His Holiness the Dalai Lama is now here in Fremantle, and will speak in Perth tomorrow. While his visit to Australia (and previously, the USA) has been met with much love, joy and celebration from the more compassionate among us, hard-hearted right-wingers and conservatives continue to find fault with him.

For example, they really pounced on his admission that he is a Marxist. They despise that compassionate ideology anyway, and also seem to think that being proudly left-wing is someh...
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Fellow travellers, reactionary right-wingers often claim that the mainstream media are completely dominated by liberals, environmentalists and left-wingers. But as is usually the case, the exact opposite is true.

Take this report about the impending demise of the McMansion in Perth due to fluctuations in the property market. The possibility that these immense, carbon-spewing excrescences have finally had their day in this city is seen as a bad thing. Can you believe it?

The piece is full of n...
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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, here in Perth, Western Australia we have already had some unseasonally hot days. And there are more to come. Next week several days of 40-degree heat are predicted.

Now, how can you still have your doubts about anthropogenic global warming when such a strong trend is in evidence?

But of course the redneck climate change denialists have their doubts, don't they! Because Heathrow has been shut down for days due to the cold, and there have been similar conditions in America, t...
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Fellow travellers, I know that many readers of the Sunday Times would have found this article about a Perth man who helped the irksome Andre Rieu recover from his bedridden state due to chronic and severe dizziness very uplifting.

Frankly, I found it nauseating. So nauseating, in fact, that after purging the soy smoothie I had just imbibed, I was actually struck with severe head-spins and had to have a long lie down myself!

Because of Bill Henshall's advice, Rieu is now back to recording and t...
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Fellow travellers, one thing that I find extremely annoying about appalling right-wing peenie-waving climate change denialists is how they constantly bleat about how there's "no actual evidence" for global warming, and that it's "all just a theory" about what's "going to happen in the future" based on "dodgy computer models".

Yet time and again there is irrefutable evidence of a catastrophically warming planet right before their very eyes! Take this fire in Gooseberry Hill on the outskirts of...
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Fellow travellers, I should just post an update about my new location: I am now living in the charming, creative and very tolerant city of Fremantle, which is just south of Perth, in Western Australia.

I came over here at the behest of the Department of Culture and the Arts. They want me to contribute my deep spiritual, cultural and creative insights to various long term artistic projects.

I will go into details about these later. But suffice to say I am overjoyed to be in such a lovely place,...
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Fellow travellers, I found this story about a market stall being banned from the Rockingham local markets to be very heartening. While we can't be sure of exactly what the reason was, it was quite probably due to a strong sense of cultural sensitivity. The stall sold "bogan paraphernalia" after all.

The appalling sub-human redneck who flogs the vile merchandise whinged about the ban.

"If I was selling porn and bongs I'd expect them to say they don't want me there, but this is stickers and st...
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Fellow travellers, when is this nation (and the world for that matter!) going to realize that climate change is real, that man is causing it and that the science is in!

Take this terrifying storm in Perth. It was the worst that city has had so far this whole millennium! How could you possibly deny the link?

Of course, appalling peenie-waving Premier Colin Barnett has deemed that it was a "natural" disaster. Talk about blaming the victim! It was as unnatural as a disaster can be, since it simpl...
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