No, the climate wars aren't over
How the left can’t let Trump die – while wishing death upon him
US media continues to be gripped by Trump derangement syndrome with Thursday’s New York Times breathlessly reporting a non-story about…
Ah, Daniel Andrews, you’ve done it again
Melbourne’s famed Brunetti’s pasticcerie turn out the most exquisite pastries and cakes, but their decor resembles that of a Las…
Double standards Dan strikes again
They say if the Left did not have double standards, they would have no standards at all. Time and time…
The economy is stuffed full of stimulants – and so are too many business commentators
It is results season in Australian capital markets, This is the time of year listed companies delivery their half or…
The cult of cryptocurrency
The first rule of Crypto Club: You constantly talk about Crypto Club. The second rule of Crypto Club: You constantly talk about Crypto Club. How do you…
Did Eddie resign or was it the Pope?
ABC TV news viewers this week could have been excused for thinking the Papacy had been suddenly vacated. Fully…
A good day for Peter Ridd - and free speech
A potentially crucial blow for academic freedom and free speech has been struck today, with the High Court granting former…
Don’t mention ‘breastmilk’, let alone ‘mothers’. It’s oppressive
Welcome to 2021 where we can no longer talk about “breastfeeding”. The women’s lobby, of course, spent years trying to…
To convict or not to convict
Tomorrow, attorneys Bruce Castor, David Schoen, Michael van der Veen and William Brennan plan to speak on behalf of Donald…
Gina Carano and the hypocrisy of Hollywood
Godwin’s Law has become a way of life in our polarised political times. Go on social media any given day…
Something stupid this way comes
The mandarins of Qing China claimed the Mandate of Heaven. The French noblesse d’épée tied their privileges to a thousand…
Will Burma's Buddhist monks help bring an end to the military coup?
In what could transpire to be a significant development, Buddhist monks joined tens of thousands of anti-coup protesters in the…
Andrews vs the Christians
As long as the federal government is awarding Australia Day honours on the basis of individual sporting prowess then Australian…
New Zealand is being transformed, but not in a good way
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern promised, on the night of her general election triumph last October, to govern for all New…
Saint Jacinda’s climate change lucky dip
For most commentators in Australia’s mainstream media, the prime minister of New Zealand should always be referred to as Saint…
National socialism with Chinese characteristics
Kevin Rudd once upbraided then-Prime Minister Turnbull for his lack of ‘diplomatic sensibility’ to China. Last year he blasted Morrison…
Trapped between geo-politics and geo-baloney
China’s economy, military might, diplomatic weight and self-confidence have grown dramatically in recent years. This is reflected in China’s growing…
Beware of Geeks bearing gifts
Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft worth a cool $133 billion, has become ‘the voodoo doll of Covid conspiracies’, according…
Kellyleo
Pilate’s contemptuous dismissal of truth echoes down the ages. Those who, like Pilate, wash their hands while authoritarians try to…
The 4th horseman
Epidemics and pandemics of infectious disease have been a deep-seated and inescapable part of Australian life for more than 220…
Das Rheingold
You could hardly ask for a more exorbitant return to mainstage theatre than a production of the first part, the…
Robyn Nevin
The Adelaide Festival program describes her, accurately, as ‘our finest stage performer’. Robyn Nevin is appearing there (2 Feb-14 Mar)…
It’s a sin
It’s easy to forget what Russell T. Davies has achieved to date. Twenty-odd years ago, Queer As Folk altered a…
Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli
For 60 years, in an idyllic location at Kirribilli, the Ensemble Theatre has been providing entertainment in an intimate format.…
On the track of a mysterious recluse: Maxwell’s Demon, by Steven Hall, reviewed
This is not the age of experimental fiction — it’s Franzen’s, not Foster Wallace’s. That shift was on its cusp…
What does ownership of land really mean?
At the end of the last century, Simon Winchester bought 123 acres of wooded mountainside in the hamlet of Wassaic,…
The cannibal feast: Mother for Dinner, by Shalom Auslander, reviewed
Seventh Seltzer is a nice family man, working as a publisher’s reader in New York, who happens to come from…
Who in their right mind would choose to be a forensic psychiatrist?
When police were called to a block of flats in north London at the beginning of 2002, they expected to…
Francis Bacon: king of the self-made myth
In 1953, Francis Bacon’s friends Lucian Freud and Caroline Blackwood were concerned about the painter’s health. His liver was in…
The serious rows at Marvel Comics
In August 1961, two middle-aged Jewish New Yorkers, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, launched a new superhero comic book for…
From cheap sex comedies to gritty brilliance: British culture comes of age
As readers of a certain age will realise, Looking for a New England derives its title from ‘A New England’,…
Imagining a future for John Keats — the novelist
Keats long ago became the meaningless emblem of poetic genius. When the poet Amanda Gorman appeared at President Joe Biden’s…