It would be good, one day, to have radio announcers not to say "We all do this" or "We don't listen". This gets my feathers bristling. Sure some "people may not do this" and some "people may do this" or are stupid. But the generalisation tends to tell us we're all morons and we'd better listen. 

And one who sometimes does this annoying generalisation caper is a certain Natasha Mitchell on Life Matters, ABC Radio national. 

... friends confirm the likely GOP presidential candidate has lost 30 pounds since December, reports Michael Barbaro in The New York Times.

Families with children on the lowest incomes will bear the brunt of the federal government's budget cuts, while high income families will actually see their disposable incomes increase slightly over the next four years. 

Last year, Moskoff, who describes himself as a "Jewish Indiana Jones," published a nonfiction book, also called The A.R.K. Report, chronicling his search for this legendary artifact, and he got a boost from a higher power of a different sort—former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who is now a Republican presidential candidate.

Last year Bill Shorten’s budget reply turned the Liberals pale, as he lashed out at Abbott’s cuts and promised to block the worst attacks in the Senate. This year the Labor leader delivered a pathetic, uninspiring speech that showed why he’s widely considered useless.

Mental health experts and legal aid groups are alarmed by a proposal to strip welfare payments for psychiatric patients accused of serious crimes.

With Labor and the Greens opposed to the changes, the government will need to secure crossbench support to get them through the upper house.

On Monday Ms Ley distanced herself from the proposal to increase PBS patient contributions, describing it as "a separate measure I inherited from the last budget", and stressing the $1 discount and other measures to make medicines cheaper would not be contingent upon the proposal.

She said her focus was on delivering a new package of measures which would "balance the need for consumers to have affordable access to medicines now with the need to fund new drugs in the future".

Europe's largest oil companies are banding together to forge a joint strategy on climate change policy, alarmed they'll be ignored as the world works toward a historic deal limiting greenhouse gases.

Royal Dutch Shell, Total, BP, Statoil and Eni are among oil companies that plan to start a new industry body, or think tank, to develop common positions on the issues, according to people with knowledge of the matter. So far the largest US companies -- Exxon Mobil and Chevron -- have decided not to participate, the people said, asking not be named before a public announcement expected as early as next month.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said "nope, nope, nope" to Australia offering resettlement to any of the thousands of migrants caught up in South East Asia's refugee crisis.

"I'm sorry. If you want to start a new life, you come through the front door, not through the back door," Mr Abbott said on Thursday.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/nope-nope-nope-tony-abbott-says-australia-will-not-resettle-refugees-in-migrant-crisis-20150521-gh6eew.html

Kerry, a former U.S. senator and presidential candidate, confronted such objections as “empty protectionism” during his speech to a small audience of Boeing workers and pro-trade guests, including Gary Locke, the former governor and ambassador to China.

“There is nothing progressive about blaming trade or trade agreements for the inevitable economic shifts that are brought on by technology and time,” Kerry said.

That's right, even Rand Paul is proposing to increase defense spending. And the rest of them are sounding more like cartoon movie heroes than presidential candidates on the stump (perhaps lending some support to that American Sniper theory).

Today's Fairfax Ipsos poll shows the Abbott Government back on level pegging with Labor. Bob Ellis suggests the result was fraudulently achieved.