Blunt Instrument

Shame bath people, shame

Wed, 15 May 2013 23:49:22 GMT

“Women use the bathtub to escape,” said Cate. “Like men use the toilet.”

I did not take offence. I have the collected cartoons of The New Yorker in the ...

Freetard free-for-all just cause Foxtel won't compete

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:01:24 GMT

So, Foxtel has put a bullet into the deal that let Australian viewers buy Game of Thrones, and other premium HBO series, episode by episode as they aired. Season three is okay, but next ...

The terrifying true story of 'man flu'

Wed, 08 May 2013 14:00:00 GMT

Women of calibre my hairy male arse. They’re all sniffling malingers. And scientists have proven it with science. Man flu science. And they were male scientists, too, of course. The lady ...

White paper whites out some inconvenient truths

Mon, 06 May 2013 19:58:39 GMT

It’s tempting to wonder why Julia Gillard bothered expending time and political capital on last week’s Defence White Paper. It’s a policy area she neither cares nor knows much ...

Judgment day for everything icky

Wed, 01 May 2013 14:00:00 GMT

Encouraged by the reaction to their demand for a referendum on marriage equality, an unlikely coalition of Christian and Muslim groups has vowed to demand referenda on everything that interests ...

Lords of the land let loose

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 14:00:00 GMT

The landlord came at them with a baseball bat. They hid behind a locked door as he screamed at them to get out. He’d previously smashed up some of their possessions to encourage them to ...

Remembering the best of us

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:01:56 GMT

The northerlies blew for two days, whipping the sand up off the beach in stinging sheets and whorls and whips that lashed at every inch of exposed skin. And then, the night before Anzac Day, they ...

Howard for GG ... and bring back Dad and Dave

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 20:24:00 GMT

Oh come now, John Howard would make an excellent Governor-General. Not as excellent as Prince Harry, who could be counted on to fast rope into Yarralumla, naked save for a couple of Vegas barmaids ...

Hivemind, horror and hashtags in wake of Boston bombing

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 22:28:46 GMT

Two days on and what we really know of Boston can still be contained by a few brief words. Two bombs exploded. Some people died. Many more were injured.

You push out beyond that, as both ...

Come on CWA, think outside the box

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 20:56:00 GMT

Hang your head in shame, Queensland. When archaeologists from the future (probably equipped with laser spades), dig up the reasons for the fall of our civilisation, it won’t be climate ...

Cakes comps? Think outside the box

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 20:56:00 GMT

Hang your head in shame, Queensland. When archaeologists from the future (probably equipped with laser spades), dig up the reasons for the fall of our civilisation, it won’t be climate ...

Cakes comps? Think out of the box

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 20:56:00 GMT

Hang your head in shame, Queensland. When archaeologists from the future (probably equipped with laser spades), dig up the reasons for the fall of our civilisation, it won’t be climate ...

Free floppies a policy flop

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 14:01:48 GMT

The Opposition Leader promised this week that every Australian household would receive a free floppy disk drive and monochrome monitor under an Abbott-led government.

Launching the ...

When you steal The Game of Thrones you win or you die

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:11:27 GMT

So, here we are again. I rarely return to a topic so quickly, but last week’s

Why are you still stealing Game of Thrones?

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 20:25:00 GMT

Why are you still stealing Game of Thrones? Is it that you don't have a cable subscription, and so can't enjoy the return to Westeros on Foxtel? Maybe you don't subscribe because you have some ...

Is there a place for vigilantism?

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 20:50:00 GMT

It's a horribly Ipswich thing to say, but perhaps violence is sometimes the answer. I'm struggling to come up with an alternative to these yahoos who like to catch public transport, and especially ...

Tipple tax born of a blurred vision

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 20:00:00 GMT

“There are some ideas so absurd,” said George Orwell, “that only an intellectual could believe them.” There are other ideas, even absurderer, that ...

Easter Bunny's rotten tale

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:01:42 GMT

It could have been worse. Julia Gillard could have invited Hitler around to her place for

It's not hard - the victim is the victim, the rapist is not

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 22:35:11 GMT

Why is it that rape is one of those weird things where everything we know and everything we do suddenly suffers an inexplicable inversion. The innocent become guilty. The wrongdoer the ...

Scouring through Iraq's scorched earth for what went wrong

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 15:01:00 GMT

Ten years ago the invasion of Iraq began. For most of the world the first shots fell on Baghdad, where cruise missiles suddenly streaked through the night sky, destroying power stations, army ...

Our murky past must never be repeated

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:27:00 GMT

It was a hell of a thing, seeing Peter Beattie and Mike Ahern on stage together on Monday night for the launch of Matt Condon’s awesome and literate history of Dark Ages ...

Playing the man

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 15:00:00 GMT

A year or two back I did a month’s worth of fill in work on ABC radio in Brisbane. It was fun once I figured out which buttons to push but frustrating when I realised just how serious are ...

Time to go turd fishing, Abbott

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:25:52 GMT

I found a turd in a swimming pool once. A shocking discovery. I’m not sure how it got there, but there was no question as to why it remained. Nobody would take responsibility for cleaning ...

Adelaide? You must be kidding

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:58:18 GMT

Wait? Huh? What the…? We’re letting serial killers fill out these questionnaires now? Because I can’t see any other way Adelaide comes out on top of a liveability ...

Adelaide? You must be kidding

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:58:18 GMT

Wait? Huh? What the…? We’re letting serial killers fill out these questionnaires now? Because I can’t see any other way Adelaide comes out on top of a liveability ...