Apparently, once it has been taken to the panel beaters, an amended Constitution will do much to remedy the ills of Aborigines. Fancy that! All these years, so much misery, so many wasted lives -- and few words here and there would have made all the difference

You pays your dues and you gets ... Bill Shorten's innovative approach to making sure AWU workers get what is good for them (or good for someone, anyway). Now that he has moved on, aspiring to lead not just a union but the entire nation, is his grip any less clammy?

At Nuremburg they would have used a rope and a short, sharp stop to remedy Herman Goering's inclination to consider himself a prime example of the Master Race, before which he and his kind demanded the entire rest of humanity prostrate itself. His own solution -- a cyanide capsule hidden in a jar of cold cream -- saved the hangman any trouble. But that was then. Today, as Zeg observes via the link below, the preferred cure for those imbued with bloody contempt for lesser mortals is a publicly financed course in "de-radicalisation"

Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen has had a few words to say about Joe Hockey's latest budget. Trouble is, apart from his promise to re-instate a carbon tax, those thoughts came across as a muffled muddle. That's what happens when you help to dig a monstrous hole, stand proudly at the bottom of all that debt, and lecture those on higher, firmer ground about their fiscal and moral deficiencies.

Life's just not fair. There you are, a famous Hollywood actor who gets to hob-nob with the Obamas, and you turn up in country where the locals should be awestruck by your stellar presence, but instead they raise a stink about a pair of yappy Yorkies evading quarantine requirements. The absolute gall of Barnaby Joyce to insist that the law applies to all, even celebrity dog smugglers!

How do you become a "world respected climate expert"? Well, you could study old bones, like paleontologist-turned-public spectacle Tim Flannery. Or you might win a Nobel for revealing the mysteries of T-cells, like medico Peter Doherty, who is now another go-to authority on climate change, punitive tariffs and Bjorn Lomborg's eco heresies. It's great work, if you can get it! Scare politicians into squandering billions of dollars on white elephant desalination plants and, as Zeg observes, you still get quoted by admiring reporters.

Once upon a time -- quite a few years ago, actually -- the climate was cold and the gift of a juicy loin of mammoth was the way to a cave maiden's heart. Now that things are somewhat warmer, well, things have changed.....

New South Wales goes to the polls tomorrow, with the latest polls suggesting Labor leader Luke Foley's union-assisted efforts to gain a boost by opposing privatisation of the electricity system just isn't working