Dante Alighieri: a giant of the West and a man for our times
Tuesday marks the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri, the Florentine poet, politician and philosopher. Dante, or as…
Amen to Abbott
The Twitteratti have been in a tizz since Wednesday when a busybody got a shot of Tony Abbott, sans mask,…
Josh Frydenberg defends the indefensible with JobKeeper
How do you defend the indefensible? You give a politician a pen and some newspaper column centimetres. I tend not…
Why has Queensland Labor declared war on Catholic healthcare over euthanasia?
What contempt the Queensland Government must have for Christians that they have chosen the middle of a pandemic to pick…
High Court ruling means the end of social media
It’s not very often a news item pokes its head above the laughable parody of our national conversation. Get your…
Just the facts: Coronavirus in Australia by the numbers
Notes: The data below is generally current as at 7 September 2021 however there may be some minor discrepancies due…
Why should women tolerate the big swinging dicks of the transgender movement – Part II
The Attorney-General Michaelia Cash announced the appointment of a new Human Rights Commissioner, Lorraine Finlay, this week. I live in…
Climate warriors, heroes and idiots
Former Wallaby great David Pocock was interviewed on ABC Radio National by Fran Kelly last week. He was invited onto…
The very American heroism of Todd Beamer
Twenty years ago today, on the morning of 11 September 2001, 32-year-old Todd Beamer boarded a United Airlines flight at Newark,…
The rise of Taliban Twitter
The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was swift, but this victory wasn’t won overnight. For years, the Taliban has been waging…
You can't keep an American exceptionalist down
Like millions of other Americans I was riveted by the images of chaos and despair at the Kabul airport as US…
Does Nicola Sturgeon care more about oil revenue or climate change?
‘Now, as I’ve hopefully made clear throughout all of my remarks, the North Sea will continue to produce oil for…
More than one way to ruin a country
The shock of the brutal religious fanaticism of the Taliban again abroad in Afghanistan, partly at least to the shame…
Kiwis want elimination, and nothing but elimination
Yesterday, the New Zealand Herald published the findings of an opinion poll it commissioned as a wave of the Delta…
The bribing of the New Zealand media?
“Trustworthy, insightful, important” — one thing we can say for our mainstream media is that they must think we are…
Lockdown with Aristotle – and a teenager
Who would’ve thought I’d be seeking the advice of a 2,400-year-old guy during a New Zealand lockdown. Maybe you’re thinking…
Code red indeed
Whatever lessons are learned from the Covid-19 pandemic, one stands out. It is that our trust in those we contract…
Puritanical rule in lockdown Australia
Australians are currently being subjected to hitherto unprecedented control over, and incursions into, our lives by the state. We have…
Carry on down the coal mine
The inevitable drive towards a clean, green, emissions-free future means that the Australian coal industry must be left by the…
Watching the empty trains roll by
Picture the scene. I am hanging out in a very average park in an outer suburb of Melbourne. I’m looking…
Is Trudeau toast?
Canada’s national election will be held in just over a week, on 20 September. Despite being only two years into…
The return of the racism versus rape debate
The gang rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl in Austria recently has provoked outrage throughout the nation. Four Afghan…
Locked out
It was a Father’s Day to forget for many Australians. More than half are locked in their home, the rest…
More than one way to ruin a country
The shock of the brutal religious fanaticism of the Taliban again abroad in Afghanistan, partly at least to the shame…
Thomas Mann
And so Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge is Melbourne’s musical-in- waiting. The show that can only go on when we’re 80…
Charlie Watts
The endless news is of shows locked down as every form of life is locked down in a nation struggling…
Nicole Kidman
And, as even Canberra locks down, so do all the shows. The Melbourne Theatre Company shuts down its production of…
Ernest Hemingway
Entertainment in a public place shrivels as the lockdowns continue. The Australian Ballet has cancelled its Melbourne season, Anna Karenina…
Louis-Ferdinand Céline was lucky to escape retribution in 1945
They rather like bad boys, the French. Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1894-1961) is one, in a tradition that stretches from François Villon…
James Bond and the Beatles herald a new Britain
The word ‘magisterial’ consistently attaches itself to the work of David Kynaston. His eye-wateringly exhaustive four-volume history of the Old…
All great fun: Mary Churchill dances through the war
The famous photographic portrait by Karsh of Winston Churchill as wartime prime minster personifies heroic defiance and grim determination. His…
Chips Channon’s judgment was abysmal, but the diaries are a great work of literature
It is often said that the best political diaries are written by those who dwell in the foothills of power.…
Irish quartet: Beautiful World, Where Are You?, by Sally Rooney, reviewed
The millennial generation of Irish novelists lays great store by loving relationships. One of the encomia on the cover of…
Ahmad Shah Massoud was Afghanistan’s best hope
Ahmed Shah Massoud was described as ‘the Afghan who won the Cold War’. While famous in France (he was educated…
America sees red: how fury prompted the slide into Trumpism
After leaving college more than two decades ago, Evan Osnos landed a job on the Exponent Telegram, one of two…
Lost to addiction: Loved and Missed, by Susie Boyt, reviewed
Ruth, the narrator of Susie Boyt’s seventh novel, is both the child of a single mother and a single mother…
