In the latest, somewhat delayed, edition of Shire Network News, "Tom Paine" interviews Charles Winecoff, a contributor to the Big Hollywood blog for conservatives working in the creative arts. He says coming out as a conservative was harder than telling people he was gay.

In Blog News, we reveal the awful truth behind the Dick Cheney secret CIA program - that it wasn't actually implemented; the Camel Corps in the British Foreign Office impose an arms embargo on...well it's not China or Iran or Burma, we're sure you can figure out that it's You Know Who; Harriet Harperson decrees people like Michael Parkinson are now Official Victims by declaring war against anti-Northern prejudice; and Australian Environment Minister and former lead singer of Midnight Oil, Peter Garrett, approves a new mine in South Australia! Rock on Pete - way to fight The Man!

The world spins out of control as we head towards te end of what has been, I think we can all admit, a particularly low, dishonest decade, and Phyllis Chesler has noticed the similarities between today and the immediate pre-war summers of 1914 and 1939. But "Tom Paine" has discovered a commentary on the world scene which was recorded a while ago which is still well worth listening to. Regular listeners may have already worked out who the speaker is.

There's a poignant song by Connie Dover as well, and if you like it, please go and buy more of her great stuff.

And Doug Payton and Meryl Yourish both comment on Obama care - they seem curiously reluctant to wind up with Austin Powers teeth, NHS spectacles, and hospitals with things like ten month waiting lists for a bed in a maternity ward.