http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/01/15/andrew-sullivan-how-obama-s-long-game-will-outsmart-his-critics.html I'm an Australian. I don't know in great detail what Obama is or isn't doing, but I probably know as much as most Australians know about their own Prime Minister. I'd love to hear Americans' response to this article arguing that Obama is doing a better job for both conservatives and liberals. It's better if you just click on the link, but he basic...
Just to clarify for American readers, Malcolm Fraser and Robert Menzies were 2 of Australia's most conservative Prime Ministers, as was John Howard. Neo-liberalism and libertarianism are two fairly similar, radical economic theories that threaten the very fabric of our society in ways that are to the detriment of its members. Like liberal thinkers of the past, I believe that Government has a role to play in regulating our economy so that big businesses are not able to take advantage of the un...
President Barack Obama. I think Americans have voted for one of the most intelligent and capable people to have ever run for President, as well as one of the most compassionate and with a genuine interest in working with people. I congratulate you on your choice of President. I don't expect miracles, but I think that my bank balance in 2012 will be in the best possible circumstances given the financial crisis and I think that I will be proud of what our militaries do jointly. President Obama ...
The Weekend Australian features an article called "What Went Right", in which Greg Sheridan argues that "history will judge Bush much more kindly than today's commentators do". Already I see Greg Sheridan is joining the journalists at Quadrant in rewriting the history of the Bush Presidency ("What Went Right", The Weekend Australian, Weekend Inquirer, p 15, Jan 17-18). As time goes on, the facts and details can be forgotten and Bush can become the hero of Iraq and the free world that his spin...
And the good news from 2007? (American readers: The jokes you will get are in bold) As Union thugs took over the country, and interest rates rocketed sky high, true to John Howard’s prediction, the sky fell in and the entire country fell into recession. With the victory of the Union-dominated Labor Government, there has been a rise in strike action, particularly amongst school teachers who have been on strike now for several weeks running. George Bush was in the country for APEC. Actual...
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the November 24 Good News Week Election Day Special. Please imagine for one last time that John Howard is the Prime Minister, and that the election results had not yet come through. These jokes were all told hours out from that beautiful, sweet moment of victory on November 24, and some of these jokes went out of date as soon as the election results came in. It’s been a big last week of the campaign with all the candidates making their last pleas to voters. Na...
I have just submitted a nomination for Australian of The Year. I nominate Noel Pearson. This was my reasoning: Noel Pearson has shown incredible commitment to Aboriginal people throughout Australia, particularly those in Cape York, where he comes from. He has worked continuously to find practical ways of improving living conditions for Aboriginal people. He has helped achieve several important outcomes through his work as Director of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership. The...
The Middle Eastern world, it is exploding Violence flarin’, bullets loadin’ You’re old enough to kill, but not for votin’ You don’t believe in war, but what’s that gun you’re totin’ And even the Todd River has bodies floatin’ But you tell me Over and over and over again, my friend Ah, you don’t believe We’re on the eve of destruction. Well Bush don’t understand what I’m tryin’ to say If he calls that freedom they should commit him today If the button is pushed, there’s no runnin’...
The women of Mutitjulu are understandably scared that their children are going to be taken away. This tells us that they are loving, caring mothers who do their best while living in poverty. What will the Government do to alleviate their fears? The Government is right to act to end alcohol and drug abuse. In the short-term, this will stop a lot of the fighting and sexual abuse from happening. But as Noel Pearson says, if this is going to work long-term, Aboriginal people themselves have to b...
Mal Brough's "new paternalism" is hardly different from the old paternalism that failed dismally in the past. He acts from concern and compassion, but so did the Governments that removed indigenous children from their families in the hope of giving them a better life in urban white families. The issues of welfare dependency, drugs and sexual abuse are issues that must be addressed, but surely it would make more sense to try something that has a chance of working, rather than having another go at...
For the second time in a month a right winger has whinged to me about our left-biased media and I'm going to get this off my chest because it's ridiculous. When I described the media of today as right biased, I was asked "which newspapers have you been reading?" (Sorry fishhead). Link In response: The Australian, which even John Howard recently thanked for having been widely supportive of his economic reforms. The same Australian that has run a "war on critical literacy" because it is left-l...
What made me laugh in 2006? The news as always! Here’ the US version of my satirical wrap up of 2006. And the Good News? Former Seinfeld star, Michael Richards was caught on a mobile phone camera yelling racist insults at black members of an audience he was delivering stand up to. Richards yelled at the people “N**gers! N**gers! Kick em out, they’re n**gers!”. At first the audience thought they’d accidentally walked into a Bill Cosby gig, but then he continued “50 years ago we’d have had you...
This is the cartoon I would draw if I had time to draw right now: Saddam hears news of Rumsfeld Saddam: In my country, you lose war, your head roll. In America, you win war, your head roll. This America is strange country. FULL-TIME chaplains would be installed in government schools to lift religious standards and provide mentoring for students under a plan backed by the federal Education Minister. http://www.vucthy-mors.dk/pb/Edb%20layout/F%E6lles%20filer/Charles%20Chaplin.jpg But Ke...
Remember New Orleans and all the black gangs raping people in their hour of need? And let's face it, it's not the only time we've seen that a very large proportion of criminals are BLACK. There I said it. I hate to be the person that points it out. I'm not racist. I just constantly point out the bad things that some blacks do and then make generalisations about how race affects the situation. You can't deny that race is a factor. You just have to look at the news, and there it is. Black people c...
I don’t get why people get such a major hang-up about homosexuality. I can understand people believing that there is a God who outlaws non-procreative sex. But I don’t understand why denouncing homosexuality seems to be such a high priority for many Christians. You don’t see Bishop Pell rushing out to say what a blight adultery is on our society. Nor do you see blokes who go out gay-bashing also going out adulterer-bashing. Yet no matter what religion you are, adultery’s a bad thing. The abhorre...