Australian race riots continue for second day

It looks like another casualty in the "war on terror" that John Howard had to have. Both the white youths and the Middle Eastern youths appear to be stuck in a tit-for-tat cycle of street violence at the moment. Bush's good friend PM John Howard meanwhile still is skeptical about the racism playing any role in what is happening. Perhaps things have changed radically in the last couple of years but I distinctly recall being shocked by how educated Australians spoke about non-whites and nobody seemed to flinch or be offended.

In my travels across six continents I have yet to visit a country that did not have problems with racism. Every country always seems to think that their own country is fine, it's the other countries that have the problem but the reality is it exists everywhere. The primary difference is how a society reacts to discrimination. Looking at the hard right moves going on in the US including Alito on the Supreme Court, I'm left wondering how long it will be until the US turns back the clock 30-40 years and starts to re-experience the tensions of the past.