The Obama administration said on Wednesday that it would take the first step toward regulating greenhouse gas emissions from airplanes, but it acknowledged it would most likely take years before stringent standards are enacted.

There has been a court case launched by American Atheists against the use of a remnant of the 9/11 disaster in New York... At first, the battle could be seen as petty... This is obviously pointed out by many Christian dudes who make a good case for their side of the story. But not all is as clear cut as it seems. It's all about symbolism and the fanaticism of religious beliefs. 

Here comes Rod Dreher:

Treasurer Joe Hockey's colleagues have come to his defence after he sparked controversy by saying the best path to home ownership was to get a good job that pays well.

Yes, we all (some of us, yoofy ones) seek a good job that pays good money... We oldies watch with apprehension the day that the sky is going to collapse on top of our retirement plan and prevent us from reaching a toilet in time.

The president declared the coming of a “new world order.” And neocons were chattering about a new “unipolar world” and the “benevolent global hegemony” of the United States.

Millionaire entrepreneur and explorer Dick Smith has said that he is considering running for Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s seat of Warringah due to his anger with stalled aviation safety changes that he has personally been championing.

“I’m not sure, I’m quite angry that I haven’t been able to finish the aviation reforms,” he told ABC radio on Monday morning.

A former senior Liberal minister has launched a scathing attack on the Abbott Government and the Prime Minister's handling of citizenship policy.

I buy books... Not the one advertised by current publishers on growing tulips, nor the latest autobiography of the unknown soldier. I buy books by the cartons, fruit boxes and bulk from deceased estates and antiquarians going bust. Old books. Old books that have long ago passed their used-by-date in our new world of instant information via the internet. The old books are sometimes congealed in dust. Most have not been opened for more than 100 years.

"In Melbourne, you can get a three-bedroom brick veneer home 35 kilometres west in Werribee for $360,000 or $370,000. But in Sydney's Kellyville, 40 kilometres out of the city, you're paying $450,000. Melbourne delivers better affordability than Sydney and over the last decade-and-a-half, people have voted with their feet and increasingly chosen Melbourne over Sydney."

This exodus is reshaping Sydney's social fabric, Salt warns.

"It's almost like the Manhattan effect, you only attract rich people on to the Manhattan island, and the rest live out in Brooklyn etc."

Sydney is increasingly segregated between the inner city, home to a global workforce, and its sprawling suburbs.

There is a rise in the conservative ranks of uncertainty and half-hearted fight-back on moral issues. Most of the conservatism, especially in the USA, is faith-based. The social interaction of conservatives depends on moral values as given by god to follow. There is little give or take on this one, except when one (or more sons and daughters) in their rank falls to the pressure of sin, usually of a sexual nature, the button of forgiveness/redemption is pressed. Amen.