Hmmm, this blogging thing is tricky. It was originally put forward (not so long ago at all – this is very much an infant sub-genre) as being sort of like a cross between a diary and an essay – more personal and provocative than an essay, but obviously not as honest or unstructured as a […]

I have not been pulling my weight on this blog. Over the last month since the Queensland State election, Peter McMahon has blogged (cyber for “spawned”) twenty times and I have only blogged three. I have a number of excuses, but one is a beauty, in fact, not really an excuse at all. On the […]

There are some strange things going on right now that suggest that we may be entering a new phase of post-rational politics. If this is true, then celebrity will replace intellectual competence as the main political asset. First, let us consider the most controversial movie in years, and its impact on popular culture. It is […]

Recently we here in the west have been treated to some exciting TV footage of rioting kids battling the thin blue line (as the talkback jocks like to call it) on hot summer nights. First there was the bloody running battle involving the cops and some hundreds of kids on Australia Day, then a few […]

How amusing to see the government getting so concerned about the future of Oz’s population all of a sudden. Apparently, they have found out about this thing called ‘demography’ and are now all excited about it. “Demography is destiny” is the latest catch phrase, as if it was all some simple linear process of population […]

I have not seen Mel Gibson’s film about Jesus, and I don’t intend to. An interpretation of one of the great narratives of history by a Hollywood movie star just does not attract me. I have heard some commentary here and there. People are appalled by the violence, but of course Christ’s suffering is at […]

John Kerry looks all set to win the Democrat nomination for presidential candidate, but some problems are emerging for him. Indeed, he may have already peaked. Kerry did it so easily, especially in upsetting the early favourite Howard Dean, that some commentators think he is getting it too easy and will flounder when Karl Rove, […]

It was a pretty ordinary 4 Corners this week on bank robberies – too much trying to get the victims crying, too little evidence and analysis (ah, standards are dropping at the ABC) – but it is interesting to see a serious debate on violence emerging in Oz. Violence, especially by males, is of course […]

There used to be a lot more point breaks for surfing on the Gold Coast than there are now. When I grew up as a kid listening to storms belt against the unsealed tin roof on the front verandah of our holiday shack at Currumbin we worried that the house could fall into the sea. […]

I’ve been reading about Nazi Germany and what can happen if democracy fails. In a few short years the country many would have said was the most civilised in the world became one of the most barbaric. One argument was that Democracy had not properly taken hold in Germany, and so it was fragile. It […]