It’s complicated
Because apparently the best way to counter simplistic, misguided arguments is by making different simplistic, misguided arguments.
White Ribbon Day
Marcus Campbell provides some good reading, and a good basis for reflection on White Ribbon Day at The Drum. In the piece, to my mind, this quote from sociologist Dr Michael Flood epitomises the challenge that faces us, and the [...]
Tone
I really wanted to write a good review of this book, but this was not the book to do it. Abbott is a conviction politician, no matter how angry certain commenter may be when I say that. He wants power, yes, and he is ruthless in his pursuit of it. But he wants power for a reason, not just for its own sake. I just hope that the debate this book sparked gets people talking about what those reasons are.
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 [...]
Campbell Newman’s glass jaw and wayward Cairns candidate
I have a story in Crikey today on Campbell Newman’s travails. The Lord Mayor turned Opposition Leader outside Parliament has been on the back foot for over a month, displaying tetchiness over demands that he more fully disclose his financial [...]
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, [...]
Don’t accept the premise
SlutWalk seeks to address the idea that a woman’s behaviour in one sphere of life should have no bearing on how she is judged in other spheres
On leadership and Christine Nixon
It appears that former Victorian Police Commissioner Christine Nixon’s new book (of which you can read an extract here) has relit the metaphorical fires surrounding her tenure. Her political battles with sections of the force, and News Limited, were brought [...]
Our bodies, our iPods
“How does “slutwalking” differ in substance from the hypothetical example of a middle class person of either gender parading around the streets of a notoriously poor and violent inner city suburb displaying their iPod, iPhone, iPad and a wallet obviously stuffed with money?”
The great Julia Gillard Disability Support Pension lie
I write this post as someone with a disability that isn’t going to go away. (A missing leg isn’t gonna grow back). I also write this post as someone who works. And I write this post as someone who would [...]
International Women’s Day and debates about privilege
Happy International Women’s Day! It’s the hundredth anniversary, and from where I sit, it’s a bit of a pity that most of the public debate has been dominated by people like Gail Kelly and Quentin Bryce talking about the urgent [...]
Recent Comments