A former welfare minister has delivered a dramatic appeal to landlords to take direct action against the “bedroom tax” by knocking down walls or bricking up windows in protest against housing benefit cuts.

I know the 13.8 billion year-old universe is divided along many fault lines and one of these chasms regards Julia...

There are the Julia haters and the Julia "lovers"... Even this site, YourDemocracy, is divided... John does not like Julia Gillard one bit, while Gus is a supporter... 

Why it is important to tally the number of days above a certain temperature compared with similar period in past records...

As most of the mainstream media uses epithet like "disaster", "Labor's shrivelled bacon", "chicken Kev", "catastrophe" and even a "%$&(#@ that" to describe Julia staying in the PM chair — and of course blames Julia and Swan for the "debacle" (it's not a debacle — it was actually lancing a big boil that has been festering in the Labor Party), I for one could not be happier... Having been through many changes of fragile government in Europe, I can see a Shakespearian drama/comedy being climaxed... and there will be a clever twist at the end... Julia wins the election...

JERUSALEM — President Obama made an impassioned appeal Thursday for renewed peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, urging each side to compromise on key issues so as to sideline extremists who “thrive on conflict.”

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What a farce...

And I don't mean the Labor's spill today... the fault of which lay squarely on Simon Crean's lap...

a case study of quick picture switch at News Limited...

Media is there to entertain us — not to inform us. The product of choice is inanity.

When media tries to inform us it's always with twisted view points and a pander to our express desire to be distracted from reality with make-believe "reality" and to feed our pre-munched bigotry... And the more we enjoy the make-belief, the more we develop the habit to be entertained with illusions until we get bored and demand more powerful entertainment. The process is addictive as it presses the buttons of our creature of habits, with cleverly added "surprising" increments to alleviate the habit of habit-forming... Like a drug addict, we need stronger doses of inanity to make us enjoy more inanity...

Anyone who think that the media self-regulation works please place your hand up...

This Gus picture shows "the Gulf" about 100 miles from Normanton.

Caption: "He was the only one who had not been blacklisted and could speak Italian"...