Club Troppo

Tony Abbott might well be the last bloke on earth who could plausibly demand a "mature debate" on tax reform. But that doesn't deny the crying need for such a debate in Australia. Nor does the fact that it's the antithesis of what Abbott did in Opposition mean that Bill Shorte...

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OK. The Grattan Institute with all its funding is producing, as it always does, a reading list for the PM. To show the power of blogging I thought we'd do the same here. I wrote "Opposition leader" above just to offer cheap differentiation from Grattan. But whether it's for Bi...

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My father died early this year at the age of 90, after a long but slow slide into dementia. The discussion on another thread about euthanasia and mental capacity has led me to decide to post the eulogy I delivered at his funeral. My dad was still relatively compos mentis at th...

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[caption id="attachment_26524" align="alignright" width="140"] IPKats love a tweet[/caption] The lecture will be delivered (in Melbourne Sydney and Brisbane) by Jeremy Phillips. Jeremy (or more exactly a fictional and " notorious " cat: the IPKat) has three times, been named a...

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The Northern Territory News reports that veteran euthanasia campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke faces a five-day hearing before the Medical Board starting today. Nitschke's arguments will include: Mr Nitschke says suicide is a lawful activity and the appeal was a question of whether...

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This is the second of a two part article about Aboriginal affairs policy in the wake of Noel Pearson's speech last week at Gough Whitlam's funeral. See From assimilation to Black Power to Gordon Gekko to where? (I) . Then read on. NB A very long post. I hope at least some will...

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[caption id="attachment_26455" align="alignright" width="300"] Noel Pearson delivers the Greatest Australian Political Speech in Recorded History[/caption] It didn't take long for the Aboriginal knockers to start tearing into Noel Pearson in the wake of his delivery of the Gre...

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[caption id="attachment_26429" align="alignright" width="248"] John Brumby: deregulated the VET sector while Premier.[/caption] Ben Eltham has posted an article in New Matilda about the financial and regulatory travails of Victorian VET private mega-provider Vocation: Christop...

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http://youtu.be/0B5xPYUNGeA Scribe publishing occasionally sends me a catalogue of books it's publishing asking if I'd like to have one to review. Looking through their long list I picked my friend Tim Colebatch's biography of Rupert Hamer on which he's been working for a good...

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I just came across this hilarious story . Trying to rescue Naomi Campbell from the overzealous attentions of Mike Tyson, the Oxford philosopher A J “Freddie” Ayer – according to Ben Rogers, his biographer – inserted himself between the boxer and the supermodel. “Do you know wh...

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Top Picks (Looks like a good crop!) Testament of Youth The young Vera Brittain, an irrepressible, intelligent and free-minded woman who overcomes the prejudices of her family and hometown to win a scholarship to Oxford. With everything to live for, she falls in love with her b...

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[caption id="attachment_26386" align="alignright" width="300"] Rosie Batty (insert son Luke)[/caption] I commend to you an article about homicide survivor, mother and crusader Rosie Batty by Martin McKenzie-Murray in the relatively new publication The Saturday Paper . I was pa...

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[caption id="attachment_26366" align="alignright" width="584"] A Soyuz spacecraft docking with the International Space Station. As the picture makes plain, typical human-occupied spacecraft orbits are very close to Earth; SpaceShipTwo wouldn't get even this high. NASA photo.[/...

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[caption id="attachment_26358" align="alignright" width="275"] We can be confident that Tony isn't demonstrating the size of Scott's heart, or his brain for that matter ...[/caption] I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago which inter alia condemned the drastic breach of Australi...

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I don't have a particularly high opinion of Senator Nova Peris. I certainly don't think Prime Minister Julia Gillard should have effectively sacked long-standing and well regarded Senator Trish Crossin to get her into Parliament. Moreover, even if it was reasonable to aim at g...

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Monica Attard reports in The Hoopla on a very recent speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin in which he forcefully puts his country's side of the current conflict with Ukraine. I was especially struck by this observation: The US, [Putin] said, had instigated a “ coup d’eta...

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GchWJasxVYY It looks as if prominent and obsessively determined euthanasia campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke may be in trouble again. He has already had his right to practise medicine suspended and is facing Medical Board disciplinary proceedings ari...

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqMCZBjvmD4 In the midst of all the Whitlam nostalgia over the last week or so I couldn't help thinking of the contagious hope and excitement that was generated by the "It's Time" campaign theme in 1972. It still sends tingles down my spine liste...

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Black to play Shabalov vs Aronian 21. ...? See game for solution.

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