With the Gaddafi regime on the verge of collapse, the world is waiting for the money shot - an image of a shackled or dead dictator paraded through the streets as a lowly criminal.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard wants to see more, she wants to see the man brought before an international criminal court; a nice thought but looking through the history of fallen dictators, let's just say "justice" is pretty unlikely to happen.

Dead, deposed or distant is all you really have to hope for, so let's hope too much blood isn't spilled in getting one of these results.

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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

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

It's a strange fact of life that when a person from a certain group is up for election that group is much more likely to vote for the person. Think African Americans and Barack Obama, gay people and Harvey Milk, women and Julia Gillard

The thought must be that if the person they elect knows their troubles then the elected official should be much more likely to create solutions that will actually work.

Trouble is that so often in politics this prescription proves incorrect.

So as women race to the polling stations pen in hand to vote for Gillard think to yourselves, and really think to yourselves, has she given you any reason to think that she'll do anything to better the situation for women in Australia?

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Oh the glory and the celebration raking the news as we pat ourselves on the back for having our first female Prime Minister!

How quick we are to get on the bandwagon as a political disaster is turned into triumph. In case people are thinking this is a triumph for women’s lib and their position in society, don’t push it. This was not democracy at work. This was not the voice of the Australian people. It still isn’t. Australia now has a PM nobody elected and nobody considered.

At least in America the Vice-President goes on the ticket. Today I felt powerless as the Prime Minister we chose was removed with a less-than-reasonable explanation. This isn’t a victory. This was sloppy politics. Kevin Rudd couldn’t hold on to his party and got ousted. Labor isn’t united; it’s struggling to fix itself before the next election. Dear members of the Cabinet.

Whether Rudd is good or bad, it’s our call. Not yours. We chose him, we deal with him.

Give me some evidence that Rudd was doing real damage, and then this action is justifiable. And face it – a woman is Prime Minister not because anyone thought she deserved it, but purely because the man elected couldn’t do his job properly.

Nobody looked at her and said she’s the one to lead this country. Is that what a female PM means? To me, she’s just a seat-warmer. The real PM is the one we elect. So political allegiances aside, I’ll just say this. Win the election Gillard, and then you might gain my respect. Do it like a lady. Come on and show us that behind-the-Cabinet backstabbing isn’t the only way a woman can get into power.

Then maybe the Australian people might get my respect as well.  . . read more

He seemed to make the point (and then reiterate it later on in the interview) that the U.S. would not take the lead on the issue until there were similar efforts matched by other big polluters.

He said, and I'll try and quote as best I can, that they wouldn't want to design a system whereby developing countries like Brazil and Russia would just replace America and China as the world's biggest polluters thereby solving nothing.

Huh?

For one, this perspective completely disregards America's considerable soft power (its ability to influence through attraction rather than coercion). If the U.S. was to sign a strong ETS the news, like that of the recent health-care reforms, would travel worldwide and heap enormous pressure on other countries to follow America's good example.

Secondly, even if other countries don't match the U.S. and China in lowering their carbon footprint surely restructuring the economy away from fossil fuels and reducing the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere can only be a good thing. . . read more

Most Australians love to see their politicians with egg on their face; with Julia Gillard earlier this month it was a delight that we almost saw literally dripping down her face. Yesterday, the egg was a metaphor as a young student stood up, yelled and gave Australia 'security scares' with how close he got to our new PM.

Finally it seems young Australians are waking up, becoming angry and showing our elite that the issues that matter, might splatter in their faces if they aren't careful.  . . read more

I attended the filming of Q&A at ABC studios on Monday night and of course the discussion centred around the rise of a new Prime Minister and a female one in Julia Gillard.

At one point the question was posed of whether gender was an issue to consider, of course imagine my chargrine expression when the response from all members of the panel was a firm no. 

Perhaps it was the way the question was framed, but probably not. 

I was then utterly astounded. Within minutes they were making jokes that alluded to Tony Abbott and various other members of both parties being sexually attracted to Ms. Gillard.

If the gender issue is truly dead, then why are people still able to comment about her as a (shudder) sexually appealing woman, yet politics being gender blind?

In the words of another famous female Australian politician...

please explain?

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