What a night of nights it must have been last May: the music, the champagne, the chatter and laughter, the bursts of applause. See the merry throng of gentlemen elegant in best black tie, the ladies soignee in satins and silks, a soft light sparkling on silver and pearls, on diamonds and gold.

from Crikey ….

Devine spin: inside the Church PR machine - and why Pell must go

Spy drones used in American skies: FBI

The above billboard was arranged by the Australian Friends of Palestine Association - www.afopa.com.au) & is now displayed at the following locations in Adelaide:

So just in case anyone wasn’t sure, a major study of almost 12,000 scientific papers on global warming between 1991 and 2011 finds less than one per cent disagree that humans are the main cause.

from the shovel ….

Since leaving office four years ago, former US President George W Bush has devoted much of his time to painting.

The non-violent protest inspired by the performance artist Erdem Gündüz spread across Turkey as it was imitated by hundreds in towns and cities. 

First they came for my neighbour's lands, 

The corporate watchdog will face a Senate inquiry into its performance that is likely to embroil the Commonwealth Bank and raise questions about the effectiveness of new financial reforms.

In this article I shall try to answer the question implicit in the title. In order to do this adequately I shall cast a fairly wide net attempting to explain how various features of Western society are a part of the answer. In the final section of the article I shall suggest a method by way of which, if adopted, we could build a more socially just and economically productive Australia.