Has Kevin said 'no' to reconciliation?

It’s easy to say ‘sorry’, but it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have a sincere desire to put things right.

Kevin Rudd has named prof. Mick Dodson Australian of the Year, presumably for his work on reconciliation. John Howard failed to listen to Mick’s recommendations re: ‘sorry’ and other steps forward, that helped motivate Mick Dodson to be a most active critic of John Howard – it’s too early to tell if Kevin might have made the same mistake.

Please aim more carefully (G.W. Bush leaves office)

I'm back after a 1 year unplanned sabbatical. I’d like to thank the parole board out at Port Phillip... no, not true. It’s been study and work commitments that have kept me from shooting off my mouth here. It’s not because I’ve been super-busy (there have been a lot of 18-hour days) that I haven’t contributed here in a year, it’s that with the work I was doing for school I didn’t feel the need; it seems that well-constructed academic essays come from the same place - use the same energy as emotive polemics (sorry, rants). I did try to keep writing, but sated, spent, energy channelled elsewhere, I couldn’t be bothered – I’ve got the start of dozens posts that I couldn’t have been bothered finishing (I might start posting those up if they interest me enough to finish them, and aren't relevant only to a moment now passed).

John Howard wins "brown nose" medal

Former Australian PM John Howard will receive the highest civilian honour a US president can bestow during a White House ceremony this month.

George W Bush will confer the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom award on his staunch international supporters in an East Room ceremony on January 13, exactly one week before he leaves office.

Howard says he is honoured personally to receive the award but more so because of the compliment it pays to Australia.

"It's an indication of the very close relationship between our two countries and I'm very pleased that during the time as prime minister I was able to contribute too," he said.

It was also testament to the "very obvious"