A child asks his mother, "Do all fairy tales begin with, 'Once upon a time?'"
His mother answers, "No, dear. Once in a while they begin with 'I'll be working late at the office tonight.'"
"Does Daddy tell you fairy tales like that ?"
"He used to."
"What made him stop ?"
"One day he told me he'd be working late, and I said, 'Can I depend on that ?'"
Sydney’s reliance on cars is costing more than $18 billion a year through congestion, accidents and air pollution, and threatens to stunt the state's economy: Driven round the bend: tales of a life on the road A city going nowhere fast
Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Everyone Dies Sometimes
THE tax on superannuation contributions paid by millions of Australian workers could be scrapped
This is a Labor tax, brought in by Paul Keating in 1988 in a typically desperate bid to raise revenue, which made Australia one of the very few countries that taxes people's contributions to their superannuation
• It's time to scrap super tax, says Minchin [Life after politics can be a lucrative business, but at what price for the public? Nice work, if you can get it ; SHOULD the public be worried that Craig Knowles, the former planning minister in the Carr government, has joined the investment bank Investec? Like justice needing to be seen to be done, even the appearance of conflicts of interest in such appointments must be excluded as far as possible if confidence in the rectitude of public administration is to be attained. Too quick off the mark ]
• · The baby boomers tacked left, then right. Where will their politics go in the golden years? The 'I want it all and I want it now' crowd confronts its hardest campaigns The Last Hurrah ; For decades, laws, governments, even popular will were stacked against the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. No way, people thought, would they ever change the way things were. Got grit?
• · · Isaiah Berlin, liberalism’s philosopher-in-chief, a conservative? One was startled from the beginning,” Arthur Schlesinger said, “by the glittering rush of words and wit, the dazzling command of ideas, the graceful and unforced erudition, the penetrating assessments of personalities, the passion for music, the talent for merriment and, most remarkable of all, the generosity of spirit that led him to treat all of us as his intellectual equals. He had the exciting quality of intensifying life so that one perceived more and thought more and understood more.” Sir Isaiah pronounced aye-ZYE-ah ; Removing the current 15% superannuation contributions tax, which raises around $3.3bn each year, would deliver real benefits to workers without putting upward pressure on interest rates, according to the Minister for Finance and Administration, Senator Nick Minchin - "Strong Case" For Abolishing Super Contributions Tax: Finance Minister
• · · · How Class Disappeared From Western Politics ; Australia should increase fines and toughen sanctions against companies found guilty of bribing foreign public officials - PDF version Tax Office needs to effectively detect foreign bribery transactions, says OECD ; No stone unturned in upheaval over spy rock - The spy trail went cold The agent was saying nothing, being, one, in Russian custody, and two, a rock
• · · · · From the Czech Republic, after communism's fall, the scent of marijuana became a symbol of liberation: J.X. Dolezal, a kind of Czech version of the late Hunter S. Thompson who has written the books "How to Take Drugs" and "Stoned County." He opens a box. There's a sprinkle across paper, a nimble roll of the fingers, a lick, a match strike, a curl of smoke — and a smile. A Czech Toke on Freedom: no amount larger than a small amount ; WITH his democracy project in the Middle East having produced a landslide victory for Hamas in the Palestinian elections, the US President, George Bush, is hoping Hamas will renounce terrorism and recognise Israel. But analysts agree the chances of this happening soon are remote Democracy, a faithful dog that bit Bush
• · · · · · An exhibition highlights unusual pieces of legislation which remain on the statute book. Why have they survived, when they appear so at odds with modern life? Ever been drunk driving a steam engine? ; The NSW state opposition wants to make it illegal for retiring government ministers to sign up to private sector jobs related to their former portfolios within two years of quitting the parliament. Call for stand-down period; Business buys hot property - ministers