WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange’s much-talked of book is being released in Britain today, following a sudden announcement from publishers Canongate.
Guy Rundle
Rundle: what you miss wouldn’t hurt, if it didn’t matter
What could be easier than starting a website? But what could be harder, now, than convincing half-a-dozen people to commit — and solemnly, seriously commit — a year of their free time to it?
Guy Rundle: Rundle: recovery of 2008? What bloody recovery?
The recovery from 2008 may not have in fact occurred, there is no real growth to speak of in the global economy.
Guy Rundle: Rundle: Cameron faces death by ‘shiring’ squad
Mark this week well in your datebook, UK pollie watchers, for history may recall it as the one in which, in the green shires of England, David Cameron’s Con-Lib government condemned itself to a single term.
Guy Rundle: The lifts and falls (and falls) of an Orwell Prize winner
Disgraced UK columnist Johann Hari has returned his “Orwell Prize”, the highest award for journalism in the country, and published a long personal letter in The Independent, apologising for a string of offences.
Guy Rundle: What drives Guardianistas so crazy about matters Assange?
So you thought the WikiLeaks saga couldn’t get any stranger, more convoluted or more ridiculous in juxtaposing stories of world import with petty absurdity? Think again.
Guy Rundle: Like war on terror, 9/11 posed for cameras, but stays fresh
The towers still loom above us, or their absence does. The actual images of 9/11 never lose their power to shock.
Guy Rundle: James Murdoch and his 15 minutes of …?
That story has always been unbelievable, but an absence of evidence allowed the News hierarchy to tell the story with a straight face — as Rupert and James Murdoch did appearing before the committee earlier.
Guy Rundle: Rundle: capitalism … finally the pundits are taking notice
By now, the failure of the global economic recovery following the 2008 crash has become so obvious that even economists have started to notice it.
Guy Rundle: Manufacturing … there’s nothing left to cut
As much as people didn’t want to lose jobs, most could see that the manufacturing jig was up.
Rundle: why the Right has become frantic about the Greens
Though many rural people still find it culturally and psychologically impossible to get close to the Greens as a party, they are increasingly happy to have them float the measures they would like to see occur
Guy Rundle: Rundle: pen-pinching Klaus a prized Righter, not a freedom fighter
Poetic really, that the Czechs should present us with two examples of humanity, under the name Vaclav.
Rage is an effective emotion for allaying the sensation of terror
Shakira Hussein braced herself for the backlash of hearing a Muslim name in regards to the Norway massacre gunman. But that doesn’t mean she breathed easy or gloated — as others have suggested — when learning he was a right-wing Christian.
Guy Rundle: Rundle: Breivik the armed wing of hysterical Right commentary
With the death toll in the Norwegian terrorist massacre at 76, and its nature as a coolly planned political act becoming clear beyond all question, the Right continues to avoid anything resembling moral reflection.
Guy Rundle: Into the abyss of the Norway massacre
The Oslo massacre was turning out to be an abyss, the sadistic mass murder of the young — but there its resemblance to a high school massacre ended.
Guy Rundle: Kooks n crackpots … give ‘em publicity, own the consequences
The Right continues to whine and dine at an impressive rate.
Come in Spinner: From scrolls to codices to iPads — welcome @thePope
While the Christians lead the way with the codex, they are catching up, a bit late, with the next piece of revolutionary technology — the digital pad.
Animal slaughter: the world isn’t all about us
There was something slightly obscene about a majority of Australians — bogans and latte sippers united — reaction to the clear brutality in some Indonesian slaughterhouses.
IPA: ‘we have not been missing in action’
IPA has been the leading advocate for the centre-right in Australia to be more libertarian, in both economic and social spheres, writes James Paterson, associate editor of the Institute of Public Affairs’ Review.
Bigger problems in the nanny state than cig packs
As a consumer society encourages the reality and perception of cultural disarray — from sexting to obesity — the state takes over control of life that would once have been the preserve of cultural norms or the individual conscience.
Rundle: shepherds, portents and Europe face-to-face in Athens
Weeks after it began, the world’s press has started to pay attention to the real story in Greece — the continued refusal of the people of Greece to accept the conditions going with it.
Guy Rundle: The frightening automation of Planet Manchester
We have always known that — we, who think about such things, anyway — but the implicit assumption has always been that automation would come to industry first.
Rundle: UK polls, clan do in Scotland and a beetroot lemonade first
Outside of a full-bore general election, it’s about as heavy an official political moment as you could get in the UK — and at least one result has the potential for enormous repercussions.
Rundle: a boringly genuine marriage
Our Kate is no Diana, although the eating disorder appears to be coming along nicely.
