Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

Now their Senate Leader, one of the last bastions of appropriatepolitical conduct, has walked away from the shadow portfolio indisgust, and bovver-boy Abbott and so many other front-benchers withhim, the Federal Liberal party appears unlikely to have any politicalclout for the next decade.

 As Rann and his army of journos prepare to extoll both the man's and his government's virtues before the March State election, manyare now going to have trouble trusting the words they hear.  Defencehubs, a new live music coloseum and new highways; everything they doto try and win at the polling booth is going to be tarnished by thePremier's "porky".

"There are tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of thesestories, each as important as the other, each with its own hurts, itsown humiliations its own traumas - and each united by the experience ofa childhood without love, of childhood alone."- Prime Minister Kevin Rudd

While we in the West can hold our nose when we read about these terrible troubles in the rest of the world, the reality is that our oil dependence means we help contribute to this ugly reality. Our leaders cheerfully extol the virtues of globalisation, but don't like to talk about the money that Saudi Arabia funnels into supporting fundamentalist causes.

Which brings us to a separate issue, yet one with tentative connections to the one mentioned above – the spectacular dumping of the contentious Traveston mega-dam in south east Queensland, which represents a belated day in the sun for the long-maligned Peter Garrett and more eclipse for Labor's cover-girl of such a short time ago, Anna Bligh.

"To me, this is both a statement of fact and an article of faith, an aspiration. Because it’s only if you believe in the fair-minded mainstream that you can create content for it. And even if you sometimes doubt this is what “most people” think, then, in fact especially then, it’s still important to maintain belief in the better natures of our fellow citizens."- Julian Morrow

Go on Kev mate, show us your inner (real) man (you know, like Malcolm Fraser); be courageous (nope, don't drop your daks) and speak the truth to Australians. You do have the numbers to support the fact that overwhelmingly these poor refugees are just that – poor pathetic souls who have sacrificed everything and risked their lives for a safe and secure future for their children.

It now seems almost certain that, if it has not occurred already, within the next several years enough warming will be locked into the system to set in train positive feedback processes that will overwhelm any attempts to cut back on carbon emissions. Humans will be powerless to stop the shift to a new climate on Earth, one much less sympathetic to life. (Clive Hamilton)

Then ... then ... does anyone really care about these issues of contrasting and unprovable faiths until they face the reality of old age and its infirmities? Until they find themselves waiting, waiting for death, but not allowed to die yet - by God, the medical/surgical professions, and the priesthood?

Hubris nurtured by groupthink is the Achilles heel of publicly unaccountable power. The only known human cure for its toxic effects is the free circulation of differing viewpoints, courageous conjectures, corrective judgments, checks and balances, the institutional humbling of power. (John Keane)