QED
Out of Africa, a missionary Pope?
February 19, 2013
If the next Pontiff hails from Africa, let us hopo that talk of racial justice is kept to a mimum. The case for a Third World cardinal assuming the mantle of St Peter is far more compelling than mere tokenism
Read more...Q&A: This week's sneak peek
February 18, 2013
As a public service, and in an effort to prepare viewers for the peculiar pleasure of being appalled by their ABC's Monday night gabfest, here is a guide to this week's guests. It may differ markedly from the official biographies
Read more...Shambles, thy name is Julia, Wayne, Peter, Greg...
February 17, 2013
No matter what its latest scheme -- be it a mining tax or poaching Peter Slipper -- Gillard & Co. can be counted upon to make an absolute and appalling mess of things
Read more...Downton Shabby: Plush sets and dog-eared cliches
February 16, 2013
Downton Abbey's plotlines have gone pear-shaped, and the scriptwriters will really have to pull one out of the hat if the season just begun is to avoid drowning in its own cliches
Read more...Expiating white guilt? It's entirely academic
February 14, 2013
Those preaching that the bloody guilt of colonialism is visited upon the settlers' descendants demonstrate a remarkable reluctance to act in accordance with their own teachings. There would be a rush to the airport if they did
Read more...On Lit Board grants, words fail her
February 14, 2013
When the Literature Board announced the latest slashing of Quadrant's funding, no adequate explanation was forthcoming. We are still waiting, and so is Senator Eric Abetz, who has extracted a promise from the Australia Council's acting chief to look into the decision and explain its logic
Read more...Adding the value of nothing
February 14, 2013
There is something very nearly wilfull about policymakers' adherence to a theory whose shortcomings have been manifestly obvious for so long. Yet still they persist, determined to ignore that it is the adding of a value which determines if an economy flounders or flourishes
Read more...The next Pope probably won't be a black lesbian
February 12, 2013
Until white smoke rises over the Vatican, predicting who will lead the Catholic Church is going to be a game to keep many "informed" sources very busy
Read more...You've got it. She wants it. They'll take it
February 11, 2013
Canberra's debt junkies are itching for their next fix. Lock the doors, bar the windows -- Gillard & Co are drooling and twitching at the thought of taking your super to Cash Converters
Read more...Bring your knitting. The Jacobins are back
February 11, 2013
They lack the powdered wigs and tumbrels, but Robespierre's heirs are alive, well and just as determined to see free speech led to the guillotine
Read more...What the left can teach conservatives
February 10, 2013
Where conservatives cite history and precedent, the left peddles emotion and feel-good abstractions in media-packaged slogans and sound bytes. In the battle of ideas, it is beyond time to counter that advantage
Read more...Curing the hospital-funding stoush
February 8, 2013
The feud over federal hospital funding between Victorian and the Commonwealth is producing much heat and little light. A much-needed arbitrator could settle the dispute very quickly -- something Tony Abbott should bear in mind as election day draws closer
Read more...Owning Wayne Swan
February 8, 2013
If profits are common property, as our Treasurer seems to believe, let's all claim a share of with the wealth he has created. Please, stop laughing....
Read more...Australia, the Bleating Country
February 7, 2013
It is easy to whine when things go wrong, to dump the quest for solutions in the lap of governments that have demonstrated a singular inability to implement them. A double dose of realism and personal responsibility is the better and sobering remedy
Read more...A modest proposal for balanced broadcasting
February 7, 2013
There is a better solution than flinging shoes at the screen when ABC talking heads interrupt or SBS yet again exposes Australian "racism". It is called equal time, and a little legislative tickling could achieve it
Read more...Australian journalism's reeking cesspit
February 4, 2013
Bias, selective reporting, glorified stenography, groupthink -- Australian newsrooms have come to be populated by propagandists masquerading as journalists. Tony Abbott can fix that. They will fix him if he doesn't
Read more...Devious, dishonest and, worst of all, incompetent
February 3, 2013
Australia has seen bad leaders in the past, but never the likes of Julia Gillard. From race riots to government by lie and smear, is there no limit to the depths she is determined to plumb?
Read more...Rodents overboard!
February 2, 2013
Labor's ship is foundering and some of the nastiest creatures Australian political life has seen in living memory are bolting for their comfy, pension-padded holes behind the skirting board. Hallelujah!
Read more...A blight at the opera
February 2, 2013
Perhaps, if the Marx Brothers had been involved, that remarkable performance of Turandot might have been just a little stranger. But not by much
Read more...The media's endless open season on conservatives
February 1, 2013
Conservatives have tended to shrug off blatant leftist bias and groupthink in the media. We can no longer let those lies and distortions go unanswered, especially not with an election on the horizon
Read more...
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