Larrikin lad from a life on the farm
always in trouble, but never did harm
Made a fine soldier when he answered the call
Ratbags can make the best of them all.
Somewhere in an unmarked grave
Sleep reward for being brave
If he woke, what would he say
about what's going on in Australia today?

Lest We Forget the lives that were lost
that the freedom we live in has come at a cost
that was paid for happiness, friendship and fun,
not liberty lived under Government Gun.

Iran will take the extraordinary step of sharing with Australia secret intelligence gathered by its operatives fighting Islamic State extremists in Iraq. 

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop revealed the co-operation after a meeting with Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, during which she said he described Islamic State as the "most significant global threat at present".

Intelligence sharing with Iran - which would have been unthinkable during the years the country was branded part of the "axis of evil" - has also become more likely as optimism grows that Iran, the US and world powers will strike a grand bargain to ensure the Islamic Republic will not build a nuclear weapon.

And you thought Woolworths’ exploitation of Anzac Day was bad. Wait till you see what News Corporation did over the weekend. Chris Graham explains.

I don’t know who invented the phrase ‘You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear’, but whoever it was, I’m pretty certain they’d never been in Australia on April 25.

ANZ says administrative error behind $30m compensation …..

From Victoria Rollison

The legend of Icarus is a weirdo. 

You can talk of trading currency, share markets and stuff
but here's way to know we're screwed that's adequate enough
Forty hours a week you go out working like a dog
and then the bastards go and shrink the size of of your Freddo Frog

Chocolate is spendable, as everybody knows
Whenever things are plentiful, interest in it grows
It's value's more important than the price of a mug of grog
and then the bastards go and shrink the size of your Freddo Frog

Not mentioned here are Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan and a lot of "North" Africa...

Tony Abbott has admitted at the highest international level that Australia's policies towards China are driven by two emotions: "fear and greed".

The Prime Minister's candid appraisal of Australia's primordial motivations, given with a grin in private conversation with Germany's Angela Merkel last November, is a long way from the prolix platitudes of official documents.

And it sits in awkward contrast with Mr Abbott's personal assertions of friendship, such as the one that he made to his Chinese counterpart the following day.

Late in life, William F. Buckley made a confession to Corey Robin. Capitalism is "boring," said the founding father of the American right. "Devoting your life to it," as conservatives do, "is horrifying if only because it's so repetitious. It's like sex." With this unlikely conversation began Robin's decade-long foray into the conservative mind. What is conservatism, and what's truly at stake for its proponents? If capitalism bores them, what excites them?