Islamist bigots in Jakarta are protesting against the mayor, who is a Christian, saying he committed "blasphemy" when he criticized their citing the Koran for purposes of bigotry.

Indonesian Muslims did not think this way 50 years ago; they were taught by activities sponsored by Salafi Arabia.

Australia's substitute for a carbon tax, "direct action", pays landowners not to cut down plants that they wouldn't have cut down anyway.

The right-wing government naturally prefers a handout for businesses to any real CO2 reductions.

Some of the outer areas of Mosul have been liberated by the Iraqi army.

The reaction of the civilians justifies use of the word "liberated".

Scotland needs land reform, for people and for nature.

Facebook blocked Admiral insurance from analyzing clients' Facebook postings to choose their rates.

Facebook is not on your side, though. It wants to manipulate its useds to keep giving Facebook lots of information about themselves (and other people).

The fact that Admiral's program is "voluntary" does not make it legitimate. If it caught on, it would soon become effectively compulsory, except for the wealthy. This has been called "STASI capitalism."

We need to decide democratically what information insurance companies are allowed to have about drivers -- which means, not by letting a few companies decide to where herd people.

Here is an example of what we should not allow.

The root of this problem i the collection of this information by companies such as Facebook and Fitbit. That is another issue we should decide democratically, not by letting a company do its damnedest to manipulate and then pressure people into giving it.