Free Republic

Supreme Court of Australia's most populous province says Kirralie Smith and her women's rights group Binary committed "transgender vilification." If you refer to transgender people by their sex online, Australia might pass on compelling the platform to censor your speech, at least if posted from abroad. Say it Down Under, though, and you risk fines approaching six figures and a digital scarlet letter. The New South Wales Supreme Court upheld fines of $95,000 Australian – roughly $66,000 U.S. – against women's sports activist Kirralie Smith and her group Binary Australia, as well as a court-written statement to be posted on...

Thanks America Where do I start? I've wanted to say this for a long time. It is unbelievable that America gets badmouthed all the time. America has helped the cause of freedom more than anyone else. First of all I'd like to thank America for saving Australia's butt at the Battle of the Coral Sea in WWII. This prevented the Japanese from landing here, and bringing with them the concept of "comfort women". I think Australia's nature is such that we would have sacrificed 90% of our population rather than hand over any woman. America's intervention meant that we were...

PRIME Minister John Howard has led a scathing attack on France for its strong opposition to war on Iraq as a senior French minister called the criticism of his country "stupid". Since the Government threw its support behind a US-led strike on Iraq yesterday, a succession of coalition MPs have attacked Paris for threatening to veto a resolution backing war in the United Nations Security Council. Four months before Jacques Chirac becomes the first French president to visit Australia, Mr Howard said the French were simply trying to capitalise on council divisions to further their own interests. "I think the...

THE Indonesian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) has targeted northern Australia to form part of an Asian Islamic superstate, according to a secret intelligence report. The report, to be detailed on tonight's ABC Four Corners program, comes from the Philippines, chosen by al-Qaeda as its first base in South-East Asia in 1988. Philippines' national security adviser Roilo Golez told Four Corners intelligence indicated Australia was part of al-Qaeda's plan for an Asian Islamic state. "That is something that your intelligence people would have to assess. Suffice it to say that the Jemaah Islamiah vision of a pan-Islamic state includes parts...