Costello to go
Peter Costello is resigning from Parliament immediately, meaning a by-election before the end of the year. We’ll never know now, but here’s a ponderer – would the Liberals be in any better position now if a (motivated) Costello had taken [...]
Denniss: The CPRS is pointless. It's Copenhagen that counts.
Dr Richard Denniss from The Australia Institute writing in today’s Crikey [reproduced with permission]: The Senate debate about the CPRS is getting close, and with views as diverse as those of Steve Fielding and Bob Brown it’s likely to be [...]
Another possibly illusory link
There were plenty of nonexistent links discussed in last night’s 4 Corners program on Sydney’s public transport woes – key amongst them train links to Sydney’s growing outer suburbs. And the NSW Labor government comes out of it looking pretty [...]
Vale Marek Edelman
Lord Acton once wrote that “great men are almost always bad men”. Marek Edelman, who has just passed away aged either 87 or 90, was an unquestionably great human being who was also a very, very good human being, and [...]
More public opinion on abortion – are hypothetical hard cases preserving a bad law?
Todays Sydney Morning Herald and Australian both carry reports on an article by Katherine Betts in People and Place journal. The article summarises findings that show solid and growing pro-choice majorities in public opinion surveys. This is not particularly new [...]
Schadenfreude overdose
Apart from aforementioned schadenfreude, is there anything worth celebrating about the LNP’s SNAFU, FUBAR and BOHICA moments in their preselection for the seat of Macpherson in Queensland? I shall pre-empt the next Open Condemnation thread and condemn myself for being [...]
Smacking and spanking kids to improve their moral development
Or something. Corporal punishment (CP) is defined as “an act carried out with the intention of causing a child to experience pain, but not injury, for the purposes of correction and control”. Spanking and slapping are a “socially legitimate form [...]
Lazy Sunday!
Since we don’t live by politix alone (I sincerely hope), what did people get up to this weekend? Join in, share some tales, regulars and lurkers all!
Ben Naparstek, The Monthly and the Julia Gillard "biography wars"
A truly bizarre editorial decision from Ben Naparstek, who occupies the chair at The Monthly, has resulted in the publication of a review of Jacqueline Kent’s biography of Julia Gillard by Christine Wallace, who is writing a rival biography of [...]
Eels v Storm
Halfway through the season the Parramatta Eels looked gone for the season and possible wooden-spooners. Then came an incredible late run which saw them sneak into the finals at number 8. Never before has the 8th team made it through [...]
Just deserts
The response to the Polanski arrest has been so incredibly depressing, with so many people who should know better making strained attempts to excuse a child rapist just because he’s super-talented. Perhaps the most problematic arguments is the one that [...]
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