Quick link: Polls show ALP can win with Gillard
At The Drum, Andrew Catsaras has crunched the polling numbers, noting that “since July, the trend has been with the ALP”, and that: the ALP can win the next election – and, yes, with Julia Gillard as leader. … Go [...]
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 [...]
Saudi women can now vote (still can’t drive)
King Abdullah said his decision came because “we refuse marginalising women’s role in the Saudi society in all fields” and followed “consultations with several scholars”.
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
Amy Winehouse and the tragedy of myths
Winehouse’s struggles will have been compounded by the world she found herself in. Her death should stimulate reflection on how myths surrounding mental illness have a cruel hold over real lives.
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 [...]
The Great Julia Gillard Endless Sexism Show
Apropos this *auto-write-itself* article published today by Shaun Carney in The Age, Mark just asked on Facebook: While I myself was supporting KRudd to remain as PM, I wonder whether so many patronising exercises in condescending sexism directed to our [...]
Wikileaks, Cablegate: If the issue is due process, why the complainant shaming and trial by social media?
So, yesterday, I was saying that one effect of the #Cablegate infobomb was to disrupt all sorts of accepted patterns of behaviour, modes of judgement. This is a fast moving feast, though, and whether it’s just a human need for [...]
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