Terrorism vs Booze Buses

Since Osama bin Laden declared war on the West in a 1998 press conference, Australia has lost around 100 citizens to Islamist extremism. In response, our governments are pushing through very substantial changes to long-held principles of liberty.

Perversely, we had far more intelligent debate and analysis about relatively minor impositions to reduce the carnage on our roads - safety measures that have demonstrably saved the lives of several hundred Australians each year.

Surely "preventative detention", secret interrogations, electronic shackling and control orders require stronger public justification than booze buses and compulsory seat belts and helmets?

PETA and the Mulesing Market

The organisers of PETA's campaign against sheep mulesing should be congratulated for informing consumers about this dirty secret. The salutary lesson here for activists is that markets work: by presenting facts and arguments they can influence society and bring about change.

However, PETA should be worried about government interference. One element of its successful campaign is street theatre - an activity deemed so heinous that people have apparently been deported for it. And, as with mandating ethanol in fuel, the Coalition is prepared to undermine the marketplace to appease a very small group of farmers.

Despite the Coalition's wooly-thinking about liberty and economics, PETA understands that even national governments are powerless in the face of informed global markets.

Salvos vs St Michaels Grammar School

People don't cocoon their kids in privilege at private schools just to have a homeless shelter built next door. The Salvos should get a heart.

Give Me The Girl Until She's Seven ...

I suppose we can't blame Bettina Liano, Myer and Mattel for pushing Barbie fashion onto five year-old girls: they're simply amoral businesses with a buck to make for shareholders. But the mothers of those little girls on the catwalk need to have a good look at themselves and ask whether or not infecting their kids with their own shallowconsumerist values constitutes emotional child abuse.

While Loyola famously said "Give me the boy until he's seven, and I'll show you the man." Liano says "Give me the girl ..."

Safety First

With the Federal Government deporting street theatre organisers and the Melbourne City Council censoring political artists, we'll be able to walk the entire length of this city safe from encounters with uncomfortable or challenging ideas.

Street Theatre Threat Neutralised

Have we lost our minds? Scott Parkin was over here running workshops in street theatre! Of course he should be detained and deported - post haste. How many honest hard-working Australians will be spared a soul-destroying encounter with an abstract noun (like Poverty or Oppression or Globalisation) made flesh by some guy with a cloak, a papier mache mask and a cardboard scythe.

Let's not forget the hapless ASIO spy who selflessly jeopordising their mental health by gathering intelligence at these workshops. Let's only hope that this brave operative's recuperation is swift and their return to sanity complete.

Locking in Barnaby

Under Howard's police state, could Barnaby be charged with sedition for backing out on the Telstra deal?

It Takes Two To Trade

The PM is effusive when asked why he's selling Telstra, but strangely quiet when asked why we should buy it - it takes two to trade, Mr Howard!

Horse Sense

The man in charge of the US' hurricane rescue operation spent the previous 11 years as a commissioner at the International Arabian Horse Association - before being "forced out of the position after a spate of lawsuits over alleged supervision failures." (Boston Herald, 3/9/05).

He got the job through connections as an effective fund-raiser for the Republican Party. This is Bush's cosy America: appointments are not made through merit, but through the good ol' boy network. (Closer to home, Bush made Schieffer his ambassador here on the basis that he was his business partner in a baseball team!)

Such a galling display of hubris, conceit and contempt for the citizenry echoes that other famous equine appointment, when Caligula elevated his horse Incitatus to the Roman Senate.

Al-Qaeda Heartened By US Response

The rapid social decay and weak official response to this urban disaster will embolden al-Qaeda. US Republican policy of bleeding out social capital endangers America and the world.

An American Tragedy

The gap between America's rich and poor is accelerating (The Age, 1/9/2005), partly due to massive tax cuts for the rich and a minimum wage below the poverty line. Now we read that many of the poor in hurricane-affected areas were simply left behind to fend for themselves. US media reported whites as "finding" food in shops, while blacks were "looting". Police were diverted from search-and-rescue operations to protecting property. In the face of such institutional prejudice and an "every man for himself" ethos, I'm not surprised that there is widespread breakdown in law and order and civil society.

Is this the future for Australia that the Liberals envisage?