If you make it about half way through this issue you’ll find Heath’s 1,000 or so enraged words about Gail Dines. It’s a point of view that’s sure to upset a few people, but I published it anyway, because I think the rage is completely justified.

Gail Dines has been in Australia for the last few weeks, talking about the pornification of our culture and issuing dark warnings about what this is doing to our menfolk (by the way did you know she’s written a book about it, it’s available in All Good Bookstores).

The carbon tax is no longer a proposed financial tool to address an environmental problem. It’s now an ideological touchstone for the Greens, a political weapon for the LNP and a millstone around the neck of the Labor party. Typically, in all the political fisticuffs the facts about a carbon tax, what it can do and how effective it can be, are lost.

Do you ever get the feeling you’re being conned? I don’t mean in the normal, everyday, “Oh I just paid for a relaxing two-week holiday in luxurious tropical surroundings and now I have leprosy and am getting raped by a spider monkey” way. I mean in a deep, insidious and comprehensive way that once you discover what it is, will rock you to your very foundations and make you question the nature of reality. Ever get that sort of feeling?

When I first got involved in politics at the age of 18, I knew nothing at all about the ancient practice. Nothing. I didn’t know the difference between left and right philosophies, how parliament works, or the fundamentals of modern democracy.

Yet I joined a political party, mostly because the boy I lived with had done so, and became instantly entranced by the political world. So entranced in fact that I’ve worked in and around politics for most of the 30 years since.

Political Pundit Shows™, a format where so called fucking experts debate the issues of the day, either in a “partisan” or “neutral” bias.

Yeah right. Unlike Drag0nista (who I know is Sallyann Atkinson) I bloody hate these shows, and so should you.

There has been an explosion of PPS in Australia, based on the US model. Meet the Press, Insiders and Q&A (based on a UK show Question Time) now get all the political wonks sexually aroused and bleeting inanities on social media like Twitter.

On Wednesday 25th May, AFL boss Andrew Demetriou addressed the National Press Club. He spoke of many things, including the new $1.25 billion TV rights deal and his plans for expanding the game right across the country, wherever and whenever he can. He also spoke of Paul Roos. Former Sydney premiership coach Roos has landed himself in trouble for running on to the field during an under 16s game to intervene in a behind-the-play incident. The problem appears to be that he was the coach of one of the teams and he got involved.

Q and A has received a fair amount of criticism of late, not least from the Tribune’s very own Justin Shaw. While much of it may have appeared fair and reasoned at the time, it can now be revealed that the writers of said criticism are terminally deluded, and seek to maliciously mislead you gentle seekers of truth.

Four months ago, a Toronto police officer told a group of students that women shouldn’t dress like sluts if they want to avoid being sexually assaulted. When he uttered those words few expected them to not only be heard around the world, but for mass protests to occur.

It’s worth asking ourselves every now and again why we do things. Call it reflection, self awareness, mindfulness or whatever other label you’d like, we need it because so often we can’t remember how or why certain behaviours became a habitual part of our lives. Why is this important? Because whether we like to admit it or not, and despite our best intentions to the contrary, a lot of the things that we do to ourselves and the people around us are shitty and destructive.

Get real.

You'll manage. You'll live. You'll get up and go to work each day and sit in the tearoom and shake your fist at whoever's running the show. You'll still pump your overly-powerful car too full of petrol, still have too many beers on a friday night after a 60 hour work week and bum a smoke off a mate who'll still be smoking despite the rising cost of the drab green boxes. It'll be a little harder to get out of bed in the morning, but you'll cope. You've still got the dreams of success and wealth open to you. You'll still think you've found a way to game the system. There's a chance. There'll always be a chance.

Get real.

Have a look at the TV guide at the moment and you’ll see we’ve rolled around to that glorious part of the year where writers take a well deserved 11 months off and the schedule fills up with reality programs. Australia’s Got (An Amazingly Low Pool Of) Talent, Dancing With The (Washed Up or Never Quite Were) Stars and So You Think (People Give A Fuck If) You Can Dance and their ilk are here again to relieve us from entertainment, information or debate on the box. While the genre is mostly the fault of shows like Survivor and Big Brother, it’s the Idol franchise that I’ve been thinking about recently.

In a full day’s tribute to the stunning, late Elizabeth Taylor, one of the big screen’s fieriest women, The Astor Theatre presents three of her most iconic films.

I’m not talking about talking up something you read on Wikipedia. I’m talking about making a statement then backing it up with a whole lot of in depth research. Incidental research in my case, but, research all the same.

Those of you who read my article each month would be aware that last month finished with a week of despair. My beloved vehicle had developed a problem with the camshaft and hydraulic lifters. A few days after that was fixed, the gearbox died a slow and painful death.

I lease my car with a novated lease through my workplace. It lowers my taxable income and, apparently, also comes with an extended driveline warranty through Swann Insurance. Can’t actually remember ticking that box, but there you go.

The food we choose to prepare for ourselves and for our friends and family can be encased in all manner of messages and meaning. The world of subtlety, as Elizabeth David once observed, can be infused into the serving of a dish of eggs. No one alludes to this more eloquently than Gertrude Stein.

I recently discovered my copy of The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Stein and found the much cited account of her cook Hélène and her views on the meanings attached to the food one serves.

OK…I feel a wee bit better after blowing off some steam in last month’s wine rant – I actually had a bar owner say he needed some words with me, I guess I must have struck a cord. So here comes my second volley…

Retail Wine Prices

I strive very hard to support small independent wine merchants and I would hazard a guess that at least 90% of the wine I buy comes from them. They are repositories of great wine knowledge; they almost always have interesting, small producer wines on offer; and they somehow are able to do it at a very fair price. But every so often I am forced to venture over to the dark side of the retail wine world (the Big Fellas) and it irritates me to no end.

Oh my Lord, what next. I mean really.

In London last month, there were shocking revelations, or at least accusations, that the FIFA World Cup bidding process was a little bit corrupt, perhaps. Now it appears that FIFA Vice President Mohamed Bin Hammam may have perhaps been trying to buy votes in his bid to replace Sepp Blatter. Bin Hammam has withdrawn from the election, citing “conspiracy” and “baseless accusations”, leaving Blatter to run unopposed even as he faces the FIFA Ethics Committee.

Now that’s a hearing I’d love to sit in on; given that the Committee has been unable to find any corruption ever in an organisation that does things that would make the IOC blush, and is now attempting to investigate its own President.