Classified Links: Guide

• Aussie interest
• Cultural and other
• Current affairs
• Diversions
• Education
• Faith and philosophy
• gay life and issues
• Multiculturalism and diversity
• My sites and archives and personal items
• Politics
• Web stuff

Aussie interest

• Australia Institute — looks for policies to deliver a just, sustainable, peaceful future
• Australian Policy Online — easy access to much of the best Australian social, economic, cultural and political research available
• Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation — working in support of justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. Definitely unfinished business!
• Desert Dreams — Aboriginal art and culture: Bob Innes
• Friends of the ABC — needed more than ever
• Good Information on Aboriginal matters — very reliable information
• Great Green Way Eco Tours — my nephew’s business but also a fascinating story of his descent from the Guringai clan, the true owners of Kirribilli House…
• Imagining Australia — a host of exciting new ideas to transform Australia into the quintessential twenty-first century nation
• Indigenous Australians: a page on this site — lots more Aussie interest there
• Living Black — SBS — Indigenous current affairs show
• Message Stick — ABC Indigenous Site — portal to Indigenous Australian information on the web and to another great TV show
• Misrule: the home of Australian children’s books — good guide
• National Indigenous Times: Aboriginal paper — an in-depth look at black and white Australia
• SafeCom — visions for Australia — “Are we loopy greenies or hippies? Great links.”
• South Sydney Herald: local and more
• The Nick Possum Home Page — Nick’s “Whispers from the mean streets” appear in the monthly Sydney City Hub
• Williams Family: First Fleeters, and Ric W’s family stories — an Australian living in Canada, whose family goes back to the First Fleet

Cultural and other

• A List Of Fallacious Arguments — “The jawbone of an ass is just as dangerous a weapon today as in Sampson’s time.” –Nixon
• ABC Radio National — a treasure house
• Arts and Letters Daily — daily dose of news and culture
• Australian Public Intellectual Network — from Australian Research Institute Division of Humanities Curtin University of Technology. Books, thought, music, arts…
• Book Forum — coverage from a variety of viewpoints
• Butterflies and Wheels — fighting fashionable nonsense
• Dan Kurland’s www.criticalreading.com — “Criticalreading.com shows you how to recognize what a text says, what a text does, and what a text means by analyzing choices of content, language, and structure. It shows you what to look for, and how to think about what you find.”
• Danny Yee’s Book Reviews — Danny casts a wide net
• Eureka Street — fresh, independent and stimulating analysis of the key cultural and political issues in contemporary Australia from Jesuit Publications
• Flat Rock — Great Kiwi site; hard to know the right tag!
• Harper’s Magazine — what was good enough for Mark Twain is good enough for me
• My take on The Da Vinci Code (here on WordPress) — I had fun with this
• nth position — a free online magazine/ezine with politics & opinion, travel writing, fiction & poetry, reviews & interviews, and some high weirdness
• Ready Steady Book Site — an independent book review website devoted to reviewing the very best books in literary fiction, poetry, history and philosophy
• Swans: essays on various subjects — about thinking, questioning, observing, and providing ideas that are lacking in the mainstream media
• The Anxiety Panic internet resource (taPir) — good self-help resource for those with anxiety disorders
• The Quotes Matrix — endless amusement and enlightenment
• The Visual Dictionary — “Different from an encyclopedia or from traditional online dictionaries, thesauri and glossaries because the images replace the words.”
• Three Monkeys Online — free online current affairs and arts magazine.
• Weasel Words — ‘Your mandate is to leverage your clear, insightful understanding of operational performance into the implementation of practical initiatives that improve business outcomes.’
• Why have a journal? — “A journal can be a therapist. A journal does not complain, cry, ask for help, or bother us in any way. A journal accepts our thoughts and ideas without question.” [This may have disappeared. See instead The Writer's Journal.]

Current affairs

• AlterNet — “to inspire citizen action and advocacy on the environment, human rights and civil liberties, social justice, media, and health care issues” USA
• Amnesty International — no-one can afford to ignore this organisation
• Common Dreams — US left-liberal news and analysis
• Counter Punch — challenging and forthright US current affairs page
• Crikey — “independent, opinionated and always looking under rocks.” Australian.
• Daily Kos — “Markos Moulitsas — a.k.a. ‘kos’ — created Daily Kos on May 26, 2002, in those dark days when an oppressive and war-crazed administration suppressed all dissent as unpatriotic and treasonous. As a veteran, Moulitsas was offended that the freedoms he pledged his life for were so carelessly being tossed aside by the reckless and destructive Republican administration.” USA.
• Diplomat Online — A weekly updated selection of the best reports and important documents shaping international relations. Australian.
• East South West North: Zona Europa — news and culture from somewhere in China/Hong Kong
• Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash.com — for a geographically-diverse, politically-savvy, pro-democracy, anti-hypocrisy web community. USA.
• Foreign Affairs — America’s most influential publication on international affairs and foreign policy
• Foreign Policy in Focus — US site with a different view.
• Foreign Policy Magazine — portal to global politics, economics, and ideas. Published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, USA.
• FP Passport Blog — blog associated with Foreign Policy.
• New America Foundation — “The purpose of New America Foundation is to bring exceptionally promising new voices and new ideas to the fore of our nation’s public discourse.”
• Information Clearing House — One person’s effort to correct the distorted perceptions provided by commercial media. USA.
• International Crisis Group — field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict. International.
• Juan Cole’s Informed Comment — Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion
• New Internationalist Magazine — Excellent alternative source
• No Quarter — “This blog takes no prisoners and offers no quarter on issues of your security in today’s dangerous world.” USA.
• Online Opinion — Australia’s National Forum
• Open Democracy — “dedicated to opening up a democratic space - free thinking for the world” USA.
• Right Wing Watch from People For the American Way
• SBS World News — Australia
• Source Watch — from the Center for Media and Democracy (USA). A Wiki with quite a lot of Australian content.
• Sydney Indymedia — All opinions are those of the people contributing to the site; sydney indymedia doesn’t necessarily agree with them.
• Tabsir: insight on Islam and the Middle East — a scholarly venture by Amir Hussain and Bruce Lawrence. Back in business!
• The Bulletin — Grand old Aussie mag still worth visiting.
• The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace — independent, authoritative foreign policy site. USA.
• The Nation — “”to wage war upon the vices of violence, exaggeration, and misrepresentation” USA.
• The Smirking Chimp — Chronicles the reign of George II in detail. USA.
• This is Zimbabwe — supporters of all pro-democratic political parties, civic organizations and institutions in Zimbabwe
• Tomdispatch.com — “for anyone in despair over post-September 11th US mainstream media coverage of our world and ourselves.” USA
• truthout.org — digs up a lot of uncomfortable truths. USA
• Web Diary: independent Australian and overseas news commentary — quite an institution now. Originally Margo Kingston’s “Not Happy John” spinoff in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Diversions

These speak for themselves… Enjoy!

• Jet Lag Travel
• Landover Baptist Church
• The Chaser
• The White House

Education

• My WordPress English and ESL Blog will take you to more links on education than you probably wanted! Two further selections:
• What is Literacy? Includes my experience in English Studies.
• Why I reject Kevin Donnelly’s educational analysis

Faith and philosophy

• ABC Australia: Religion and Ethics Gateway — a whole host of programs and links covering the spectrum of faiths
• A Churchless Faith, an Australian blog with which I have quite a lot in common.
• Beliefnet — not affiliated with any spiritual organisation of movement
• Better Bibles Blog — scholarly work from believers, fascinating on translation generally and inclusive language issues
• Bible and Interpretation — the best non-fundamentalist biblical and historical knowledge
• Big View — “This website is about philosophy in the widest sense. It includes science, religion, mythology and other fields of thought that are not within the traditional scope of philosophy. However, it makes not much sense to treat these fields separately. Everything is connected. If one views anything from any possible angle, it can only increase understanding.”
• BuddhaNet — an electronic meeting place of shared concern and interests
• Centre for Progressive Religious Thought — “On this site you will find information on various events being staged, some articles from our presenters, listings of resources you might like to check out further, as well as For Sale resources. You will also find links to several other ‘progressive’ Centres, who with CPRT, form an informal progressive religious network in Australia and New Zealand.”
• Charles Notess: DEPOLARIZING A HOSTILE WORLD is no longer online, but much still is at that address — a very wise old American tackles interfaith and cross-cultural issues with careful research and a great desire to make peace.
• Christianity Today — US evangelical flagship magazine is often very sane and rarely stupid
• Deadly Identities by Amin Maalouf — this is simply one of the most important books you could ever read. NOTE: Now you can read chunks of Amin Maalouf — enough to get his drift — on Google Books: In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong.
• Edmund Rice Justice Bulletin — Catholic social justice site
• Ekklesia — a new way of thinking — a think-tank and news service that promotes radical theological ideas in public life”>Ekklesia — a new way of thinking
• Fallacy Files — “The present hypertext web version, The Fallacy Files, was first published on March 11th, 2001, and is the result of this score of years of research and fieldwork on the fallacies.”
• Healing Hate: Buddhist thoughts — “…widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty”
• Ijtihad: a return to enlightenment — Muqtedar Khan’s Column on Islam and Global Affairs
• Indonesia’s Wahid Institute: the development of moderate Islamic thought — to promote democratic reform, religious pluralism, multiculturalism and tolerance
• Interlude Retreat — just a really good place to go
• Islam Online — the middle ground of Islam, avoiding extremism or negligence, rejecting deviant or strange opinions
• Killing the Buddha — a religion magazine for people made anxious by churches
• Liberal Islam Network Indonesia — under heavy pressure, but in this direction hope may be found
• Millennium Matrix — site of Rex Miller’s interesting book
• Naturalism.Org — a resource for those interested in scientific naturalism and its personal and social implications
• Neil Levy on relativism — free first chapter of a valuable philosophy text
• Open Source Theology — postmodern, progressive, historically literate, undogmatic
• philaletheia: atheist/theist dialogue — One objective of this blog is to listen deeply and learn to talk to one another. Inactive since August 2007.
• Radical Faith — fundamentals of faith in a changed world
• Religious Tolerance — comprehensive Canadian site
• Richard Dawkins — not noted for his tolerance. Good stuff here though.
• Sea of Faith Australia — openly exploring issues of religion, faith and meaning
• Secular Islam — sceptical Islam site
• Signposts — Northern Community Church of Christ 81 High Street, Preston Victoria — a wide-ranging blog which may surprise some.
• Reality and Faith: a coming together of faith and reason — by Charles Notess 2006-7: “I believe that social scientists, cognitive scientists, and human scientists in related fields will overcome the separation between religious faith and science and by so doing will unite the bases of faith in all religions. I define faith as trusting in the idea that God is present and active in and through the behavior of loving and caring humans. As will be seen later, in a way, God is hardwired within those who bonded with their loving and caring Mother. I end with a discussion of Karen Armstrong’s Spiral Staircase and Spiral Dynamics by Don Edward Beck and Christopher Cowan. It is these ideas that led me to the title of my E-book: Reality and Faith.”
• Sojourners: Christians for Justice and Peace — not all Christians are Right Wing Republicans
• Stephanie Dowrick — self-help with depth
• Tao Te Ching — one of the most profound and sane religious texts in the world, and it makes no claim of infallibility.
• The CHRISTIAN CENTURY magazine — engaging head, heart, and the real world
• The Interview with God — beautiful visual presentation
• The Philosophers’ Magazine — worth visiting
• The Uniting Church in NSW — to which I belong
• Thich Nhat Hanh — everyone should read this
• Tikkun — progressive Judaism — indeed.
• Uniting Church of Australia Lectionary — the readings used in most churches
• Uniya Jesuit Social Justice — seeks to stand in solidarity with those on the margins of society

gay life and issues

• CONTRA/DICTION: THE GAY ARGUMENT AGAINST RECEIVED WISDOM — by Alex Au (Yawning Bread) in Singapore. “Homosexuality is, despite being neatly encapsulated in one word, a rather broad subject. It gets broader too from the way it leads to an examination of how we construct social norms, our ideas of morality, and how we (mis)read history. When we go deep enough, we may come to a point where we may realise that homosexuality is not in fact the subject under consideration at all, but homophobia, just as in discussing a different race, our prejudices and stereotypical ideas — our racism — are often revealed and cry out for scrutiny.”
• Creating Safe Schools for Lesbian and Gay Students — good US site. “Homophobia interferes with the health development of all young people, particularly those who are dealing with issues of sexual orientation. One of the many places gay and lesbian youth feel the effects of homophobia is within their schools. This booklet is designed to not only give school staff many valuable resources, but also to provide practical suggestions for helping to reduce homophobia within our schools. The ultimate goal is to ensure the safety of all students.”
• Family Acceptance — “On December 17, 1997, when our son Adam told us he was gay, our world was turned upside down. We were absolutely devastated. We desperately needed someone to comfort us, to assure us that our son, our family would be okay. But we were too embarrassed and scared to admit this secret to anyone, to reach out for comfort.”
• Gay Health — very important information.
• Gay Law Net — the law as it affects the global gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual and intersex (GLBTI) community
• GLBT Resources — on my English & ESL site.
• Healthy Place: Gay is OK — concise statement from the USA.
• International Lesbian and Gay Association — rich resource.
• Internet Resource on gay and bisexual male suicide — “The evidence indicates that homosexually oriented males account for more than half of male youth suicide problems, but mainstream suicidologists generally continue to ignore this aspect of the problem. Information about lesbian youth suicide problems is included, as is other generally unrecognized factors possibly associated with youth suicide problems.”
• Parents and Friends of Lesbians And Gays Australia — “We are the parents and friends of gay and lesbian people who are a part of our community. Some of our families may be large, some small. Some of us are married, some divorced, some single. Our occupations are a varied as our personalities and educational levels. HOWEVER. We do have a common bond. Someone we love and care for is lesbian or gay.”
• Pinkboard Blog List - Blog Roll — guess who is listed?
• Planet Out — news hub.
• Sexuality: the issues (Bullying No Way) — “The silence that surrounds issues of homosexuality and homophobia in schools means that little is done in organisation, teaching practice, culture or curriculum to challenge homophobic violence. Schools are not safe places for gay, lesbian or bisexual students. They may be verbally and physically harassed at school and physically assaulted as they travel to and from school.”
• SX Magazine Sydney — local Sydney source
• Sydney Star Observer — local Sydney source
• Same Same! — Australian gay news and social hub
• The Age of AIDS — great site of the PBS documentary.
• Uniting Network — “Members of the Uniting Church in Australia daring to embrace diversity.”

Multiculturalism and diversity

• Beyond Intractability — “Beyond Intractability: A Free Knowledge Base on More Constructive Approaches to Destructive Conflict.” University of Colorado project.
• Deadly Identities by Amin Maalouf — relevant here too!
• Global Voices Online — explore international voices.
• Immigration Orange at CampusTap Harvard — Kyle de Beausset’s blog on immigration issues, especially in the Americas, but also beyond. He speaks from experience.
• Multicultural Australia — a prize-winning educational resource.
• Ninglun and the Japanese backpacker — Reflections on learning English and crossing boundaries, both for the backpacker and myself.
• Racism No Way — Australian anti-racism education initiative
• Revision or Ideological Makeover? HREOC’s “Face the Facts” Rejigged — my analysis of the shift in Australian government rhetoric on cultural diversity.
• Tolerance.org — Respond to bigoted comments; 10 Ways to Fight Hate; 10 Ways to Fight Hate on Campus; 101 Tools for Tolerance; Respond to hate at school…

My sites. See also “About”.

• Ninglun’s Oz Politics and Big Archive
• Floating Life: Shakespeare with The Rabbit - page now here!
• Ninglun on Blogspot
• Ninglun on Journalspace (no new posts since December 2007)
• A CV — of sorts
• Am I like this?
• My ancestry
• See my political profile, and find yours.

Politics

• A manifesto for wellbeing — a blueprint for true progress in Australia
• Australian Centre for Democracy and Justice – “a social and environmental justice organisation that aims to deepen democracy in Australia by engaging the community and creating debate. We work in a global context towards the goal of communities being in control of their own destinies by addressing the power imbalances in society. We try to raise new ideas and approaches and show that there are highly democratic solutions that can we can build a just society on.”
• Australian Politics — an encyclopedic educational site
• Charles Notess: DEPOLARIZING A HOSTILE WORLD — key to peacemaking
• George Lakoff: Metaphor, Morality, and Politics — Why Conservatives Have Left Liberals In the Dust! Based in sound sociolinguistics.
• GetUp — action for Australia — a new political movement to build a more progressive Australia
• ozpolitics.info — one of your best guides to Australian politics and government. Go to the blog too
• Politics Online — true pioneer of the bottom up revolution
• The Corporation — the world will never seem the same again
• The Political Compass — clarity of definition
• The Poll Bludger: Australian election commentary — brilliant analysis!

Web stuff

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• Visual Route Trace online