The monitors still show signs of life, if not vitality, but if Bill Shorten manages to rise from the sickbed of his dismal polling the threats to his longevity will not be at an end. It is impossible to be stabbed in the back when it is pressed against a mattress. Not so in Labor's party room.

If American anti-abortion campaigner Troy Newman had demonstrated the good sense to grow a bushy beard and reject democracy, rather than use its conventions and institutions to change the law, perhaps he would not have had so many visa problems

Pope Francis' pronouncements on a variety of topics have come as a surprise, leaving many to wonder where he is leading his flock.  His views raise no eyebrows, however, among the clique of cardinals who saw the need for Rome to change tracks, oppose capitalism, canoodle with Gaia and say not too much at all about the oppression of their Christian brethren in Muslim lands.  Below, Zeg's Take, followed by Rod Dreher's reflections

Modern educational theory some years ago embraced the notion that the problem with little boys is that they are not little girls. Roughhousing in the playground? Evidence, surely, of incipient testosterone poisoning. Rambunctious in the classroom, which can make a teacher's job somewhat more difficult? Quick, off to the school nurse for the daily dose of calm-'em-down pills. A near-instinctive urge to turn pencils, fingers, even bite-sculpted sandwiches into imaginary guns? Clearly yet one more example of the male urge to dominate and destroy. Fortunately, thanks to the feminist sensibility that shapes Big Chalk's agenda, strong women are on hand to make sure the boys behave themselves. Other threats to peace and tranquility are, as Zeg notes, somewhat problematic.

Few moments in politics provide more enjoyment than those occasions when the self-proclaimed champions of decency and probity are found to be lacking in the very qualities whose absence they lament in others. Case in point, Bronwyn Bishop's chief critic, the high-flyin' Tony Burke

If the ancients were correct in advising that the gods first grant the wishes of those whom they wish to destroy, Bill Shorten may have more than Tanya Plibersek to worry about. Now that his desire to see the high-flying Bronwyn Bishop banished for the Speaker's chair has been fulfilled, there will be one less distraction when the Opposition leader resumes the witness box at the Royal Commission into Trade Union Corruption

Adam Goodes, a man with a unique talent for kicking a piece of inflated leather, really does deserve the full measure of sympathy -- although definitely not the sort the packagers of tokenism and shallow cliches imagine. To their eyes, the business of booing a footballer is as simple as their own thinking: Man is black. Man gets booed. Man is victim of "racist disgrace".

That large simian creature at Labor's 2015 National Conference was no CFMEU organiser, despite the similarity with characters featuring prominently of late at the Royal Commission in Trade Union Corruption. As Zeg observes, while speakers traded pieties, the big fellow glowered with grim anticipation of the glory days to come should Labor ascend the government benches

It's almost a case of bringing down the chopper, so to speak. Or, as Speaker Bronwyn Bishop herself might put it were she  more inclined to howling puns and colloquial speech, they 'copter fair and square.