A (mostly) weekly thread focussed on reportage/analysis of current affairs, social media storms and the political process. Share your bouquets and brickbats for particular items in the mass media, or highlight cogent analysis or pointed twitterstorms etc in new media. Discuss any current sociopolitical issue (the theme of each edition is merely for discussion-starter purposes – all current news items are on topic!).
The primary absurdity came with the Abbott government restoring the grades of Knight/Dame to the Order of Australia in the first place, such secondary absurdities as this particular captain’s pick were inevitable from that point forward.
What news story/commentary/analysis has grabbed your attention lately?
I wish there were more feel-good stories like this dominating the news.
What news story/commentary/analysis has grabbed your attention lately?
I want to be stalwart in solidarity with the French as they resolutely stand against terrorism aimed at the heart of their multicultural democracy, and by extension, our multicultural democracy as well. How to best do that in this swirl of emotion following these murders while refusing to fall into the polarising trap that the terrorists have set for us? I don’t have any easy answers.
What news story/commentary/analysis has grabbed your attention lately?
The lists are appearing.
What news story/commentary/analysis has grabbed your attention lately?
It’s a bit early for a new media circus thread, but it’s also the time of year for the release of unpleasant news that the newsmakers hope will be buried by the holidays.
What news story/commentary/analysis has grabbed your attention lately?
It’s been a bad week here in Sydney, a bad week in Peshawar, and news from the rest of the world has mostly not been great, either.
What news story/commentary/analysis has grabbed your attention lately?
What’s been your most/least favourite political moment lately? Will an unelectable stick become the next Liberal PM?
What news story/commentary/analysis has grabbed your attention lately?
The giants who strode the political landscape of my youth are toppling one by one, leaving only gnats swarming over the entrails of serious political principles while Big Money shakes shiny things at us all, politicians very much included.
Contrast the government’s war on welfare with the rhetoric surrounding critics of the increasing wealth gap as advocates of “class warfare”. Hmm.
What news story/commentary/analysis has grabbed your attention lately?
The Shorten Opposition is there voting with the government in the House without rigorously debating the bills or using the Senate conscientiously as a House of Review, so these bills are being fast-tracked into legislation without adequate scrutiny let alone electoral transparency. Why?
Contrast the government’s war on welfare with the rhetoric surrounding critics of the increasing wealth gap as advocates of “class warfare”. Hmm.
What news story/commentary/analysis has grabbed your attention lately?
Given a choice between a welfare system in which some people get money they don’t deserve but nobody dies miserably, and a welfare system in which nobody gets money they don’t deserve but people die miserably, which do we prefer?
Contrast the government’s war on welfare with the rhetoric surrounding critics of the increasing wealth gap as advocates of “class warfare”. Hmm.
What news story/commentary/analysis has grabbed your attention lately?
Hoyden About Town 