March 20, 2012 - News & Politics - 
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Highlighted in an NYTimes editorial, in the US interest on student loans start at between 6.8-15%, and don’t provide any help if the student loses their job, or is unable to pay back the loan. Ouch. Compare that with HECS. I know which I’d prefer.
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March 20, 2012 - News & Politics - 2
Peter Beinart, in the NYTimes, advocates the boycott of the settlements, but declares it a “painful, unnatural act.” The “alternative is worse,” he says. Peter’s spot on: embrace democratic Israel, boycott non-democratic Israel. It’s the only way to ensure its long-term survival.
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March 18, 2012 - News & Politics - 1
The most damaging and dramatic of the claims of conditions in Apple’s Chinese factories have been retracted, following a revelation that the author of the play it was based on fabricated parts of his story. That Apple mobilised very quickly after all this negative publicity and began making conditions better, though, is damning; they were worried about something. Regardless of the ‘truth’, if the workers have better conditions now as a result of all this, then it was probably a worthwhile adventure.
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March 9, 2012 - Media, News & Politics - 0
Next month’s Vanity Fair writes: “Just as All the President’s Men made newspapers seem cool—imagine!—and propelled legions of baby-boomers into journalism, so Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing has inspired a new generation with its vision of a Washington brimming with lofty ideals. Six years after the series finale, the Sorkinization of politics is still under way.”
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March 9, 2012 - News & Politics - 0
Yesterday Jon Stewart took almost his entire first two segments to talk about the whole Iran-Israel shtick. A few choice quotes: “That Obama hates Israel. Even Mel Gibson and John Galliano are like, ‘whoa, Obama, take it down,’” and “The parameters for debate in the United States about Israel range from ‘I unequivocally support them and might bomb Iran’ to ‘I unequivocally support them and will definitely bomb Iran.’”
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March 8, 2012 - News & Politics - 0
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian Ambassador to the UN, displays an excellent sense of humour in John Oliver’s report for the Daily Show. Very funny stuff.
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March 4, 2012 - News & Politics - 0
Bob Carr on the possible future Iran-Israel war: “Australia has one role: to talk the Americans back from the brink.”
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March 4, 2012 - News & Politics - 0
A new trailer by the far-right Emergency Committee for Israel attempting to discredit President Obama.
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February 22, 2012 - News & Politics - 0
Analysis by the New York Times suggests that even if Israel does want to strike and remove Iranian nuclear targets, it may not even have the capability to do it.
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February 9, 2012 - News & Politics - 1
A US court has ruled Proposition 8, a measure that banned gay marriage in California, illegal. The battle is far from over, and what the Supreme Court’s future ruling will be is anyone’s guess, but it’s a good win along the way for equality.
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