Want a long-range heads-up? The question we should be asking Abbott and Gillard and all of their various immigration spokespeople right now is this: How do you feel about the inevitability that – possibly in your lifetime – a future Prime Minister of Australia will stand up in Parliament to make a heartfelt apology on [...]

We, the Most Powerful Nations of the World, having met face to face and flab to flab for two days in the beachside resort of Los Cabos Mexico, and having carefully avoided any difficult topics or trodden on any sensitive toes, are immensely proud to be able to now release our joint communiqué of enough [...]

  So in the Cimitière Montmartre I found one of my heroes. Émile Zola   That is to say, I found the memorial. He is interred at the Panthéon. Why a hero? Amongst his many writings Emile Zola wrote this, which is as relevant today in our political discourse and climate as it was almost [...]

Source: fromupnorth.com on Pinterest   On this definition most of the press, radio and television – at least the “popular” versions – are very small indeed. So are most of the politicians who spewed their vitriol over the last week, including especially Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Wayne Swan and the country’s most boring politician since [...]

  Sir Roger Migently is not angry. He is over it. According to Friday’s ABC 7.30 Report The Government is pushing ahead with its demand that dozens of dentists repay $20 million claimed under Medicare for treating people with chronic diseases. Here’s how it is: Few people can afford dental service, not even preventive. Just [...]

Sir Roger does not wish to marry a man. To put it another way, while Sir Roger and Dorothy have many good friends in common, Dorothy and Sir Roger are not Facebook buddies. And Sir Roger does not think that his personal preference for his own life is of any moment or interest whatever in [...]

  So Immigration Minister Chris Bowen is moved by humanitarian motives. Probably in the same way as his predecessor Philip Ruddock was a fair dinkum believer in the values of Amnesty International while he was ruthlessly screwing the lives of countless fellow human beings. “Let your heart bleed publicly for the oppressed while cruelly oppressing [...]

What a fucking load of motherfucking dickheaded bullshit those cunts in the Victorian parliament are, trying to impose old-fashioned tight-arsed, pursed-lipped, prune-faced, shrivelled-up, broomstick-arsed moral values on a free people, with their proposed laws against swearing in public. Goodbye barracking at fucking footie matches, for one thing. Or having a bloody beer in the pub. [...]

  David Hume, hero of the Enlightenment, father of skepticism, linchpin of democracy and human rights and freedoms, Happy 300th Birthday! Sir Roger has some understanding of how Hume felt when he said this: “Here am I who have written on all sorts of subjects calculated to excite hostility, moral, political, and religious, and yet [...]

Some things are just wrong. And xkcd knows where they are: in your head. What are your three wishes, readers? And who do you really want to be rubbing your lamp? And here’s two genies for the price of one. It’s mine, mine, all mine! I’m rich! I’m independently wealthy! I’m comfortably well off! Why [...]

Just a heads up on the NSW election result. As you already know – and here’s something you can bank on – despite all the talk of “change” and “new eras in NSW politics”, nothing is going to change except the names of the people who take the money and the names of the “mates”. [...]

Sir Roger tells me he really didn’t want to have to write anything today. He has a new pair of Wellington boots and they are chafing his heels. He just wants to put his feet up and go to that nothing box men go to where women are not allowed. Perhaps this will help you [...]

Julian Assange interviewed for 60 Minutes. Presented without comment. Come to your own conclusions (or not) – about Assange, Wikileaks, the US media, whatever.

A Sciencey Xmas celebration with Robin Ince, Ben Goldacre and Brian Cox, Weird Placebo Effects, Amazing Universe and Onion News is Back with the Palin Effect!

Sir Roger had thought there were just a few assassination plotters but there are many urging the murder of Julian Assange. Sir Roger unpacks the details.