News
The Speaker of the House, Harry Jenkins, unexpectedly launched into the pokies debate yesterday, after a report showing that four hotels in his electorate were responsible for $90 million dollars in pokies losses last year. Unsurprisingly, the area is one of Australia's most socially disadvantaged. Meanwhile, the measure still has overwhelming public support, which, if recent legislative initiatives are anything to go by, suggests that there is no chance of it getting through Parliament.
I do find the media furore over the Labor leaks reasonably puzzling, because while the typical narrative screams "Labor in disarray", it does strike me that evidence of dissent in Cabinet is really just proof that there is some semblance of democratic debate still occurring in our most important of democratic institutions. And seriously, could journalists please, for the love of God and all that is good and holy, stop asking our sitting Prime Minister whether she expects to be Prime Minister by the next election. What do you possibly expect her to say to that? "Well, actually no John. I've decided I'm doing such a fantastically awful job there's simply no way I'm lasting more than three months. Boy, this has been a catastrophe"? This barely needs an attached article, but for the sake of argument
here's Gillard saying something reasonably similar yesterday.
In a bold but perhaps welcome move,
Kenya has pursued al-Shabab militants across the border and into Somalia. Coming off the back of two high-profile tourist kidnappings in four weeks, their impatience is understandable, although I for one would have no qualms if they just set up shop there and ripped the beyond vile al-Shabab to pieces. Which is probably the most war happy thing I will ever write.
The war in Libya continues to wind down (in explosive fashion...) with
the town of Bani Walid, the last Gaddafi outpost, now mostly under NTC control. It joins Sirte as the final point of conflict in an otherwise reasonably resolved conflict. Now, just to find that pesky dictator. And, y'know, rebuild a country. Meanwhile,
Syria's discontent flared back into life, with violence across the country killing 15 people, while widespread army defections were reported in the restive town of Homs and the Arab League moved to try and facilitate dialogue between the sides. Hooray! More talking!
The war of words over Iran's supposed plot to kill the Saudia ambassador to the US has been escalating, with the Ayatollah Khameini accusing the US of fabricating the plot in order to take attention away from the Occupy Wall Street protests, while Obama is apparently pushing for the release of classified documents proving that Iran is cultivating a nuclear weapons program. And Guam? Well, Guam has nothing to do with this. I just like saying the word Guam.
Wall Street has turned on Barack Obama, the man they once championed for the Presidency, presumably because he had the temerity to try and regulate them after they brought the world's economy to its knees. It should probably be noted that
Wall Street spent around $1.3 billion on lobbying efforts against the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, and the same again on current efforts to hobble it, so my sympathy for their cause is... not great.
Harold Camping, the man who so confidently but wrongly predicted the end of the world a few months ago, is at it again,
laying down a shock prediction that the world will, in fact, end this Friday instead. As that's the day before I get to visit MONA, this will seriously shit me, but I'm still reasonably confident. Now 90 and looking increasingly like a used potato sack with eyes, I get the feeling Harold really just wants the world to end so he doesn't have to bother with the awkward business of actually dying.
Features
The Irish Times looks with some bemusement at Australia and
our recent efforts to become the whinging world champions. I love this from the conclusion: "The coffee obsession here is quite something to behold. If you were brave you might posit a theory that a country full of people who will pass three coffee shops to get to the one which they reckon has “awesome latte” really does not have much to complain about."
In the light of the semi-aborted Occupy Melbourne/Sydney/Brisbane protests over the weekend,
local economic sort Matt Cowgill provides a slightly dense but illuminating look at who the 1% are in Australia. Meanwhile, a sign that the movement that has definitely started to penetrate the media narrative, especially in America:
the Financial Times just published a sympathetic editorial. Because they definitely haven't been supportive of the practices that got us to this point.
Oddities/Curiosities
Here's one of those bits of hazy, but conversation starting science stories:
a study has apparently shown that women on the pill tend to pick worse mates than women who aren't. Let the conversation commence.
I've written before about real-life super hero Phoneix Jones and his quest to clean up the mean streets of Seattle, but last week that took a turn for the worse after
he was arrested for subduing an angry crowd with liberal amounts of pepper spray (although just quietly, I do love the fact that The Age parks that story in "Executive Style". Keeping the streets safe. Like a boss). As seems to be the usual with superheroes, the authorities fear the good work he's doing. As do the people he's trying to protect. Oh, and here's some video footage.
Video
This is just... lightly traumatic. Bob Katter belts out the very Bob Katter-heavy Bob Katter's Australian Party theme song at some sort of Bob Katter affiliated strategy conference.