Fellow travellers, as we all know, language creates reality. And words can hurt and oppress, too. Even the most seemingly innocuous turns of phrase can be the cause of the most intense distress.

The word "moonbat", for example is becoming more and more offensive. It is getting to the point when it really is intolerable. Soon, I may even join with some of my fellow progressive bloggers to initiate a global class action against those on the more reactionary fringes of the blogosphere. We will ei...
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Fellow travellers, as you well know I care deeply about the welfare of animals - or as I call them, non-human people. That's why I have been both saddened and ultimately heartened by this story about a tropical fish swallowed whole by an appalling Brit called Chris Caswell. Not only was the poor gilled being treated barbarically by the hoon, but the journalist who reported the story couldn't even decide on its classification.

I mean, the article linked above refers to it as alternatively a gup...
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Fellow travellers, as any of us who has worked in Australia's thriving arts sector knows only too well, Australian films are without doubt the best in the world! But sadly, local audiences are usually too stupid to appreciate them. Consequently they often fail to attract substantial crowds and lose money.

Of course, I don't consider box office failure a problem in itself, since I am against the profit motive in principle. However, it is undeniably unfortunate that every time an Aussie movie l...
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Championing the rights of animals (or as I Iike to think of them, non-human people) can be a frustrating and thankless task. I mean, it can be disappointing, to say the least, when after performing three hours of political street theatre raising awareness about our threatened indigenous bird-life, a pigeon decides to defecate on your head!

Then there is the pervasive speciesism that so many Homo sapiens are guilty of. It's bad enough that it's a societal norm. But sometimes this appalling atti...
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While reporting of environmental issues has improved over the years, many in the media continue to treat these subjects as fodder for light entertainment articles and "odd stories". Take this one about some so-called "spider goats" who are scaling a near vertical dam wall in Italy.

The seriousness of the goats' predicament is trivialized and the story is presented as a curiosity. In the article, the goats are described as "plucky", which is a bit of anthropomorphism that I find quite offensiv...
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