Well, so, there was a #spill. Actually, for those of us who are twitter addicts, it was officially the #respill. And, despite the gleeful predictions of the media, Julia Gillard walked it in. The Labor Caucus had to choose between two unworkable positions. Gillard is running a reasonably competent government…
Henry Rollins has been angry for nearly thirty years. Now, as he tells The Tribune, he wields his anger like a scalpel, not a sword. Henry Rollins has been a presence in music, writing, publishing, acting and a dozen other things for nearly thirty years now. And when I say…
Women have been fighting for basic human rights for generations now. In all the opposition they face, there has been one constant: Religion. Germaine Greer said recently that if you call yourself a feminist, you are one, and I have some sympathy with that. My kind of feminism is —…
I’m fat. Actually, if you want to go by the World Health Organisation’s Body Mass Index (and I suggest you don’t), I’m “obese class II”. And I’ve been fat since I was eight years old. How Did I Get Here? When I started kindergarten I was a clumsy, skinny, hyper-sensitive…
Magazines are not making teenagers girls anorexic. Helen Razer vs the Positive Body Image brigade. Again. Just a few days ago, I lost a regular job. The fact of this defeat alone merits no attention; working freelance writers lose gigs more often than they misplace their will to live. What…
This is not a birth story. I don’t want to write what happened at the birth of my baby. I would rather forget. People, I feel betrayed. I spent nine months reading nothing but birth stories. I couldn’t wait to write down how I “birthed” my “babe”. I read so…
First Dog on the Moon was asked to give the keynote address at the International Women’s Day Forum at Cherchez la Femme. This is what he said, just in case you missed it, or even if you didn’t. My name is Andrew Marlton, although I have been asked here this…
Working from home isn’t all porn and cake — there are deadlines to meet I know where every single thing is in this apartment. Not in a vague ‘it’s in that cupboard’ way, but as in ‘it’s on the third shelf, at the front, between the snorkel and the barley…
Screaming “It’s Unconstitutional” may make people feel better, but has no grounding in reality. There is an old saying that a little knowledge is a very dangerous thing. Nowhere is that more true than with the law. Just about every practising lawyer has at some stage been bailed up by…
Part 46b: Nick Lowe and Johnny Cash… Nick Lowe, one-time son-in-law of Johnny Cash, asks the great man for the secret of his success… I can see it now: with diffident, faltering steps, the young pretender enters a darkened chamber… the acrid bouquet of brimstone and chewing tobacco, the sound…
There is an unavoidable pitfall in our unending calls for “leadership” — good leaders tend to be bastards. Last month’s tussle for the leadership of the ALP didn’t just reveal a lot about the simmering resentment on both sides, it also tells us a lot about how Labor and Australia…
Greens Senator Scott Ludlam explains how his party is working with the government to turn Australia into a Third-World country and steal all your socks. The 2010 election delivered up a ‘plague on both your houses’ outcome that is still kicking out the occasional aftershock. To a visitor from Europe…
Do NOT be too serious unless you’re expected to be and never forget that all, repeat all the wildlife wants you dead. Don’t buy a house near both a river and the bush unless you enjoy the irony of hosing down your gutters and walls one year and standing genital-deep…
Journalists risk their lives in conflict zones, but when something goes wrong they should be able to count on support from the Australian people and their government. Shouldn’t they? Around New Year 2011 I was invited to drinks at the Coopers Hotel, Newtown. I hadn’t been to Newtown in some…
It’s interesting that the guy called in to turn Coles’ fortunes around in the short term demanded cash, not shares, as part of his package, no? There’s an old trick they use in movies, of making someone appear harmless right up until the point where they pick your pockets or…
“Isms, in my opinion, are not good” - Ferris Bueller, 1986 Trisha Jha begs to differ and introduces us to several more. Last December I attended a conference hosted by The Centre for Independent studies, where I ended up having a discussion with a researcher about classical liberal feminism. At…
This piece will form part of an appendix in my forthcoming book, ‘How to save the whole damn world: A madly optimistic manifesto.’ Am I serious? Shit yeah! Let me state up front that what you are about to read is breath-takingly arrogant. I failed economics in high school and…
As homophobia is (apparently) lessening in the community at large, bullying of those at school who are, or even appear gay, is getting more vicious and more prevalent. The third report from the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society on same-sex attracted and gender-questioning (SSAGQ) young people makes…
You are not a unique and beautiful snowflake. Sometimes a job is just a job, not an empowering career. There are a lot of people who want to give or sell us solutions to the things that we don’t like in our lives. For our working life in particular there…
Some things are not designed to be put in certain places. Take note. I used to know a guy who worked as the admitting nurse in the emergency room of one of Melbourne’s largest hospitals. We’ll call him Walt, because I like literary references and I probably shouldn’t reveal his…
“Both the Greeks and the Romans thought cabbage a very healthy food, which it is: and a protection against drunkenness, which it is not.” (Alan Davidson, The Oxford Companion to Food,1999). These days, cabbage does not have the happiest of reputations I know, so it is with some reservation that…
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There’s no such thing as public opinion
Racism. Sexism. Homophobia. Are they the dark stain on our national soul? Is this ‘just how people are’, or is there something else at play? Writer... -
Recycled rhetoric
There’s nothing new under the sun. Particularly in politics. Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott might remain sceptical of climate change, but at... -
Letting Go
A moment in time, so difficult to hold on to. Even more difficult to let go. The desk in my father's office has for the last 25 years had a photo of my... -
The Hot and The Dead – Caroline Lamb
In our new series The Hot And The Dead, we’ll be wandering through the graveyards of the world to find hot dead folk for your viewing pleasure. Lady... -
PDF for subscribers 19 June 2013PDF version is available for subscribers
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