This has to be less than ideal as a precedent for civil liberties in schools. Another sign of a fundamental shift in our attitude to the presumption of innocence in the 21st Century, perhaps?
Archive for the 'society' Category
U.S. Supreme Court Judge: ‘absurd’ not to punch suspects in the face, stick things under fingernails
13Feb08In a recent interview, everyone’s favourite extreme right wing U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia remarked that he found it ‘absurd’ to think that authorities couldn’t torture an individual who had information about an imminent terrorist attack (another take). Picking up on the widespread belief that terrorists will hand themselves in for interrogation minutes before […]
The Sydney Morning Herald and Catholic News tell us that judges and other members of the legal community in New South Wales recently participated in ‘Red Mass’, a European tradition in which members of the legal profession seek divine guidance for the courts.
The image of judges - wearing the robes which represent their role in […]
This is an extraordinary decision by the Industrial Relations Commission. Telstra has had its right to sack an employee upheld, where the basis of the sacking was that she had sex with another employee (or employees, it seems) outside of work hours and then refused to tell her benevolent employer corporation the details.
In the first […]
I just became aware of this piece of legislation, recently introduced into the South Australian Parliament: the Serious Crime (Control) Bill 2007 (SA). You can see the bill here in Rich Text Format or here in PDF.
This legislation is ostensibly aimed at bikie gangs, but it goes a lot further than that, and doesn’t […]
This is an interesting little example of the current attitude to anonymity in some sections of the community: a type of jacket with a hood and integrated face-mask has apparently become popular amongst “young people” in Britain (more).
Admittedly looking quite intimidating (see link), the jacket does not in fact come with a mind control device […]
religion is in the inverse of…
12Dec07The always interesting Possum Comitatus has some analysis of voting trends and social factors at the last federal election. Tucked away in there are some very interesting graphs about religion and its correlation to several other variables (about half way down, look for “Update 2“).
In particular, two relationships stand out:
atheism is proportional to growth […]
verballing 101
08Dec07The South Australian Government has gone ahead with legislation to ban David Hicks from selling his story. He’s still allowed to tell his story, but he’s not allowed to sell it. Lucky him. Presumably he’ll be able to find a job with no problems - after all, he was never convicted of anything by a […]
Confirming that the United States still regards the phrase “war on terror” to mean “license for continuing and willful insanity”, a lawyer representing the U.S. in a high profile case in England has indicated that the U.S. view is that the covert abduction of foreign nationals in order to bring them to America to face […]
abnormal is the new normal
19Sep07This is an excellent piece by Barry Jones in The Australian in which he highlights the extraordinarily dangerous attitude currently being promoted as the “new normal” by politicians and their lackeys in the western world, in which objectivity, rationality and informed debate are completely subsumed by “faith”, expedience and knee-jerk reactivity:
We live in an era […]
demanding equality in pre-crime
07Sep07Britain’s Lord Justice Sedley has caused quite a fuss by suggesting that all Britons (and any visitors to the Isles) should be added to the British criminal DNA database (alternative article).
Unsurprisingly the suggestion has caused all kinds of hysteria which seems to rather miss his Lordship’s point: it’s fundamentally inequitable to have some people in […]
police state: sneak preview
06Sep07Crikey yesterday described the APEC security arrangements thus:
For the cops, APEC is a vision of the world as it should be. Expanded powers, new equipment, media support, and maybe a chance to try out new toys like the water cannon.
If the allegations in this article are even close to true, then that sounds pretty accurate:
cutlery […]
trade your vote in for a new one
08Aug07This is an interesting development in the US - an appellate court has ruled that it is legal to ’swap’ votes, and also to facilitate the swapping of votes.
The idea emerged in the 2000 presidential election campaign - supporters of third-party candidate Ralph Nader and supporters of Al Gore would strategically swap votes to maximise […]
use telstra and no-one gets hurt
02Aug07This has to be a new low in corporate spin, even for Telstra. Apparently if genuine competition is allowed in the Australian broadband market, we will be more vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
Conveniently this directly links Telstra’s near-monopoly position and commercial success with the safety of Australians who (rightly or wrongly) are genuinely afraid of terrorism.
Obviously the […]
This week is turning into a big week for the notion of the separation of powers in Australia. As you (should) know, the separation of power between the judiciary and the parliament/executive is one of the devices included in our Constitution to prevent abuses of power by those who govern on our behalf.
In addition to the clash […]
