America Should Run Elections Like Australia

   Another leap year, another U.S. Presidential election! And, regular as clockwork, allegations of voting irregularities, of varying plausibility, are making the rounds. What is it about Americans? Such allegations practically never occur over here. All right, Australia is probably the gold standard for election procedures, but the allegations are also rare to non-existent in other democracies. Britain and France have both acquired large racial minorities (more fool they!), but one never hears it suggested that they are being "suppressed". Other countries make no issue about voter ID, and I am sure that none of them would tolerate ballot harvesting or election day registration. So what's wrong with America?

The Case for Capitalism

     I was born with a tarnished silver spoon in my mouth. My paternal grandfather came to Australia as a fatherless teenager, and became a wealthy jeweller. By 1901 he was prosperous enough to pay for three portraits of his daughters by the state's leading portrait artist, and he lived in a two story home with four servants. None of this money came down to the next generation, I might add. My parents were small businessmen who lost their business and ended up as unskilled labourers, leaving me to climb my own way up into the middle class. I wouldn't want all you socialists and assorted Marxists to think I am speaking from some sort of privileged background. But I would like to ask you this: would you prefer to live as the owner of a big jewellery store in 1901, or as a shop assistant in such a store today?

OF COURSE, Men Prefer Debt-Free Virgins Without Tattoos!

     I wish I could say something which would make the world sit up and take notice, something that would turn viral, which would direct thousands of hits to my lonely blog. Take the case of Lori Alexander. Now, I have to admit, I had previously never heard of her, and I presume most other people would have said the same. Then, a year and a half ago she penned a short article entitled, "Men Prefer Debt-Free Virgins Without Tattoos", in which she discussed a letter someone had sent her on the subject. Suddenly, the fat hit the fire. Within three days she received 90,000 Facebook comments, a lot of them not just negative, but vitriolic, and at the time of writing the score stands at 126,000. Clearly, it touched a raw nerve with many people. As tends to happen when the opponent has no logical rebuttal, many of them caricatured her position, then argued against the caricature. Others had such a visceral reaction to the title that they apparently lost all reading comprehension, because they argued against statements she never made.
     Well, as a man, let me tell you that the title is absolutely correct. Not only that, it is blindingly obvious. It belongs to the same category as "Rain falls from the sky." It shouldn't be necessary to state it. Nevertheless, as George Orwell once said, "[W]e we have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men, " so here goes ...