Make Australia Great Again!

It’s not hard to make the argument that on many fronts Australia has regressed in recent years. Our standard of living in real terms has diminished over the term of the Albanese government. Whilst our GDP, masked by record migration might have increased, our percapita GDP has fallen. We have endured high levels of inflation […]

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Breaking Through the Woke Barrier

Pierre Bourdieu was a French sociologist. In his 1979 book Distinction, Bourdieu introduced the concept of symbolic capital. In contrast with more conventional notions of resources, such as wealth and material assets, Bourdieu argued that symbolic capital is the resource available to an individual on the basis of prestige, celebrity status and public recognition. A […]

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The Palestine Dilemma

On 7 October 2023, Hamas terrorists emerged from Gaza to commit an horrendous atrocity against Israeli civilians. This deadly incursion has been well documented so I won’t elaborate on the gruesome details. Inevitably Israel responded with deadly force in order to deter further aggression and to rescue the civilian hostages that Hamas had kidnapped during […]

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The Downside of a University Education

At the age of eighteen, I left my family home in Charters Towers to start an engineering degree at James Cook University (JCU) in Townsville. In those days it was quite an extraordinary thing to do! In my high school years I can only remember two students in the cohort that I knew ahead of […]

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Quantum Theory and Mysticism


I have often written about the impact of Quantum Physics, not only on our understanding of the physical world but also on our philosophical understanding of the nature of the universe. Now I don’t pretend to understand Quantum Physics, and I suspect many who write about it in popular literature have no greater understanding than […]

January 27, 2017

Toying with Treaties


As I have remarked on many occasions before, although Australia is a wonderful country, the plight of our indigenous people is a cause of great concern and not something we should be proud of. I have provided my readers on previous occasions with the appalling statistics of the plight of indigenous people with respect to […]

January 21, 2017

On Becoming Real


Even an old troglodyte like me can appreciate the benefits of modern technology. So I may be a troglodyte but I am decidedly not a Luddite, even though I find some manifestations of modern technology unsettling. I can remember going to a lunch with a prominent international figure as the guest speaker when one of […]

January 14, 2017

Preserving Our Liberal Democracy


I have written many previous essays on Islamist terrorism which is underpinned by a fundamentalist belief in Islam. I have examined the genesis of Islam and its initial success as not only a religious movement but as a colonising military force which resulted in the century or two after the death of Muhammad in a […]

January 7, 2017

The Mysterious Universe


Human advancement is inexorably linked to the progress of human thinking. What we have come to know and believe has been subject to multiple influences. In the West, prior to the seventeenth century, most people, the philosophers included, believed that there were only two prime sources of knowledge, viz. To relearn the wisdom of the […]

December 31, 2016

The Genesis of Another Famous Cristmas Song


Even an old cynic like me is positively affected by the Christmas myth. In fact it often inspires me to write a myth of my own. In the past I have written a couple in a series that I have called How a Famous Christmas Song Came to Be. This week I intend to follow […]

December 17, 2016

Glass Half Full and Rising


The news, it seems, is largely bad news. We hear of traffic fatalities, plane crashes and the latest terrorist atrocities. We are fed statistics about growing obesity, drug and alcohol abuse and falling education standards. On the television we see the latest house fire, wide spread storm damage and pervasive floods and droughts, all too […]

December 10, 2016

A Response to Further Thoughts on Democracy and “The Donald”


I would like to question the conclusion that the election of Donald Trump is somehow a triumph of democracy. A democratic process that took 2 years to, arguably, find the leader of the free world, produced 2 basically unsuitable candidates and elected the least suitable of the 2. Despite Hilary’s highly appropriate experience, I consider […]

December 2, 2016

I Want My Mummy!


This week, I was determined to put the Donald Trump phenomena aside for a while, and I will. But I am compelled to comment on a few attendant issues that became evident to me in recent times. Firstly, what we have been seeing as a reaction to Trump, Brexit and other world events makes me […]

November 26, 2016

Further Thoughts on Democracy and “The Donald”


Our politicians are in some way representatives of the people, but they are no longer representative of the people. This, I believe is an emerging problem with democracy. My father was a staunch unionist and a dyed in the wool Labor supporter. When I was young he was very good friends with the local Labor […]

November 19, 2016