Blogs

Zionism is often called the belief in the Jewish people's right to self-determination.
But Modern Zionism is not self-determination. It is Jewish statism and Jewish nationalism.
I believe in Jewish self-determination: our human right to politically organize, and to have religious Jewish courts for Jews who want to settle disputes through interpretations of Jewish law.

It's a shame that Modern Zionists have such little debate over definition, and even less debate about whether a Jewish state should exist, but before the foundation of Israel it was common.

There is no question that approximately 40% of people who regularly play the pokies are problem gamblers. Addiction is one way many people cope with disappointment, loss and loneliness. It’s not unusual to see an older cross section of the community regularly visit pokies outlets. It’s easy to denigrate and dismiss people with a gambling addiction for “a problem of their own making”. The damage caused by gamblers is akin to the consequences of throwing a rock into a pool. The ripples that are caused continue long after the rock has disappeared from sight.

Now announcing: MOOSHCARE, a healthcare reform plan better than anything the Republicans can come up with.

My views fall somewhere between social democracy and market socialism. What I have in mind by "market socialism" is the model advocated by Fred M. Taylor, Oskar Lange, and Abba Lerner. (This parallels the RICH economy proposal of Robert Anton Wilson too.)

In the teeth of my recent statements about making policy suggestions and how I shouldn't do it, I'm going to do it.

Steve's Universal Healthcare System:

1) Everyone who walks into the doors of a hospital gets treated. No exceptions, no refusals for any reason. Humans in need get treatment and care, where 'treatment and care' is acknowledged to mean 'any medical service, operation, or prescription recommended and offered by licensed medical staff.'

It needs to be said again, I am not pushing non-Zionism; I am pushing for democracy in the Jewish community.

Yes, I am a non-Zionist. But Israel is a goliath an ocean away and David’s slingshots don’t pack that sort of range. I am much more frustrated at Zionism in Sydney’s Jewish community, and the way it shuts out any Jews who disagree with them.
In Sydney it isn’t only Zionism that shuts others out. Anyone who’s different is constantly reminded that they do not belong here.

Conservatism is illogical and inconsistent. When it comes to education, most conservatives have no objection to socialism. They are fine with sending their kids to public schools. At the same time, conservatives are fine with socialism when it comes to law-enforcement and the military. In fact, conservatives worship those socialist institutions. But when it comes to healthcare, though, they do an about face.

The G20 meeting in Hamburg, Germany, highlights there are an increasing number of people, not just in Germany who are unhappy with the direction the world is going in. Forty years of neo-liberal experimentation have only succeeded in concentrating power and wealth in the hands of a very small minority. When less than 20 people have more wealth at their disposal than the poorest three billion (yes, 3 billion!), you know there is something not right with the world.

Contrary to popular belief among Austrian School economists and right-libertarians, it is not readily apparent that the Austrians won the socialist calculation debate. The responses of Enrico Barone, Fred Taylor, Oskar Lange, and Abba Lerner were quite adequate. Most economists even thought that the socialists had won the debate.

bA child born in Australia today can expect, on average, to live 82.5 years. As a country we have the third highest life expectancy in the world after Switzerland and Singapore. Considering we have almost three times the population of Switzerland and seven times the population of Singapore and we have a very high immigrant population from all over the world, we must be doing something right.