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

The US is meant to be a Libertarian's wet dream, yet the Federal Government tells you which substances you can't consume and prevents certain groups from exercising rights which are enjoyed by the majority.

Gay marriage is still illegal and idiotic drug wars are being fought to stop adults from doing what they want.

Obama though in a landmark announcement seems to be turning the tide on this paradox by pulling his support from the idea that marriage can only be between men and women.

So, after repealing"Don't Ask, Don't Tell", Obama is definitely shaping up as the most gay friendly President in history.   . . read more

Apologising is a uniquely human action, it involves taking responsibility for a mistake and admitting you erred. In someways it also involves asking for forgiveness.

Kevin Rudd, Australia's former PM who was sacked by his own party last year, apologised last night for "killing" his Emissions Trading Scheme which he says brought about his downfall.

Whether this is true or not, his apology echoes another one he made in his first week in government. That "sorry" was to the aboriginal people of Australia who since British colonisation were oppressed, marginalied and literally stolen from their families. 

His apology in that instance was personal and was seen almost universally as a positive step towards reconciliation and healing. It didn't lead to a better livelihood for indigenous Australians and has to be seen now as a symbolic act without much substance behind it.

Hopefully this second apology for failing on climate change can lead to asking for real forgiveness by making some real progress.    . . read more

After years of discourse and moooooonths of debate, Barack Obama has finally repealed America's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" Policy.

John McCain must have been in a giving mood this Christmas. That or Republicans are so drunk on tax-cuts you could ask any of them for anything.

The next few months will no doubt be interesting - are gays actually going to walk openly in the military? Or does the culture still say no? It may be early days, since there's still plenty of layers the bill has to go through in order to be certified.

What's certain is that there's going to be some tough adjustments in the coming months, but at the end of the day a long-overdue justice has been provided.

So wow, guess what. Obama can actually get something done.

Has this changed your perspective on Facebook, Google and Yahoo? Will you be deleting your accounts any time soon? Tell us and remember...Disqus!  . . read more

Yet what other choice does the US and Obama have?

The political realities of today tell us that the world and its international institutions will soon be distorted as another lumbering giant enters the fray. It's also a reality that for any successful tomorrow China will have to feature prominently; something that due to inherent cultural and governmental differences will cause friction with the established Western/Free Market model so deeply ingrained in today's thinking.

So how seriously can we believe Obama? Well really we'll just have to wait and see, but if history tells us anything, the rise of China will be anything but 'pacific'.   . . read more

On the day of his inauguration, Barack Obama ordered the cessation of new military trials at Guantanamo Bay. Two years later that order is about to be lifted as the Administration has been unable to find new accommodation for the 174 prisoners who remain. The democratic focus on checks and balances for executive power is self-defeating as we head to a future where leaders no longer have the power to lead, strangled by the system that created them.

Where would we be if Winston Churchill, Franklin D Roosevelt and Charles de Gaul had been unable to make the disruptive anti-Hitler decisions which led us to a better world?  . . read more

With U.S politics and political institutions proving themselves stagnant and almost impervious to change, there remains a sure-fire solution to redirect the country to a better future.

Totally lose a total war.

Look at Germany; the country was almost completely annihilated after WWII and it had to rebuild its national philosophy and most of its national institutions from scratch.

It grew rapidly and has out-paced the UK economically every decade since.

Why?

The UK was complacent and philosophically set in fine-tuning. 

A similar phenomenon is gripping the U.S; for too long have national creeds and philosophies gone untested and for too long have failed ideas been unchanged because they've sort of worked so far.

The biggest question for the U.S then is who should it provoke into a war it wants to lose?   . . read more