slavery

Adam Smith was somewhat ambiguous about slavery… He did not like it, not so much on a moral point of view but in economic relative sense. So a brave Kevin Donnelly goes on to bat against the woke movement that is trying to point the “sins” (I don’t believe in sin — mistakes) of the system devised by economists such as Smith.

“It is essential to get history right and to stop interpreting the past through political correctness”… Says Donnelly. He is correct, but we all know (we all should) that history has been viewed through many lenses, often to the advantage of particular classes, especially kings, emperors and powerful families. 

women

Scott Morrison likes to present as a man with a plan. Whether it's dealing with asylum seekers, climate change or a pandemic, the Prime Minister typically has a strategy or a roadmap, quite often printed in a glossy brochure, to demonstrate he can tackle even the trickiest of problems. 

The plans don't always work, mind you, but the point of them is to inspire confidence that Morrison has at least chosen a course, knows what he's doing and is getting on with it. 

burling

Team New Zealand helmsman Peter Burling is often a man of just a few measured words and defending the America’s Cup wasn't going to change that.

sand storm

Despite a small industrial reduction in emissions due to Covid-19, There is still enough EXTRA CO2 in the atmosphere to increase average global temperatures by 6 degrees Celsius by 2150. Any EXTRA emissions of CO2, methane and NOxs gases ADDED till 2050 (or when the countries of the world manage ZERO emissions) will compound the temperature rise of the atmosphere and the rise of sea levels, which by 2150 could be 6 metres above present levels.

Despite present apparent cooling of the temperate regions, due to an expanding weaker warming polar vortex in the northern hemisphere and a cooler than average summer in the southern hemisphere due to La Niña, under he influence of a melting Antarctica, the total processes of planetary warming are still on.

hollow

protest

Victoria Police will review the actions of specialist officers who are accused of using heavy-handed tactics during two days of violent clashes with protesters outside an international mining conference.

As anti-mining activists blocked the entrance to PwC's Southbank offices on Thursday evening, police said the force's Professional Standards Command would look at concerns about officers' conduct.

butterfly

The atheist’s mantra: There’s none. 

And I am not trying to convert you. It's impossible. 

biden

We know what keeps America safe at night — rough men on the walls stand ready to visit violence on those who would do us harm, duh.

abbott

In Australia, the Liberals are CONservatives. Politics in their hands has been a succession of massive political frauds. The name itself "Liberal" means the opposite apart from "liberating" money for the rich and keeping the under-classes under the thumbs of the übergeordnet people. So why do they do it? And why do we fall for the trick nearly every-time? Why do (did) "decent" media sell us shit? Did they really believe in that shit?

We, the ordinary plebs with a small pea-brain knew that Abbott was lying through his teeth, for example. This was published Friday, September 6, 2013... How could journalists of the Sydney Morning Herald could not see that Abbott was full of shit? Was it to be in goose-step with the über-Murdoch press that had played a devious game to destroy Labor in the mind of people while Labor, despite their personality skirmishes was doing a decent job?

boris

The UK Government’s new “action plan” to protect journalists will do little to burnish the credentials of a would-be champion of media freedom that continues to imprison the world’s most famous dissident journalist.

gladys

Gladys Berejiklian was careful in picking a word to describe how she’s dealt with a series of personal and broader political crises over the past six months.

news

Last Wednesday, I broke the news to Heather Cox Richardson that she was the most successful individual author of a paid publication on the breakout newsletter platform Substack.

science

  One day in the 1960s, a priest walked into an operating room in Cleveland to find a dead dog lying on the table. The transplant surgeon Robert White had drained its blood and cooled its brain to 50 degrees. The priest then looked on, aghast, as White spread a picnic cloth on the table and began munching on a sandwich.

Halfway through his meal, White asked the priest if he thought the dog really was dead. The priest said yes — right? With a merry twinkle, White set to work, recirculating blood and rewarming the brain. However groggy, the dog eventually lurched to life and began staggering around. At this, White winked at the priest. “Maybe like Christ,” he teased. “Dead and revived.”

press

Journalists Start Demanding Substack Censor its Writers: to Bar Critiques of Journalists

This new political battle does not break down along left v. right lines. This is an information war waged by corporate media to silence any competition or dissent.

By Glenn Greenwald

pilot

Senior ministers are defending the federal government’s $1.2 billion airline bailout plan amid a barrage of criticism from all corners.

Tourism Minister Dan Tehan said a “team Australia” approach to the package, which offers half-price flights between a host of destinations, would help boost the ailing domestic travel industry.

“If we had … really, a team Australia approach, everyone being positive, I can tell you people will be going across Australia like we have never seen before – and that is wonderful for our tourism sector,” he said on the Gold Coast on Friday.