Fellow travellers, here in Perth, Western Australia we have already had some unseasonally hot days. And there are more to come. Next week several days of 40-degree heat are predicted.

Now, how can you still have your doubts about anthropogenic global warming when such a strong trend is in evidence?

But of course the redneck climate change denialists have their doubts, don't they! Because Heathrow has been shut down for days due to the cold, and there have been similar conditions in America, t...
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Fellow travellers, I know that many readers of the Sunday Times would have found this article about a Perth man who helped the irksome Andre Rieu recover from his bedridden state due to chronic and severe dizziness very uplifting.

Frankly, I found it nauseating. So nauseating, in fact, that after purging the soy smoothie I had just imbibed, I was actually struck with severe head-spins and had to have a long lie down myself!

Because of Bill Henshall's advice, Rieu is now back to recording and t...
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Fellow travellers, as you well know I care deeply about the welfare of animals - or as I call them, non-human people. That's why I have been both saddened and ultimately heartened by this story about a tropical fish swallowed whole by an appalling Brit called Chris Caswell. Not only was the poor gilled being treated barbarically by the hoon, but the journalist who reported the story couldn't even decide on its classification.

I mean, the article linked above refers to it as alternatively a gup...
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Fellow travellers, if there was any doubt that the sex crime accusations against the heroic Julian Assange are false, there certainly isn't now.

You see, Assange's accusers' Swedish lawyer has now officially denied that there is any CIA involvement in the case. He says his clients are not pawns; they've had their "sexual integrity" violated. Now, we know from many previous cases involving that sinister organ of the AmeriKKKan Empire (and others like it) that whenever those representing the su...
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Fellow travellers, I am now starting to fear for the life of the great Julian Assange! The reason? Because he holds these fears himself. And since he is a man synonymous with the Cold Hard Truth, we must take these concerns very seriously indeed.

Speaking to the Guardian, Assange said that if he were extradited to AmeriKKKa there's a good chance he'd be killed "Jack Ruby-style". This quote confused me at first, because we all know Jack Ruby as a killer, not a murder victim. Was Assange implyi...
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Fellow travellers, one thing that always angers me is how Christians are so intolerant of other people's worldviews. Be they worshippers of other gods, or none at all, Bible thumping conservatives just won't let them be.

Take the controversy over a planned campaign against Christmas by a group of UK Muslims. This collection of concerned and quite courageous citizens is rather insensitively labelled an "Islamic hate group" in this article.

Organisers plan to put up thousands of placards around t...
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Fellow travellers, as we all know racism and sexism often go together, particularly in the media. This is to be expected, since the whole paradigm is dominated by white male peenie wavers.

And sometimes this sinister subtext exists even in stories that appear at first to be attempting to deconstruct that depressing state of affairs. Take this article about how there are more and more Aboriginal women working in West Australian diamond mines. The whole tenor of the piece implies that this deve...
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Fellow travellers, being as philosophically, politically and spiritually evolved as I am, it's very rare that I can actually speak highly of another human being. But I certainly can in the case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Frankly, the more I learn about him, the more impressed I am. While he's not in my league - and never will be, of course - he's certainly getting quite close.

Not only is he a brilliant computer hacker who has made complete fools of the entire Western world and all ...
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Fellow travellers, as you well know I abhor violence. But I have to admit that in some cases it is justified. Here is a case in point: That cruel capitalist nation South Korea has decided to provoke atheist, communist North Korea by lighting up a giant Christmas tree near the border.

As one who is regularly driven to nausea by the orgy of greed and consumerism that is Christmas in Australia, I certainly know where my fellow travellers in Pyongyang are coming from.

Not only is this a case of re...
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Fellow travellers, even though it can be a very unpleasant experience visiting the loony right-wing reaches of the blogopshere - which are so rancid with the stench of sexism, racism, and climate change denialism that afterwards I always have to have a peppermint tea and a good lie down - it is certainly worth doing so on a regular basis. As they say, it's important to know your enemy.

(And when I say "enemy", I don't mean it in the "pro-war" sense, BTW. I am - like all of you, my fellow trav...
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Fellow travellers, one thing that I find extremely annoying about appalling right-wing peenie-waving climate change denialists is how they constantly bleat about how there's "no actual evidence" for global warming, and that it's "all just a theory" about what's "going to happen in the future" based on "dodgy computer models".

Yet time and again there is irrefutable evidence of a catastrophically warming planet right before their very eyes! Take this fire in Gooseberry Hill on the outskirts of...
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Fellow travellers, as any of us who has worked in Australia's thriving arts sector knows only too well, Australian films are without doubt the best in the world! But sadly, local audiences are usually too stupid to appreciate them. Consequently they often fail to attract substantial crowds and lose money.

Of course, I don't consider box office failure a problem in itself, since I am against the profit motive in principle. However, it is undeniably unfortunate that every time an Aussie movie l...
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Fellow travellers, up until today I have had mixed feelings about the arrival of Oprah Winfrey in this country. Of course, her show is watched by countless people all over the globe. Australian politicians and business people are therefore confident that this massive exposure will bring many more visitors to our shores, helping our economy hugely. Hence the overwhelmingly supportive media coverage.

But being a champion of Gaia, I am concerned about the effect on our delicate natural environme...
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Fellow travellers, there's no denying that our unique Australian environment needs protecting and nurturing. And wherever possible introduced pests should be compassionately dealt with so that they do not damage the delicate local ecosystems.

But being such a life affirming soul, I still find some of these culling techniques a little upsetting. Take, for instance, the use of carbon dioxide to euthanase cane toads, which has just been approved by the Department of Environment and Conservation. ...
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Fellow travellers, I am very excited about what Julian Assange will do next. It seems that he has lots of confidential files relating to UFO reports and sightings and is threatening to release them. I suspect there will be some explosive details about the countless cover-ups and conspiracies to keep the truth about aliens away from the world's population.

And that truth - which so many of the world's governments find so scary, which is actually scary in itself! - is that aliens do come in peac...
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Fellow travellers, I should just post an update about my new location: I am now living in the charming, creative and very tolerant city of Fremantle, which is just south of Perth, in Western Australia.

I came over here at the behest of the Department of Culture and the Arts. They want me to contribute my deep spiritual, cultural and creative insights to various long term artistic projects.

I will go into details about these later. But suffice to say I am overjoyed to be in such a lovely place,...
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Fellow travellers I am sure that you are as shocked and offended as I am that the appalling Mel Gibson has another movie out at all, let alone so soon. But that's not the most worrying thing about The Beaver. The film's storyline is perhaps even more disturbing than its star.

You see, it focuses on a depressed man who gets his mojo back by putting a beaver puppet on his hand and letting it speak for him. Now, while some people may find this a charming plot device, I am not amused.

I do find it...
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Fellow travellers, here is a story that should give those of us who truly abhor speciesism a little more hope for a better world: A man in Toowoomba called Joseph Guiso has "married" his animal companion Honey, a labrador.

The ceremony was conducted more or less as a joke. But remember that "many a true word was spoke in jest". Also, not so long ago people were openly laughing at things that eventually came to pass - women getting the vote, and gays in the military, for example.

And the fact th...
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Well, well, well, isn't this interesting. The scientific community is having conniptions over the discovery of a life form that can live only on arsenic. "Huh? That's just not possible!" they shriek, brandishing their yellowing old biology textbooks. "It's against all the rules of nature!"

Well, it is possible. And they'll just have to accept it. But it's obviously going to take a while. Old thought habits die hard, after all - particularly when they have been inculcated into the scientific c...
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Fellow travellers I am sure that you are all as deeply appalled by recent developments regarding Labor's ban on nuclear power as I am. It looks like Julia may actually allow a debate about whether they should allow it. This is horribly, terrifyingly irrational, fellow travellers!

And this argument that if they can debate gay marriage, then they should also be allowed to debate nuclear power is highly specious (as well as speciesist). I mean, gay marriage is an extremely important issue that i...
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