Club Troppo

Many readers will have noticed that pressing the comments button will produce a 'forbidden' message. This is happening across the domain. I do not know why this is happening (it is not happening for me- everything seems fine here.) However, if this is happening for you, a way...

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Peter Beattie pictured in today's Sunday Mail . Taking photos is fun. I've recently bought a new mobile and being a nice boy, unlike some Coogee beach regulars , am avidly asking friends if I can have permission to take their photo. Being a newspaper photographer or an editor...

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Courtesy of Melbourne blogger Alex at Psephological Catechism (whose honours thesis on St Augustine looks to be really interesting), this news just in for Troppo readers. A Google search for the string fetishised armadillo only yields two results. And one is a link to a post b...

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Spectator Editor and former Tory Shadow Minister for the Arts, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson MP (pictured above with unnamed friends), provided the Oz blogosphere with some light entertainment recently with a juicy sex scandal , in the finest traditions of British politic...

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P. J. Harvey sings live... I'd been planning to write on the truly appalling line of questioning NSW Bar Association President and barrister for Tara Anglican School for Girls, Ian Harrison SC, launched during a recent court case where an 18 year old woman alleged that she had...

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An unfinished micro-story Gran says that putting sleeping pills in Santa's milk was wrong. But I still think it was a good plan. If mummy hadn't drunk the milk that I left beside the tree for Santa and if she hadn't fed the carrots and celery to the rabbits, then everything wo...

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This is only a quick word as I'm in Sydney at Literature Board meetings and other literary business, but thought some of you might like to read my profile at Norm Geras' wonderful blog, here It was very interesting answering the questions--and one I'd like to throw open for ge...

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Stephen posted recently on some laughably bad coverage of the Ukrainian elections aftermath by John Laughland . Writing in the Guardian , Timothy Garton Ash thinks European commentators have a problem with democracy in the Ukraine because of their distaste for Eastern European...

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So what exactly gets up employers' goat about union officials visiting workplaces ? When this issue is raised, stories are often told about intimidatory behaviour on building sites. But, no such justification has been offered this time. The only actual incident I can recall as...

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Brisvegas residents or visitors might like to note that the Straight Out of Brisbane Festival has an event on tonight which could appeal to anyone with a predilection to (occasional) ranting: 6-8pm :: The great ideas rant-off :: Venue :: Festival Club Speakers OUT, Ranters IN....

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The Finn brothers have been touring Australia . So I'm currently listening to Split Enz' excellent Moving Pictures (now playing - 'Poor Boy'...). Being a teenager of the 80s, (and one whose lp collection succumbed to a flood under a Queenslander), my first listen for yonks is...

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Brendan Nelson has announced the composition of his literacy enquiry. The establishment of this review was a response to the heated (and over-politicised) debate over the relative merits of whole language and phonics as methods of teaching children to read. A surprise inclusio...

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I recently posted on the imbroglio swirling around St. Mary's Catholic Community in South Brisbane. Today, Father Peter Kennedy of St. Mary's takes Archbishop Bathersby to task in the Courier-Mail . Fr Peter accuses the Church of being out of step with a democratic society. Th...

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According to the US publishers of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary , the most frequently searched word on their online site this year has been "blog" ... It's interesting to note that in an election year, five of the other nine words were political terms (eg "electoral", "sovere...

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Celebrity Capital: Rebecca Loos Writing in the online Fairfax publication Radar , Ben Cubby asks : Is Casey Donovan really Australia's most promising young singer? Possibly. But for every enraptured viewer loosing off votes for Australian Idol there was someone watching the pa...

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Published in both of Fairfax broadsheets this morning are Op-Ed articles by John Laughland , which attempt to provide the most generous spin possible for the Yanukovich government in Ukraine. Surprisingly this article was sourced from the Guardian , the same newspaper that pub...

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In my post on Redfern , I referred in passing to the the actions of Sydney Archbishop Cardinal Pell in appointing conservative Priests from the Neo-Catechumenate movement to St. Vincent's, once the parish of Fr Ted Kennedy and a hub for the Indigenous community - a subject of...

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Friday marks the 150th anniversary of the Eureka Rebellion. For all I know, this might be big news in Victoria, but I suspect the current debate over the cultural and political significance of this event is not being widely heeded. But it's worth taking a look at. Let's start...

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For anyone who might be idly curious about my continuing blogging absence, here's an update. Jen and I have moved successfully into our new home, and we're very comfortable. We're even getting a pool installed starting tomorrow, a week ahead of schedule. So we'll be swimming b...

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At the suggestion of commenter Alex on an earlier thread about the electoral and policy ways forward for the ALP , this is a thread thrown open for any readers who'd like to give the ALP an early Christmas present and suggest a philosophical/political strategy to re-invigorate...

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