Australia has adopted new passport regulations that allow trans citizens to select the gender with which they best identify. Until last week, all people had to either list their birth gender (or assigned gender, if their birth gender was indeterminate), or undergo a full sex change operation if they wished to list their identified gender. […]
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Accidental Deliberations: On comparative advantages
At least a few Canadian commentators have looked to Australia’s process for selecting party leaders – with the party caucus rather than its membership making the choice – as a model which we should emulate. Which makes it noteworthy that it’s Bruce Haw…
Continue readingSlap Upside The Head: Australian MP Wants His “Gay” Back
Same-sex marriage has been a fact of life in Canada for so long now that many of us have long forgotten the silly hysteria that led up to it. Yet, alas, anyone reading future history books will find that the mere discussion of allowing equal marriage rights for same-sex couples had prompted all kinds of […]
Continue readingDeSmogBlog - Clearing the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science: Giant Xstrata Coal Mine Challenged Over Climate Change Impacts
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A GIANT mine planned in Queensland, Australia, is facing a court challenge over the impacts that burning its coal will have on rising sea-levels, global temperatur…
Continue readinggay persons of color: DOMA to break up seven-year marriage and 19-year relationship
This is why the American Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) needs to be repealed. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have denied immigration benefits to a bi-national married gay couple in San Francisco and have ordered the expulsion of the Australi…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week.
– On the Nycole Turmel front: Christopher Majka cheers the fact that the NDP has managed to encourage so many more Quebeckers to see a place for themselves in Canadian federal politics. Michael Taube doesn’t see an…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog - Clearing the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science: Denial Down Under With The Galileo Movement
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THERE’S a new climate denial lobby group on the block – bravely regurgitating previously debunked pseudo-science and making wild unsubstantiated claims that climate scientists are all…
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: TILMA by Stealth
A month ago, Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial governments volunteered to be directly sued by investors under the Agreement on Internal Trade. This quiet announcement from Brudenell, Prince Edward Island, seems to have gone almost unnoticed. But it is a huge step toward imposing the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) on all Canadian […]
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: The State Of Climate Change Denial In Australia
The target is Hans Schellnhuber, advisr to the German government:. My Australian is a bit weak, but a loose translation of the guy in the clip is: “Before you begin, Mr Schellnhuber, I would like to present you a gift … I’d like to present…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog - Clearing the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science: King Coal Australia Plans to Price Carbon
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SO Australia’s carbon price cards are finally on the table.From July next year, the Federal Government will look to price greenhouse gas emissions at $23 per tonne rising 2.5…
Continue readinggay persons of color: Out Magazine salutes five athlete allies
Ben Cohen, Hudson Taylor, Michael Irvin, Mike Chabala, and Nick YoungquestSource: Out MagazineIn its July 2011 issue, Out Magazine salutes five top sportsmen “who have stood up for fairness and tolerance, shoulder-to-shoulder with their LGBT peers.” Th…
Continue reading350 or bust: Australia Steps Up Climate Fight, U.S. Republicans Step Back In Time
With the announcement yesterday of a new carbon tax proposal, Australia is set to become the world leader on addressing climate change. Right now, Australia leads the world in per-capita carbon pollution. The carbon tax, which has been described as …
Continue readinggay persons of color: Chinese actress under boycott and banned from awards
Thrice married, born-again evangelical Chinese actress Lü Liping is facing international boycotts and has been banned from the 2011 Golden Horse Awards, considered the Oscars of Chinese cinema, after posting anti-gay remarks on her microblog last week…
Continue readinggay persons of color: Sydney’s beaches to host International Gay Surfers Day
On July 17, 2011, surfers from around the world will gather at Sydney’s Manly and Bondi beaches to take part in the first ever International Gay Surfers Day. Organized by GaySurfers.net, the event is a significant one in the “hetero-masculine dominated…
Continue readingImpolitical: Carbon tax campaign brings climate of intimidation in Australia
Remarkable goings on in Australia: “Australian climate scientists face death threats, cyberbullying.”
Australia’s leading climate change scientists are being targeted by a vicious, unrelenting email campaign that has resulted in police investigations …
Scientists face death threats in Australia due to Climate Change views
The anti-science global warming deniers are getting desperate if not downright delirious. One can doubt that climate change is actually underway and question whether humans are at least partially responsible or our current climate situation. But to the…
Continue readingDrive-by Times: Carbon tax debate ignites controversy in Australia
A pro-climate change ad campaign that calls for a tax on carbon has sparked a row in Australia. The ad campaign was funded by environmental groups including Greenpeace, WWF and the Climate Change Institute.A TV ad features the actor Cate Blanchett who …
Continue readingDear Assange: please shut the fuck up!
Is there an award for being the most insensitive, arrogant, misogynist asshole in the world? Because if there is, I have a candidate. And if there isn’t, I’m about to start up this award and mail a larger-than-life sized trophy in the shape of a cunt to Julian Assange. I think I may even declare […]
Continue readingMaking Sense of that St Kilda / 17 Year Old Girl Debaucle
I’ve avoided reading many news pieces about that whole 17 year old girl and nude photos of St Kilda Saints footy players affair as I felt like too few were questioning the manner in which it was reported that she obtained the photos. Of course, after the initial reports were published, the players implicated denied […]
Continue readingJulian Assange thinks I’m “valueless and inane”.
A vehement supporter of freedom of information, I’ve been defending Assange whenever the hot topic of his arrest comes up. Today was the first time I’ve questioned my support for the Wikileaks founder. In an attempt to defame the world famous outlaw, journalists have been on a mad hunt for anything they could use to […]
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