Well, the spy boss still won’t tell Australians who the “traitor” who sat in Parliament is, but he’s at least graciously condescended to admit who he was spying for. Hold your breath, readers, it’s going to come as a shock. China’s leading spy agency has been
Much to the disgust of one of my colleagues, I was recently listening to The Pirates of Penzance (“I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical!”). A key plot point of Gilbert & Sullivan’s opera is that the hero, Frederic, indentured to the pirate king until his 21st birthday,
As I wrote recently, more and more grim evidence is emerging that child sexual abuse in public schools likely dwarfs even what went on in the churches. Worse, the cover ups and enabling by those in charge were every bit as bad. And still are: a recent Victorian government inquiry
Despite being a child in the ’70s, I somehow managed only a few days ago to hear Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 classic, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” for the first time. That song, as most of you are probably aware, is about the 1975 sinking of the giant freighter
I have a writer friend who writes erotica of a, shall we say, ‘niche’ variety. Now, just as Agatha Christie didn’t go around murdering people, this writer has no real-life interest in or experience of the things she writes about. Some of her fans, however, seem to assume
Despite the flurry of silly commentary this statement will inevitably provoke, the fact of evolution is beyond reasonable dispute. That organisms have evolved over time, and continue to do so today, is one of the most well-attested facts in science. How they evolve remains the subject of lively scientific
If you’ve never seen the 2011 series The Borgias, you’re missing out. Like Game of Thrones, with less exploitation hackery and more historical accuracy, the show doesn’t shy away from the sordid realities of mediaeval Italy (so, all the nudity and violence you could want), while packing
Two obviously completely unrelated things happened yesterday. First, the head of Australia’s spy agency, ASIO, dropped a bombshell: that ASIO had busted a spy-ring in Australia, including an ex-MP-turned-spy who had tried to recruit others, including a prime minister’s family member. ASIO boss Mike
Oh no! Another wet LINO has been shot down, and the establishment shills aren’t happy. A LINO is the Australian equivalent of the American RINO. New Zealanders might call them NINOs. They’re the dripping-wet, wannabe Greens who’ve infested supposedly conservative parties in the West, posing as
It was Mahatma Ghandi who said that throughout history, there have always been tyrants, “and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall”. Which is true enough, but too often the falling is a long time coming, and without a due accounting. Think of
I’ve said it before, and sadly I have to say it again: when do we start spitting on teachers? After all, the moral standing of priests has been indelibly besmirched by the shocking revelations that, not only were a minority of priests horrifically active paedophiles but that the entire
Boy, there’s all sorts of stuff going on in Australia, right now. If only we were allowed to know about it. First, there were the charges against She Who Cannot Be Named of They Who Must Remain Secret, for kidnapping and torturing a man for Reasons We Cannot Discuss.
It’s only taken him, what? Five years to figure it out. ASIO chief Mike Burgess has finally clued in to the literally bleeding obvious: Islamic extremism is our greatest terrorist threat. Next on Magic Mike’s to-do list: figuring out that, holy shit, did you guys know that
In the US, Jews who traditionally tend to vote for the “progressive left” have had a rude awakening. To their shock, their “progressive” friends are choosing, en masse, to side with the baby-beheaders of Hamas. Whilst I understand their despair at seeing the people they though were on their
