Airing on Sunday nights is a new TV drama, Homeland, which explores the phenomenon of ‘sleeper cells’. Understandably, this show seeks to position itself as something other than an alarmist Bush-era program about terrorists. In this case the potential sleeper agent is a serving marine. Ultimately, however, this plot innovation is really just an elaborate [...]
READ MOREJanuary, 2012
Update: Colbert’s (sort of) presidential campaign
Last week, comedian Stephen Colbert announced his entry into mucky world of American electoral politics with a satirical bid for nomination in the Republican South Carolina primary. In this short space of time Colbert was able to momentarily overshadow the deep banality of the Republican nomination process and cast attention on the absurd system of [...]
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Celebrate Australia Day, $3.99!
Australia Day used to be controversial. I kinda liked that. I remember going to the Big Day Out in Sydney 1996 on Australia Day and hearing Rage Against the Machine’s Zack de la Rocha do a big rant about Invasion Day, and feeling stirred when the crowd roared in approval. I should add: no one, [...]
READ MOREFitter, happier, more productive: this yoga harms?
By this stage in January, your resolutions are probably in the process of being sorely tested. Especially when the tennis is on, the sun is shining, and the afternoons are just so dreamily endless and given to, well, drinking beer. Well, I speak for myself… I just finished an introductory course at a yoga school [...]
READ MOREStop warmongering in the Middle East
The public discussion in the West addressing Iran’s nuclear program has mainly relied on threat diplomacy, articulated most clearly by Israeli officials, but enjoying the strong direct and indirect backing of Washington and leading Gulf states. Israel has also engaged in covert warfare against Iran in recent years, somewhat supported by the United States, that has inflicted violent deaths on civilians in [...]
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Playboy Magazine, and the proliferation of nukes
Julia Gillard would be well advised to seek out an edition of this month’s Playboy. If approached with open eyes an article by Arms Control Wonk blogger Joshua Pollack has the capacity to recast the Australia-India relationship.
READ MOREStephen Colbert is running for president… well sort of
Amidst an increasingly nasty lead-up to the upcoming South Carolina Republican primary, yesterday saw the release of an attack ad accusing the overwhelming favorite candidate Mitt Romney of being a serial killer. If this campaign ad seems a little bit odd or over the top it is because it was released to support Stephen Colbert, [...]
READ MOREGambaro’s migrant hygiene policy stinks
It says a lot about a major political party when their shadow spokesperson for ‘Citizenship’ comes out with a statement about migrants predicated on offensive racism. Gambaro attempted to reignite national debate over Australian multiculturalism with a statement about migrants on skilled working visas needing ‘cultural awareness training’ on hygiene and social etiquette, including being [...]
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Red river: The blacklisting of Rio Tinto
In February 1995, Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto announced three deals that secured access into Grasberg, a massive gold and copper mine in the Indonesian province of West Papua. This is the story of why the mine has been deemed “gorssly unethical” by the Norwegian government.
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Victoria’s state library: what a bloody pity
To be sure, the State Library of Victoria offers a beautiful architectural environment in which to work – but under continued weak management it is incapable of serving the public as its current funders, the Victorian public, would expect.
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