The standard you expect of others is the standard you will be held to

If you were writing a morality play where a party, or a faction of that party, claimed the US president was a heathen foreign communist, and then went and put up a candidate who is a Canadian born Cuban, it would be dismissed as being too obvious.

Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the United States Constitution states that:

“No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.”

Ted Cruz, the “tea party” Republican who has just announced his candidacy for the Office of President (at exactly the same point in his freshman Senate term as the “inexperienced” Barack Obama did), was born in Canada.

Canada, mind you – where the socialists are!
Where’s Donald Trump when you need him?
Haha! Trick question! Nobody needs him. For anything. Ever.

And what a surprise it has been to see the so-called tea party suddenly discover nuance and reason. Of course Ted Cruz is eligible to run for president! Why would anyone think otherwise?

The argument goes that since Cruz’s mother was a US citizen at the time of his birth (and for all anyone knows, still is) he has automatic US citizenship by birth and therefore, is a natural born citizen of the United States. I have no disagreement with that interpretation.

What I have a disagreement with is anyone who didn’t make that argument during all the “birther” nonsense over Barack Obama’s citizenship. Obama was born in Hawaii and as such, is a natural born US citizen. However, even if he were born in Kenya as the lunatic fringe alleged, having an American mother would make him just as much a US citizen as Ted Cruz is. Now why do you think people like Herman Cain weren’t making that argument six years ago?

You don’t get to be an originalist only when it suits you. If you believe the Second Amendment entitles every man, woman and child to carry an assault rifle anywhere they want, then you don’t get to claim wiggle room on the definition of a natural born citizen.

Equally – and I want to make this quite clear – if you believe the US Constitution needs to be read in the context of the times and has room for interpretation based on circumstances, then you don’t get to be absolutist about Article II. Frankly, if your best argument against Ted Cruz being president is his heritage, then either he must be a pretty good candidate or you haven’t done your homework.

While Cruz’s supporters may not have been birthers, I’m pretty sure they were happy to sit back and watch the conspiracy theorists trying to destroy a president on a technicality, which makes them complicit if they knew better all along. So this is where they reap what they have sown. They have no right to complain. The standard you expect of others is the standard you will be held to.

Unless – and I am just asking the question here – unless the motives behind Obama birtherism were not constitutionality after all.
  
 

Some are freer than others

Was it really just a little over six months ago that our Attorney-General George Brandis stood up in the senate and declared that people have the right to be bigots?

As stupidly glib as his comment was, he was right. In a free society, people should have the right to be bigots if that’s the way they want to be. And the rest of us should be able to call them out for the bigots they are at every opportunity. It’s one thing to recognise the right to bigotry, it’s another thing entirely for the government to be facilitating bigotry. When Senator Brandis made that comment in March, he was defending the government’s plan to repeal section 18C of the racial discrimination act. By an astounding coincidence, this was the law that Andrew Bolt was successfully taken to court under in 2011. In the election campaign and early months of the new government, repealing this law was a priority for the coalition because freedom of speech trumps hurt feelings. Okay then.

Then in August, the prime minister humiliated his attorney-general by scrapping the repeal. The excuse for this surprise was that “When it comes to counter-terrorism, everyone needs to be part of Team Australia.” If you have any idea what that’s supposed to mean, please let me know in the comments.

Mr Abbott also said that repealing the law had become a complication in relations with the Muslim community – which would be fine if they didn’t then turn around and pander to the “ban the burqa” (yes, I know they probably really mean niqabs, but most of them don’t know that) mob. The issue was first inflamed by Palmer United Senator Jacqui Lambie. Rather than dismiss her comments as a rookie mistake though, the following week, the prime minister’s chief of staff and the speaker of the house exercised power above that of the prime minister by having people in face coverings sit apart from the rest of people in Parliament’s public galleries. Now for sure, it could have been any face covering at all and if you believe that isn’t discriminatory, you probably think it’s fair that rich people are forbidden from sleeping on park benches just as much as the poor. Even Andrew Bolt thought it was unhelpful.

Now there are moves to make it harder for so-called “hate preachers” to come to Australia. I’m not entirely against this. I just wonder what happened to the right to be a bigot. Tony Abbott even apologised to Alan Jones (making you wonder who actually runs the country) for not acting sooner to impede the “objectionable.” So we’ve gone from defending the right to be a bigot, to going out of our way to stop some fringe dwellers being merely objectionable.

And this morning during a radio interview, Mr Abbott brought it full circle by saying,

Certainly if poor old Andrew Bolt is...

Okay, wait, I have to stop this here for a moment. “Poor old Andrew Bolt”‽ Yes Tony, poor old Andrew Bolt is the real victim here, what with his loss of reputation and livelihood. Oh, hang on, that never happened. In fact, since being taken to court and receiving the penalty of having to apologise, he has been given his own television show, so poor old Andrew Bolt has really suffered for his free speech.

Sorry, where were we?

Certainly if poor old Andrew Bolt is prosecuted for a mild, relatively mild piece,

No, sorry, I’m going to have to interrupt again. I think “relatively mild,” might be in the eye of the beholder here and we should also remember that the beholder wants to consider himself the prime minister for indigenous affairs. So it’s informative to know which side Mr Abbott comes down on in a disagreement between those he claims to represent and one of his ideological mentors.

Anyway, let’s try this again…

Certainly if poor old Andrew Bolt is prosecuted for a mild, relatively mild piece, I know it was different law, it was Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, but if we are looking for objectionable speech, the kind of stuff which we're hearing from Hizb ut-Tahrir is infinitely more objectionable than anything you'd ever hear from Andrew Bolt.

Picture taken from the
I’m Voting Liberal Facebook page.
Do you feel stupid yet?

I see. So there are now degrees of bigotry that we should defend? Reasonable people have argued all along that freedom of speech is no excuse for being an arsehole or a shield from the consequences of exercising that right. Having gone in to bat for the likes of Andrew Bolt though, the government has lost the ability to use that perfectly valid argument.

In times of alleged terrorist threat, we often hear a lot about sending messages, and the government has sent one over the last six months, but they’re probably not aware they’ve sent it.

To cut a long story short,
If you’re white, male, rich and support our politics, and you do something illegal, we’ll change the law to protect you,
If you’re brown, Muslim, female, or any combination of them, and you do something that’s not illegal, we’ll change the law to stop you.

 

Quotes of the century

"If [force] is to be used, it is not knowable how long that conflict would last. It could last, you know, six days, six weeks. I doubt six months."
- Donald Rumsfeld, 7 Feb, 2003

"I think things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from the standpoint of the Iraqi people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators."
- Dick Cheney, 16 March, 2003

" I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."
- Dick Cheney, 20 June, 2005

"Our country... cannot afford to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result."
- Barack Obama, 1 August, 2008

 "These American forces will not have a combat mission — we will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq.
- Barack Obama, 10 September, 2014 


"The enemy have CNN just like we do."
- Falsely attributed to Colin Powell. Although, he did say this:

"No battle plan survives contact with the enemy."

It seems like the second consecutive administration is about to ignore his advice.

  

The Rules: Prime Ministerial ambitions

The shoe may be on the other foot and the foot may be kicking the shit out of anyone who owns less than a dozen newspapers and a couple of television networks, but after nearly a year, leadership rumours are flying around the prime minister again and isn't it all just bloody hilarious! Thanks be to the patron saint of short attention spans - whoever that might be. I try looking it up but I keep getting distracted by breaking news of who Shane Warne's new girlfriend might be and quizzes that will tell me which Kardashian I am.

So far, it's all going perfectly to script with all the right denials from all the right people. The problem with every denial is that when any MP (who may or may not be Malcolm Turnbull) denies there is a leadership challenge on right now, the follow-up question is whether that MP ever has the desire to take over the leadership. The only honest answer, regardless of who is being asked, is Yes.

Just for once, can we please cut through all the false modesty and admit that EVERYONE wants to be prime minister. Even you! The only people who don't want to be prime minister are those who would take neither the pay cut nor the responsibility that comes with public office, and instead enjoy influencing government while maintaining the charade that they're every bit at the mercy of Big Government as every other little guy. Who says satire is dead? I am not necessarily referring to the likes of Rupert Murdoch, Gina Rinehart, Andrew Bolt and Alan Jones. I could have meant absolutely anyone by that comment. I don't understand why you're all so suspicious.

The House of Representatives would have to be the only place in the country where you can gather 148 people who all claim they don't want to be prime minister. Take a survey of any train or food hall, and I'll bet you'll find at least 150 people who all think they would make a great prime minister, yet the closer someone gets to that goal, they more they would have you believe that they never wanted it in the first place.

I promise you that nobody goes into politics with the ultimate ambition of being minister for communications (to take a completely random example). And even if one is self aware enough to know that it was only dumb luck and schmoozing the right people that got them to the level of minister for education (to take another completely random example), the desire and the eye for the main chance will always be there.

This isn't a good or a bad thing, it's just the truth. Nobody dreams of being the world's greatest rhythm guitarist. Nobody plans to win Best Supporting Actor. They want to be the star, and if they're content with the way things turn out, that won't change what they always wanted.

Deny a challenge by all means because it probably is bullshit. But can we please stop insulting everyone's intelligence by claiming no ambition?

There are two types of politicians: Those who want to be prime minister, and liars.
Make that one type.
  
 

Connecting the dots again

Or… I’m not a journalist, but… Part 3

This week has been the stupidest week the government has had since coming to office last September, and that’s already a crowded field.

Another week of sideshows (which I’ll write about more later) was topped off by Attorney General George Brandis saying that the government would no longer refer to the Israeli occupied territories as… well, occupied territories.  The government’s reasoning is that such a term is judgemental and unhelpful.

It’s a fair point. It is a judgemental term and judgemental language is rarely helpful in international diplomacy unless you’re trying to lose friends rather than make them, in which case it’s very helpful.

But wait just an eenie meenie miney minute here…
Is this the same George Brandis whose highest priority so far has been the repeal of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act on the grounds that it’s an intolerable affront to free speech? Is this the same George Brandis whose most notable quote of this parliament so far has been “People do have the right to be bigots,” while defending the repeal? Apparently, it is.

Reporters and commentators have been quick to point out that much closer allies of Israel than Australia, up to and including the United States, call East Jerusalem occupied without any damage to the relationship but that’s rather beside the point. What no-one has asked is why this government that claims to champion free speech, that wants to legislate to remove any impediment to Andrew Bolt setting himself up as the ultimate arbiter of who is black enough to call themselves aboriginal, is suddenly taking such a Milquetoast approach to an internationally accepted and historically accurate description.

And if that isn’t enough to keep the columns and interviews flowing for a day or so, here’s another nuance to hone in on: being judgemental.

I agree that judgemental language does not make for good relations but surely I am not the only one who has noticed that the language of this government on every other issue has been nothing but judgemental.

How else do you describe calling those who would risk their lives on the high seas to escape terror and find a better life in Australia “illegals,” despite the fact that seeking asylum is not illegal?
How else do you describe a budget speech that says “Australians under 30 years of age should be earning or learning,” as if that wasn’t the case already, and as if there’s something special about being under 30?
How else do you describe this government’s attitude to welfare, talking about a phoney “age of entitlement,” which is clearly meant to demonise all recipients of benefits, be they school leavers or war widows?

I fully agree that judgemental language is unhelpful. I would go further and say it’s damaging. But given that the new government has spent a lot of its time and energy using judgemental language and defending the freedom to do so, surely any journalist worth their iPhone would hear the government’s new policy towards Israel and ask, “What’s different about this?”

I’m offering no theories, I’m just asking the question. What I will say is that the coalition has been working hard since its time in opposition to change the language in order to redefine our values.
Mr Orwell would have something to say about that.
  
 

A post about floccinaucinihilipilification

There is a certain anti-intellectualism about Australia. There is also a certain anti-intellectualism about politics. When you put the two together, suddenly it seems like anyone who knows how to spell their own name is some out-of-touch elitist who doesn’t understand the everyday concerns of ordinary people like you, who still wonder why the moon follows them around at night. You only have to be smart enough to construct an argument about how being smart doesn’t make you so smart and everything else will follow.

We have quite a history of mocking people who like to use big words.

In 1993, Paul Keating caused quite a stir when he implied the then Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohammad was a recalcitrant. The controversy was party because of the undiplomatic language, and partly because thousands of people had to find out what recalcitrant meant. The word has since been used by both sides of politics without any further comment.

In 2000, Kim Beazley was mocked for describing John Howard’s roads policy as a boondoggle.

And no mention of Kevin Rudd is complete without the phrase “programmatic specificity,” which, among other things, became a major punchline in one of Julie Bishop’s increasingly regular and increasingly cringeworthy comedy routines.

If war is God’s way of teaching Americans geography, perhaps politics is God’s way of expanding Australians’ vocabulary.

Cut to this week, and Malcolm Turnbull talking about “neoconrovianism,” which apparently isn’t a description of Karl Rove’s political philosophy.

Why neoconrovianism not to speak of red underpants have no place in responsible telco and media policy http://t.co/a4MOHXJWuz #qt
— Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) March 6, 2014

Surely by any Australian standards, this is enough to have Mr Turnbull dismissed as a prize wanker.

But wait. Something is different. Where is all the mockery from the media and the opposition? After all, this doublespeak is coming from the same man who claimed in 2009 that had no idea what programmatic specificity meant, even though the meaning should be clear to a Rhodes Scholar.

What changed? Why is this different?

We report, you decide…

  

 

The eternal sunshine of Christopher Pyne

What a difference an election makes! Suddenly the Coalition thinks that a shrill and obstructionist opposition is a bad thing. And no-one is more upset about it than that master of hypocrisy, Christopher Pyne. At a doorstop press conference last Thursday, he revealed that he had suddenly become aware of there being a difference between holding government to account and being ill-mannered.

He also said,

"I don’t think anybody ever accused me of rudeness."

The only way anyone could possibly think that Christopher Pyne was never accused of rudeness would be to not think at all.  But just in case Mr Pyne really was living in a bubble until this week, let me make it perfectly clear:

Christopher Pyne, I accuse you of rudeness.

He went on to say,

"I don’t think I was ever ill-mannered and rude,"

which can only leave one with the impression that he really hasn't quite got the hang of this "thinking" lark.

I know better than to ask Mr Pyne if he doesn't think behaviour like this is rude:

Christopher Pyne being not rude

The question I really want to ask, was best asked by Jon Stewart:

What we have lost

Last night on the special edition of 7:30 on the passing of Nelson Mandela, Quentin Dempster asked Andrea Durbach, “What do we lose with Nelson Mandela’s death?”

It’s a powerful question and if I might offer an answer, part of what we lose is control over his words and what they mean.

There are certain icons of history; people who not even the most churlish of contrarians would disagree with. Nelson Mandela is certainly one of them, but what happens to those icons is that their words get co-opted and their messages corrupted by those who want only to be associated with them, not to embody them. From Jesus Christ to Martin Luther King, you don’t have to look far to find those who are happy to quote their words without any understanding of or empathy for their real meaning.

I have seen King’s speech about judging people not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character actually used as an excuse for racism. Hey, we’re judging people by the content of their character and it’s a pure coincidence that the character we are judging just happens to belong exclusively to people with different skin colours.

As the messages of those who were once considered radicals finally, and rightly, become mainstream, there will be more and more privileged idiots who try to claim their struggle as their own, from Pete Hoekstra comparing the attempts to shut down Congress to the struggle for democracy in Iran, to Tony Abbott comparing his own time in opposition to that of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Already, it is happening to Mandela. Just last night, Rick Santorum compared the struggle against the great injustice of apartheid to his own struggle against the “great injustice” of Obamacare. I kid you not. I couldn’t make that up, and if I could, I wouldn’t.

I wouldn’t presume to know what Nelson Mandela would make of such a comparison but I doubt he would agree. Perhaps he would respond with a dry and playful irony similar to his response to the Spice Girls comparing his movement to their own phoney and confected “girl power,” which everyone would again take as an endorsement of their own assumptions, whatever they may be. Such was his wit.

The world loses much with his passing and no small part of it is his authority and perspective on what a struggle against injustice really is.
  
 

Through the Looking Glass

Consider this:

Imagine it's 1983.

And imagine someone told you that in 30 years' time, Russia would be granting asylum to an American dissident who is wanted in his home country for telling the truth about what his government is doing.

What would the reaction be?
 
 

Mass Debating

I am starting to think that presidential debates are second only to the state of the union address when it comes to pointless political theatre.  To quote my brother in law, the president could fulfil that particular constitutional mandate by buying Congress a recurring subscription to the Washington Post and be done with it.  Similarly, with these debates, it’s become all about the theatre.  While it’s good to have the candidates face each other directly like this, it seems more people today are interested in where each candidate was looking when the other was speaking.  Fifty-two years after Kennedy/Nixon, it seems we’ve learnt nothing.

The thing I hate most about these debates is the fact that everyone wants to declare a winner.  The primary purpose of a debate should be to explore ideas, not to beat the other guy.  Mitt Romney certainly went into it with nothing to lose.  If he could get through the night without insulting half the population or accidentally bragging about how fabulously wealthy he is, then it was always going to be chalked up as a win for him.  Did Obama look tired?  Of course he looked tired.  He’s had a country to run for the last four years.  Show me any president who didn’t age a decade in his first term.  That’s the kind of job it is.  What has Romney done in that time other than run for president?  Having said that, Obama clearly let multiple opportunities for rebuttal go begging and it’s hard to imagine why.

The conventional wisdom certainly has it right on the standard of moderation.  I’ve never seen Jim Lehrer so weak and ineffectual.  The questions were high school stuff.  “What would you say the difference is between the two of you on _____?”  That means each candidate has to characterise his opponent’s policies, which is just asking for derp.  I had to chuckle when Romney said Obama was misrepresenting his tax policy.  Aside from whether he was or wasn’t, that’s a bit rich coming from someone whose own campaign has said they won’t be dictated to by fact checkers.  Without making any comment on Obama’s description of the policy, if you’re going to go post-factual, you have to go all the way.

If you knew nothing else about Mitt Romney you would say he presented well in the debate.  The problem is, we do know other things about Mitt Romney.  We know he changes his story according to who he’s speaking to.  He goes to Michigan and says he likes cars.  He goes to Mississippi and says he likes “cheesy grits.”  I’m not saying the two are mutually exclusive but I’ll lay odds that even I’ve had cheese grits more often than Mitt Romney has.  So the question is not so much what Mitt Romney said last night, but how it squares with what he has said previously, what he may say tomorrow and which one we ought to believe.

I think the most telling moment in the debate came from one of the segments they replayed on the news a lot, but not for the same reason they replayed it.
Mitt Romney said:

I just don't know how the president could have come into office, facing 23 million people out of work, rising unemployment, an economic crisis at the -- at the kitchen table, and spend his energy and passion for two years fighting for Obamacare instead of fighting for jobs for the American people. 

A couple of things first:  I think we all know how he came to office facing 23 million people out of work, rising unemployment and an economic crisis.  They all came from the policies of the administration that Republicans dare not name, yet whose economic policies they want to return to.  Secondly, since millions of Americans are dependent on their employers to provide their health insurance, high unemployment is actually a pretty important reason to prioritise health care.  But neither of those things really highlights how disturbing this comment from Romney really was.

For those with short memories, a major plank of Obama’s platform in the 2008 campaign was to reform the health system and bring coverage to millions who didn’t have it.  The policy may have been watered down, no thanks to obstructionist Republicans and gutless Democrats (by the way, can someone please explain to Republicans that “bipartisan” does not mean Democrats shut up and do whatever Republicans want?), but regardless of whether you agree with the policy or not, Obama spent his energy and passion fighting for health policy reform because he said he would!  Perhaps Obama is old fashioned enough to think that when you take a policy to an election, win that election and receive a mandate, then you should enact the policy.

By his own words, Mitt Romney doesn’t seem to understand that.  He doesn’t seem to make the connection between election promises and what you do in office.  This should ring alarm bells for anyone considering voting for Romney.

And yes, Obama should have said that too.
 
 

Remember when...?

At the beginning of the year, I pondered which of their stated values the Republican party would throw away, or at least try to rationalise their way out of.  With Romney as the nominee, we are now hearing all those who would have opposed him in the primaries saying, “I had deep concerns about ____’s position on _____ and his history of ____ but now that I know more about him and heard that he believes _____, I know that he’s the right candidate.”
The script was already written, you just have to fill in the blanks and get the right people from central casting to say it.

Here’s my only question:

Sorry folks, but you can’t have it both ways.
 

Dixie Chick-fil-A

There’s a big stink in the US at the moment about a fast food chain. The president of the Chick-fil-A chain, Dan Cathy (a man I had never heard of a week ago, and I suspect relatively few of his customers had either) has expressed opposition to same-sex marriage. This has resulted, rather predictably, in calls for a boycott of Chick-fil-A from supporters of same-sex marriage. This in turn had led, even more predictably, to cries from the right that the left are trying to crush free speech and ban all forms of thought that don’t comply with their own.

So here we go again. Yet another example of people mistaking the right to free speech for the right to protection from the consequences of expressing that right.

In fairness, and to his credit, Mr Cathy has said that his own views are not the views of the Chick-fil-A chain, which has no position. That’s fair enough and he is right to say that there is no such thing as a Christian business. Equally, when you hear a point of view expressed by Bill Gates, do you take it as a comment from Bill Gates, private citizen whose view is no more or less important than anyone else’s, or do you take it as a comment from Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and global philanthropist? Right. So while I am perfectly happy to accept that Dan Cathy was speaking only for himself and not his company, it’s his position as head of that company that gives him a greater platform from which to express his personal, not-representative-of-the-company, opinion. It is an opinion he has every right to hold and express by all means available to him. It’s also an opinion that others are free to disagree with and express that disagreement by all means available to them.

Some have asked why, so long as the food is good (we’ll assume, for the sake of argument, that it is), anyone should care what the president of the company thinks about anything. And why punish the people behind the counters for the utterances of the owner of the chain? From that, it’s been claimed that any Chick-fil-A boycott is really about the big, bad lefties trying to suppress any point of view that doesn't conform to theirs because they really hate freedom. This is to completely miss the point of freedom.

If you believe in freedom, then it follows that people have the right to withhold their patronage from any business for whatever reason they see fit. If you disagree with their reasons, then you are free to disagree but they are under no more obligation to care about your disagreement than Dan Cathy should be to change his opinion. No-one's freedom of expression trumps anyone else's freedom of choice.

It all reminds me of a situation nearly ten years ago now when a popular country vocal group expressed their embarrassment at coming from the same state as the then president. These comments caused something of a ruckus. Indeed, I seem to remember people calling for boycotts of their records and concerts and the group being banned from radio playlists. What I don’t remember is any cries from the right wing about what a terrible attack on free speech this was. I also don’t remember anyone pointing out that the group were only expressing a personal point of view and that they were not claiming to speak for their record company, management or road crew who, I think we would all agree, deserve to make an honest living without being blamed for the personal opinions of their bosses, right? Or is that different? If so, how? I mean, so long as they still sing nice tunes, who cares what they said about other stuff?

The fact is that while the singers had the right to express their views in whatever way they saw fit, others had the right to react in any way they saw fit. We all have our freedoms.

My only question for Chick-fil-A is this: How does it feel to be The Dixie Chicks?
 
 

Thinking of Linking

Volume three of all the web pages I've posted, retweeted, liked, dugg, stumbled or otherwise taken note of during the year.  (I know that Reddit is supposed to be the cool way to do this now, but it's truly the worst designed site since the Drudge Report)

Arranged into broad categories and in vaguely chronological order of when I found them, and now with a new section highlighting the year in stupid.
As usual, linking does not necessarily imply agreement and/or endorsement, blah blah blah...


News and Politics - Australia
Queensland floods from space
History of Australian states in gif form
Why we hate Gerry Harvey? Analysing a PR disaster
Spotted on a t-shirt in Cronulla
Abbott's game plan: power at any price
Catherine Deveny Q and A Drinking Game
Tony Abbott has things on his mind. None of them good.
Ben Pobjie's minutes of the first Q and A
$40 million: it’s how much each gold medal costs us
The "shit happens" video
Aunty, we have a problem
Liberals' policy hatched in One Nation heartland
That's not guts, Scott Morrison. That's not an apology
Alan Jones' disgusting interview with Julia Gillard
When pacifist Greens want military action, it's time to ask if their policies really can fly
Antony Green: Pauline Hanson and the NSW Legislative Council election
'Alfred' the sham
No Carbon Tax campaign must urgently delouse
Low-road debate sells our children short 
Married to the lynch mob
Abbott fell into obvious trap
Paul Keating's letter to John Robertson
Bernard Keane interviews Lindsay Tanner
Every Federal Hansard back to 1901
Power of success behind Abbott's one-track style
You can lead the Liberals to government but you can't make them think
Decline and Fall – Insiders and Donald Trump
Dickhead removal strategy
Wally Lewis laces up for political protest
Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia, 2007-08 
Are the Christian Left politically homeless?
Power of success behind Abbott's one-track style
Julia's tax will be worse than herpes We'll have to take Terry McCrann's work on that, but as to his rational - "It'll be with you forever and on everything," - what do you call the GST‽
What happened in the House yesterday?
Death threats sent to top climate scientists Sure, both sides do it.
Tony Abbott:"If you want to put a price on carbon why not just do it with a simple tax?"
Abbott attacked for links to climate denier Lord Christopher Monckton
Greg Hunt's thesis: "A tax to make the polluter pay" Awkward! 
Two bald men fighting over a comb
A tribute to Greg Jericho
Mungo: Time for a Greens reality check
Tory Errorist: Liberal stand-over thug prompts Greenie tears Credit where due to this crazy right-wing site for calling thuggery
A brief history of Australia’s tax system (pdf)
Carbon Tax Facts
Extreme Makeover Takeover
Stop throwing out names   
Dickhead! Funny how this wasn't played as much as the "Why did you lie?" lady.
What About Bob?
It's my party: expelled DLP member
The Factbricator 
Gambling survey finds support for pokies reform
The Tony Abbott Tea Party
Debating Lord Monckton "If your doctor told you that you had cancer and Lord Christopher Monckton told you to ignore their advice would you listen to him?"
Sentencing remarks of his Honour Magistrate Rosencwajg Re: Derryn Hinch
Plain packs will cause shortage, says big tobacco Um... yeah.
Tony Abbott’s flawed friendship with the freaks and flat-earthers
A Sad Day for the ABC
Up to 20 returned Tampa asylum seekers have been reported killed, dozens more have simply disappeared
What if Australia had an FPP system in 2010?
How the taxpayer helped Tony Abbott flog his book
Why repeated demands for a double dissolution are constitutionally impossible
The Political Sword was selected for preservation by the National Library of Australia
Malcolm Fraser: There is a better way to deal with asylum seekers - one that would recognise the decency of Australians
The fee, me and Alan Jones: how question of money turned crowd nasty
Mr Jones Goes to Canberra
Protesters rage at false report trucks stopped They lied. Surprised?
Unanswered questions on the Convoy of No Confidence
Tony Abbott should try acting decent
Relative slams 'medieval' plan for Kelly's bones Do the words "rest in peace" mean anything?
Snobs and whingers: the new Australia
Outposts between Sydney and Canberra had stocked up for the Convoy of No Confidence that never arrived
I supported the Malaysian solution. Go ahead, laugh. Not being a journalist or a politician I'm free to admit when I'm wrong.
A sleazy new low for Abbott
Gillard, Rudd and Labor's personality tragedy
Greek tragedy that is the real Julia show
One for you, nineteen for me
Abbott's pit bull politics are effective, but at what cost?
Bogans – Not a Social Group, An Attitude – A Response to Dr. David Nichols
Declining Labor may have to tie knot with the Greens
To change this climate, Labor needs a bold new leader: it's Turnbull
Hockey needs more than Google for his economic research
A similar point to the above
Bolt's columns did not deserve to see the light of day. End of story
How Andrew Bolt should be punished
Briefing for clubs shows they remain profitable after pokies reform
Andrew Bolt and the Racial Discrimination Act - The Age Education Resource Centre
Hypocrisy leaves holes in the kid gloves
Some thoughts on the Occupation
Tony Abbott wants to cut off the NBN, but Victoria makes a different call
The assault on Commonwealth Ombudsman Allan Asher is payback for his plain talking on immigration detention policy
Your Majesty, you're an anachronism: how Paul Keating gently dished up a harsh reality
Robert Doyle is a...
When thousands occupied Melbourne and really ran amok
Bolt from the past: a heartfelt history lesson to the man I loved
Never mind abolishing Question Time, abolish the press gallery
Blood on the tracks a terrible trauma never forgotten
Qantas CEO has 'gone mad' say pilots
Joyce bets the house
Entertaining exchange between pilot and tower after Qantas grounding
The men who saved the party
Deal then no deal: how Qantas stranded Labor
Joyce must not cripple our national carrier
Me at the RSL AGM
'Let them eat yellowcake' JB brings some nuance to the uranium debate
Gillard and Obama: appearance and reality
Labor hopeless, Abbott a hollow man
Abbott's sniping tactics are on the nose
Abbott earns reprimand for speaking out of school
Laid-back Australians find they have quite a lot to whinge about
Remembering a young officer who fell through the cracks
Seriously though, Mr Abbott
How can Abbott’s Liberals be called “conservative” or “pro-business” after this?
After months of outrage, Coalition senators finally had to concede they had no hope of sinking the government's wicked carbon-tax bills.
Revealed: secret plan to cut nurse numbers 
Enough with the Green trivia, let's canvass some policy
In politics, moral outrage is a slippery slope
A hole in his head where his brain should be
Kyle Sandilands – A Troll of Australia’s Making
Jackie O was the girl at school who giggled while the head bully threw your book in the bin
An Open Letter To Jackie O
Tony Abbott overtakes Mark Latham as the most unpopular Opposition Leader in living memory
Surplus Schmurplus
Howard Jacobson on Peter Roebuck
Tony Abbott is NOT unpopular. He is not unelectable. He is not “unfit to lead”
Go @%! yourself: O'Farrell's whip lashes out on Twitter
A True Reflection?
Politicians tweeting. Can you pick the real ones from the made up ones?
Gambling addiction and personal responsibility
Sandilands' apology translated
The great debate that no one's talking about David Marr has a right to his view but projecting it onto Peter Lloyd is ridiculous. Different people have different reasons.
Lessons of a brutal game
A dumb reshuffle puts spotlight back on Gillard’s woes
Lib costings debacle - "auditors" fined. Amateur hour all round.
Anyone but Gillard vs. anyone but Rudd
Australian Exceptionalism 
Year of living hypocritically
Floods, follies and a great big tax: that was the year that was
Father Bob gives final Christmas message


News and Politics - US
A New Year's Resolution for the Rich - Rather prescient given what happened later
Sarah Palin's PAC Puts Gun Sights On Democrats She's Targeting In 2010 - No way could this possibly be seen as an incitement to violence. How could you think such a thing?
Knoxville church shooter's manifesto leaves no doubt: murders were political terror against liberals
Proper transcript of Dupnik's comments on vitriol at the NYT blog
Ayn Rand and the VIP-DIPers
At Least Stand By Your Free Speech
Tucson Shooting Survivor: "It Looks Like Palin, Beck, Sharron Angle and the Rest Got Their First Target"
How to Protect Foreign Aid? Improve It
In search of monsters 
Lawrence O'Donnell tears Glenn Beck apart on religion
America’s Most Isolated Federal Prisoner Describes 10,220 Days in Extreme Solitary Confinement
Obama's "Shah Problem" - President Obama is doing what Jimmy Carter did with Iran in 1978Ronald Reagan's children reject Republican claims over his political legacy
TRIVIA: Who said this? "The profits of corporations have doubled, while workers wages have only increased by one quarter. In other words, profits have gone up four times as much as wages." PS: He thought it was a bad thing.
Sarah Palin Hasn't Raised Very Much Money This Year
150 Achievements Of Liberalism That Conservatives Seek To Destroy
Jon Stewart vs Boll O'Reilly
Martin Luther King, Jr. misquoted after Osama bin Laden killed
You Might be a Teabagger If…..
Among Libya's lobbyists
Why Republicans May Be Skipping 2012 Presidential Run
Happy now?
Challenge to Sarah Palin: Produce YOUR Academic Papers
Maddow and a friend on birthers

NY1 Exclusive: Man Cleared In Central Park Jogging Case Demands Apology From Trump
Obama, Trump Together for Correspondents' Dinner  Obama should give these kind of arse-handings more often. It's a disgrace that you can only tell the truth at a comedy night.
Rumsfeld Muddies The Water As He Clarifies His Remarks On Torture To quote from the classics, The purpose of a clarification is not to make things clear - the purpose of a clarification is to put oneself in the clear.
Zakaria destroys Rumsfeld’s Iraq war talking points
Comfort Cold as Dead: Osama bin Laden Meets His Demise
16-Year-Old Girl Who Challenged Bachmann To Debate Receiving Threats Of Violence, Rape Someone show me an example of Democrats doing anything approaching this
Accused Arizona gunman ruled incompetent for trial but he was still able to get a gun
A Letter From New Orleans: Year 6 of a 5-Year Lifespan
Things that happened while everyone was obsessing on Weinergate
It’s completely asinine for Christians to...
The Republicans are playing a cynical political game with hugely high economic stakes From that well known leftist rag, The Economist
Four things Republicans used to believe: The party used to be conservative, but not extreme
Has Whole Foods Really Become a 'Faux Hippy Wal-Mart'?
Betty Ford in the White House Can you imagine what the modern day media would have done with this perfectly innocent and playful photo?
Federal Debt as Percent of GDP by President
Edwin Edwards buffs his tarnished image in advance of roast
102 Things NOT To Do If You Hate Taxes
The Tea Party, the debt ceiling, and white Southern extremism
US contractor to sue Donald Rumsfeld over 'Iraq torture'
Reporters say they were attacked by security guards at right-wing conference
The GOP's Genius Plan to Beat Obama in 2012
Growing up: Leaving behind naive glibertarianism
USA 3.0
Danziger Bridge guilty verdicts draw reaction from national, local officials
Top 10 Things Texas Gov. Rick Perry Doesn’t Want You To Know About Him
Seven ways Rick Perry wants to change the Constitution Scrap federal income tax AND balance the budget? No way is Rick Perry crazy
A Letter to Scott Walker from a Wisconsin Teacher
Eric Cantor’s Hatred Of Government Is More Important Than The Safety Of His Constituents
Quitting 9/11 - the pressure on victims & families to be national beacons
Remembering 9/11 and daring to dream
Don't divert New Orleans' recovery money, Mayor Mitch Landrieu urges Congress
Rick Perry’s Hardcore History of Investment in Porn
Stopping the World
Condemned Georgia inmate has much support, little hope
Were Twin Towers felled by chemical blast?  NOT a conspiracy article - actually makes a fair bit of sense.
Who are the real job creators?
What if Solar Power had the same subsidies Fossil-Fuel?
We are the 99 percent Read some of these stories before you  judge
Archbishop Philip Hannan's funeral procession to feature upbeat gospel music
The Occupied Wall Street Journal
Protests a warning shot to Wall Street
Your Money Doesn't Love You Anymore
BART Cuts Cell Phone Service to Stop Protest
Bachmann Hires ‘Kill The Gays Bill’ Supporter Arrested for Terrorism
Bobby Jindal and Edwin Edwards have been the best Louisiana governors, poll respondents say
Tea party group to Bachmann: Quit the presidential race
5 Reasons To Be Glad That You Didn’t Watch the CBS News Debate
Romney's Gubernatorial Emails Missing What a surprise!
David Frum: When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality?
The Fundamental Flaw In Libertarian Thinking 
Mitt Romney and Rick Perry accused of blatant untruths about Barack Obama Surely not!
No Horton on Wall Street but lots of Whos
Mike Bloomberg's Marie Antoinette Moment
People "Are Occupying Wall Street Because Wall Street Has Occupied the Country" 
Did a Harvard economics class cause the financial crisis? Students walk out of lecture that 'has driven inequalities in society'
For River Ridge couple, each new child is 'a natural extension of our love'
Reggie Clemons - the next Troy Davis?
Krugman: Taxing Job Creators (possibly paywalled)
The Republicans' Farcical Candidates - A Club of Liars, Demagogues and Ignoramuses
Romney would be a much better pres than Gingrich Hardly a high bar
Union Leader makes case against Mitt Romney
Virtual Embassy Tehran Now Michelle Bachmann has something she can say she'll close down
Barack Obama Celebrates Bill of Rights Day With Support for Indefinite Detention Bill
American public to Congress: Get out. All of you.
This Is No Christian Nation
1968: The Clay Shaw trial on JFK conspiracy charges
Christopher Hitchens’ Unforgivable Mistake
Christopher Hitchens and the protocol for public figure deaths
Anonymous donors pay off Kmart layaway accounts
Romney’s Three Paths to Victory
THE COUNTRY'S PROBLEM IN A NUTSHELL: Apple's Huge New Data Center In North Carolina Created Only 50 Jobs
“If I Were a Poor Black Child”…White Saviorism and the Politics of Personal Responsibility
Shale Gas Industry Using PsyOps Tactics Tested in Iraq
Rachel Maddow on the history of how Halliburton and the U.S. military became so intertwined
A Hedge Fund Insider Explains Why Retail Investors Should Flee The Stock Market
The GOP race has entered 'The Tyson Zone'
'He has a right to speak,' said the cop to the banker 
The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy
GOP Again Holds Working America Hostage to its Perverse Ideological Priorities
Rich People DON'T Create Jobs: 6 Myths That Have to Be Killed for Our Economy to Live
Gingrich - Honeymoons in Space
Self-Adoration Reaches Newt Heights
The Top 15 Most Dangerous Conservative Politicians And Government Officials To Watch In 2012
How the media made Ron Paul Seriously? That would be to mistake lethargy for strategy
The Myth of American Exceptionalism


News and Politics - UK
Top Gear's offensive stereotyping has gone too far, says Steve Coogan
Denis Healey kept in the dark about Polaris upgrade Yes Prime Minister close to the truth.
190 moments that made the Guardian
Margaret Thatcher's 'Sarah Palin snub' enrages US right Possibly the best decision Thatcher ever made
Murdoch 'deeply depressed' by scandals - aw, diddums!
British PM tells Pakistan elite: 'Many of your richest people are getting away without paying much tax at all – and that's not fair'
Tory candidate “lied in phone-in about honesty”Prince Philip pictured at Nazi funeral He may be mad but there are lessons in Prince Philip's explanation of how 3rd reich could seem attractive in the 30s.
A letter to Viscount Monckton of Brenchley from the Clerk of the Parliaments 'I must therefore again ask that you desist from claiming to be a Member of the House of Lords, either directly or by implication, and also that you desist from claiming to be a Member "without the right to sit or vote".'
"We always knew we were going to have to eat a shit sandwich over the BSkyB deal. We didn't know it would turn into a three course dinner."
House of Commons Select Committee - Unauthorised tapping into or hacking of mobile communications
A warning from history: Eighty years ago, a banking collapse devastated Europe, triggering war. Today, faith in the free markets is faltering again
For Amy I've developed a lot more respect for Russel Brand this year
Extraordinary speech by fearless West Indian woman in face of London riots
The politics of a petrol bomb
Nothing 'mindless' about rioters
"Mindless"
Thatcher Fucked The Kids
An Open Letter to David Cameron’s Parents
Big Brother Isn't Watching You
Phone Hacking 1999 - Tabloids, Authorities and Vodafone all involved
Save The Coliseum
How MI6 deal sent family to Gaddafi's jail
Where was the mention of Margaret Thatcher's victims?
James Murdoch departures 'may herald his exit from papers'
New Year honours include an award for tycoon jailed over stock market scandal

News and Politics - World
"A wonderful development" - Anthropologists on the Egypt Uprising
Gene Sharp: Author of the nonviolent revolution rulebook
Mossad behind assassinations in Iran
Egypt and Iraq - Spot the difference
Egyptian Journalist Ahed Mahmoud Dies Of Gunshot Wounds; First Reported Journalist Death In Uprising
Fukushima Smoking Gun Emerges: Founding Engineer Says Reactor 4 Has Always Been A "Time Bomb", Exposes Criminal Cover Up 
Branson implores entrepreneurs to act on climate "Climate change solutions will create more wealth than any other sector over the next decade," Pfft! What would Richard Branson know about business opportunities?
World's last typewriter factory closes down
Muslim Brotherhood says it's not seeking power
Guardian correspondent missing in Libya
Live discussion: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad
The corrosive legacy of Live Aid
1 Million Workers. 90 Million iPhones. 17 Suicides. Who’s to Blame?
Guardian live 'Blog - March for the alternative – Saturday 26 March part 1
Bin Laden was executed, that much is obvious
Malaysians outraged over branding of women This is where we want to send refugees.
Shooter gathered campers in Norway for security check before opening fire
In the ruins of Gadhafi's lair, rebels find album filled with photos of his 'darling' Condoleezza Rice
Commonwealth leaders under fire for refusing to publish human rights report
Egypt's young radicals battle to reclaim the revolution
Prophecies of Fascism
Last of the True Marxists
Call to bury Irish Giant at sea 
Experts Disagree on Psychological State of Norwegian Killer

Science and Technology
The scale of the universe Brilliant interactive infographic
The government’s war on science: deliberate attack, or abuse by neglect?
Radiation dose chart
Budget cuts curtail search for alien life
Get some science up ya
Protect Research
Astronauts ponder future as shuttle program winds down
Panorama of Atlantis rollout
First Habitable Planet Close To Being Confirmed By Scientists
Atmosphere Above Japan Heated Rapidly Before M9 Earthquake A possible way to predict earthquakes?
Global Warming & Climate Change Myths Myths vs what the science says
Nutters don't need your excuses   "Deaths threats? Seriously Tim Blair? You’re cool with death threats to scientists?"
St Matthew Island
US military goes to war with climate sceptics
Federal Inquiry Is Latest to Clear Assailed Climate Scientist How many times does this have to happen before morons stop banging on about debunked "climate-gate"
OK, climate sceptics: here's the raw data you wanted
Chilling news for climate sceptics: Research by a former poster boy for doubters makes it much harder to deny warming. "Frustrated at what he considered shoddy science, Muller launched his own comprehensive study to set the record straight. Instead, the record set him straight." 
Eclipse over the Acropolis
NASA and Slidell: A long marriage ending with final shuttle launch on Friday
Atlantis in place
Neptune was discovered 1 Neptunian year ago
The sad, sad demise of Greenpeace
A mathemetician's response to 'Is the glass half empty or half full?'
Chrome Overtakes Firefox To Become UK’s Second Most-Popular Browser
Five Visualizations to Grasp the Scale of the Universe
The myth of Climate-gate has endured because of media failings
How the Editor of Windows Magazine Became an Apple Fanboy 
First ever website turns 20
Where's the octopus? This is amazing!
David Gallo shows underwater astonishments More of the above
13-Year-Old Makes Solar Power Breakthrough by Harnessing the Fibonacci Sequence
Federal Inquiry Is Latest to Clear Assailed Climate Scientist
Will the Space Station be Abandoned?
Scientist left speechless as vast glacier turns to water
Many U.S. Schools Adding iPads, Trimming Textbooks
Hurricane Season 2011: Lee (Gulf of Mexico)
Fifty new alien worlds revealed
Diamond planet found
What chatbots talk about when humans aren't around
'Wi-fi refugees' shelter in West Virginia mountains
Google Unearth: Aussie discovers new treasures from the past - from his office
See a black & white photo in colour
About a third of Sun-like stars are likely to contain Earth-like planets orbiting in habitable zones
Around the World in 60 seconds
The dark side of Apple: one man's monologue of misery
Wasabi alarm, beetle sex win Ig Nobel prizes
Astrophysicist Adam Riess Plays Not My Job
Surely a candidate for next year's Ig Nobels
Dennis Ritchie, Trailblazer in Digital Era, Dies at 70
Kindle fire: The Underachiever
Google’s Management Doesn’t Use Google+ 
Google+ Is Dead
Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS
Scientists About to Find The Force
Something Has Exploded In a Spectacular Fashion On Uranus 
What Went Wrong With Gmail?
RAPID REACTION: Ian Plimer launches new book on climate change – experts respond
5MB Hard Disk Drive, 1956
When Balance is Bias: Sometimes the science is strong enough for the media to come down on one side of a debate


Media bias files
Yes, it’s you I’m talking about - Mark Latham is spot on about the Australian but would have more credibility if he weren't so self-indulgent himself
What Does Rush Limbaugh's Billboard In Tucson, Arizona Say About "Conservative Media?"
Glenn Beck's Jewish Problem 
Auditioning to be a paid caller on right wing radio
One of Sarah Palin's ghostwriters posts a pro-Reagan column on her behalf over at USA Today
Bill O'Reilly: Boehner's Crying Hurts His Credibility
"We Were a Stalin-esque Mouthpiece for Bush" -- Fox News Insider
"time to call out Huffington for getting rich while refusing to pay writers who produced the value she's selling off"
One of the world's most explicitly biased media groups calls the ABC...Biased
Rupert Murdoch issues memo to all News Corp outlets regarding environmental sustainability 
Grog's Gamut: Andrew Bolt makes me question my ancestry
The Decline of Glenn Beck: What caused it?
Comedian/Documentarian Harry Shearer calls for better focus in journalism, March 14
Texas beauty queen denies ballooning to size 6
Aunty apologises to Pyne — again — over offensive Q&A tweet I've no time for Pyne, but maybe this will teach Q and A not to let Chaser wannabes choose the on-screen tweets.
Top Fox News Executive Admits Lying On-Air About Obama It's hardly news that Fox News lies, but admitting to it is kind of novel.
Debunking the Myth That Both Sides Do It Using the Words of Glenn Beck
Andrew Bolt: expert offender, expert victim
How an Advertiser Boycott Campaign Helped Push Glenn Beck Off the Air
'I AM NOT IN THE ENTERTAINMENT BUSINEES' and Other Rules of MacNeil/Lehrer Journalism
Roger Ailes said to have concluded that Sarah Palin is an "idiot"
"You can’t run for the Republican nomination without talking to Roger (Ailes),"
Jon Stewart’s Ratings Are Now Higher Than All Of Fox News
Jon Stewart LIVE On Fox News, Tells Host 'You're Insane'
Could Murdoch’s Love of Gossip Doom His Family?
Hugh Grant to Paul McMullen: "You should try real journalism. You could probably do it."
Is Murdoch free to destroy tabloid’s records?
Rupert Murdoch Has Gamed American Politics Every Bit as Thoroughly as Britain's
Billy Bragg: Never Buy The Sun
Murdoch goes on defensive over 'total lies' by MPs Make your own joke.
Fox And Friends Defends News Corp’s Hacking Scandal: ‘We Should Move On’ But of course!
Tragic Day for Norway; Shameful Day for Journalism
An inquiry into the Australian media will quickly discover a couple of awkward facts. The corollary of Alan Kohler's piece is that more people prefer crap. The tragedy is, he's right
Piers Morgan: "Murdoch victim of a 'witch hunt'" The jokes keep making themselves
This Is Why Your Newspaper Is Dying
Ferreting Out Fake Reviews Online
Why Political Coverage is Broken
Rudd's downfall: written in The Australian
Tonight I was exposed as a wealthy con-man on prime-time television. Unfortunately it isn't true. What should I do?
The shameless actions of News Ltd are a threat to our democracy
American Troops In Afghanistan Burn Bill O’Reilly’s Book and yes, it happened
Steve Jobs to Rupert Murdoch: Fox News Is ‘Destructive Force’
Abbott urges wavering Bolt to fight on 'for good of the country'
Uprooting fake online activism
2011 Andrew Olle Media Lecture - Laurie Oakes
The Oz editor bargained over lives in AFP raid
A case study in how media bias works against clean-air rules
Lachlan Murdoch Investigated Over Involvement In News Corp. Bribery Of Australian Politicians


Music and the Arts
Radio programmes from the past
TISM win an ARIA
Gerry Rafferty, 1947-2011
The critics are wrong: The King’s Speech s-s-sucks
Universal and Sony Music plan 'instant pop' to beat piracy - Turns out releasing records to radio a month before people can buy them isn't a smart business model. Who knew?
Graney On The Hottest 100: ‘Be Amazed At My Ignorance!’
World Party Facebook page
Obituary: Nicholas Courtney
Gretsch Master Builder Discuss G6128T-GH George Harrison “Tribute” Duo Jet
John Clarke and Ross Stevenson respond to BBC plagiarism
Star Wars, the Musical. No, really!
Lis Sladen 1948 - 2011 
Record Books
Curtain closes on Spicks and Specks
David Bridie has an expectation that people are better than they sometimes are allowed to be
Matt Elsbury : It's All About You
Mornington Crescent on Google Maps
In search of Shakespeare's ghosts
Naughty album covers Actually Yahoo, Jimi did not "decide" to feature nude girls on the cover. Jimi hated this cover and it's not the real design
Did Shakespeare smoke pot? Bard’s hair, toenails could reveal secret
Pulp's Common People in comic book form
Mod Odyssey: Documentary on the making of ‘Yellow Submarine’
The other George Orwell
The genius of George Orwell
Interview with Morrissey c1985
Dave Grohl: "You don't fight at my show, you asshole!"
Confirmation that The Blockheads are owed for their contribution to Frankie's Relax
Wally Stott records
The Beatles on Doctor Who. Really! Not a mashup.
U2 'close to irrelevance', says Bono
'The Smiths and Morrissey changed our lives'
Mike Mills on Why R.E.M. Are Calling It Quits "Now let's do something no other band has done: Shake hands and walk away as friends."
Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn bury the hatchet over Blur vs Oasis spat
David Bedford 1937-2011
Scottish folk legend Bert Jansch passes away at 67
8 reasons to celebrate Wings
Pete Townshend calls Apple 'a vampire'
Does comic 'bravery' go hand in hand with being offensive and stupid?
The Devil's Dictionary at 100
Jarvis Cocker: 'Music has changed. It's not as central, it's more like a scented candle'
The Best Live Albums according to Slate
The Importance of Being Noel
Johnny Rotten graffiti is 'important' say academics Sod off Grandad!
Are Major Labels About To Abandon The CD? Er, No
The 10 Rules of Movie Watching Advice you shouldn't need
Elvis Costello tells fans not to buy new box set
Amazing collection of animated GIFs
A tribute to Spicks and Specks
Lost in the Hundred Acre Wood: Pat McInally's passion for Pooh Bear
Giant Theremin
One song and they call Tim Freedman a hypocrite on pokies Why aren't the clubs hypocrites for booking him? Still, I don't think Tim Freedman makes his case very well here.
1964: Beatlemania hits New Orleans
McCartney guitarist speaks out for Occupy Wall Street in new video
Scientists claim to know equation for 'hit song potential'
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s women problem On the other hand, who gives a toss about the hall of fame?

Animals
Top 10 Pet Toxins of 2010
The pigeon with a bread necklace: How bird got more than he bargained for after searching for food
Deer culling attracts wild dogs
ASPCA Condemns New Dog Fighting Mobile App
Indonesia's killing floors: don't avert your gaze 
Minister Ludwig announces suspension of trade to certain facilities following Animals Australia investigation aired on Four Corners
BanLiveExport.com
Haunted by cruel live trade
Two more Indonesian abattoirs exposed
Government to suspend live cattle exports
Evading meaty realities that make us feel uncomfortable
Pets lost and found
Meat industry joins slaughter protest
New regulations bring reprieve for death row dogs
That brief moment when Andrew Bolt displays some principles before remembering who he works for
The Amazing, Regenerating Dolphin
Crittervision: The world as animals see (and sniff) it
Tattoos are decidedly NOT vegan
Obama Legalizes Horse Slaughter for Human Consumption Possibly the only thing Democrats and Republicans have co-operated on in this congress. I give up!
Dog shoots duck hunter
Say No to balloons
The Dog That Saved a Veteran From Suicide 
Ultrasonic Songs of Male Mice
Dog Dumped at Train Depot Waits in Bitter Cold: A Christmas Eve Rescue Heartbreaking.

Humour and Satire
Alexei Sayle on Reformed Drug Addicts
The Glenn Beck Conspiracy Theory Generator
Ikea Stonehenge
Harry Shearer - Touch My Junk
"I'm free!"
The President's Speech
The One Where George Clooney Sits on Verne
Best troll ever
Hamlet in Powerpoint form
Clarke and Dawe - Please Do Not Attempt This at Home
How to help someone confront their prejudices
Get government out of free enterprise
How one Oregon lawmaker convinced his colleagues to ‘Rick Roll’ the state legislature
Jaws, as reviewed by climate deniers
Why did Obama's birth certificate take so long?
Pretty much every “women’s” magazine ever
John Lithgow Performs Gingrich Press Release (possibly geo-blocked)
Hansard
Internet debating
Planet Earth Doesn't Know How To Make It Any Clearer It Wants Everyone To Leave
Pearls Before Swine: Hold Me
The future ain't what it used to be
Confirmation bias
Fossil -fueled wisdom
Murdoch Issues Zero-Tolerance Policy on Phone Hacking: ‘Let’s Go Back to Just Making Shit Up’
Carbon tax questions
Chavfest 2011!
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Hackgate: The Movie
Norwegian Muslish Gunman's Islam-Esque Atrocity
Harrison Ford Settles a Feud
Obama Turns 50 Despite Republican Opposition
Best WiFi names
Existential Star Wars
A Brief History of Corporate Whining So that's where GetUp got the idea
The global financial meltdown in rhyming couplets Genius!
iPhone apps that First Dog on the Moon would like to see
So you’re MAD about something on the Internet…
5 Vintage Versions of Modern Social Media from Centuries Ago
I look down on you for not understanding my trendy jargon
Republican Front Runners as imagined by The Simpsons
A handy Venn Diagram to illustrate Andrew Bolt's relationship with reality
John Calvin and Thomas Hobbes
Jesus Christ Files Lawsuit Against GOP For Slander
Clarke and Dawe - Attention People Smugglers
Too many Chief Executive Officers, not enough doctors…
The Wild Bore of Texas
DIY Media Inquiry
Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me
Short memories
When useful idiots become just idiots
Pat Robertson Says Falling Satellite Means God Thinks Satellites are Gay
Last American Who Knew What The Fuck He Was Doing Dies
Dumbass Comments: The Gettysburg Address
The Bolt Retort
Tablets
Open-Minded Man Grimly Realizes How Much Life He's Wasted Listening To Bullshit

Just plain stupid
PowerBalance Admits Their Wristbands Are a Scam
Glenn Beck Stands By Egypt Caliphate Conspiracy Theory: 'I'm Not Wrong' - of course you're not Glenn.
Glenn Beck suggests that Muse’s performance at the Grammys is “basically a call for revolution.” Whatever you do, don't let him hear I Predict a Riot by Kaiser Chiefs
Does the Alternative Vote Bring Tyranny to Australia?
Charlie Sheen as Charlie Brown
When the wind doesn't blow . . . which is nearly all the time Hey Terry, where I'm from, "When the wind doesn't blow," is almost never!
Islam's the problems, not Muslims, says Senator Cory Bernardi ...because he's an idiot
'Throne Up' in royal wedding sick bags
"Ingrid Seward, editor of the royal-watching Majesty magazine, told The Sun newspaper: 'This is completely tasteless.'" - If your job is editing a magazine about royal family gossip, you don't get to decide what's tasteless
In a race for the presidency, could Sarah Palin beat Charlie Sheen? - really, somebody did this research
Frederick Forsyth Repeats Nonsense - Australia not about to Adopt FPTP
Top 20 Crazy Tea Party Reactions To Obama’s Birth Certificate
Rush on for affordable copies of royal wedding dress
Mike Huckabee Debuts His New Cartoon Series About Time Travel and Revisionist History
Disney seeks SEAL Team 6 trademark
Alan Jones impressed by 'laser' speed breakthrough
John Lennon Might Maybe Have Been a Secret Republican
Monckton goes Godwin Gotta wonder about a man who insists on being called "Lord" talking about how bad it is to accept authority.
Monckton apologises for Nazi jibe
Hockey takes 'Rudd' on Canberra tour Really Joe? I mean, really??
Bachmann pledges to ban pornography
Motivating The Base & Australia's Electoral Fraud I think I upset a few people in the comments
Men use 'sniff test' to tell clothes' cleanliness, survey shows Yes, somebody needed to do a survey to work this out - then published it as news.
Fox News thinks the UK has a president
"Traffic lights are a Bolshevist menace"
PayPal founder unveils floating country Brilliant! The pirates have never had it so easy.
Abbott calls for election to decide leader In case you haven't noticed Tony, this is a Westminster system. We don't elect the prime minister. Ever.
Tea Party Nation wants all small business owners to stop creating jobs by not hiring anyone in protest of President Obama and the Democratic Senate. Suicide economics! Brilliant!
Lesbian London link is a riot 
Gillard's a goner, Shorten's still bloody. Stand up, Simon Crean
Tea Partier: ‘John Boehner Is A Socialist’ I don't know which is funner - calling John Boehner a socialist or a Fox News muppet getting all upset as a bizarre, hyperbolic accusation.
Bill O'Reilly Threatens to Quit Over Obama's 'Buffet Tax' Bring it on, Billo!
The Hamster Wheel - Julia Song All of this was considered fit for broadcast on Sydney radio because nobody swore. What a fucked up values system!
Rumors Of Extramarital Affair End Campaign Of Presidential Candidate Who Didn't Know China Has Nuclear Weapons
Shutup, Twitter Isn’t Censoring Your Dumb Trends
Kim Jong the second?


Egotism
01 Aug Most popular tweets: Q & A, part 2
Carbon Capture Report I have no idea what this is about
Going viral
Imaginary Q and A
I am famous! One of my tweets was on #imaginaryqanda

Miscellaneous
What teachers make
Nerd saves entire BBC archive for $3.99, you can help for free
Your Memento - National Archives
The Blind Man Who Taught Himself To See
Long Stabby Things, Whacking off, WTF
Paul McCartney's Ex Lied About Abuse, Says Ex-Publicist
Make your e-books smell right 
Nostradamus' cherry jelly recipe  
Immaterials: Light painting WiFi
10 Myths About Introverts
Equal parts sad and brilliant
Dog people are 18% more likely to choose Paul as favourite Beatle 
Gorgeous Time-lapse of North American Cities at Night
Living in the Future
Boston Globe creates a Twitter board for the newsroom
Questioning Whether Bipolar Disorder Is An Illness
Celebrities with records
A double-bluff on Kotex
Virtual classes of cold-blooded killing The one where Jim Wallace makes sense
A true challenge for Masterchef and its ilk 
Conversations with a blue ball
Double rainbows over Melbourne Note that the bright one seems to be coming out of the Commonwealth Bank headquarters
The Left, the Right and the New Atheism: a response to PZ Myers
How to Sit with Sadness
The new world of work needs to be fair as well as efficient
Letters of note: David Bowie
How to Recreate the Look of Instagram Filters with Vintage Cameras and Films
Star Wars imperial march played on two floppy disk drives Nerdgasm!
Pinkwashing
Does Richard Dawkins exist?
It's okay to not like things
The 5 most annoying archetypal online reactions to a famous person’s death
Whack! Did that make you think?
Is That an Emoticon in 1862? Actually, I say No.  I say it's closing the bracket that was opened at the beginning of the sentence.
Seven Bar Jokes Involving Grammar and Punctuation
Great photo gallery of Flinders St Station
At last: how to do sarcasm online
The Closed, Unfriendly World Of Wikipedia
the 46 stages of Twitter
Beautiful Photos of Freeway Interchanges
Art Deco font
If you can pronounce correctly every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world.
Tweets a solace for the lonely