Quite a few horrible things have happened this year. You could probably say that every December, but in 2011 all the bad stuff seems to have had a gigantic, momentous feel about it.

We started the...

Porn is bad. There you go, I just saved you the trouble of reading most commentary and opinion on the subject. Porn Is Bad is the start, middle and end of just about anything you read or hear.

Gail...

Australia has one of the most complex, inconsistent and opaque school funding arrangements in the developed world. You couldn’t design a worse school funding system if you tried.

This is because...

Who the fuck am I meant to vote for at the next Federal election? This is not a rhetorical question. I really want to know. Who is meant to get my vote? Who do I trust to do the right thing most...

My dear mother used to say: don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. And I’ve tried to follow that advice in everything I do. Of course, when I think of my mother, I automatically think of...

Miami is best known for vice, Vice and art deco. But in the past decade it’s also become famous for hosting the equivalent of Schoolies Week for wealthy art buffs — Art Basel | Miami Beach — the...

So here we are, teetering over the cusp of 2012. This is the year that apparently will make or break the major party leaders, Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott. It’s the year that kicks off the long...

And then, of course, there’s the question of the evolutionary future of pigeons.

A while ago, through a series of unfortunate circumstances, my editorial consultant (see image to the left) had to...

Sharemarket volatility, plummeting business confidence, the impending collapse of the great single currency project and the liberal rotation of headlines such as $X billion was wiped off markets...

Poor John. After more than 500 years of being dissed by Shakespeare and Robin Hood, there was nothing left but having Alan Rickman play him in a Kevin Costner film to confirm him as England’s...

At the time this goes to print, last drinks will have been called on a year of excremental mediocrity in Australia’s political history. The ugly lights will be on, revealing a handful of interns...

When I was completing my law degree, we were taught that there are a number of competing considerations in sentencing.

Exactly how many considerations there were depended on whose list you were...

I’d been living at my brother’s place for a couple of months before I noticed the coffee shop.

The end of something is never easy. Separation, divorce… even when it’s been a long time coming, when...

January is a special time for me. With the insanity of Christmas gone and the majority of the summer still ahead, most people are letting their thoughts drift towards the cricket, listening to the...

I can’t pinpoint the precise date I became a Muslim because it took me a few years of dabbling in what would become the world’s largest socially-devalued religion, to know whether I wanted to make...

I love e-books. Have read the buggers for years. From using a dinky PDA to an iPhone, from old CRT screens to wide screen LCD monitors and currently on my plethora of Android devices, I have read...

For libertarians, government encroachment into the lives of individuals has gone a step too far. Even libertarians accept there is a limited role for government in restricting individual...

Not many Italians would go to the trouble of making pizza at home. The really spoilt ones, of course, may be tempted on occasion to fire up the outdoor, purpose built, wood burning oven at their...

Adam Foster is not normal — but that’s a very good thing. Because if he was normal, then his wines just might be too, which would be a bloody shame. During a recent chat with Adam, it was plainly...

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