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Articles by Greg Barns

The black dog: sometimes it’s impossible to get out of bed

Crikey / Greg Barns / Tuesday, 18 August 2009

It’s almost impossible to get out of bed when the Black Dog, as Winston Churchill called depression, visits. It’s when nights become about paranoia and obsessing, writes Greg Barns.

Pro-Israel lobby determined to deny Robinson her Freedom Medal

Crikey / Greg Barns / Wednesday, 12 August 2009

Not everyone is happy about former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson, receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama, due to her pro-Palestinians stance.

Letter from...: Buenos Aires

Crikey / Greg Barns / Tuesday, 11 August 2009

The Catholic Church is still a formidable power in the Latin American political sphere, writes Greg Barns from Argentina, where the nation’s oldest broadsheet just dedicated 10 of its first 11 pages to the Pope.

Why is there no media scepticism about these terror raids?

Crikey / Greg Barns / Wednesday, 5 August 2009

With all the reports that an imminent terrorist attack had been thwarted by police, there’s been no mention of the fact that police have spun this line to the media before.

Stewart a known friendly media source for AFP

Crikey / Greg Barns / Tuesday, 4 August 2009

That the Australian Federal Police has used Oz journalist Cameron Stewart as a friendly media source to spin their view of the accused in a terrorism trial is not without precedent.

The spiritually bereft nature of Facebook friendship

Crikey / Greg Barns / Monday, 3 August 2009

Facebook friends aren’t your real friends. Teaching children the importance of physical friendship means developing their capacity for empathy — not something that can be gained from Twitter.

Police to pay the high cost of clearing Theophanous

Crikey / Greg Barns / Tuesday, 28 July 2009

So what’s a good guess at how much the Theophanous legal team will seek in costs? Probably well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and its the taxpayer who will bear the cost.

Why do we need to further strengthen terror laws?

Crikey / Greg Barns / Wednesday, 22 July 2009

Who has Mr Rudd’s Attorney-General, Robert McClelland been talking to? asks Greg Barns.

Do prisons have the right to inject inmates with drugs against their will?

Crikey / Greg Barns / Tuesday, 21 July 2009

Back in 1983, 25-year-old Saeed Dezfouli fled Iran and found asylum in Australia. Today he is a prisoner and a patient in Sydney’s Long Bay jail where he is involuntarily injected with anti-psychotic medication every fortnight.

Numbers of US war veterans with mental illness: 350,000 and counting

Crikey / Greg Barns / Monday, 20 July 2009

An examination of the medical records of 289,328 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans shows that 106,726 received mental health diagnoses.

Classical CDs went budget, why can’t Australian books?

Crikey / Greg Barns / Friday, 17 July 2009

Those authors and publishers who are busy defending protectionism so as to ensure an income stream should examine the fate of the classical music recording industry.

Outsourced: Rio Tinto’s legal department moves to India

Crikey / Greg Barns / Wednesday, 15 July 2009

Rio announced on June 18 that it has decided to outsource a huge swathe of its legal department’s work to US based legal services outfit CPA Global’s Indian operations.

Note to Parliament: truth is not the words you use

Crikey / Greg Barns / Wednesday, 8 July 2009

Politicians and media hype about emergencies do not pass muster with the High Court when it comes to Canberra justifying the constitutional validity of its actions.

CIS’ position on cartels just doesn’t sit right

Crikey / Greg Barns / Friday, 3 July 2009

Isn’t the Centre for Independent Studies the advocate for free and open markets? If so, why are they publishing a paper arguing that cartels aren’t really that bad?

Canadians finally get fired up about a Republic

Crikey / Greg Barns / Thursday, 2 July 2009

When the Republic debate was running hot in Australia a decade ago, the flames didn’t leap across the Pacific and get Canadians excited. But ten years on, it’s a different story.

Sting confessions are worthless

Crikey / Greg Barns / Tuesday, 30 June 2009

As the case of Andy Rose, a Canadian wrongfully convicted of murdering two German tourists in 1983 in British Columbia shows, the Canadian sting technique is fraught with danger.

Turnbull: why the Liberals should keep him

Crikey / Greg Barns / Monday, 29 June 2009

Turnbull took a risk on the Utegate affair and it backfired — so what? asks Greg Barns.

The war on drugs is lost. Someone tell the UN

Crikey / Greg Barns / Thursday, 25 June 2009

Overnight the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) launched its annual report on illicit drugs. Greg Barns is shocked by its content.

“Bad luck” NT court decision: white defendant, black victim

Crikey / Greg Barns / Wednesday, 24 June 2009

The plight of the Aboriginal person in the Northern Territory legal system is truly awful — and that goes for victims of crime as well as defendants.

Why Latin America is important to Australia

Crikey / Greg Barns / Tuesday, 23 June 2009

The absence of Australian media presence in Latin America is indicative of a media and broader community mindset in this country.

Tasers: what the Canadian Inquiry tells us

Crikey / Greg Barns / Monday, 22 June 2009

When they use Taser guns, police are trigger happy, simply ignore procedure and protocol and then try and paint the victim as being highly dangerous, writes Greg Barns.