It's truly disturbing to see how the hate media works, fellow travellers. After Tony Abbott brazenly incited the Australia Day race riot that put the Prime Minister's life in peril, they are now desperately trying to sheet home blame to Gillard's own office, as well as the union movement! The gall of these people simply beggars belief.

The accusations were first aimed at Gillard staffer Tony Hodges. That was bad enough. But now they are pointing the finger at union official Kim Sattler.

There's...
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Oh joy! Joy and cat dancing! The racist hate mongering trollumnist Andrew Bolt has been silenced at last!

This is wonderful thing for democracy, fellow travellers. (And by that I mean authentic democracy, not the shamocracy endorsed by conservatives.)

But of course you all know that. To say so is practically preaching to the converted (but not in a Christian way, of course).

Needless to say, Bolt sees the guilty verdict as something sinister. In his usual eeevil and highly emotive way, he frames...
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Why am I not surprised that the appalling Andrew Bolt is still beating his denialist drum against respected scientists fighting valiantly to save the planet from catastrophic climate change? Now he's attacking sassy sister Anna-Maria Arabia. And he's doing so with even more vitriol than usual. Perhaps it's got something to do with his obvious Islamophobia. Her surname just too much to bear is it Andrew, hmm? Hmm?

While there's probably some submerged racism in his latest bit of hate speech, i...
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It's hardly surprising that media blowhard Andrew Bolt's predictably aggressive, sensationalist and simplistic tabloid talk show on Ten would rate highly for that Sunday morning time slot. Of course he and his masters and backers (no doubt including the appalling Gina Rinehart) are just over the moon with the figures. It's typical of their thinking: more and bigger is always better.

Well, all it really means is that a bunch of brain dead, racist, climate change denialist warmongers were happy ...
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Fellow travellers, as international socialists we can all agree that patriotism is an ugly emotion. And it brings out other malignant sentiments, for example the flagrant, insensitive and deeply racist waving of Australian flags (still, revoltingly, including the Union Jack) by drunken revelers at various Australia Day events and gatherings.

Not surprisingly this brutal nationalism often dredges up the vile prejudice of speciesism as well. Take this regular Australia Day horse racing event tha...
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While I think that the choices for Australian of the Year and Young Australian of the Year are at least tolerable, I do have some reservations, fellow travellers.

My first one is general in nature, and is simply about the whole concept of the award. This idea that we celebrate one individual, as opposed to a collective, smacks more than a little of conservatism. It's also undeniably nationalistic. I mean, if we do have to laud an individual couldn't we nominate someone who does the whole Eart...
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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, 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, 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, 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, I found this story about a market stall being banned from the Rockingham local markets to be very heartening. While we can't be sure of exactly what the reason was, it was quite probably due to a strong sense of cultural sensitivity. The stall sold "bogan paraphernalia" after all.

The appalling sub-human redneck who flogs the vile merchandise whinged about the ban.

"If I was selling porn and bongs I'd expect them to say they don't want me there, but this is stickers and st...
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Fellow travelers, it's almost appropriate that the horse who won this year's Melbourne Cup was called Shocking, because I found the whole exercize shocking in the extreme. In fact it wasn't just shocking. It was appalling!

Firstly, it was extremely elitist, as races invariably are. Finding the fastest horse was highly discriminatory, since horses have a lot more to offer than just speed. And I'm sure they don't judge themselves merely by that criterion. Were their values considered? Of course ...
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