News
Today, instead of trying to find a new angle on the Gillard-Rudd leadership stoush, I think I might just include this:
Gillard's potentially hyper-awkward dinner with three gay couples seemed to go OK, really, with
her telling them that gay marriage was "inevitable", which came with the subtext "next time Labor has a sustained and sizable majority, which could be over a decade away if this needless self-cannibalisation continues, please pass me the gravy".
Bali's infamous Kerobokan prison is now under the control of the inmates, after rioting prisoners forced the guards to flee. While another exciting moment in an eventful week for the developing world's prisons, this one has a somewhat more relevant edge, because both Schapelle Corby and the Bali Nine are in residence. No word yet on whether Schapelle has been involved in the tile-flinging/fire-bombing.
The EU has finally agreeed to another life-saving/life-destroying loan for Greece, ending days of speculation that they were just going to cut the country loose into the Mediterranean. This still may happen, of course, as with living conditions and unemployment in free-fall, the economy stalled and a debt burden the size of the Moon, it's hard to see exactly where the impetus for an economic renaissance is going to come from.
Would you believe it, Yemen has voted to remove their President of 31 years, Ali Abdullah Saleh. In this case, democracy is not so much a fickle mistress as she is an inevitable one, as there was only one possible candidate to vote for: his Vice-President. Still, it's a start.
Syrian forces are massing outside the restive city of Homs, giving rise to fears that this could be the beginning of this revolution's Hama moment (the point in 1982 where Assad's father killed 10 000 people in Hama in order to quash an uprising). Although, considering that well over 6000 people have already died in the last 11 months, the son really doesn't have far to go.
Rick Santorum is currently, somehow, dominating the Republican race, with some polls now showing him nationally around 8 points ahead of Mitt Romney. Of course, the man – whose religious inclination could perhaps best be described as "psychotically Catholic" – is trenchantly unelectable (as is Romney, but slightly less so), leading to conjecture as to whether or not a collapse of the Romney campaign would lead the Republicans to pitch in a last minute Hail Mary candidate to try and take on the Santorum machine. Not that I can really believe it would take all that much to take him on. In an excerpt from a recent stump speech on fracking, he said Obama was against it so the could "get your dollars, turn it to politicians who can win elections so they can control your lives... Understand what's at stake, folks. It's your economic liberty. It's your religious liberty. It's your freedom of speech." Riiiiight.
Oh, everyone still enjoys a good Palin moment, don't they? According to new reports, when she was picked as McCain's running mate,
she thought that the Queen was the one responsible for keeping Britain's troops in Iraq. That would certainly give Liz a lot more edge.
Features
Benjamin Eltham walks us through the Gonski review
of education funding, "one of the most important policy documents produced by the Rudd-Gillard Government."
A BBC reporter who's been in the country for the last two years draws a harrowing picture of Greece's social and economic decay. Related:
Krugman on the manifestly failed policy of austerity, the primary force now driving EU recession.
Oddities/Curiosities
Well, this is just bad luck really - a single engine Cessna carrying 40 pounds of marijuana was
intercepted by F-16s after it accidentally flew over Obama airspace. I like to think that Obama might have had a cheeky joint with the Secret Service before moving on to his next appointment.
The world has a new hottest chilli: the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion. Sure sign you're dealing with a reasonably potent chilli? It burns through the latex gloves you use to handle it. Luke sez: unnecessary.
Does the phrase ancient Japanese fart scrolls fill you with expectant joy? Well it should.
Video
I do enjoy a good US political attack ad. Here's Santorum casting Romney as "Rombo" and getting a Romney lookalike to fire brown paintball pellets at Santorum shaped cardboard cut outs in an abandoned warehouse. Obviously awesome.