December 2017 Volume LCI, Number 12, No. 542
Aboriginal Policy Failure
The UN’s Assault On Our Sovereignty
Conduct Unbecoming
Dismal Science, Dismal Record
A Critique of the Prague Appeal
An Education Manifesto for Western Civ
Contents
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Sir: Bravo to John Stone (November 2017) for his concise […]
November 30, 2017
11 mins
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The UN once stood for liberty, free speech and fair legal processes. That is no longer the case, as demonstrated by the world body's laundry list of our alleged sins against refugees, women, Aborigines and Gillian Triggs. That is the new agenda -- and Bill Shorten backs it to the hilt
November 30, 2017
8 mins
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It took only two weeks before the Harvey Weinstein sex […]
November 30, 2017
9 mins
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Is the world really dividing into two, as fashionable economist Thomas Piketty asserts? Of course, you can always divide the world into two: those, for example, who divide it into two and those who don’t. The question is one of the nature of reality. Is the world composed of the one or the many?
December 29, 2017
8 mins
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“Liberal democracy is under threat, and all who cherish it […]
November 30, 2017
8 mins
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Our research- and rankings-driven universities oblige arts academics to teach their research in order to justify their existence. This makes it very hard to establish coherent, overarching disciplinary perspectives, as opposed to an assemblage of research programs with teaching spinoffs
December 23, 2017
16 mins
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Low-cost, high-quality schools, hospitals, houses and energy are the life-blood of cities. Left to its own devices, the urban organism is good at delivering these. Governments are not. They are good at law, order, safety-nets and public infrastructure, yet very few politicians can stop there
December 31, 2017
19 mins
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Many old Asia hands have long been convinced Japan has a “bomb in the basement” needing only a screwdriver and political will to join the ranks of declared nuclear powers. While that is dubious, there can be no doubt that if Tokyo ever feels the need, it could have nuclear weapons within months
December 14, 2017
14 mins
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The rejection of an Australian republic in 1999 was decided a few months after Sue v Hill. Had it gone the other way the High Court’s decision might have been excused as prescient. Instead, the majority's muddled logic sowed dragon's teeth that have sprouted into the current and ongoing debacle
January 30, 2018
15 mins
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It’s late October. The Coalition for Marriage has a problem […]
November 30, 2017
12 mins
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Sydney Writers Festival, that taxpayer-funded jamboree for virtue-signalling literary lefties (and only lefties), has just seen star guest Junot Diaz fly home after being Me-Too'd as a sexist pig. Progressives are funny lot, as we discovered at last year's Melbourne gabble-a-thon
May 6, 2018
26 mins
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The same-sex debate bared a de facto schism in a church whose membership has been decimated, and which should be preparing for old-fashioned persecution by an increasingly hostile state. The coming years will highlight the consequences of failing to preach the Gospel in and out of season
December 5, 2017
21 mins
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Muslims individually should, without qualification, be treated as respectfully and kindly as everyone else. However, at another level, it is surely reasonable to ask whether Muslims collectively should be absolved of accountability for the bitter fruits of Islam?
January 22, 2018
16 mins
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Poorly managed rage is a staple of presentations to mental […]
November 30, 2017
10 mins
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A young and ardent Labor supporter, Wolfgang Stargardt set out to produce a volume of Ben Chifley's speeches. He succeeded in that endeavour, but not before coming to understand the luminosity of that "light on the hill" which supposedly inspired the ALP was not all it was cracked up to be
January 8, 2018
13 mins
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In 1984 my book Nine Australian Progressives explored the pursuit […]
November 30, 2017
18 mins
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In New York, a church removed the plaque from a tree planted on its grounds by Robert E. Lee. That same day in far-off San Diego, the bronze dedication to Jefferson Davis was stripped from the highway which bears his name. Forgiveness and historical perspective are lately in very short supply
December 19, 2017
33 mins
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His prophesy: 'We shall have regimentation and conformity, without respect for the needs of the individual soul; the puritanism of a hygienic morality in the interests of efficiency; uniformity of opinion through propaganda, and art only encouraged when it flatters the official doctrines of the time'
January 18, 2018
18 mins
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Admiration for Princeton professor Glen Warren Bowersock's distinguished career and great learning inspired a reverent anticipation as I took up his latest book, 'The Crucible of Islam', which professes to examine the origins of that creed. Alas, that reverence was grossly misplaced
January 24, 2018
19 mins
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Kaiser Wilhelm II by Emil Ludwig (Republished in facsimile in […]
November 30, 2017
11 mins
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The “climate industrial complex” is necessarily led by the state, with its power to engorge the renewables rent-seekers via tax, regulations, laws and administration. As Rupert Darwall notes in his new book, if warmists were sincere they would be backing nuclear power, not fighting it
January 20, 2018
8 mins
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Proust and his Banker: In Search of Time Squandered by […]
November 30, 2017
15 mins
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Performing once more in Sydney this year has been a […]
November 30, 2017
12 mins
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Television in the middle of the last century could be […]
November 30, 2017
9 mins
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Design is a value system in its own right and does not need to piggy-back on art to prove its value. Indeed, it could be maintained that architecture and town planning are ethically, if not aesthetically, superior to art because of the magnitude and social relevance of the things they create
December 30, 2017
8 mins
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The very first time I stepped on stage was in […]
November 30, 2017
4 mins
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Among the many reasons to take out a Quadrant subscription is the wealth of poems and short stories that linger behind our paywall. Lin van Hek's charming story of the cat that deigned to grace a small family with its independent presence makes the point rather well. Published in 2017, it is now made free to all as a taste of what subscribers enjoy
December 31, 2023
7 mins
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Said the ardent young socialist to the ABC, 'I was born when the Soviet Union still existed, but I have no memory of it and it doesn’t inform my politics at all.' It's frightening to realise how, even with a universe of fact and history just a click away, the stupid are determined to stay that way
December 17, 2017
8 mins
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After “The Bacchae” of Euripides Along a path exposed to […]
November 30, 2017
3 mins
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A Charter of Human Joys Someone glad to see you […]
November 30, 2017
4 mins
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snow canceling the day’s plans half the orange with the […]
November 30, 2017
1 mins
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Wooden Heart You make me happy when skies are […]
November 30, 2017
2 mins
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Meat Three burly men and a milk-fed boy wearing dusty […]
November 30, 2017
2 mins
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Writing Workshop No one grabs a guitar, thinks: Hey, now […]
November 30, 2017
1 mins
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Manofesto Immanuel Suttner is a work of fiction I wish […]
November 30, 2017
2 mins
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Potato Sermon Every day I walk past my potatoes. I […]
November 30, 2017
1 mins
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Thirty-Seventh Anniversary Poem for Lin van Hek The fifth […]
November 30, 2017
4 mins
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Nearly There pronouncing his own name he sounds doubtful […]
November 30, 2017
1 mins
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Elsewhere Hair remembers how dark a room becomes when hair […]
November 30, 2017
1 mins
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The Teacher’s Aide Warm, encompassing, but wise to the ways […]
November 30, 2017
2 mins