Showing all posts in June 2019

Erna Flegal was Hitler’s nurse and survived the last days in the Berlin bunker as the 1000-year Nazi reign crumbled. She’s never spoken publicly about her experiences, until now. On Hitler: “His authority was extraordinary. He was always polite and charming. There was really nothing to object to.” On Magda Goebbels: “She was a brilliant…

“Abu Faraj Farj al-Libbi, allegedly number three in the al-Qaeda network and a close associate of Osama bin Laden, has been captured in Pakistan, the country’s information minister said on Wednesday.” The Sydney Morning Herald, and a host of world newspapers, published this story on May 4. George W. Bush said his capture removed a…

I was working at a Melbourne David Jones in formal wear. I was dressed in a suit and tie, as were my male colleagues. Suddenly a fire alarm sounded and we ran to the exit and towards the central meeting place in times of an emergency. For some inexplicable reason, the meeting point seemed like…

Refugee advocates Project Safecom are pushing for a Royal Commission into asylum seeker policy. The petition reads as follows: We, the undersigned petitioners, citizens and residents of the Australian Commonwealth: Request from the House of Representatives: – to establish, as a matter of the highest priority, a Royal Commission into the treatment of asylum seekers,…

The Committee to Protect Bloggers primary aim is to “focus…on the inappropriate use of state force against bloggers.” They link today to a new project from Human Rights Watch, aimed at convincing people to speak out, research and disseminate information to fight for human rights through blogging. In countries such as Iran and China, bloggers…

“We took Iraq faster than Janet Reno took Waco.” A “sorry what?” comment from a token right-winger at last night’s Sydney Glogblogging. Fun was had by all. Politics, Bush, Howard and tequila were debated. Uniform agreement that quality of informed debate in Australia is lacking. Work needed.

It seems I’m the default winner of Tim Blair’s Iron Blogger showdown. True to his word, Tim couriered $250 cash (along with a courtesy copy of The Bulletin) to my home yesterday. I’m yet to decide how the money should be dispersed. Stay tuned for details as they emerge.

“God is in the air. Or talk about Him, anyway. It is bouncing off satellites, radiating from broadcast towers, winding through cable systems, and glowing on screens in millions of living rooms. Evangelical Christians have created a vast and expanding alternative media universe that includes music, movies, sitcoms, and reality TV. But the brightest constellation…

The current media frenzy around John Howard and his patient deputy Peter Costello is tiring. Throughout this saga, political journalists have been content playing the insider’s game, gaining interviews with the key players and parading their “insights”. Take today’s article in the Sydney Morning Herald by Peter Hartcher. A full page in the paper and…

From today’s crikey.com.au newsletter: “Fairfax’s robust Iraq correspondent, Paul McGeough, is in the news again, this time playing a dicey game of diplomacy to try to free Australian hostage Douglas Wood. The results of his talks with various sheikhs are splashed over the front pages of The Smage (here), and McGeough has been all over…