why you shouldn’t use google chrome

You may have heard of Google Chrome, Google’s attempt to take on Internet Explorer and Firefox by releasing a stand alone web browser (no doubt part of Google’s secret plan to gradually take over the world).  As with…

war on terror semi-officially over

The War on Terror is over, says Secretary of State Hillary.  Or, more accurately, the expression is “just not being used”.

It’s often tempting to think that politicians are all the same and that the Obama administration in…

south australia continues to push the presumption of guilt

Following on from the recent bikie-gang violence at Sydney airport, there has been a chorus of praise for South Australia’s abhorrent anti-association laws (summarised here at Larvatus Prodeo, who rightly point out the idiocy of presuming guilt based on…

creeping fascism update

Happy news from NSW, where the police are now going to have the power to secretly search homes and computers continuously for up to three years before any notification is given to the subject of the searches.  This…

getup save the net campaign

internet censorship – national protests

Further to the previous post, there are national protests on 13 December 2008 in relation to Labor’s mandatory Internet filtering scheme. Details here. Attend, if you don’t want the federal government to decide what you can and cannot…

internet filter – positive noises from… the Liberal Party?

No doubt stung by the fact that no-one in the electorate actually pays them any attention at all (or maybe just because they don’t have to pal up to right wingnuts like Steve Fielding any more), the Liberal Party appear…

no clean feed

This is probably the most significant issue for Australian democracy since the amendments to the ASIO Act by the Howard government: link.

More on it later.  If you already know about it, get a move on and write…

an idea about police spying

This kind of thing makes grim but not at all surprising reading. Just as they did in the 1950s and 1960s, the powers that be are making it their business to infiltrate groups of citizens attempting to exercise their legitimate…

another brick in the wall

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?

U.S. Supreme Court Judge: ‘absurd’ not to punch suspects in the face, stick things under fingernails

In 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 (

Serious Crime (Control) Bill 2007 (SA) – a bill controlling what, exactly?

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…

anonymity implies criminal intent, kkk sympathies: idiots

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).…

verballing 101

The 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…

kidnapping, bounty hunting completely fine by U.S.

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…