Boobs, booze and Muslim feminists - Eureka Street

We all know this image: A young, orange-tinted woman, dressed in a pale satin ribbon, teeters drunkenly in soaring heels. She is eating chips, smearing the sauce on her knuckles, and is occasionally yelling obscenities at her boyfriend. We laugh at her, but forgive her, because, well, it's been a long day of drinking at the races. Her boyfriend is just as drunk, and is urinating at a tram stop. But for some reason we don't really notice him.

Although her behaviour indicates she'd rather be wearing thongs and jeans, she feels compelled to dress like a sexual Christmas tree for the Spring Carnival. This compulsion probably has a number of roots, one being an earnest desire to be desired. Another more cynical reason is that her desire to be desired on the terms of the depth of her cleavage is nominated by the designs of the men in her society, and upheld by the women.

Read the artic le by Ellena Savage here

Breaking The Australian Silence

In a speech at the Sydney Opera House to mark his award of Australia's human rights prize, the Sydney Peace Prize, John Pilger describes the "unique features" of a political silence in Australia: how it affects the national life of his homeland and the way Australians see the world and are manipulated by great power "which speaks through an invisible government of propaganda that subdues and limits our political imagination and ensures we are always at war -- against our own first people and those seeking refuge, or in someone else's country".

Read Johns Article here

Raul Benoit | Fear and Loathing in the Wake of Fort Hood

Raul Benoit, Diario La Prensa (Spanish Translation: Ryan Croken): "It should not come as a surprise to us that a US Army psychiatrist, stationed at a military base where soldiers come and go to fight in irrational and pointless wars, [allegedly] killed 13 people and left 30 others wounded, as happened Thursday, November 5, at Fort Hood, Texas. These wars themselves are insane, and the US military practice of plucking people from Hispanic, African-American, other minority and poor white communities to send them off to fight for 'freedom,' offering them the promise of a 'brighter future,' is abusive, offensive and harmful to the health of this nation and this world."

Read the article by Raul Benoit here at Truthout