Astonished that the ABC -- their ABC -- reported on Islamist mayhem and murder in Paris without mention of the killers' motives and affiliation, Geoffrey Luck asked the national broadcaster for an explanation. What followed was a prolonged exercise in admission, retraction, denial and obfuscation
That recent Paris march with its retinue of presidents and prime ministers leading the hoi polloi sure was an inspirational moment in the crusade to defend free speech. What a pity the ABC footage was spliced, edited and nothing like the sequestered reality of a stage-managed photo op
If the Opposition Leader can't grasp that tougher, tighter times are upon us, he's a fool. If he persists in blocking and harrying every single effort to batten down the economy, knowing full well the risk of recession, he's a scoundrel
Even if you see Beijing's economic statistics as credible, which they are not, their trend says the country's "miracle" growth is tailing off. Yet here we have the likes of Malcolm Fraser stating that our future resides with the Middle Kingdom
Tony Abbott vowed to repeal Section 18C and didn't -- a betrayal that abrogated an electoral mandate, scuttled principle and demonstrated a tin ear for what his own party's base expected and still wants. His latest blathering will persuade no enemies while further discomforting supporters
There are lessons to be absorbed from the Paris massacres, not least that hypocrisy is no defence against Islamic violence. If Australia is to avoid further eruptions of terror, then the French experience must serve as a warning that rallies and cute slogans are no substitute for realism
They're big on painting the world a glorious and sustainable green at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, where sundry academics, together with alleged comedian Rod Quantock, preach climate doom while quoting Marx and yearning for the day when Havana sets the standard for urban life
Like many modern leaders, Bavaria's castle-building Ludwig II was very keen to indulge his edifice complex with other people's money. Unlike modern leaders, all it took to stop his crazed campaign of construction was a long walk on a short foreshore
Physicists happily indulge speculation that our universe is a chimera emanating from some pimply youngster's computer program: it 'thinks', therefore we are. But describe that adolescent tinkerer as The Creator and secularist enforcers of scientism erupt in a riot of rejection and reproach
It is impossible to tell how soon France and the rest of Europe will be Judenfrei, but the process is well underway. When the exodus is complete, let's just see how well the Continent's sophisticates get along with the sort of people who cheered the Charlie Hebdo massacre
It's just so cool being in thick with the caring set -- and so easy too! Print out a 'je suis Charlie' sign, punch out a couple of tweets that are heavy on the hand-wringing and then luxuriate in that special, rosy glow of moral superiority. And after that? Why not decry moves to scrap Section 18C because everyone who is smart enough to have an Arts degree knows free speech can give offence and that's, like, heavily into being unacceptable, man.
Prophecy was not one of the then-Beatle's gifts, but he might well have been thinking of Russell Brand when he sang of "making all his nowhere plans for nobody". Two pop-culture icons -- one who found his feet, after a fashion, versus another lost in the incoherence of an egomaniacal self-esteem
In Part Two of our series on Melbourne University’s Sustainable Society Institute we visit the enchanted isle of Entropia, the eco-aware settlement where bad poets and oboe players celebrate the death of capitalism with lentil casseroles, home-made port, free love and no small amount of green-haloed self-regard
The notion that Julia Gillard's failure as Prime Minister might have been the direct consequence of her personal flaws and political failings seems not to have dawned on a trio of Sydney University academics. To no great surprise, they conclude it was sexist perceptions that did her in
It comes as no surprise that tolerant and pacific followers of the Prophet opt for the most part to stay mum. Knowing full well that their sacred texts extol violence, which leaves little room for doctrinal debate, they are also aware that the creed's more ardent acolytes have knives at the ready
The world's leaders marched boldly through the streets of Paris, proclaiming themselves undaunted champions of free speech. Then they went home to supervise prosecutions and deportations of those who mistook their photogenic posturing for sincerity
Australia's Academy of Science is overdue to clarify its position on global warming, but don't expect that much-delayed document to be written in the ink of rational objectivity. Despite doubts creeping into the pronouncements of overseas counterparts, local warmists remain determined to defend the faith
The recent hiatus in warming might be significant or it might not. Of greater importance, and a far more immediate peril, is the eagerness of governments to be gulled by temperature 'records' that have been tickled beyond the bounds of credibility
In the third installment of Quadrant Online's series on the curious institution that is Melbourne University’s Sustainable Society Institute, Tony Thomas takes up one of its publications and finds not enlightenment but bafflement as to the definition of "peer review", not to mention federal funding guidelines
The Age, which professes to be a serious newspaper, yesterday gave homepage prominence to a song that suggests the best thing anyone can do with Tony Abbott is punch him. Also yesterday, the paper learned that the theft of a reporter's recorder is not worth prosecuting. You know, there just might be a connection