As a rich, university-educated middle-class white guy, I do it tough. I am, dare I say it, oppressed. There, I said it, so I guess I do dare. Oppressed by shrill and difficult harpies like Germaine Greer, who by her own admission just the other day is only interested in my penis.

Oppressed by a horde of uppity little groups, and races and culture gangs who, having inconsiderately thrown off my rich, white forefathers' oppression of their poor, not-so-white forefathers and, er, foremothers, now seem intent on getting some payback.

"If you had free reign over classified networks ... and you saw incredible things, awful things ... things that belonged in the public domain, and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington DC ... what would you do? ... God knows what happens now. Hopefully worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms. ... I want people to see the truth ... because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public."

Bradley Manning

Naturally enough it takes two astute American academics, Steve Walt and John Mearsheimer, authors of The Israel Lobby, to explain in the Financial Times that Iran isn't the real issue for Israel:

from Crikey .....

Wayne versus the lizard people: the secret history of illegitimate power

Crikey Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

ANDREW FORREST, CLIVE PALMER, WAYNE SWAN

''Never underestimate our ability to turn on ourselves,'' a senior Liberal MP said. Another said, ''We are getting away with murder'', in relation to some of the policies already in the mix.

Muslim women will have to remove face veils when having their signatures officially witnessed under the latest laws in New South Wales, Australia's most populous state.

State Attorney General Greg Smith said on Monday that officials who fail to check identities will face fines under laws recently approved by the state legislature.

Some say if the Bowraville children had been white their killer would have been brought to justice by now. But 20 years later, after two investigations, two trials, a coronial inquest, a change to the law, two appeals to attorneys-general and a petition to Parliament, no one has been convicted.

One reason for this could be that NSW lags other parts of Australia in how it treats some Aboriginal people in court.

One of Barry O'Farrell's closest advisers has been stood aside without pay today following revelations he kept the Premier in the dark over crucial details of The Star casino sexual harassment allegations.

Premier O'Farrell said he was launching an investigation by the The Director General of the Department of Premier and Cabinet to see if Mr Grimshaw had breached the code of conduct for ministerial staff.

The Premier said Mr Grimshaw then offered to remain stood aside until after the conclusion of the Independent Liquor and Gaming Enquiry into the scandal.

Mining barons Clive Palmer and Andrew Forrest have taken on the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, the first labelling him an "intellectual pygmy" who does not understand economics and the second launching a national advertising campaign against him.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has declared he is confident Australians will send him to The Lodge, suggesting to a Liberal Party audience he is a sure bet to be prime minister.

The global gender gap defies simple solutions. Eighty-five per cent of countries have improved conditions for women over the past six years, according to the World Economic Forum, but in economic and political terms there is still a long way to go.

"From London to Lahore," says Oxfam, "inequality between men and women persists." Here The Independent on Sunday explores the best places to be a woman today.

Were we wrong? I have lived through two global conflicts: the west against Russian communism and now the west against political Islam. The latter was caused by western leaders exaggerating a threat from a tiny group of terrorists to win popularity in war. But the former? Surely the cold war was a good war, a Manichean struggle between competing visions of how to order humanity. If not, then it must have been one of the great mistakes of all time, and a horrific waste of resources.