News
I can't actually tell if anything new has happened in the Craig Thomson affair over the last few days, but one thing's for sure,
nobody is shutting the hell up about it. How the Gillard government manages the dextrous task of losing the guy without actually losing Government is the real question, although perhaps there should be more attention paid to Andrew Wilkie who has made it very clear that his continued support for the Government depends squarely upon the success of anti-pokies legislation. The business of Government, ey?
Awkward moment for Qantas yesterday as
they awarded two men tickets for dressing up as their favourite rugby player at the Bledisloe Cup. Their favourite player being Radike Samo. Who is Fijian. Meaning that they dressed up like this:
The situation in Tripoli appears to have stabilised marginally, perhaps being downgraded for roaring urban battlezone to generally unsafe place to raise a family. The National Transitional Council is busy trying to remove the rotting corpses and restore such basic services as water and the rule of law, although their lack of money and organisational structure may be hampering things a little. Meanwhile in Sirte, Gaddafi's hometown and the last bastion of support for the dying regime, Gaddafi loyalists are reminding the country of why they are so loved by using human shields to stymie the rebel advance. Gaddafi himself remains at large, although could last be heard
offering to form a transitional government to get the country out of this crisis. Yeah. I dunno. Maybe, just maybe, you missed the boat on that one Muammar. And the continuing revelations as to the various massacres your forces committed as you fled Tripoli –
the latest being a collection of 50 bodies found in a warehouse – are probably doing little to warm the hearts of your pursuers.
In perhaps the clearest sign yet that Syria may be a little over-exposed at the moment, Iran, really their only true friend in the world, has
told them to stop killing their citizens. Well, not in so many words, but in a quite laughable sentiment from the brutally theocratic nation, Iran's Foreign Minister declared that Syria must respect the "legitimate" wishes of its people. Just like it, presumably. Still, it's a pretty significant moment between the two, even if they stopped well short of asking Assad to go.
Syria can also expect a visit from the Arab League, desperate to show that they're not being "soft" on the rogue country. Meanwhile, the people of Syria continue to put themselves in the firing line, tens of thousands turning out once more after Friday prayers to express their disapproval with the government and to be shot at by trigger happy soldiers.
Hurricane Irene (or, more latterly, big ass storm Irene) has been lashing the east coast of America, causing hundreds of thousands of evacuations along the densely packed stretch of the country. New York itself had its subway system closed and millions of people were left without power as Irene roared through the city and its surrounds,
killing 14 and causing widespread flooding. While the storm lacked the ferocity expected earlier in the week, it still gave the suburbs a bit of a once over – trees down, light flooding, the occasional impromptu roof removal – whilst leaving the city proper relatively untouched. Manhattan in particular was almost entirely unscathed, which just goes to show you that God really does look out for the rich. This is in contrast to, say, Puerto Rico, where Hurricane Irene had made landfall earlier in the week, bequeathing to the world this photo. Badass:
Features
Mungo McCallum on
why the increasing tendency to compare our current political situation to the 1975 fall of the Whitlam government is so misguided.
Christopher Hitchens on the madness and cruelty of Gaddafi's once unbreakable system. Hitchens-y. And speaking of madness,
The Independent has compiled a quick tour of Gaddafi's strange and vexed relationship with MI6. Like trying to herd a cat through a hedge maze.
Oddities/Curiosities
Testament to an economic folly –
a haunting photo essay on the ghost estates of Ireland, where the innumerable houses built to sustain an economic boom that should never have been sit alone and empty, waiting for someone to arrive.
And finally, numbers 15 to 1 of the famous thinkers quoting Herald Sun readers countdown. Such a worthy list.
Video
The many skillz of Barack Hussein Obama...