Noting the recent death of porn king Larry Flynt, one of my friends commented, “The guy might have been a creep, but, damn, he fought for our free speech rights when no one else would.” Sometimes you can’t pick and choose the heroes of freedom. Real heroes aren’t
Many Australians were upset that Anzac Day was cancelled altogether last year, “becuz COVID”. But most grudgingly accepted that “we’re all in this together”. Although more than a few eyebrows were raised when lefty protest marches went ahead. But when, this year, Anzac Day was cancelled again, while Sydney’
Only days ago, the West Australian state government was bragging that it had “the best budget performance in the world through the pandemic”. Leaving aside the dubious morality of making billions from a genocidal communist dictatorship, West Australians might be excused for asking why, if their government really is such
Clarence Darrow famously said, “I have never killed anyone, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.” Similarly, while there are many political figures I loathe and whom I would dearly love to see thrown out of office, there are few people I would actively wish harm upon.
It’s an old adage in politics that you should never hold an inquiry unless you know the outcome. The corollary of this is that if you don’t know the outcome, don’t have the inquiry – and can it, quick-smart, if it’s already begun. Especially if the answer
Angela Shanahan mercatornet.com Angela Shanahan is a Canberra-based freelance journalist and mother of nine children. She has written regularly for The Australian for over 20 years, The Spectator (British and Australian editions) for over 10 years, and formerly for the Sunday Telegraph, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Canberra
In the lead-up to the last Victorian state election, unions, especially the United Firefighters Union, were premier Daniel Andrews’s especially loyal boot-boys. It was all a neat little quid pro quo, of course: Andrews had bullied the state’s revered volunteer firefighter organisation, the Country Fire Authority, into submitting
National is calling on the Government to open the trans-Tasman bubble with Australia to give our desperate tourism sector a much-needed boost and reunite Kiwis with family and friends across the ditch. “New Zealand and Australia have both done well to reduce the threat of Covid-19,” Leader of the Opposition
When I wrote, some time ago, that “the left is promoting paedophilia (again)”, even I had the nagging sense that I was being more than a bit foil-hat conspiratorial. Surely no one could be far gone enough to actually try and normalise such a hideous crime as child abuse? Sadly,
One of the big cultural differences between Australia and America is our manner of expressing patriotism. Australians have never been big on the whole brass-band pageantry of American “good old Stars‘n’Stripes forever” public patriotism. Similarly, we don’t go in much for the ostentatious American-style “thank-you-for-your-service” public veneration
Contrary to the gibbering conspiracy theories of the left, the “Murdoch press” in Australia offers far more diversity of opinion than any right-on lefty publication. The Australian regularly features the likes of pontificating old commo Phillip Adams and strident feminist Nikki Gemmell. Name one conservative regular at the ABC or
The Australian left are in full Stalin mode, with a dash of Salem 1692. Australian politics is now being run by anonymous denunciations, show trials and witch-hunts. The rule of law and due process have been consigned to the dustbin of history as a screaming mob of left-wing politicians and
The Greens sure have a problematic relationship with facts. This is, after all, the party whose star senator (which is a short enough list, given the Greens’ tiny representation) thought that a television drama was a documentary. The Greens have also made demonstrably false claims about everything from duck hunting
As Mark Steyn wrote, “the air-brush is mightier than the sword”. Steyn was referring to the Canadian press and its valiant efforts to erase any sort of clue that might have twigged their readers that there was something a little bit jihad-y going on in Paris. Two Muslim terrorists became
When it comes to not being fooled by the media, an important principle is to never believe without evidence an article that claims “a study shows”. There are two important reasons for not taking such a claim at face value: firstly, the media spin studies to fit their prejudices (for
