Mr. Putin has methodically targeted, through charm and cash and by fanning historical and ideological embers, the European Union’s weakest links in a campaign to assert influence in some of Europe’s most troubled corners. One clear goal is to break fragile Western unity over the conflict in Ukraine.

The fifth of April, 2015 is Resurrection Day. Easter... Easter Bunny. Chocolate eggs. It's a day to make us believe in rabbits from the time we're toddlers in a basket. To stay forever as a basket case. From year to year it changes date because Easter is based on the moon calendar. Easter is not a fixed date like say Christmas, which was made to coincide with a pagan fiesta — the celebration of sumpthin' that became Santa Claus. But the whole lot is designed to place markers in our faith. The whole lot is boloney of course. 

Over 80,000 ["man"-made] chemicals are used in everyday products. We handle them, they're in our water, our food and in the air we breathe. It's impossible to escape them. But now there's growing concern that these chemicals are not safe.

The U.S. plans to increase its support for Saudi Arabia’s attack on Yemen:

Treasurer Joe Hockey says every aspect of the tax system is up for review in the wake of a Federal Government discussion paper which suggests Australia relies too heavily on corporate and income taxes and not enough on consumption taxes like the GST.

The study of making choices has been a philosophical pursuit for millenniums. It was one of the important subject of Greek philosophy and this subject, in which determinism and free-will do battle, is still prominent today. 

Great to see Alan Ramsay back at the Sydney Morning Herald, out of retirement (?). It's possible that the SMH decided it needed a bit more substantial meat to its commentaries on the news and on politics, as some of its younger opinionators are mostly fence sitters. Their butt must be hurting.

imagine... A former atheist raises hell into promoting beliefs in Christianity... And a Republican senator, Paul Broun, a medical doctor by training, claims that "All that stuff I was taught about evolution, embryology, Big Bang Theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell."