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

In short it's a history making moment for Obama that will define him.

So I'd like to say, as a citizen of one those countries that has lived with the dangers of socialised medicine for years, as a citizen of a country that has watched the twists and turns of U.S politics with increasing exasparation, and as a citizen of a country that can't understand why universal healthcare hasn't existed for decades-

Welcome to world of sanity you selfish fucks.  . . read more

With Berlusconi before the courts and with Libya's war pornography helping the world get off, it's easy to forget that there's a 23 year old kid sitting in solitary confinement facing life imprisonment.

Bradley Manning, the U.S private accused of leaking 720,000 documents to WikiLeaks has been forgotten; he's not getting Assange like fame or reverence, or an Assange like house arrest.

Instead he's been shackled, alone in a cell and very often disrobed so he doesn't harm himself.  

Whether you agree with what he did or not, we have to remember that he's a U.S citizen, we have to remember what rights he has, and we have to remember what terrible long years he faces alone. 

We have to remember him.   . . read more

Do words matter? In 2008 during the Democratic Primary in Wisconsin, Obama made a rousing speech saying they did. He said "I have a dream were just words, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself were just words".

Sarah Palin seems to think otherwise, saying of the Arizona shootings that "there are those who claim political rhetoric is to blame for the despicable act of this deranged, apparently apolitical criminal".

But if the motive of the shootings was based on Palin's seeming call to violence would that make her culpable? 

Lets leave the last word to Obama who restored some of his incredibly poetic preacher like nature when calling for calm saying that of Arizona that he "kneels and prays with you today and will stand-by you tomorrow".

Powerful words.  . . read more

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.

   . . 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

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

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