The university's 'Unlearn' advertising campaign leaves no doubt it is Leftist indoctrination, not learning, which the institution has made its stock in trade. As a video promotion promises, students will 'question the world, challenge the established, demolish social norms and build new ones'
Those who regard Section 18c as a foul hobble on the right to express an unfettered opinion are on the side of the angels, but only just. When the holder of a dissident opinion can be fired and lose their livelihood, as has just happened in Canberra, the State is far from liberty's only enemy
Those proposing to change the marriage act are impatient and ill disposed, to put it mildly, to any and all discussion of possible consequences. We have no idea whether we are doing the right thing now and, by extension, what we are bequeathing future generations. That's lousy stewardship.
Penny Whetton was once Peter and a nob catastropharian at the error-prone IPCC, where his shtick was global calamity. Now that she is on the gay-marriage bandwagon, the national broadcaster came calling to bolster its pro-SSM coverage with the view of a Stockholm laureate. He wasn't and she isn't
Proponents of gay marriage paint 'traditional' marriage as increasingly dysfunctional, so why not endorse a distorted facsimile of those allegedly troubled heterosexual unions? This neatly ignores the traditional family's need for more protection by the state and society
The ideology of 'marriage equality' emerged from the politicised and inevitably left culture of our universities. From those institutions come cadres of journalists, teachers, bureaucrats and others bent on imposing their worldview on all, including small children
Any attempt to introduce same-sex marriage must respect conscientious objections. Liberals, whose party is pledged to defend 'freedom of thought, worship, speech and association', have been derelict in not revealing the specific legislation they propose should the Yes campaign succeed
One argument for altering the definition of marriage is that it will 'dignify' gay unions, but dignity in personal relationships cannot be conferred by the state and its impersonal bureaucracy. The best a state can offer is legal protection, which it does already. Dignity is beyond its reach
Grannies catching pneumonia. Mind-boggling bills for daring to stay as warm in our Gaia-green 21st century as once we lived in the cheap-power era of the 20th century. Businesses hit by soaring overheads. Baseload coal-fired power stations being shut -- blown up, even ....
I think of my old comrades in the burning forests of Western Australia and smile at the stoic self-reliance that characterised our acceptance of hardship. Then I ponder how today's crews would rather go hungry, or ring their MP, than face a tin of mystery meat simmering on a shovel
The ongoing project by Oxford University Press to publish with commentary every written word by one of the greatest stylists in the English canon is a mammoth undertaking, but much deserved. The style, the tone, the presentation and erudition displayed so far, deserve the widest acclaim
The simple act of immersing oneself in hot water is not so simple as you might think, not under the edicts of Brussells' commissars, who busy themselves with regulating bathing costumes, the gender of lockers and which varieties of body hair may or may not be dipped in a Jacuzzi
The ballots are in the mail and the question could not be more bland: "Should the law be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry?" After that, should the answer be 'yes', what next? If the overseas experience is any guide, religious liberty and freedom of conscience will be in peril
For the Coalition to have any chance of reversing its dire poll numbers and winning the next election, the Prime Minister simply has to be gone by the end of the year. That leaves just enough time for his replacement to address and remedy the big issue: our national energy crisis
German successes against Denmark, Norway, Belgium and France were a product of the geopolitical situation, thanks to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact which gave Hitler a free hand in the west. Dunkirk was a defeat, that's true. But Churchill's resolve to fight sowed the seed of victory
They Marched in March -- the usual suspects in all their serried shades of anger and incoherence -- because, well, it would have made even less sense to bemoan the fact that Tony Abbott and the Coalition won an election last September by April-ing in April. Zeg is fearful of such antics' impact on the easily impressed.
At the University of Wollongong there is so much diversity to honour, especially when Christians are demanding all the attention with their mangers and tinsel, that staff have been sent a chirpy reminder that Christmas is about much more than the Messiah
Climate change is torching Australia, according to the likes of Tim Flannery and his fellow warmists at the Bureau of Meteorology. If only the money now spent on computer projections and big-ticket fire fighting gear could go toward fuel reduction
A New Zealand court has rejected the argument that one can claim asylum from the alleged ravages of climate change. For the plaintiff, it is back to teeming Kiribati, where the real problem is a booming population
A cash-strapped America no longer has the resources to continue as the world’s policeman, as its craven capitulation to Tehran makes clear. For Australia the message is chilling
A useful word -- 'marriage', say -- is no longer useful if its meaning is stretched so wide, made so 'equal' and 'non-discriminatory', that it has no meaning at all. When a word can mean anything it represents only the perverse satisfaction to be drawn from debasing language and thought
The sixteenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks came and went with minimal recognition on the part of the media, a dreadful pity but not a surprise. Mark that slaughter and, well, people might be reminded of Islam's intolerance, rather than the evil of the 'no' campaign on gay marriage
The errors in 'Little Fish are Sweet' are serial and not trivial, smacking of laziness and a refusal to approach sources who might contradict the lurid tales of a conman and extortionist. That this book is now in the running for Queensland's most prestigious award is a further disgrace
No-one asked me, as the part owner of Westpac, if I wanted to give away so much of mine and my fellow shareholders' money, worthy as the recipient cause may be. As for Alan Joyce, his moral authority starts and stops at the obligation not to lose Qantas passengers' luggage
We do not know what legislation might go before the federal parliament should the 'Yes' case succeed, which is ample reason in and of itself to vote 'No'. Mangling the premier theologian of the Catholic Church, as Greg Sheridan has done, sheds not the slightest light on what might be yet to come
When Peter Minter banned Quadrant's poets from his magazine's pages on the grounds that they had published in what he likened to a Nazi journal, the curious might have wondered just what sort of verse he actually favours. Here's a hint
Readers can form their own judgement as to whether this first-person account would count in Andrew Bolt’s challenge to Robert Manne to “name ten” Aborigines stolen purely for racial reasons
PM Stephen Harper has three election victories under his belt and, from a conservative point of view, not much to show for them. Being nice to political enemies is all very well and good, but it leaves your supporters less than impressed
If "Indigenous culture" is to be recognised in Australia's Constitution it is vital to understand what the term means. Rap songs and break dancing, perhaps?
If a slick video and the IPCC's latest inaccurate and untruthful arguments are the best it can do to demonstrate a dangerous warming problem, its advice should be ignored and funding withdrawn
It is well known among UFO enthusiasts that space aliens come from light years away to abduct humans on lonely country roads and probe their bodily cavities. Why they do this is a mystery but, whatever the reason, those little green men, er, persons had better go to warp drive quick smart.
As Zeg observes via the link below, with all these new and non-fecund genders sprouting from every second Queer Studies PhD dissertation, there might soon be few subjects available for examination.
Quadrant gets ahead of itself, so to speak, having now published four essays dealing with same-sex marriage that will appear in our October issue. We're normally reluctant to take content from behind the paywall until well into the month, the thinking being that early online publication will erode sales of the magazine. As Quadrant no longer receives even the former pittance once awarded by the Australia Council, those sales are vital. Indeed, they are a matter of life and death. To release October content even before the issue has left the printer is extraordinary.
But so is the same sex-marriage debate, which has been extraordinarily one-sided.
'Yes' supporters have the mainstream media in their corner, most particularly the ABC. No surprise there, of course, but a one-sided debate is no debate at all -- especially when the national broadcaster has been so keen to stack its coverage against a 'No' vote that even Kath & Kim were presented as cogent advocates for changing the Marriage Act.
Yesterday, the thoughts of Quadrant editor Keith Windschuttle and legal academic Greg Walsh appear to the left.
Today, and also from the October edition, two more essays from Shimon Cowen and Michael Kowalik have been released online.
If you value Quadrant and, more than that, its survival, follow the link below to take out a subscription.
Cathy Young in Commentary:
In July, a case that had become a rallying cry for campus activism against sexual assault came to a conclusion of sorts—with a victory for the accused man. Columbia University settled a lawsuit brought by 2015 graduate Paul Nungesser. It stemmed from an accusation of rape hurled at Nungesser by fellow Columbia undergraduate Emma Sulkowicz (above), who famously carried a mattress around campus to protest the school’s alleged mishandling of her complaint....
As the "rape culture" scare washes across Australian campuses, it is worth reading Young's account of the case and her history of the mother of all false accusers. For that, follow the link below.
In Anzac and Its Enemies, Mervyn Bendle explores the origins of the Anzac Legend and dissects the long campaign against it by leftist politicians, intellectuals, and sections of the media, and argues why their case is seriously flawed.
Peter Ryan has long been one of Australia’s favourite writers of essays and newspaper columns. His …
