Since the days of Alexander the Great, binge drinking has been a very popular past time - leading to him apparently killing a friend and burning down Persepolis while drunk.

Those are some Great shoes to fill.

Yet, governments, schools and the media have repeatedly tried to teach us of binge drinking's dangers. 

Dartmouth University has taken the lead, instigating a new nationwide policy to curb heavy drinking by their students.

Pour me another glass.

Binge drinking is defined as "the consumption of five or more drinks in a row by men — or four or more drinks in a row by women — at least once in the previous 2 weeks. Heavy binge drinking includes three or more such episodes in 2 weeks."

Seems I don't know anyone who isn't a heavy binge drinker.

Do you think this definition should be changed or should we change people's attitudes? Or should you follow HPD's no fools guide to drinking a lot but not dying?  . . read more

There are few people in this world who would defend Gaddafi as a sane and viable leader of Libya; but I think there would be even less that would see the logic in the U.S selling guns to someone as psychotic as him and then parading about as world police.

It's the equivalent of a sheriff giving an outlaw a six-shooter and then acting surprised when he starts popping off the town folk. 

The second one U.S plane gets shot down by one U.S surface-to-air missile, all the military big wigs should get together and make a decision once and for all - "we have to stop shooting at tyrants we've given guns to".

What do you think about Libya? What do you think about the obvious contradictions in U.S foreign policy and how do you think they should be addressed? Tell us and remember...Disqus!  . . read more

There are other factors affecting the price of oil. The prospect of an Israeli/U.S. attack on Iran has increased current demand in order to build stocks against disruption. No one knows the consequence of such an ill-conceived act of aggression, and the uncertainty pushes up the price of oil as the entire Middle East could be engulfed in conflagration...

The crisis that looms for the U.S. is the loss of world currency role. Once the dollar loses that role, the U.S. government will not be able to finance its operations by borrowing abroad, and foreigners will cease to finance the massive U.S. trade deficit. This crisis will eliminate the U.S. as a world power. [More]

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. . . read more

A major flaw of Peak Oil is that it is based on a static, or technology-neutral, assumption: it implicitly assumes that limits to oil are set as natural, innate, and immutable. Yet, limits to oil, like those to most other resources, are determined as much (if not more) socially as they are naturally. Research, development, and technological advances have made (and will continue to make) both the amounts of oil reserves and of oil production much more fluid or elastic than perceived by the champions of Peak Oil.

Another equally-flawed proposition of Peak Oil is that it implicitly views the limits of oil supply independent of substitutes or alternative sources of energy. These include solar, wind, non-food bio-fuel, and nuclear energies. They also include natural gas. Further, they include “unconventional” oil: Tar Sands, Heavy Oils, and Oil Shale. Although, with the exception of natural gas and nuclear technology, the use of these substitutes is sill quite expensive, and therefore, limited, technological advances are bound to reduce their cost and increase their sue. [More] . . read more

During the first half of the Cold War, Taiwan (or the Republic of China) was a symbol of resistance to Communism.

Now it exists as one of many states- separate but not too separate from China- that will rely on outside support for its defence and independence.

Yet, for foreign policy experts the test in relations has existed since Nixon's detente with China, and the more recent honeymoon in Sino-US relations. The problem has come from trying to balance US desires to support a 'free' people in Taiwan and being pragmatic to not offend a vital trading partner in China.

Today, as in forever, China is huffing and puffing with anger as the US sells weapons to what they can consider a dangerous domestic separatist movement- breaking the sacred bounds of state sovereignty.

For us though the next few months will be a fantastic study of realpolitik, how far China's political tentacles spread and how much they are willing to use them to strange the US into submission.   . . read more

The shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona has rocked America. But what could make this moment all the more significant is none other than Former-Governor Palin.

Pretty much every News Organization has paired the shooting of Giffords with the “crosshairs” placed on her by Palin in a hit-list of 20 House Democrats with vulnerable positions in March 2010 and the tag “take back the 20”.

No I’m not joking.

So the fact that less than a year after the list, and less than a week after the first ever reading of the U.S Constitution in Congress, one of the “targets” has been shot is lost on no one.

Hopefully this will bring the reality of guns to America’s fools and their Congressional sycophants who wouldn’t think twice about fighting the NRA.

Guns aren’t just an extension for your cock.

Guns take lives.

And thanks to Sarah Palin America now knows how.  . . read more