All over Australia and New Zealand, communities will gather around war memorials to remember those who have died in military service. We will listen to a speech, we will watch the laying of wreaths, we will recite the Ode to the Fallen, and we will listen to the Last Post. Later in the day we will watch those who survived, and those in service today, march to honour the dead. We will be reminded that such sacrifices should never be for unworthy causes.
war
Rape in the military
One of the signs of changing attitudes towards rape, and sexual coercion generally in Western society, where it is harder for men now to openly claim that rape is sometimes OK or to believe that sometimes coerced sex is not… Read More ›
Careful there voters! You can’t return the Boogieman like an unwanted Christmas present, you know! But Unca John can keep your economy safe…why won’t you trust me?
Now our Prime Minister is treating voters like heedless children who simply haven’t thought carefully enough about what change might mean. Mr Howard says there is always a risk with changing Government. And he warns voters flirting with the idea… Read More ›
Rwandan rape victim photo wins prize
That’s the headline from Reuters, and its starkness is almost compulsory in light of the story behind the portrait. The woman below, Joseline Ingabire, is embracing her second daughter Leah, conceived after months of repeated rapes, while her first daughter… Read More ›
Enough
Bob Ellis on the Coalition of the Willing: For we’ve been in Iraq for longer than World War I, and in Afghanistan for longer than World War 2, and in that time we’ve killed half a million people, more than… Read More ›
Neat graffiti
Via counterclockwise at Flickr, a neat bit of street art.
Sometimes, sarcasm is the only possible response
This news headline – Iraq now ranked second among world’s failed states – seems to have left many in the blogosphere lost for words. But as Amanda Marcotte points out, if we don’t talk it up, it can be spun… Read More ›
What happened to women’s rights in Iraq?
There were some long involved threads on ozblogs last week about Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Kim at LP, and those of us who agreed with her, got piled upon (twice) for disagreeing with some of Hirsi Ali’s suggestions about how to… Read More ›
The invisible soldiers
Ginmar, a military veteran of the Iraq war wading through the twisty maze of Veteran’s Affairs forms (all looking alike), is not celebrating the Memorial Day holiday this US long weekend: We are now engaged in two more wars, and… Read More ›
Grrrr.
A fine rant from Amanda: Subsidized day care is murder – inspired by yet more US “pro-life” legislation against contraception that will result in increased abortion rates, the exact opposite of the fewer abortions they say they want. the notion… Read More ›
Hoyden About Town 