david hicks in sa – a bill of attainder?

As you are no doubt aware, David Hicks is now back in Australia and locked away in a maximum security prison in Adelaide. The South Australian government in its wisdom has now announced legislation to stop Hicks from…

more gore lore

Further to this post, Simon points to this fairly lengthy but fascinating excerpt from big Al’s new book.

Faith in the power of reason—the belief that free citizens can govern themselves wisely and fairly by resorting

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our bureaucrats don’t even have to resign

It seems China has a slightly more extreme approach to countering government corruption than Australia.  I wonder what they’d do to someone who allowed millions of dollars in bribes to be sent to a country they were at…

exclusive brethren under investigation for election advertising

The Electoral Commission has finally referred the matter of the Exclusive Brethren cult’s involvement in the funding of pro-Government election ads at the last election to the Australian Federal Police.   A company linked to the cult spent more…

gall

This is an extraordinary story which gives some real insight into the Bush White House – while the Attorney General lies in hospital gravely ill and hallucinating, Bush’s political heavies show up to try to force him to sign off…

god presents: dinosaurs with saddles

You have probably heard about this by now: evangelical Christians will today open a “Creation Museum” (or, ‘moron magnet’, as this blog eloquently puts it) in the USA. Rather than being designed along the lines of a giant…

hypnotic photography website

Flickrvision is a strangely addictive website. It consists of photographs from the photo-sharing website flickr superimposed over a map of the world as they are uploaded. In other words, as you watch, you see an endless series of photos, with…

politician got on his jogging shoes

…he must be running for office, got no time to lose

I really enjoyed this post over at Blueberry Fool about the symbolism of concerns about terrorism leading to the public (and indeed, the Treasurer whilst…

young americans

This research is interesting – in a survey of American Muslims, the young are both more devout and more radical than those over 30. For instance, 60% of those in the 18-29 age group thought of themselves as…

stacked ABC board forces network to show documentary promoting idiotic non-science

You may or may not recall that over the last few years, the federal government has carefully stacked the ABC’s board with right wing nutcases, including Keith “we never did nuffink to the Aborigines, it was like that…

how long can I stay drunk on fear out in the wilderness?

Amnesty International has published its annual report, and it’s not pretty reading for Australia. New Holland comes in for criticism in relation to a range of areas, but in particular our approach to terrorism, women’s rights, and the…

ain’t talkin’

Today is International Talk Like Bob Dylan Day. Rejoice, and listen to dubious impersonations here.

Or reflect that, nasal tones or not, no-one can really talk like Dylan:

If I wasn’t Bob Dylan, I’d probably think that Bob

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al gore: rationalist politician?

Whether you’re left or right in a conventional sense, it’s worth paying attention to what Al Gore has been saying lately about the state of American – and by extension, Australian – politics. His new book, The Assault On Reason,…

the only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen

This is an odd little piece of civil disobedience – the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen was draped in ‘Muslim dress’ and a headscarf.

Apparently a previous incident in which a Burqa was put on the…

purity control

You’ve no doubt seen the proposed question for the Australian cultural and ideological purity control test over the weekend: link here in case you haven’t.

Some of the questions are, as John Quiggan puts it, nothing…