by Heather Hastie | Apr 22, 2016 | US Politics
It’s been a while, but I’m back. The main problem hasn’t been me, but my computer. It’s been in the hospital most of the last two weeks, but a lovely young man called Benjamin has sorted it for me. He’s been very reasonable with his...
by Heather Hastie | Aug 17, 2015 | Democracy, US Politics
On 3 August 2015 Fox News released a survey of the political climate in the United States. Conducted from 30 July to 2 August by Anderson Roberts Research (D) and Shaw and Company Research (R) it has a margin of error of +/- 3 percent. (I was immediately struck by the...
by Heather Hastie | Mar 27, 2015 | Atheism, Freedom of Speech, Religion, Science & Nature
Yesterday (26 March) was Richard Dawkins’s 74th birthday. I’m a big fan of Dawkins – it was while watching one of his documentaries a few years ago that I realized that I was an atheist, and had been at least agnostic since I was a child. The God...
by Heather Hastie | Feb 13, 2015 | Freedom of Speech, Human Rights, Religion, Terrorism, USA
On Tuesday 10 February 2015, Sydney Police arrested two Muslim men. They had received information that they planned to carry out a random murder that day. On raiding the men’s home the police found a hunting knife, a DAESH flag and a self-made video describing...
by Heather Hastie | Feb 7, 2015 | Democracy, Freedom of Speech, International Politics, Religion, Terrorism, US Politics, USA
In the United States there is a growing rift between Democrats and Republicans on how to describe the terrorism in the Middle East and northern Nigeria. (As if politics in America needed any more rifts!) The Obama administration will not use the word...