Government by haircut. Who'd have thought it? In the four years since Kristina Keneally felt impelled to assure Parliament she had "never worn a pair of stilettos" she has achieved a far far greater thing, to which many strive but few finally attain: ascension by hair.

I realised this recently after yet another Kristina-tract landed on our stoop. You know the format. Me with awestruck old people, me with people in wheelchairs, me with grinning black kids, me cycling, me hugging the homeless. And I'm having a one-more-shot-of-Keneally's-blowdried-coif-and-I-throw-up moment when it strikes me who she's channelling.

Being sceptical about power means being sceptical about your own power, not only the power of others. I was reminded of this watching Ken Crispin, former Supreme Court judge, on the 7.30 Report on Thursday.

Kerry O'Brien asked: "How did it feel to have power over the lives of others in the way a judge does? Did you ever get used to that, I wonder, and are you ever troubled by a case, or cases, where you felt later that perhaps you might have got it wrong?"

The answer was unexpected. "I think judges should always be troubled by the exercise of power." The same should go for all professions.

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At the Sydney Writers' Festival last weekend, Alan Ramsey, once of these pages, was asked why he referred to Howard as the Toad.

''Because I didn't think I could get away with Turd,'' he replied.

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For longer than anyone can remember, Daphne Lucas has been making jams and pickles in the kitchen of her home at Bomaderry, down on the south coast near Nowra.

They are her contribution to democracy. At election time she sells them to raise campaign funds for the Australian Labor Party, of which she is a long-standing member.

There was a moment back in 1945 when physicists were preparing for the first test of an atomic weapon at Los Alamos. A few scientists predicted that there was a tiny chance that the bomb could actually light the atmosphere on fire and incinerate the planet. We went ahead regardless.

Hundreds of tests by a number of nations later, we still have our atmosphere, but the very cells of every living thing, including us, are permeated with subtle radioactive compounds. We went ahead regardless.

The pervasive illusion was that the humans who are in charge of oil rigs would never let an accident of this magnitude happen. But it did.

from Crikey .....

Impartiality and the ABC: the Middle East doco rejected for broadcast

Crikey intern Matt De Neef writes:

from Crikey .....

Abbott's new Pacific Solution: 'cruel' treatment for asylum seekers

Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

This week, newspapers around the world received reports and signed documents from South Africa. The reports said that, in 1975, Israel agreed to sell South Africa nuclear weapons. South Africa then released an arms agreement signed by current Israeli President Shimon Peres. This is the document "heard round the world."

What are we doing in Afghanistan? According to U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, the Administration together with the Congress are working to complete our "mission". This is good news for enthusiasts of American imperialism who naturally take to national, militaristic, rallying calls. Mission is a carefully chosen word. Used in this sense by propagandists, it connotes purpose, goodness, unity, and suggestively...Stop! Because once you accept the premise that we have a mission in Afghanistan, you are sufficiently indoctrinated.

The head of BP struts around like a peacock as his company ravages nature, living things and jobs, while Greenpeace protesters are arrested and maybe charged with terrorism for painting an offshore drilling protest on the side of an oil company vessel. Where is the justice in that?

from Crikey .....

Don't look at what the miners say, look at what they do

Glenn Dyer and Bernard Keane write:

from Crikey .....

The Israel lobby treats us like fools - and Israel will pay the price

Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

There is one thing to be said for this wretched state government: it has an infinite capacity to stun and amaze.

Just when you think it might be returning to the job of governing, however badly, along comes another scandal to grab the headlines.

It never ends. We have had a paedophile minister, a police minister and his bouncing underpants, the Della Bosca soap opera, the knifing of Nathan Rees, the backbencher from Penrith rorting her expenses, the ongoing comedy double act of Joe Tripodi and Eddie Obeid, and now the awful tale of David Campbell and his visit to a gay sauna.

A North Korean submarine torpedoed one of South Korea's warships near the disputed maritime border in March, investigators said on Thursday, prompting heated denials and threats of war from the North.

The South's President Lee Myung-Bak promised "resolute countermeasures" and the United States, Britain, the United Nations, Japan and Australia strongly condemned the attack which claimed 46 lives.

The communist North said the report, by a multinational investigation team, was based on "sheer fabrication".

It threatened "all-out war" in response to any attempt to punish it.

Is she Miss USA or "Miss Hezbollah USA"?

Some right-wing American bloggers are convinced Rima Fakih is the latter.

When the sparkling tiara was placed atop the Lebanese-born Shiite Muslim's long, dark tresses on Sunday night, making the 24-year-old marketing executive from Dearborn, Mich., the first Muslim woman to win the Miss USA contest, it was just much for some conservative commentators. 

Today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, announced that a new package of sanctions against Iran had been approved by the major powers and would be sent to the UN Security Council later in the day.

In case anyone overlooked the significance of this action, which followed by one day the announcement by Brazil and Turkey of the successful conclusion of their negotiations with Iran, she added: "I think this announcement is as convincing an answer to the efforts undertaken in Tehran over the last few days as any we could provide."