Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

It’s easy to ignore a broken bank as just another greedy institution and that deserves their demise. Not so when you are the nations largest childcare provider to hundreds of thousands of working families. The challenge here is whether the government should intervene and nationalise a private sector entity to ensure delivery of a vital piece of social infrastructure.

Hodges [a candidate in the recent council election for Sutherland Shire (NSW)] has every right to campaign and seek media attention to boost his voting numbers; however, when did racial campaigning become such a news story and part of the normal election process?

Australia’s censorship laws came under tight scrutiny at an Arts Censorship Forum convened after the recent furore surrounding artist Bill Henson’s latest exhibition. Hetty Johnston, executive director of child protection agency Bravehearts, called for an arts tribunal to be set up that artists must first approach before working with children.

In this digital age, when people are getting quite comfortable with shopping, learning, socialising and even managing their bank accounts online, why is having an online picture of the front of their houses becoming so controversial? Is Google Street View really invading our privacy?

Plans are in the works for the facelift of the North Eveleigh / Redfern area. Preparations for the redevelopment began in 2005 and recently went public in April 2008. As part of the North Eveleigh Redevelopment Project, the historical section of North Eveleigh is being renovated or, in some cases, removed completely.

No doubt, Australians will be stunned to know that this is the first instance – ever – that the topic of “Stroganoff” has been raised in Parliament. And for that, Mr Murphy should be congratulated – after all, breaking new ideological ground is what being a member of parliament in the southern hemisphere’s greatest democracy is all about.

Remember a time when cars were only used to get you somewhere or get you laid? Well, the quaint notion that motor vehicles only be used for driving and sex is old school – territory for nostalgia buffs and Webdiarists.

Ill-advised financial deregulation led to financial concentration and not to more efficient markets. Independent local banks, which focused on financing local businesses, and Saving and Loan Associations, which knew the local housing market, have been replaced with large institutions that package unanalyzed risks and sell them worldwide. Regulation over-reached. The pendulum swung. Deregulation became an ideology and a facilitator of greed.

The War on Terror is a battle of ideologies. To win, the West has to fight for the hearts and minds of the people of Pakistan and Afghanistan. It cannot win by bombing villages and killing women and children.