Us News
Today in the US it’s Thanksgiving, where Americans gather around tables groaning under turkeys the size of footstools and serve what appear to be marshmallow-laden deserts as salads.
It is the biggest family holiday in the US and the idea of being thankful for being an American certainly has a great appeal that admittedly might be a little lost on the nation’s original Indians.
Our national day isn’t for a couple of months but I thought it apt to list ten things I am thankful for about being an Australian and living Australia.
Continue reading "Thanksgiving, Australia style: 10 things I’m thankful for" »
Faced with the debate over President Obama’s project to overhaul American health care, I’m finding it difficult to maintain the impartiality required of an ABC Current Affairs presenter.
I’ve had rather a lot of care from what the Americans call “socialised medicine”, here and in the UK – in fact without it, I’d be dead several times over – and some of the things that have been said against it strike me as plain ridiculous.
We’ll come to my own experience shortly, but first a taste of what I mean about the American debate. According to Sarah Palin, for example, the Obama plan will involve a system of sinister committees – “death panels” - which will decide whether the old or infirm have the right to live or die.
Continue reading "If I lived in the United States I’d be dead, or dead broke" »
Latest 2 of 43 comments
View all comments-
Alex says:
I’m not a dem or a repub, but it was the Dems that rrdeaoaild this health care plan through, with Odumbo right at the lead of the fanfare. When we take a step back and realize that 98% of the house and senate are nothing more than a den of… Read more »
-
Jake the Muss says:
Alex: I guess they have a philosophical disagreement with the concept of positive rights but philosophically agree with the concept of negative rights. Personally, believing that there is no such thing as a right to steal, happen to agree. Read more »
Facebook Recommendations
Read all about it
Punch live
Up to the minute Twitter chatter
Recent posts
The latest and greatest
ICB: If I could offer you only one tip for the future…
Welcome to this week’s I Call Bullshit, an irregular regular column on calumny and codswallop.…
Six prominent Aussies with a case of the dreaded “yips”
The yips. It’s an old golf term which refers to golfers who lose the ability to putt. They stand…
The humourless hysteria of the holier-than-thou
In I Spit On Your Grave, a young woman is gang raped in a remote woodland. She is beaten and tortured…
Nosebleed Section
choice ringside rantings
From: Punch on: Open thread 09/02/2012
marley says:
I'm one of the older ones, so I've certainly seen a few changes in my time. When I started school I learned to write with a nib pen, dipped in an inkwell (no, I'm not kidding). My mother became a dab hand at getting inkstains out of my clothes. Flicking ink at one another in the classroom was an essential… [read more]From: I’d rather have a piece of toast than listen to crap lyrics
Erick says:
Led Zeppelin are responsible for my all-time favourite mixed metaphor: "There you sit, sit and stare, like a book on a shelf rusting." (Misty Mountain Hop) I laugh every time I hear it. Hmmm, I believe I've decided what to play on the way to work today. [read more]Gentle jabs to the ribs
No wuckin forries. These nuckin futs are tuckin fops
Well, puck me with a fitchfork. The F-word is apparently an acceptable part of Australian speech. That’s… Read more
Latest 2 of 14 comments
View all commentsAdd your comment