Power and sex in the trenches

Thursday 14 March 2024
Power and sex in the trenches

For maximum value in public sympathy make your opponent look grotesque. How actual and alleged sexual violence is playing in Gaza

A meme in any other frame wouldn’t spell as neat

Monday 11 March 2024
A meme in any other frame wouldn’t spell as neat

About memes in social media. Short can be good. A good meme, like a good pithy quotation, makes a single point well

Would you like Maccabees with that? — ii

Monday 12 February 2024
Would you like Maccabees with that? — ii

Why is a modest strip of land at the eastern end of the Mediterranean so hotly and violently contested, physically, philosophically and spiritually?

Would you like Maccabees with that? — i

Thursday 8 February 2024
Would you like Maccabees with that? — i

First in a series of brief pieces considering the historical foundations of the seven-decade conflict in the contested land known as Palestine

The heavens declare the glory of God

Sunday 28 January 2024
The heavens declare the glory of God

Why should a Christian believer trust science? Has science become a ‘religion’? Science as a gift enabling a better vision of the Glory of God

Raising a stubby for justice?

Thursday 25 January 2024
Raising a stubby for justice?

One more contribution to the Australia Day “question”. Whose day? Whose land? Whose nation? Together or apart? Is this the day? Is this the way?

The Red Penguins

Friday 3 November 2023
The Red Penguins

How do you know the truth about what’s really going on? By doing some research on YouTube of course. That’s where you’ll meet the penguins who run the show

My statistical life

Tuesday 17 October 2023
My statistical life

Do you want numbers to support your truth? Here is a quick tutorial I wrote on a serviette. No statistical skill required. In fact better with none

The idealist, the wrecker and the broken nation

Monday 16 October 2023
The idealist, the wrecker and the broken nation

Many, but not enough, Australians are in grief at a lost opportunity to finally include our First Nations People in our national prosperity

How not to become the bogans of Planet Earth

Saturday 30 September 2023
How not to become the bogans of Planet Earth

Here I get a little more passionate even than before. About the Voice. About indigenous Australians. About all Australians. The world is watching

Human Compassion Alert: read at your own risk

Friday 29 September 2023
Human Compassion Alert: read at your own risk

RMIT ABC Fact Check looks at the chief lines of misinformation being spread in the final leadup to the Voice Referendum. Both “Yes” and “No” claims are examined...

Speaking in a real Voice

Friday 15 September 2023
Speaking in a real Voice

When Australians vote in the coming Referendum on an indigenous Voice to Parliament, may evidence and fact triumph over fear and falsehood

Welcome to the circle

Wednesday 16 August 2023
Welcome to the circle

Between the antivax movement and the “NO” campaign against the Voice, Trumpism is thriving in Australia. Evidence has been supplanted by a circle of information...

Your all Greek future

Thursday 27 July 2023
Your all Greek future

Don’t know a second language? Your Greek vocabulary is looking good . It’s your future

Equality for the unequal

Saturday 22 July 2023
Equality for the unequal

The question for Australia in 2023: Will the Voice entrench inequality or remove it? The answer depends on whether equality is the starting base or the end goal...

Someone somewhere is lying

Friday 14 July 2023
Someone somewhere is lying

When political truth claims compete for the minds and hearts of Christian “truth people” and positions are taken. Reflections from Scripture, history and today

Being pithy in a long, messy, nuanced and complicated world

Thursday 4 May 2023
Being pithy in a long, messy, nuanced and complicated world

Love them or hate them, memes are here to stay. We could rail against them and those with the temerity to share them. Or we could stop and think, first, second...

Vale Robert Withycombe

Friday 17 March 2023
Vale Robert Withycombe

I don’t commonly publish obituaries, but this one demanded my attention. My small tribute to a pastor and scholar I only met a few times, but who impacted me nonetheless....

Same church, different Iles

Monday 27 February 2023
Same church, different Iles

A conservative Christian organisation terminates its managing director, and Australian Christian social media goes into overdrive. And there are really just two...

Asbury and the longing heart

Wednesday 22 February 2023
Asbury and the longing heart

Recent events on the campus at Asbury in Willmore, Kentucky have divided Christian and other commentators much as always. Is this “the real thing”?

Witch hunting is back

Tuesday 8 November 2022
Witch hunting is back

Consider the witch hunts of mediaeval Europe. Then consider contemporary political conspiracy theories, such as QAnon. Then ask yourself, “Are witch hunts back?...

Charged with myths

Saturday 29 October 2022
Charged with myths

A short piece about responding to the latest mythology on electric vehicles. Less about science denial, more about economic spin

Christian identity crisis #157

Friday 7 October 2022
Christian identity crisis #157

The current controversy around one man’s forced resignation as Essendon Football Club CEO highlights some gulfs between Christian and other worldviews

A true blue monarchy, my oath

Sunday 11 September 2022
A true blue monarchy, my oath

What next for Australia? Republic or monarchy? Local or foreign? Here mates is a you-beaut solution. An Aussie monarch. What a ripper.

Australian Grieving

Friday 9 September 2022
Australian Grieving

Australia, the Commonwealth and the world are mourning a momentous passing by any measure. On social media we will do this in a variety of ways. Live and let li...

We're not homophobic are we?

Thursday 18 August 2022
We're not homophobic are we?

Whilst supportive of the GAFCON movement within world Anglicanism, I have concerns as to what may be communicated by the present timing of a new diocese in Aust...

Transgender for anxious Christians

Monday 1 August 2022
Transgender for anxious Christians

Evangelical Christians tend to treat trans people and the whole idea of non-normative gender reactively rather than thoughtfully. But variations to the normative...

Oh the trenches of Numbla Vale

Saturday 30 July 2022
Oh the trenches of Numbla Vale

At last it’s happened. War has broken out in rural NSW, in the Snowy-Monaro region, in a paddock. Here is your on-the-spot report from your embedded reporter....

The sharing economy and your cat

Saturday 9 July 2022
The sharing economy and your cat

Cat ownership is so twentieth century. Leave all that behind and become a cat shareholder in the twenty-first century. The future is here.

Playing the ball starts here

Saturday 28 May 2022
Playing the ball starts here

If we expect our public leaders to abandon the practice of public ad hominem attacks as an alternative to policy debate, we really should start at home

Cheap shots and barnacles

Thursday 19 May 2022
Cheap shots and barnacles

The digital age makes it harder to keep public discourse on substantive issues. Instead we’re distracted by cheap shots. We can do better. And we must

Trans athletes just want to play sport

Monday 9 May 2022
Trans athletes just want to play sport

Why are Christians anxious about trans athletes in female sport? Maybe it’s no more than its newness. The latest social change for the rights of minorities

Real pro-life in a dying world

Thursday 5 May 2022
Real pro-life in a dying world

Is absolute opposition to abortion the only Christian position? Perhaps not? An evangelical pastor asks again. As Roe v Wade seems to hang in the balance, let’s...

Easter Chewsday

Tuesday 19 April 2022
Easter Chewsday

If you’re so boring and shortsighted as to raise your kids to be responsible, disciplined and health-conscious, be sure it will come back to bite you one day when...

The keyboard is mightier than the gun

Friday 1 April 2022
The keyboard is mightier than the gun

A mac nerd ponders Ukraine. A lot of software developers live there. Some may be my relatives, as may some of the invading forces. Pray for the peace of Ukraine....

The pandemic, the politics and the science

Sunday 27 March 2022
The pandemic, the politics and the science

How do medical science, the Coronavirus, pubic health and US politics get on together? ZDoggMD is one place to find out. I’m just starting. Might be a good ride....

The aioli challenge

Sunday 20 March 2022
The aioli challenge

A challenge for the hip and enterprising foodie. Post a video selfie demonstrating your ability to eat a Turkish take-away kebab with umm … refined delicacy

Happy New Holland Day, cobbers!

Tuesday 25 January 2022
Happy New Holland Day, cobbers!

Australia Day. What or who might we be if the Brits hadn’t hoisted the flag first? A light reflection on the modern history of the land in the south

An island, a king, and a true blue republic

Monday 24 January 2022
An island, a king, and a true blue republic

King Bluey and his royal Aussie successors shall live in a pub on Macquarie Island. It ticks every box surely. Lots of history, bracing climate, miles from everywhere....

Would you like microbes with that?

Sunday 23 January 2022
Would you like microbes with that?

Will the common cup tradition survive the covid era? I’d love to hear from Anglicans in particular (and any others who share that tradition). But all are welcome...

A tale of two worlds: social media and truth - Part IV

Saturday 1 January 2022
A tale of two worlds: social media and truth - Part IV

Final of 4. Truth, falsehood and trust. False premise #5: “The Media” is suppressing inconvenient information for an agenda. The fallacies of circular reasoning....

A tale of two worlds: social media and truth - Part III

Friday 31 December 2021
A tale of two worlds: social media and truth - Part III

3 of 4. Truth, falsehood and trust. False premise #4: If there’s a counter narrative out there, there must be truth to it. More information does not mean more...

A tale of two worlds: social media and truth - Part II

Thursday 30 December 2021
A tale of two worlds: social media and truth - Part II

2 of 4. Truth, falsehood and trust. False premise #3: All opinions are equal. The government and the experts are lying to us about their agenda. Ant-science sentiment....

A tale of two worlds: social media and truth - Part I

Wednesday 29 December 2021
A tale of two worlds: social media and truth - Part I

Beginning a 4-part series: Truth, falsehood and trust. How certain false premises have undermined trust in our culture. #1: global control by an ‘elite’. #2: only...

Back to the blog

Sunday 26 December 2021
Back to the blog

Why I stopped blogging years ago, and why the blog and I are back with a fresh suit. The writing art, the lures of social media and its limitations. Stay tuned....

Bibles, beer and blindness

Tuesday 14 March 2017

OK. I’ve been listening to this debate raging among Christians as well as in the general community - all without actually watching the video clip - until now....

The hip pocket verve

Monday 2 January 2017
The hip pocket verve

This is one for my fellow suffering blokes. Are you tired of sitting on a burgeoning mound of leather, plastic, cardboard and metal alloys? .. buying new jeans...

Mal’s folly

Wednesday 22 June 2016

Ok here's my take on the NBN debacle ...Tony Abbott was ideologically committed to trashing Labor's legacy, root and branch. He tasked his shadow cabinet members...

Mercies in disguise

Wednesday 4 May 2016

Being a fogey I naturally don't keep up with the latest in contemporary Christian music. So an awful lot passes me by, interspersed with haphazard moments of discovery....

Batting for Jesus on a rough wicket

Wednesday 27 April 2016

The teacher set the class the common task of designing their own respective coats of arms and matching life mottos. Our son’s motto was simple and to the point:
Cricket....

What about the birds?

Tuesday 19 April 2016

My vote on July 2 will go to the party whose leader can most satisfactorily answer the weightiest moral and economic question of our time. That question of course...

Cakes, weddings and Jesus

Friday 8 April 2016

I’d like to raise a question I haven't raised before anywhere. I’m thinking aloud, so this isn’t a ‘position’ in any sense. More an exploratory question … 
To...

Why Pell is not the tree to bark up

Tuesday 1 March 2016

I’m getting frustrated with much of the media commentary on Cardinal Pell and the Royal Commission. This isn’t about whether he’s a good guy or a bad guy, whatever...

Jesus and Anzac

Friday 25 April 2014

I'm just back from a half-day's Anzac Day commemoration here in Cooma. Part 1 - the Anzac Service at the Cooma Cenotaph. Part 2 - the semi-formal lunch at the...

Say "No" to all domestic abuse

Tuesday 22 April 2014

Fairfax's campaign on domestic violence is an exemplary instance of harnessing the power of a major media organisation for social good. Former Queensland premier...

Too much spark

Wednesday 1 January 2014

The only truly surprising thing about the excessive revelry of New Year’s Eve indulgence in Fitzroy North’s Edinburgh Gardens, is that it wasn’t replicated in...

Up the poll

Wednesday 9 October 2013

Is there no end to the prevailing obsession with polls? When for the past 3 years our senses have been numbed and our reasoning capacities neutered by almost daily...

Hanging with the Greens

Wednesday 31 July 2013

So its official. Asylum seekers are now the sacrificial lambs, to be offered up by both would-be governments to appease the rednecks who now hold the balance of...

Anywhere

Friday 19 July 2013

And when Manus fills up … ?


WANTED URGENTLY: uninhabited islands, disused prison hulks, surplus orbiting space stations … anything really.


Must...

Are faces too human?

Tuesday 9 July 2013

I can’t say I've ever taken much notice of the relative content of The Age’s print and online editions. But I'm intrigued by the non-appearance in print of an...

Boats and votes

Tuesday 2 July 2013

The new Rudd Government’s emerging asylum seeker policy will be a thing of horror to many Australians, but unfortunately not the ‘right’ ones. What we're now seeing...

Dishonourable mentions

Wednesday 26 June 2013

Your Editorial of 22nd June called on then Prime Minister Julia Gillard to stand aside from her office “so that vigorous, policy-driven democratic debate can flourish...

Quality time

Sunday 9 June 2013

Your leading editorial of Saturday 8th June is right to call our political leaders back to matters of substance, but short on collective self-awareness. The standard...

A Little thought

Thursday 30 May 2013

Cardinal Pell's account to the present abuse enquiry has quite understandably attracted more anger than sympathy, casting much doubt on his humanity. However on...

Anyone for cordial?

Sunday 24 March 2013

Dave Greenslade’s vignette (Letters, 25/3) of the wartime cordiality between Menzies and Curtin might well be a piece of space fiction, beside the governmental...

Doodling on the hill

Wednesday 13 March 2013

Jaye Fletcher (Letters, 14/3) is a bit tough on the pollies with their smart phones. If we expect the poor blighters to sit through day-long meetings on our behalf,...

Habemus Denis

Wednesday 13 March 2013

Who does this poncey Argentinian think he is anyway? We had the conclave right here in Melbourne a week ago. And the Pope’s name is Denis.

Differently wired

Sunday 10 March 2013

Amidst the furious political commentary on the rise and fall of Ted Baillieu as Liberal leader, little has been observed about the role of temperament in the art...

Simply trust

Sunday 10 March 2013

Mary Delahunty (Opinion, 11/3) joins a long list of commentators and public figures suggesting that Prime Minister Julia Gillard's fight for legitimacy is fundamentally...

What can I say?

Sunday 27 January 2013

Please, no more letters denouncing lexical abuse. I'm speechless already.

Gun control and all that - a critical response

Sunday 20 January 2013

On the Second AmendmentIn the course of a discussion on Facebook the other day, a friend referred me favourably to the above post, asking my opinion. In reading...

Surplus talk

Thursday 10 January 2013

Hey, big spender: Howard the king of the loose purse strings This will undoubtedly not end the frothing at the mouth on both sides of the house about the most...

Up the poll again

Wednesday 9 January 2013

With a surfeit of worthy contenders, it would be difficult to single out one Age Reader's Poll for an inanity award. However the question posed on 9th January...

MyBusKi?

Friday 4 January 2013

Skybus on Myki? Way to go! Another chance to showcase our technological accomplishments to the world. (Let's hope the world doesn't touch-off.)

Now the jokes are on the Mayans

Saturday 22 December 2012

From little things slightly larger things occasionally grow. Here’s a slightly matured expansion of a recent Facebook status update …

What will the Mayans...

A coin toss

Wednesday 19 December 2012

I'm trying to decide which major party I respect less. Labor for sacrificing the world's poor to appease the god of economics, and insulting our intelligence with...

Another unMykely story

Thursday 6 December 2012

It’s been some time since I've ruminated in this forum on the mysterium tremendum which is Victoria’s very own Myki. That’s because its all been remarkably quiet...

The lonely Cardinal

Thursday 15 November 2012

Editorial Opinion: ‘Pell has failed the church and its victims’

This was a secular commentator, and sadly I think they're right. Also sadly, the Cardinal...

Migration zone

Tuesday 30 October 2012

Well there's still Tassie.

Living with grey

Sunday 14 October 2012

Even for those who believe unfashionably in absolute truth and absolute error (notably we orthodox Christians), mature engagement with the world demands a basic...

Just ugly

Wednesday 10 October 2012

In a seemingly interminable announcement late in 2010, Federal independent MP Rob Oakeshott held the nation in thrall awaiting what amounted to his casting vote...

Enough about Alan & Tony

Tuesday 9 October 2012

Quite magnanimous of The Age (Letters, Tuesday) to publish Roger Stagg’s observation that 46.7 percent (14 of 31) of letters printed Monday, related to Tony Abbott....

Strong, please … and no sugar

Tuesday 2 October 2012

So let’s see if I've got this right. To prove oneself morally pure, the unacceptable must be condemned (or something as closely synonymous as possible), and the...

The off switch

Monday 1 October 2012

I don’t like Alan Jones, and there is no defence for his tasteless remark about the Prime Minister’s late father. However the flurry of online vigilanteism in...

Very touching

Tuesday 18 September 2012

Police using Myki to track people? (The Age, 17/9) What a brilliant way to catch those fare evaders! Oh wait ...

The wide mercurial boy

Friday 14 September 2012

Michelle Grattan (Opinion, 14/9) says Tony Abbott is . Probably explains why we see so much of him.

Fair fighting in the public square

Wednesday 12 September 2012

published here at On Line Opinion 
Where two or more people are caught in a seemingly intractable dispute yielding only mounting frustration, the first word...

Headlines and other mythologies

Tuesday 11 September 2012

Oh for Pete’s sake! It’s time to sack a few sub-editors and redraft some headlines.


First the SMH publishes a headline with a grossly inaccurate and...

Introverts in the Church

Friday 7 September 2012
Introverts in the Church

“Introverts in the Church”, Adam S McHugh
I came across this title in the course of researching on the subject of introversion among Christian pastoral leaders....

Plain coal

Thursday 6 September 2012

Well at least they could make them sell their coal in plain packaging.

A sweet reward

Tuesday 4 September 2012

Our two cats are anticipating a very satisfactory Christmas, following the purchase of Darrell Lea by the pet food Quinns.

Mobilise the grannies

Friday 17 August 2012

I quit smoking 40-odd years ago, aged 11, and haven’t looked back. That surely qualifies me to offer a suggestion or two on finishing off the tobacco industry....

Sleepless on the sofa

Wednesday 15 August 2012

Geez, mate. We've reached a pretty pass when a bloke can’t get some kip in front of the box watching the cricket, without the nippers scarpering and the cops getting...

Just playing

Saturday 11 August 2012

Saturday’s leading front page article should make us all nauseous. But it probably won’t. $310m of our taxes have been spent so that the fitter of our compatriots...

Myki does it again

Friday 10 August 2012

My capacity to expend further scribal energy on Myki is waning. I shall be brief. Just had yet another two phone conversations with Myki staff, after second “change...

Class action

Thursday 9 August 2012

Seems our cricket team has dropped to 4th in the ICC’s one-day rankings. That on the heels of all those tacky silver medals in London. Desperate times alright....

A daily suppository

Wednesday 8 August 2012

Here we are back on the Myki investigative trail, continuing from last time. When last I mused, I revealed the gnostic intrigue of the “change of mind”, with its...

My Myki, my life

Monday 6 August 2012

I reckon I was onto more than I knew in coining the language of gnosticism in recent reflections on my personal Myki saga. Indeed I've now attained a still higher...

What we don't want

Monday 6 August 2012

Spot on, Tony Burns. [end Letters, The Age, 6/8] Public funding of sport is plenty high enough already. The front page [end same date] should say it all. Half...

We're all psychics now

Saturday 4 August 2012

Some still valiantly persist in calling it a “news” cycle. But the tidal wave of reality is thinning their numbers. Increasingly now it’s just a stock exchange...

And so this is Christmas

Saturday 4 August 2012

Who remembers the olden days when we complained about Christmas goods in the shops in October? The local Woolies is selling Christmas mince pies. There’s either...

Top-up no dropoff

Friday 3 August 2012

A glance at my tag cloud indicates what rich blogging fodder Myki has provided over the past few years; a fact we of the blogosphere are thankful for (when we...

Stop medalling

Wednesday 1 August 2012

So, the Aussie commentariat is obsessing over medals? Well honestly, is anyone truly surprised? We have this same discussion through letters, talkback and (more...

unAustrian

Monday 30 July 2012

The lengthy coverage of the Australian team's entrance meant the arrival of the Austrian team was overlooked. I'm a proud Australian, but as an ex-Austrian I feel...

A neglected gift

Saturday 21 July 2012

Last night I discovered my daughter’s hidden blog, to which she has clearly posted rather erratically. That fact, together with many of the blogged ruminations...

Not the Olympics

Saturday 21 July 2012

Modern Olympic Movement pioneer Baron Pierre de Coubertin’s mind would be exercised by more than in-flight gender discrimination between athletes. Were he to return...

No, Myki! Please, please … anything but that!!!!!

Friday 20 July 2012

The great thing about Myki is that you learn something new about it most days. The sad part is that each new learning is most rarely either pleasant or winsome....

The driest incontinence on earth

Wednesday 18 July 2012

I thought I'd had the laugh of the week on reading the Zits cartoon (18/7) about . But that was before I got to the bladder-bursting lines from the real bureaucrats.

First...

In the wrong queue

Thursday 12 July 2012

Medicare was born not long before our eldest child. At the first consultation with the doctor managing my wife's pregnancy, he wryly directed us to take the receipt...

Skipping all stations

Friday 25 May 2012

Metro's strategy of "altered" services should be applauded as the stroke of sheer strategic genius that it is. And the lift in performance bonuses isn't the half...

No fairytale

Sunday 22 April 2012

Not quite the fairytale for poor Gingerella. The handsome prince has turned into a glass Slipper, and the ugly sisters are dancing a jig in their budgie smugglers....

If I like you less, does that mean I like you more?

Thursday 19 April 2012

I don't know who or what I like anymore, since Facebook stole my dictionary. And now I'm wondering whether "like"-ing everything I read would actually devalue...

Economic myopia

Tuesday 10 April 2012

In challenging Archbishop Freier's grasp of economics, Colin McLean (Letters, 10/4) evidences his own brand of fiscal myopia. Dr Freier is not the only one who...

Let's get lexical

Thursday 5 April 2012

The lexical proficiencies of consultants Mercer are grossly under-utilised in merely serving the behavioural capabilities of educators at a single tertiary institution....

Manners, please

Monday 27 February 2012

After a week in which public political discourse has reached a new low on the common decency index, the community deserves better than major organs of media dancing...

Trying to look annoyed

Saturday 4 February 2012

Until recently I thought the hardest thing about being snapped (by a camera) was putting on a smile that actually lasted, looked sublime, didn't make me look a...

Ticket to ride, and ride, and ride, and ....

Saturday 7 January 2012

Those folks who say Melbourne's Skybus isn't good value just haven't considered the technology. Granted the tickets have barcodes. But from my experience yesterday,...

Runs and rupees

Friday 6 January 2012

(The Age, Reader poll, 5/1) Well absolutely, if Clarke keeps batting like this.

A bigger vision

Thursday 5 January 2012

Australian Marriage Equality convener, Alex Greenwich (The Age, 5/1), needs to listen a little more to religious community concerns on gay marriage. Proposed legislation...

The voice of experience

Wednesday 14 December 2011

Two PMs? We know all about it. But how many independents?

Don't thank us

Friday 4 November 2011

If you're one of our customers directly affected by the grounding, you can look forward to a special thank-you … (Fullpage Qantas ad, The Age, 4/11)
Don't tell...

An uglier game

Monday 26 September 2011

The race to the moral bottom has gone viral, it seems. No longer confined to our major politics, it now infects our major religions too. The next time you put...

The God-shaped hole

Thursday 22 September 2011

This is the text of my sermon from last Sunday. The audio file is available on my podcast as usual, which is why I don't normally post my text anymore. But a few...

More evidence that God uses a mac

Monday 22 August 2011

I've discovered an even better method of using my iPad as a preacher, and surely further proof that there will be no Windows in heaven. One of those serendipitous...

Let's have a real debate

Sunday 29 May 2011

The recent publication of Lindsay Tanner's "Sideshow" has in some sense given us all permission to question the health of politics in Australia, and especially...

Words and conspiracies

Monday 16 May 2011

In a free, democratic and diverse society it's only to be expected that the place of religious belief in public life will be debated. This is as it should be....

The silence of the plods

Monday 9 May 2011

I would love to know what really went on between Mr Overland and his former deputy, Sir Ken Jones - just as between Nixon and Ashby, Rudd and Gillard, Turnbull...

Anyone for a truly secular long weekend?

Tuesday 26 April 2011

Thanks to 2011's happy confluence of the lunar cycle, a Christian festival and the Australian calendar, Australians have enjoyed the mother of all long weekends....

Be sure your tweets will find you out

Tuesday 26 April 2011

Before the commentariat, Christian and other, condemns the Australian Christian Lobby's Jim Wallace as a loony fundamentalist bigot, let's all take a deep breath...

The PM's Speech

Thursday 21 April 2011

So the PM needs elocution? (Dean Frankel, Opinion, 21/4) Repeat after me, Julia: The refrain unplain goes mainly down the drain.

Not in my back pocket

Tuesday 19 April 2011

Perhaps it's time to call a spade a spade on climate change action. Call me a pessimist, a simpleton or both. But here's how it looks from my kitchen table ......

Close to home

Monday 11 April 2011

A light has just dawned for me, and it's not a pretty sight. A bunch of teens brutalise a defenceless creature in a suburban park, and we're unequivocally sickened...

Honesty: a political health hazard

Thursday 7 April 2011

A senior politician admits serious error on national television, and the nation's collective lower jaw hits the dirt. After the necessary analysis from commentators...

The secular gospel

Tuesday 5 April 2011

, Tina Whittle? (Letters, 5/4) That does sound interesting. Would that be something like a lecture on heart surgery delivered by a plumber?

Has the free speech horse Bolted?

Monday 4 April 2011

Whatever one's personal opinion either of News Limited's columnist Andrew Bolt as a person or, of the case now before the court -- and it's clear opinions vary...

Losing the way

Tuesday 8 March 2011

Polls heading south again, eh Julia? Bit of a blow. Good government losing it's way again, I suppose.

Confessions of an unusually old closet hipster (apparently)

Tuesday 1 March 2011

I'm still in recovery mode after a Saturday morning breakfast conversation with my two still-living-at-home unattached 20-something Gen-Y offspring. It was in...

Rednecks

Tuesday 1 March 2011

With all those rednecks flocking to Avalon (front page photo, 28/2), I'm amazed the Prime minister wasn't asked to comment. Avalon is now in her electorate. may...

King Warnie

Friday 11 February 2011

Whoever first dubbed Shane Warne spoke more than they knew. Move over, Will & Kate. No offence intended toward our esteemed constitutional monarchy, but we just...

The politics of being human

Wednesday 9 February 2011

We as a nation - politicians, journalists and the general public - are displaying remarkably short memories of a Federal election campaign which was long on spin...

The changing of the colours

Tuesday 1 February 2011

About the flag, one thing at least is clear. Ausflag director, Brendan Jones has never tried changing the carpet in an Anglican church.

More than words

Saturday 15 January 2011

While waters have flooded Queensland, some Australians with less on their minds have flooded cinemas and other venues. And in a week when public leaders have been...

Leading flick

Friday 14 January 2011

A number of friends have raved on Twitter, Facebook and blogs about the new movie http://www.kingsspeech.com/Official page_blank, describing it as a must see....

God-talk on Facebook

Monday 10 January 2011

Some thoughts by one recent Facebook returnee ...
Facebook has without question become one of the key places where the world hangs out. (e.g. a recent newspaper...

No backyard

Friday 7 January 2011

Clarkey pulling up stumps on T20? Makes good sense, I reckon. I did the same thing 10 years ago, when we moved to a house without a backyard.

A grinch for New Year!

Monday 3 January 2011

Raining on others' parades is not normally my style. But the $256,000 budget for the fireworks over the 'G rates at least a casual question. Impressive? Spine-tingling?...

Very touching

Friday 31 December 2010

There's a lot to like about Myki, and many travellers who've been willing to persevere with some of its early foibles have been rewarded with a (mostly) functional...

Relativity in sport

Wednesday 29 December 2010

As erstwhile founding father of the Anti-Football League, Keith Dunstan (Opinion, 29/12) is well placed to comment on some of the excesses of Australian sporting...

Call the vet!

Saturday 25 December 2010

Forget burning the bails. Is there a vet in the house?

When truth leaks no one stays dry

Friday 10 December 2010

The first flush of WikiLeaking has awoken the world. But in the scramble to untangle the cables, response to the leaker has been anything but nuanced. The most...