understand why so many legislators in the world are obsessed with curtailing our freedom of speech. It’s not like they haven’t got anything else to [...]

Fox’s Republican debate mocks Christian principle

To the bemusement of viewers all over America, and all over the world, Republicans in the audience for the South Carolina Fox/Twitter Presidential debate loudly booed the Golden Rule in the context of foreign policy January 16. Libetarian Texas Congressman Ron Paul was talking about respecting the sovereignty of other nations when it comes to [...]

The End is somewhat Nigher than before

  Global uncertainty on how to deal with the threats of nuclear weapons and climate change have forced the “Doomsday clock” one minute closer to midnight, leading international scientists said Tuesday. “It is now five minutes to midnight,” said Allison Macfarlan, chair of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which created the Doomsday clock in 1947 [...]