The whole history of progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of earnest struggle. If there is no struggle there is no progress.
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning, they want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.
This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted
- Frederick Douglass (1857)
I’d say it’s not quite as bad as poker machines but probably a bit worse than racehorses How much of a gamble is farming?
Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Honest Abe
Knowing when to exit gracefully is not a quality we normally associate with politicians, so it was unusual when the NSW Premier Bob Carr decided to step down this week, 10 years after he won the top job.
But Bob Carr spent a beautiful Sydney weekend with his wife, contemplating his future, and decided that the time had come. He quoted one of his American political heroes, President Abraham Lincoln, saying he did so in the spirit of Honest Abe's second inaugural address — "with malice for none, with charity to all". It was just as well since his would-be successors for the job in the Labor Party were soon jockeying for position, with the odd elbow thrown in. NSW Police Minister Carl Scully said on Thursday he would not be pushed out of the race by the ALP's right-wing machine backing Health Minister, Morris Iemma. Friday he pulled out of the race. Mr Iemma now looks likely to win the caucus ballot on Tuesday and the premiership. Meanwhile, Mr Carr has been basking in the limelight of praise from his colleagues ... for example, the former NSW Premier, Neville Wran, who also decided to depart voluntarily after 10 years on the stage, said of Bob Carr: "People say, 'What's his greatest achievement?' I will tell you now, his greatest achievement was to keep on winning elections."
• Bob Carr: Revenge of the Nerd [ Lobbyist get up gears up for Senate ; Capital and Labor want some respect ; Get up!: first impressions? ]
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• · · Russia’s split personality – symbolized by its Tsarist coat of arms, a two-headed eagle – has been on open display recently The Two Faces of eX KGB Chief Vladimir Putin; Britain’s social model has developed a distinctive, hybrid character under Tony Blair – both less “American” and more “European” than critics claim Blair’s opportunity: an Anglo-Social European model
• · · · China and the world economy ; The Great Indian Poverty Debate engages the mind as much as the conscience ; Why Britain is great
• · · · · Europe's largest nation is in decline and has been for several years. The very core of its economy has begun to shrink: a process that no reforms have managed to halt. Germany's problems are rooted deeply in the postwar era The German Defect; From the outside, it seems like chaotic violence. But it's worse than that. In Iraq, Sunni Muslim suicide commandos are launching bloodbaths among the Shiites, gradually edging the country toward civil war. Instead of becoming a democratic beacon for the entire region, Iraq is on the verge of disintegrating Is the Country Heading for Civil War? ; Now, IRA stands for I Renounce Arm
• · · · · · That feeling of being under suspicion: What of "profiling" as an anti-terrorism forensic tool? ; When the Profile Fits the Crime Critics protest that profiling is prejudicial. In fact, it's based on statistics ; Political Blogs