Australian PM Tony Abbott was born in the UK in 1957. Being born in the UK between 1948 and 1983, he immediately became a British citizen by birth. His mother was an Australian citizen, so he also immediately acquired the right to Australian citizenship by descent. Paperwork and patriotism The law in force at the … Continue reading Abbott, Birthers, written constitutions, judges, hilarity
Category: Bit of politics
It's been Good Times Online as Crikey gets hold of a copy of News Australia's detailed management accounts for fiscal year 2012-13 (I've uploaded a copy here, since the Crikey version, hilariously, is paywalled). As a way of demonstrating its commitment to journalism, News has threatened to sue anyone who reports on the topic. The … Continue reading $27 million a year is a bargain price to buy a government
"We're really excited about this Russian-language film festival we'll be hosting with you guys. But, um, we're a bit uncomfortable with the fact that Putin's rights-abusing and civilian-killing government is contributing to the funding. Their grant is only GBP1,400 so it's no biggie; we're happy to make up the difference ourselves as long as you … Continue reading Meanwhile, at the Festival of Russian Language Films
Stolen and edited from Jim Bliss: "Representative democracy is the least bad!" - can you believe there are people who genuinely put that forward as an argument for democracy? "Look guys, we've all had a taste of the cow shit, the horse shit, the dog turd and the cat poo... and we pretty much agree … Continue reading Representative democracy: a Socratic dialogue
Safety and security are brilliant. Safety and security theatre is bullshit. If you support safety and security theatre measures, which includes nearly all routine airport security, you are helping to make everyone worse off and nobody safer. Whilst world-travelling over the last month, I discovered that most European carriers [1] now allow the use of … Continue reading Why security and safety theatre is the worst
I'm not dead Mashudur Choudhury, a chap from near enough to where I grew up that it might as well be the same place, went off to Syria to die. His leaving letter to his missus went, "what good is a husband, father, brother that sits in comfort, sleeps in comfort, eats in comfort but … Continue reading Of course I’m fucking cynical, that’s why I’m alive and not in gaol
This joke does the rounds a bit too often: It doesn't work. In the show, because Walter White is a salaried professional, his insurance covers the same procedures that national healthcare insurance schemes generally cover in the sensible world. The nature of the extremely expensive experimental cancer treatment for which he needs the money isn't … Continue reading The Dorkiest Fun-Spoilingest Thing Ever Written About Breaking Bad
There is much wailing and gnashing of teeth over the news that Toyota will follow its fellow foreign-owned carmakers GM Holden, Ford and Mitsubishi in ending car assembly in Australia. But at least from an economic point of view, there shouldn't be. The basic problem for the Australian car industry has nothing to do with … Continue reading Only sentimentalism could have saved the Australian car industry
There's been masses and masses of fuss over the last couple of days about the implementation of opt-out content filtering for porn in the UK. As everyone sensible argued in great detail at the time the PM promised it following a Massive Stupid Media Panic, content filtering is pointless: it's easy to bypass, provides a … Continue reading Content filtering is stupid, but you are stupider
The fact that marriage isn't yet equal in Australia is saddening, depressing and annoying. But, given John Howard's 2004 anti-equal-marriage amendment to federal marriage law and the fact that the Constitution explicitly reserves marriage to the federal government, the High Court made the right decision. For the Australian Capital Territory's Marriage Equality (Same Sex) Act … Continue reading High Court did the best it could on same-sex marriage