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Politics

The Beginning of the End? Fears for America

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I know it’s unfashionable. I’m not American, but I love America. Right now, however, I’m concerned that we are seeing the beginnings of permanent decline in the great American empire. Let’s start positive. Why do I love the US of A? Well I don’t love it in that crazy,  flag-waving hand-on-heart, gooey way that Americans [...]

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Climate Change Straight Talk from Unlikely Sources

15000 delegates are currently sitting in Copenhagen and thrashing out some sort of agreement on how humanity might be saved from the effects of climate change. That’s a mighty big committee. Let’s hope all the hot air that will be exhaled over the next fortnight is being captured and put to good use. I must [...]

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Steve’s Diabolical Challenge

Like Senator Steve Fielding, I am a lapsed engineer. Like Steve, I have attempted to understand the science of climate change. Unlike Steve, I eventually understood that the task is beyond ordinary mortals. In fact it is even beyond the intellect of a single engineer. I realised that we should be leaving it to the [...]

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Do we Expect too Much of our Politicians?

Like my father, I like to converse with the television. Every time a politician talks out at me from the box, I can’t resist the urge to talk back. If I were to read a headline like the one on this post, I would probably head straight for the comments box and launch into a tirade against the average parliamentary representative. As a rule, politicians are self-absorbed, narcissistic egomaniacs … or is there another side to this story?

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Obama’s Cairo Speech Dissected: The Power of Language

So Barack Obama has made another inspirational speech. This is hardly remarkable: we’ve known for some time that Obama makes George W. look like a performing seal, and an inarticulate one at that. Yet even in this context Obama’s speech in Cairo was remarkable. In less than 6000 words he was able to strip bare [...]

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