Security forces in Brazil have banned masks at Pope Francis's opening Mass at the Roman Catholic World Youth Day festival in Rio de Janeiro next week.

So, just why are we having this debate?

Why not just give Christmas Island to Indonesia?

There are a number of narratives  being floated by the usual suspects to attempt to demonstrate that Edward Snowden is a traitor who has betrayed secrets vital to the security of the United States. All the arguments being made are essentially without merit.

from politicoz ….

Tony Abbott has been quiet since his statements about a 'so-called market' on invisible substances, but Coalition spokesmen Greg Hunt and Joe Hockey have been doing the media rounds, painting the government's move as "a complete con, a complete fix, a complete fiddle".

McDonalds and Visa Show It's Easy to Get By on a Low Salary as Long as You Don't Eat

from the shovel ….

The disposition matrix is a complex grid of suspected terrorists to be traced then targeted in drone strikes or captured and interrogated. And the British government appears to be colluding in it

When Bilal Berjawi spoke to his wife for the last time, he had no way of being certain that he was about to die. But he should have had his suspicions.

from Antony Loewenstein …..

Earlier this month, as Americans celebrated our Independence Day holiday, the true scope of American independence became visible. The revelations of Edward Snowden, and the elite reaction to those revelations show that Americans are not a truly free and independent people, our major media are not free or independent, and neither are the supposedly sovereign nations of Europe free or independent states.