October 2022 Volume Volume LXVI, Number 9, No. 590
Dissidents Against the Gender Dysphoria Orthodoxy
Abortion and the Question of Rights
Progressive Politics Infects Primary Care Medicine
The Judicial Over-Reach of the Mabo Case
An Easy-Fit Boutique Identity
The Dead Sea Scrolls’ Australian Connection
Contents
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Psychologists are usually a friendly bunch, as one might expect from members of a 'helping' profession. In recent years, however, things have taken a darker turn. There are matters which have caused deep division within the profession, not least 'trans affirmative' policies and their academic enforcersFebruary 28, 2024
19 mins
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Most women, at least in my medical experience, agonise over the problem and exhibit none of the ideological triumphalism of the proponents of a constitutional right to abortion. They may deem an abortion necessary, but it is for them a regrettable necessityFebruary 22, 2024
17 mins
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The scanners took work away from the specialists and user-friendly computers were dashing off legible scripts, conducting telehealth consultations, leading group therapy teams and performing telesurgery. 'The healing hand' has been reduced to digits on a keyboard and the doctor to a handmaiden of the computer-patient relationship.February 14, 2024
18 mins
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Life for all Australians would be better had the High Court not allowed itself to be carried away with enthusiasm for the land-rights cause. The matters decided should have been contested by the Commonwealth as a matter of grave public importance, but that didn't happen. Just as it did in the more recent matter concerning the closure of state borders during the great Covid panic, passivity and acceptance were elevated to viruesFebruary 9, 2024
13 mins
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It is only recently that Aboriginality became chic. Think, say, of a half-Aboriginal ABC pontificator who formerly emphasised his Anglo upbringing. Then, all at once and inspired by US racial politics, the pontificator promptly forswears the Anglo bit of his heritage, assumes thepersona of an Aborigine and becomes a much-lauded hero for his 'courage'. Don't fancy indigeneity? Not to worry, any number of gender identities are available for public displayFebruary 8, 2024
10 mins
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With the dating of the Scrolls placing their origin at the right place at the right time, the first question was 'Could this be the origins of the Jesus movement?' Many outlandish speculations followed until something of a consensus emerged: the Qumran cache reflects and records the period's host of rival ideas, radical movements and messianic sectsNovember 13, 2022
9 mins
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'Millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion and run after it,' observed Charles Mackay in 1852. It might be added that, at a later age in the annals of Europe, its population lost their wits, financial credibility and any potential for liberal, progressive, democratic development over the illusion of an ever-closer European UnionNovember 4, 2022
16 mins
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A far from complete biographical synopsis of Leopold Bloom — the bulk of which can only be gleaned in the novel from the protagonist's interior monologues — is one example of Joyce's often acerbic humour. Like the scathing thumbnail history of Ireland he had his Berlitz students recite, his is a wit, as one of the book's characters puts it, to 'make a Siamese cat laugh'October 30, 2022
13 mins
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Thirteen defence ministers have come and gone since 2001, a ceaseless churn that has seen incumbents obliged to co-ordinate rather than control. With three distinct and horizontally divided components -- the political class, civilian bureaucracy and the profession of arms -- the result has been a collective failure to coordinate aims and policiesOctober 28, 2022
37 mins
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Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living. I would say the unexamined life is not worth reading about, either. Although Helen Garner expends much ink and paper in How to End a Story: Diaries Volume III there’s a difference between recording everything that happens in your life and everything that flits through your mindOctober 27, 2022
15 mins
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Peter O’Brien argues powerfully in Villain or Victim? that only one substantive criticism can be made of the Governor-General, that being his failure 'to warn Whitlam he risked dismissal and that this failure encouraged Whitlam to remain obdurate'. Of the ever-expanding books on events leading up to November 11, 1975, this one is a keeperOctober 26, 2022
8 mins
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People only stay at the Yale Club in Manhattan when they’re looking for a cheap but respectable option—something they can charge to their membership and, if necessary, take several months to pay off. Well it's booked solid, which is what poker players call a 'tell'. And what it tells you is something very straightforward: tough times aheadOctober 25, 2022
10 mins
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Patrick Nash in his insightful new book, British Islam and English Law argues that problems arise not with Islam but with corrupt and destructive practices of its diverse adherents -- genital mutilation, jihadi recruiting and the like. These have been allowed to flourish behind a multicultural facade's toleration of what should be the intolerableOctober 24, 2022
15 mins
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The backstory to the making of The Godfather, a movie that pulled off the neat trick of being both a blockbuster and a work of art, was as much a character-driven saga as the Mario Puzo page-turner on which it and its sequel were based. The Offer recounts that novel-to-screen story over ten engrossing, if not entirely accurate, installmentsOctober 23, 2022
16 mins
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There is nothing wrong with newspaper executives and politicians discussing events. It is why and how they do it that matters. Sally Young’s worthwhile new book, Paper Emperors, gives us an idea, including many an embarrassment and idiosyncrasy over 138 years of Australian media historyOctober 22, 2022
7 mins
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A good person by current reckoning is one who espouses the right opinions, and a better one is someone who trumpets them. The converse is also true, that a bad person is one who does not have the right opinions, and an even worse one is someone who proclaims themOctober 21, 2022
8 mins
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If, when they get around to cancelling 'No' voters, should anyone find a copy of Vasily Grossman’s 1942 novel Stalingrad at the foot of the scaffold with a used Paris Metro ticket between the pages it may well be mine. For Grossman’s readers in the Soviet Union of 1942 the need for fiction's distraction was great and he gave them The People ImmortalOctober 20, 2022
10 mins
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Australian constitutionalists look only to Parliament to legislate their freedoms, not seeming to realise their ancestors spoke freely and enjoyed many other antique freedoms by natural right. Today, though, if Victoria's Daniel Andrews suspends habeas corpus, as he can under his Pandemic Management Act, there is nothing to do but wait and hope for liberty's returnOctober 17, 2022
8 mins
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Vladimir Putin insisted in 2021 that Ukraine has no right to exist independent of the Russian Motherland. Then came the invasion and, much to Moscow's surprise, things went very badly indeed. Right now, as heroes continue to tear the heart out of the Russian forces, Putin appears snookered -- and even Xi Jinping has been given food for thoughtOctober 13, 2022
21 mins
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Since the Fall of the Soviet Union, the transfer of powers from national governments to supranational bodies, courts and enforcement agencies has continued apace, nationalism and patriotism being seen by progressives as obstacles to a new post-national, post-democratic age. Now, and not before time, the national conservatism of Reagan and Thatcher is reasserting itselfOctober 12, 2022
9 mins
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After checking that the online outfit was really Australian and not some devious Chinese mob, Josie logged on and designed and her first sticker. It had a beautiful big Australian flag and read 'Don't welcome me to my own country'. She didn't know it at the time, but a national movement had just been bornOctober 10, 2022
20 mins
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Leftists immediately took the opportunity of the Queen's death to compete with each other too see who could provide the most distasteful response. Greens leader Adam Bandt, as might be expected, was quick out of the blocks, but his bile was but a preview of worse to come. By the time the AFLW canned its minute of silence, the Left was dancing on Her Majesty graveOctober 7, 2022
8 mins
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While the Anglocentric national identity of the pre-1970s era is obviously never coming back, it is essential that the British and European foundations of the Australian achievement are proudly celebrated, acknowledged and understood. Anything less is a lie about our country -- and there are lies aplenty doing the rounds, especially in CanberraOctober 6, 2022
12 mins
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Arcana She’s got a map of Chiapas tattooed on her […]September 29, 2022
1 mins
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all those beginnings I went to such damn trouble with […]
September 29, 2022
1 mins
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A Cathedral of Rocks A bush wren is taken by […]
September 29, 2022
2 mins
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Kookaburra Bird A feathered square, squat and cocky, he sends […]
September 29, 2022
1 mins
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Concerning Austerity and Creativity 1 Inspirations for Ikebana In austerity […]
September 29, 2022
1 mins
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Felix Culpa Who brings us pardon makes his presence shine […]
September 29, 2022
1 mins
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Christ in the Freezer On the day of the Port […]
September 29, 2022
2 mins
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On a Statue of Eros, after Lysippus Not a plump […]
September 29, 2022
3 mins
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All the Roses Died All the roses died. Their beds […]
September 29, 2022
2 mins
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Arrival Her arrival at a social gathering was like a […]
September 29, 2022
2 mins
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Lamentatio My fine-motor skills were never much to scribble home […]
September 29, 2022
2 mins
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Villanelle of the Stairs after Dylan Thomas Move surefooted, beloved, […]
September 29, 2022
3 mins
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On Reinventing the Wheel People talk about it like it’s […]
September 29, 2022
1 mins
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Haiku Thoughts Haiku aren’t much chop Unless they’re in Japanese, […]
September 29, 2022
1 mins
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Dog People At the bakery today I saw a woman […]
September 29, 2022
1 mins
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The Greenhouse at Lednice Chateau The greenhouse stands beside the […]
September 29, 2022
2 mins
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Spider Psalm For unswept corners, shrines of peace, for time […]
September 29, 2022
1 mins
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A View of the Hills On a bone-shaking journey from […]
September 29, 2022
2 mins
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The Table waits in a corridor. Rocking nervously, quickly. He […]
September 29, 2022
13 mins
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The drive for emissions targets (Net Zero and the like) […]
September 29, 2022
16 mins
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“History is calling”, or so the leaders of the Uluru […]
September 28, 2022
14 mins
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It was the inevitable event we all knew would happen—for […]
September 28, 2022
9 mins
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As Justice Kirby wrote post-Mabo, 'the common law of Australia will in future be influenced by legal authority, policy, principle and applicable rules of international law'. None grasp this better than those seeking to embed the Voice in our Constitution, as it would let them bypass democratic procedures and have their agendas endorsed by sympathetic courts and judgesSeptember 28, 2022
12 mins
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Forrest River Sir: Michael Connor (in several articles) and Peter […]
September 28, 2022
7 mins
