For a man widely considered the pre-eminent American conservative of the twentieth century, William F. Buckley was something of a paradox. To begin with, he was a zealot for freedom who distrusted the masses and their ability to govern themselves; an American isolationist who befriended and supported imperialist presidents; a
Songs of betrayal are nothing new. From the troubadours of the High Middle Ages lamenting the cruelty of their lovers to Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do,” violation of trust, feelings of victimhood and a desire for revenge have been frequent subjects of the lyric art. My favourite
Enough time has passed now for us to assess with less passion the breaches of parliamentary convention associated with the events leading up to the Whitlam government’s dismissal by governor-general John Kerr in November 1975. Conventions exist for practical and sometimes self-interested reasons, and in these two cases — both
“I had a strange feeling today that we’d entered a true crime tale and it was unclear who the author was,” write Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein in The Mushroom Tapes, one of many books raced into print after Erin Patterson’s conviction this July for three murders, and
Delegates and other participants arriving in the northeastern Brazilian port of Belém for the UN’s COP30 climate conference have been greeted by suitably forest-themed posters declaring the city “the capital of the Amazon.” They might therefore be forgiven for thinking that the waterway they glimpsed from the plane dramatically winding
Alison Bechdel is famous for inventing the “Bechdel Test,” a sarcastic way of assessing whether a film is non-sexist — it must contain at least one scene in which two named women are shown together talking about something other than a man. A friend points out the aphorism embodies Bechdel’s
Tuesday this week was a very good day for Democrats and a very bad day for both MAGA and the oligarchy. If I were a properly house-trained pundit, I would immediately follow that statement by throwing some shade at Democrats. But this was a blowout, pure and simple. Here are
While the Coalition was combusting over climate change and energy policy on Thursday, treasurer Jim Chalmers went to visit his alma mater, the Australian National University, to talk about opportunity. He’d been asked to address Crawford School alumni on the campus where he wrote his PhD on Paul Keating and
In the first Asian tour of his second presidency, Donald Trump attracted higher than ever levels of praise, sycophancy and financial pledges from the region’s leaders. But a social media post might have revealed more about his intentions than the media coverage of those encounters. Trump’s tour took in the
In the first Asian tour of his second presidency, Donald Trump attracted higher than ever levels of praise, sycophancy and financial pledges from the region’s leaders. But a social media post might have revealed more about his intentions than the media coverage of those encounters. Trump’s tour took in the
In recent weeks, two new Australian films have quietly called for — and deserved — our attention. They are Kangaroo (at least the third film with that title in our cinema history) and The Travellers, and both are unpretentious, sensitive, and subtly written and directed, each with elements of comedy
Margaret Walkom was so formidably clever I sometimes wonder if even her parents weren’t sometimes intimidated by her. In December 1931 her photograph appeared in the Sydney Mail when she was dux and co-head prefect of Pymble Ladies’ College. It was customary to photograph school duxes with their prize books,
For a man widely considered the pre-eminent American conservative of the twentieth century, William F. Buckley was something of a paradox. To begin with, he was a zealot for freedom who distrusted the masses and their ability to govern themselves; an American isolationist who befriended and supported imperialist presidents; a
Songs of betrayal are nothing new. From the troubadours of the High Middle Ages lamenting the cruelty of their lovers to Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do,” violation of trust, feelings of victimhood and a desire for revenge have been frequent subjects of the lyric art. My favourite
Enough time has passed now for us to assess with less passion the breaches of parliamentary convention associated with the events leading up to the Whitlam government’s dismissal by governor-general John Kerr in November 1975. Conventions exist for practical and sometimes self-interested reasons, and in these two cases — both
“I had a strange feeling today that we’d entered a true crime tale and it was unclear who the author was,” write Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein in The Mushroom Tapes, one of many books raced into print after Erin Patterson’s conviction this July for three murders, and
Delegates and other participants arriving in the northeastern Brazilian port of Belém for the UN’s COP30 climate conference have been greeted by suitably forest-themed posters declaring the city “the capital of the Amazon.” They might therefore be forgiven for thinking that the waterway they glimpsed from the plane dramatically winding
Alison Bechdel is famous for inventing the “Bechdel Test,” a sarcastic way of assessing whether a film is non-sexist — it must contain at least one scene in which two named women are shown together talking about something other than a man. A friend points out the aphorism embodies Bechdel’s
Tuesday this week was a very good day for Democrats and a very bad day for both MAGA and the oligarchy. If I were a properly house-trained pundit, I would immediately follow that statement by throwing some shade at Democrats. But this was a blowout, pure and simple. Here are
While the Coalition was combusting over climate change and energy policy on Thursday, treasurer Jim Chalmers went to visit his alma mater, the Australian National University, to talk about opportunity. He’d been asked to address Crawford School alumni on the campus where he wrote his PhD on Paul Keating and
In the first Asian tour of his second presidency, Donald Trump attracted higher than ever levels of praise, sycophancy and financial pledges from the region’s leaders. But a social media post might have revealed more about his intentions than the media coverage of those encounters. Trump’s tour took in the
In the first Asian tour of his second presidency, Donald Trump attracted higher than ever levels of praise, sycophancy and financial pledges from the region’s leaders. But a social media post might have revealed more about his intentions than the media coverage of those encounters. Trump’s tour took in the
In recent weeks, two new Australian films have quietly called for — and deserved — our attention. They are Kangaroo (at least the third film with that title in our cinema history) and The Travellers, and both are unpretentious, sensitive, and subtly written and directed, each with elements of comedy
Margaret Walkom was so formidably clever I sometimes wonder if even her parents weren’t sometimes intimidated by her. In December 1931 her photograph appeared in the Sydney Mail when she was dux and co-head prefect of Pymble Ladies’ College. It was customary to photograph school duxes with their prize books,
