How to conduct the debate on same sex marriage
It’s inevitable that the debate on same sex marriage, which has reached a new level since the passage in Queensland last week of the Civil Partnerships Bill and the decisions of the ALP National Conference on the weekend, will be [...]
Same sex marriage, the ALP Conference and Tony Abbott
The ALP National conference yesterday amended the federal platform to support marriage equality being enshrined in statute, but on another motion, allowed members and Senators a conscience vote. This despite the force of the claim by Senator John Faulkner: It [...]
Civil Unions vote in Queensland tomorrow night
Deputy Premier Andrew Fraser’s bill, the Civil Partnerships Bill 2011, will go before the Queensland Parliament tomorrow night at 7.30pm. A vote is expected some time early the next morning. As the Brisbane Times reports, numbers in the House are [...]
Andrew Fraser’s Civil Unions bill being considered by parliamentary committee
The Legal Affairs, Police, Corrective Services and Emergency Services Committee of the Queensland Parliament is holding public hearings today on a bill introduced by Deputy Premier Andrew Fraser to enshrine civil unions in state law. The text of the Civil Partnerships [...]
Julian Assange, Andrew Bolt: political celebrity and the ‘free speech’ of privilege
Julian Assange, a little late to the party, penned an op/ed for Fairfax last week defending Andrew Bolt’s ‘right to free speech’. It’s an odd piece of writing. Assange asserts, all John Stuart Mill-like, that: The best policy decisions result [...]
At Home with Julia: didn’t fail to disappoint
The AGE must have thought At Home With Julia was a doco, because they had an item about it in the News section today. “Slight it certainly was, but not fundamentally unkind – to the Prime Minister at least.” Er, [...]
The Global Village still has idiots
WA’s Attorney General wants to give parents legal rights over their children’s Facebook pages. Miranda Devine, in her typically careful way with words, describes social media as “barbarism, unleashing the worst elements of human nature, with no restraints” and quotes [...]
Inequality and social well-being
From Understanding Society authors Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson, income inequalities as such are a source of a variety of social problems in any society. They find that there is a strong negative relationship between income inequalities and social well-being, [...]
Hairspray the Musical: Cultural politics of the 60s, now, and race
What interests me in this post is the cultural politics of Hairspray. One of its marketing themes is 60s nostalgia. That nostalgia is by necessity a collective re-imagining of what the 60s ‘meant’, whether or not we were around to form our own judgements.
Gay Syrian activist girl revealed as married American man
Thomas MacMaster endangered the safety of real Syrian activitists who were agitating for her release. His fictions now cast doubt on the writings of a whole range of other Middle Eastern activist bloggers writing in English.
Weekly Whimsy
This week’s whimsy is brought to you by an improved clip of an internet classic: the contortionist Ross sisters singing Solid Potato Salad.
Please share any bits and pieces you have come across recently that have surprised, delighted, intrigued or otherwise positively engaged you.
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