2016

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Jan302016

CANBERRA OBSERVED No urgency but Turnbull will want to make his mark

POLITICS, UncategorizedJanuary 30, 2016

There are a couple of safe bets about how Malcolm Turnbull intends to govern as Australia’s 29th prime minister, but there are also some big unknowns which will also make the Turnbull era highly unpredictable. Is Tony Abbott back in the picture? The first sure thing is that, having worked so long and fought so hard to reach the pinnacle of Australian politics, Mr Turnbull intends to remain in the job for some considerable time. After churning prime ministers (on average one every 24 months) over the recent past, Australian politics is desperate for a period of stability and longevity…

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Jan302016

BOOK REVIEW Secularism mars insights

MUSIC CINEMA & BOOKS, UncategorizedJanuary 30, 2016

NOTES ON THE DEATH OF CULTURE: Essays on Spectacle and Society by Mario Vargas Llosa (Faber and Faber, London, 2015) Hardcover: 227 pages ISBN: 9780571300549 Price: AUD$35.00 Reviewed by B.J. Coman “When I hear the word ‘culture’, I reach for my revolver.” These words, usually attributed to Hermann Göring, have come back to haunt us because, nowadays, a great many people regard “culture” (in the old sense of the word) as having been usurped by something which, indeed might give us cause to reach for a gun! Among those with such concerns is Mario Vargas Llosa, the…

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Jan302016

BOOK REVIEW A novel for the remnant

MUSIC CINEMA & BOOKS, UncategorizedJanuary 30, 2016

ELIJAH IN JERUSALEM: A Novel by Michael O’Brien (Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2015) Hardback: 288 pages ISBN: 9781586179465Price: AUD$45.95 Reviewed by Peter Kelleher The prisoner’s paradox is pertinent to the reading of this novel. On Sunday a prisoner is told he will be executed on one of the following five days but that, when it happens, it will come as a surprise. The prisoner reasons thus: “If they have not come for me by Thursday evening, I will know that my execution will take place on Friday; but then it will come as no surprise. Therefore, they…

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LETTERS

POETRY LETTERS & HUMOURJanuary 30, 2016

A good read Sir, Malcolm Turnbull is going to have some difficulty in recovering from the Colebatch onslaught (News Weekly, December 5, 2015). Suddenly, the old adage which declared that were one not a socialist at 18 one would be a scoundrel, but if one were still a socialist at 40 one would be about eight different kinds of idiot, springs to mind. Where is Tony Abbott? Fifteen cheers for Brian Coman and his expose of Greens’ Idiocy. As one steeped in genuine conservation which I have practised with all my meagre capital and effort for the past 23 years…

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