Evidence of how politicians lie. From the BBC comes a report exposing just how politicians have lied to their constituents — including Australians — about what is happening in Afghanistan. Expect Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd and Stephen Smith to deny this when asked:

Nato has invested hundreds of billions of dollars over the past 10 years trying to raise a modern army for Afghanistan and to rebuild the country’s infrastructure. But if a leaked classified report prepared by the alliance is to believed, all this will go to waste soon after foreign combat forces withdraw in 2014.

The latest in a series of leaks suggests that Nato is much more worried about the course of the war than it lets on in public.  The harsh reality is that an increasing number of Afghans are turning to the Taliban, having grown mistrustful of Nato and Afghan forces.

In remote parts of the country where the government rules only on paper, the Taliban are often preferred….

Believe the denials if you want to but I won’t be..

Why should we pay for cricketers to become richer? Surely Communications Minister Stephen Conroy will not listen to the sporting bodies wanting the law to be changed to give them the right to fleece the public so sports men and women can become richer and executives of sporting bodies pretend that they deserve million dollar salaries.

The relevance of use by dates. I’ve often wondered how much unnecessary waste is caused by forcing manufacturers to put use by dates on products. Do the savings from improved health and safety really outweigh the cost of perfectly good products being discarded well before they really are a danger to anyone?

From Germany comes the story of a pensioner who  received a tin of American lard 64 years ago in an aid package and has only just tasted it, after discovering that it is still edible. 

A prisoner’s revenge. The state of Vermont proudly features a cow on its coat of arms and a decal with the coat of arms proudly adorns the doors of the state’s highway patrol cars. And inside the St Albans state prison there is a workshop where prisoners can proudly develop new skills making such decals, license plates and the like. And sometimes dream of revenge on those police who put them there.

From that journal of record The Burlington Free Press comes the story “Pigs on Police Cars” revealing how one of the spots on the cow in the state crest has been changed to the shape of a pig.