© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

You are being robbed and you should be angry

October 31, 2021 Opinion by Greg Ray Pork-barrelling is theft, plain and simple. Every time politicians redirect money from programs meant to benefit people and communities that need it, pushing it instead into projects that benefit their electoral prospects, it is theft. We are used to calling it "pork-barrelling", which makes it sound harmlesss. But it's anything but harmless. It's corrosive, wasteful, dishonest, and unethical and it my opinion it ought to be a criminal offence. They say the term "pork barrelling" originated back in the 1700s when barrels of salted pork were allegedly provided as…

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Why I’m a nuclear skeptic

You can feel the pressure building, from a number of directions. For a start, the mad Murdoch media empire getting oddly on board with the rhetoric of climate change action - something it has frantically opposed for years. Then there's AUKUS, the Australian Government's new plan to stick Aussie flags on nuclear submarines as part of the US plan to suppress China in the Indo-Pacific region. As soon as that announcement was made people started talking, right on cue, about Australia's lamentable lack of a domestic nuclear industry, and how the subs would be a better…

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Read more about the article Hello hansom! Cabs in old Newcastle
Hansom cab on the corner of King and Perkins Streets, Newcastle. Photo by Ralph Snowball.

Hello hansom! Cabs in old Newcastle

At first hearing, in the 21st Century, you might imagine that "hansom cab" is a name for a pleasant-looking taxi. In fact, hansom cabs were the horse-drawn forerunners of more modern motorised taxis, and in the mid to late 1800s and early 1900s, the presence of hansom cabs in your city or town was a good sign of civilisation. Where did the name come from? Well, "cab" just meant "cabrioloet", which was a type of carriage designed to be pulled by a single horse. It usually had a retractable roof, making it a convertible. Some modern…

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