Julian Assange

Has been arrested in London.  There is discussion everywhere on the web about this, but this article in The Atlantic is one of the better discussions.

My opinion is that the whole thing seems like angry governments hunting someone who made the mistake of believing them regarding freedom of speech and the dissemination of information.

Edit:  Alas, A Blog has 20 links to articles on the Assange situation! (On a single page, no less)

Away for a week and some

I'm about to start the Great Victorian Bike Ride. 9 days, 590km on a bicycle.  No blog updates.  See you in a while

What is the upside for North Korea here?

So, North Korea is now using artillery against South Korean civilians.  (Telegraph)  I'm not sure what they could possibly think will come of this, outside of even more of their population starving to death as the international community further withdraws aid.  Possibly the internal situation is now so bad that only being at war will prevent internal rebellion?  I hope not, but the whole thing is moving from farcical to absurd.

Supermax Prisons: Cruel and Unusual Punishment?

Some interesting thoughts raised at LGM regarding the Ghailani verdict.  In particular, the idea that it may actually be a worse situation being sentenced to 20 years in a Supermax prison within the civilian criminal system, than being held indefinitely at a military institution.  Why?  Because the conditions in Supermax prisons are so degrading, so foul, that they may breach international law, and indeed, the law of the United States itself, regarding cruel and unusual punishment.  This article at alternet compares the situation to torture, while there has apparently been a  UN Committee against torture ruling condemning the conditions at Supermax prisons.

I didn't realise the US did things like this.  I mean, I know it is cliché to ridicule the US system for its misguided approach to most everything to do with punishment, but really? 

More on US Airport security.

It is getting worse for the TSA and their silly rules.  We have another blogger equating TSA enhanced pat-downs with sexual assault (which it would be, if it was done by anyone else), and more media getting on board the TSA hatewagon. (Bloomberg)

Qantas...

...Has got itself a serious public relations problem.  According to this article, another Qantas plane was forced to turn back to origin, the fifth fault in 11 days to get media attention.

Add to that that Qantas is expensive and the service is bad comparative to other full priced airlines, and really, for any flight you absolutely must make out of Australia, Emirates or Air New Zealand are surely better options.

Functional Healthcare

I notice there is a new report (via ABC) being shopped around the news media in Australia about doctors thinking of giving up the profession because of worries about liability (or more accurately, worries about litigation, irrespective of their liability).  This is not a trivial concern, and the need for doctors to take out expensive insurance policies to protect them against lawsuits is part of what drives the price of medical care upwards in Australia and (to a much greater extent) the US.  Indeed, the US is the paradigmatic example of litigiousness losing all sense of scale and reason.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, insofar as this will not happen), there is an alternative system available, which strictly curtails litigation and thereby makes medical care affordable.  This is the kind of no fault compensation scheme, government run, that is found in New Zealand: The Accident Compensation Corporation.  It is an option that should be considered far more than it currently is, and while the US is unlikely ever to be sensible enough to do anything like it, Australia at least potentially still could move towards the system.  As an added bonus, Australians have the benefit of seeing the teething problems with the NZ system and preventing them from occuring, rather than having to fix them on the fly as NZ has had to do.