The violent upheavals that have marked 2011 in the Arab world have led to some astonishing statements, from France's foreign minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, suggesting that French forces should help the Tunisian regime deal with protesters (she lost her job) to US Vice-President Joe Biden's assertion that Egypt's Hosni Mubarak was not a dictator (he kept his).

Guess what happens next...

from Crikey .....

One man's terrorist is another man's freak

Piers Kelly of Crikey language blog Fully (Sic) writes:

After the prestigious Tour de France is won by an Australian for the first time in its 108 years, Cycling Australia chief Graham Fredericks tells the world Australia deserves to be considered a ''major cycling country''.

Surely all we need now is a keen cyclist for PM?

Sophie York Turramurra

Australia's retail sector is in all sorts of bother. After almost 20 years of buying up big, and borrowing to pay the bills, Australians are saving again. In most comparable countries, the global financial crisis burst domestic property bubbles.

But here, the housing bubble has remained intact. Property prices in Australia, even at entry level, are outrageously high. Having looked overseas and seen what can happen to families and societies when they are too exposed to debt, Australians are doing the prudent thing - putting some of their earnings away and trying to maximise the value of every dollar they spend.

In the marketing world, people jump ship all the time. The chief executive of such-and-such a firm, having for years demanded unconditional loyalty from his team, will join his company's most hated rival. Struggling brands will poach their competitor's creative director in order to get themselves back into play.

Betrayal? Of course not. It's called ''doing business'' and nobody bats an eyelid. So, is Malcolm Turnbull about to jump ship? Could he do business with Labor?

from Crikey ....

Kevin Andrews rides again in Malaysian solution

Charles Richardson writes:

The earth is a flexible fluid planet... I mean it is made of liquid and I don't mean the oceans. I am referring to what lies below the thin crusty surface. One should realise that with a diameter of nearly 13,000 kilometres, the continental crust is only about 40 kilometres thick on average while the oceanic crust is barely 7 kilometres thick on average. The hot liquid magma below is never far from the surface. Gravity holds the earth firmly as a liquid ball with a crust.

“Living with the greenhouse effect” was the subtitle of my October, 1988, cover story for Discover Magazine — my first lengthy exploration of the science pointing to a growing human influence on climate. The cover line on the piece, which followed a scorching summer across much of the country, was, “This summer was merely a warmup.”

picture by Gus

More young people in Australia are turning to a vegetarian lifestyle as part of a process of enlightenment, former High Court judge Michael Kirby says.

In the courts, retired Justice Kirby was known as the great dissenter and over the years the 72-year-old has been a vocal campaigner on a range of issues.

As a proud monarchist and passionate activist on the issue of gay rights, as well as lobbying for the protection of animals, the retired judge is one of two new high-profile patrons of the animal protection group Voiceless.

... Had there not been so much else going on, the announcement might have prompted an outcry against this generous sum of taxpayers' money going to Mr Cameron's old school chum, who is now doubly in the line of fire after John Yates, the recently departed Assistant Commissioner of the Met police, revealed that Mr Llewellyn was the Downing Street official who asked him not to talk to Mr Cameron about phone hacking.

 

Watching the painfully choreographed, and highly policed, red-carpet arrival of Prince William and Kate Middleton at a recent Los Angeles polo match reminded me why intrusive journalistic tactics are often called upon. They exist to break down the barriers of access that keep social elites at a remove from ordinary people.

For a critique of this rubbish, please read more...