Club Troppo

Alan from Southerly Buster flags another promising move in US democracy-building in Iraq: the Americans have enlisted the help of India in providing governance training for large numbers of Iraqi bureaucrats. It's a positive indication, although I can't help feeling a little n...

Continue reading →

Today marks the first time I can remember when those self-styled "blog twins" John Quiggin and Tim Dunlop have disagreed with each other. Tim opposes John Howard's announced desire for federal control of hospitals, and reckons Howard is " a control freak who wants as much as p...

Continue reading →

It's true. According to a study reported in the Oz "members of the elite Special Air Service (SAS) were exposed to lead, teargas and explosions in training, and experienced high levels of physical trauma and stress." Who knew? To be utterly even-handed, the Study does dwell at...

Continue reading →

The signing of Iraq's interim constitution by the Iraqi Governing Council is great news for everyone who sincerely hopes that the US intervention in Iraq will result in positive, liberal-democratic reform in that war-ravaged country. Although it's by definition a political com...

Continue reading →

It's 1.20pm in Sydney. The annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Parade and Party is due to get underway in around 8 hours time (though the parade is always late in starting) and - wouldn't you know it? - it's raining. This may be due to the influence of a cyclonic low moving south fr...

Continue reading →

The Federal ALP's Shadow Attorney-General Nicola Roxon publishes an opinion piece in today's Australian boasting about her "commitment" to reforming the Commonwealth Freedom of Information Act . Opposition parties are always remarkably keen to profess enthusiasm for beefing up...

Continue reading →

Yesterday's decision by the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal to order a retrial of Tayyab Sheikh, one of the notorious (alleged) participants in the Bilal Skaf pack rape crimes committed in south-western Sydney, will inevitably put the ("alleged") rape victim through a huge amount...

Continue reading →

Alistair Cooke's " Letter from America " has been running on the BBC, the ABC and a host of other English-speaking public broadcasting systems, for much longer than I've been alive. It all began in 1946 and no fewer than 2,869 Letters have gone to air since. But this week, age...

Continue reading →

The always entertaining Professor Bunyip - surely Gianna's first choice for Godfather of the newly arrived Harley - waxes eloquent. In a, "you might get what you wish for," cautionary tale, about the perils that that might await maritally-inclined poofs, he offers this gem: "A...

Continue reading →

When I worked in the NT Anti-Discrimination Commission a few years ago, one of the earliest lessons I learned was that there are always at least 3 stories in any situation: the applicant's story, the respondent's version, and the truth. I could embark on a reverie about multip...

Continue reading →

As poor old Baroness Thatcher might say - were she 100 and had the Tory party not bribed her medical advisors to gravely inform her that she was no longer capable of speaking in public. Yes! I note, in passing, that I've just racked up my posting century here on the Northern T...

Continue reading →

Chris Sheil , who recently opined that someone named Ryan Adams is the legitimate heir to Dylan and Springsteen, won't be pleased to hear this . Erratum (Chris points out that he was merely passing on the views of others - and is, quite possibly, as vague as I am on the oeuvre...

Continue reading →

It's not every day that a Leader in a Very Important Newspaper can make you laugh out loud. In fact, all things considered, it's probably preferable that it should not. But this one, from the UK Telegraph , is hilarious, and worth posting in full. "Killer pouffes (Filed: 29/02...

Continue reading →

"The Moving Finger writes, and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it." Omar Khayyam When Alexander Downer bustles forth in fresh viyella shirt and blue blazer, on a Sunday morning, so...

Continue reading →

Here's dear old John Ray - the curmudgeonly crowd's favourite psychologist - offering a free and unsolicited appraisal of Andrew Sullivan : "Keith Burgess-Jackson and many other conservatives have been appalled at Andrew Sullivan's extreme, irrational and hysterical reaction t...

Continue reading →

The Hon. MICHAEL COSTA: This censure motion is a joke, just like everything else that Opposition members do in this House. I have absolute contempt for Opposition members because they are lazy, they do not produce policies and they do not do their homework. That is why I have...

Continue reading →

Look, I know I'm going on about it, but this piece (from grudnuk via Tim Dunlop ) is an eloquent (if slightly tear-jerking) testament to the human dimension of gay coupling that ideological theorising across the battlelines, kind of misses. Now I'll shut up about it.

Continue reading →

Everyone has seen it. Cardinal Pell has seen it and warmly recommends it's age-old message: flagellation is more redemptive than wearing a hair-shirt any day. The Holy Father has seen it and may - or may not - have observed that "it is, as it was.' Brian Henderson used to say...

Continue reading →

Some one in the Labour party must have read my Post about financial literacy (probably some one in the party here in the Territory, I understand that Ken's blog has become compulsory reading for NT party apparatchicks ) and, following the dictum that the Government should have...

Continue reading →

Where is Wayne Wood when I need him? On first glance, Federal Treasurer Peter Costello's plan to encourage intending retirees to keep working, and take their superannuation as a pension rather than a lump sum, may completely stuff (my wife) Jenny's and my longstanding early re...

Continue reading →