Violence, democracy and the mass media
It can hardly be denied that violence has a peculiarly vicarious allure in the modern mass media environment, regardless of whether we are talking ratings, book sales, ticket sales, clicks, or good...
View ArticleCIA’s fake vaccination drive to get bin Laden
The Guardian reports that the CIA set up a fake vaccination drive in Abbottabad, Pakistan to obtain DNA samples from individuals in the bin Laden compound. The CIA organised a fake vaccination...
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On the reaction to the tragedy in Norway
This has been quite the weekend for terrible news. I think we need to be quite careful about how we respond to the political dimensions of the tragedy in Norway. To be more precise, some responses in...
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Breivik not a ‘crazed loner’, but a terrorist
At The Guardian, Charlie Brooker demonstrates that the initial media coverage of the terrible massacres in Norway was “fact free conjecture”. As discussed on this thread and this one, that conjecture...
View ArticleMust read: Shakira Hussein on Norway and terror
In my commentary on the massacres in Norway over the last few days, I’ve been emphasising the importance of reflection, humanity and rationality in response. At Crikey’s blog, The Stump, Shakira...
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Addressing the preconditions of atrocities: Silvestri
Writing at Open Democracy, Sara Silvestri makes an excellent argument about the massacres in Norway, and how we should act to avoid their repetition. She refers to growing cultural diversity, rightly,...
View ArticleThe undiscussed refugee never-never
When Tony Abbott promises to cut bureaucracy, I rather doubt ASIO is at the top of his list of places to look for savings. It should be, given that its budget has grown from 60-odd million dollars in...
View ArticleACLU statement on Obama’s signing of NDAA
President Obama Signs Indefinite Detention Bill Into Law FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 31, 2011 WASHINGTON – President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law today. The...
View ArticleDefence and security links post
The reaction to Barack Obama’s announcement of the Defence Strategic Guidance document is as good an opportunity as any to open a thread to discuss defence-related matters. The document puts a little...
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Semiotic weapons
A group of latte-sipping cultural elites are banging on with their postmodern ideas about the power of clothes to create meanings that are louder than people’s words or actions. They can even make...
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