The Existential Threat of Radical Islamism

It is a strange quirk of the human condition that we almost universally romanticise the past. T H White captured the sentiment in his lovely book The Once and Future King. The myth of King Arthur and Camelot reflect our desire to reclaim an idealised past. As in many such myths (including the Christian one) […]

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The Frugal Mind

Most neuroscientists believe that the cognitive capacities of our minds emanate from the neural complexity of our brains. It is often claimed that the number of neural connections in the human brain outnumber the number of stars in the known universe. The human brain is estimated to have roughly 100 to 500 trillion synapses. This vast […]

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Australia’s Renewable Energy Dilemma

Just as Anthony Albanese was touring the Great Wall of China, kowtowing to President Xi and walking away from our military alliance with the United States, Chris Bowen was in Germany seeking to bolster his case for green hydrogen and other green energy boondoggles to foist upon the long-suffering energy consumers of Australia. But the […]

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Of Time and Mind

As I have written before, time seems to be the greatest paradox our minds have to grapple with. The great Western interpreter of Eastern wisdom, Alan Watts, once remarked: Paradox is just the truth standing on its head to gain attention! Well I don’t know about you, but I can certainly affirm that the paradox […]

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The Saga of the Great Voice Subterfuge


It seems to me a great tragedy Australia’s original inhabitants have emerged from the Dream Time only to be ensconced in the “woke” time. With the Voice referendum fast approaching and the rhetoric from both the Yes camp and the No camp hotting up, I thought it might be wise to take pause and reflect […]

August 16, 2023

Avoiding the Debate


I have often told you, my good friend and mentor, the good Dr Phil, taught me many years ago that the path to psychological maturity comprised three steps, viz: Know yourself. Accept yourself. Forget yourself. Unfortunately I am still getting to know myself and what I am learning I am finding difficult to accept! Perhaps […]

July 30, 2023

The Period When I Transitioned


I had been out of sorts for a while. I was smitten with some vague uneasiness that I felt hard to place. Even my wife noticed it. “You seem depressed,” she said. “What is wrong with you?” “I don’t know,” I responded. “I feel strangely dissolute.” “Typical male,” she replied.  “Suffer in silence and won’t […]

July 5, 2023

Oh What an Appalling ABC Coronation!


You can’t deny that the coronation of a British monarch is a significant event. There now have been two in my lifetime. I was in primary school when Queen Elizabeth II was crowned. And now when my faculties are again waning to childlike levels there has been another. A few weekends ago, embellished with the […]

June 3, 2023

The Voice vs Democracy


That life in a democracy is better than under any other form of government is attested to by the migration of hordes of people from undemocratic states into the democracies of Western Europe, North America, Australia and other democratic countries. Democracy is the peak achievement of Western civilisation. And whilst the left seems to want […]

April 28, 2023

Providing Proper Parenting for Our Children


In many ways I have had a fortunate life. One of the particular good fortunes I have experienced is to to have belonged to a loving and supportive family. My maternal grandmother had eleven children. She lived in a modest two-bedroom cottage. The kitchen/dining room was in a lean-to at the rear of the house […]

March 31, 2023

The Woke War of Words


What’s in a name? That which we call a roseBy any other name would smell as sweet; When in Romeo and Juliet, Juliet utters these words Shakespeare is displaying the fulsome naivety that prevailed before we were assailed by “wokedom”. In such innocent times we were not unduly concerned how we named things because there […]

March 8, 2023

The Uncomfortable Misguided Gender Divide


The lot of women has changed dramatically in my generation. When I married my wife, she was employed by the Queensland Public Service. But once we were married she was forced to resign. It was the State Government’s policy in those days not to employ married women. The old fashioned logic was that men were […]

February 24, 2023

On Victimhood


The human mind is surely the most complex phenomenon that we are aware of in the universe. Consequently it displays many perplexing and often seemingly contradictory traits. Many of us, erroneously, believe that we are autonomous when it comes to our behaviour so that our will has dominion such that we can just choose to […]

February 4, 2023

Has Albo Lost His Voice?


One of the more important debates we are going to have this year is about the Voice referendum. The discussions about the Voice have already become very vitriolic and partisan. My friend and astute commentator on indigenous affairs, Anthony Dillon, deplores the fact that the debate on the voice has become so polarised that contrary […]

January 19, 2023