2020

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Feb82020

HUMOUR Legal X-clamation points and that

POETRY LETTERS & HUMOURFebruary 8, 2020

It may come as no surprise, but your Theobogan is not a lawyer, not even of the bush variety! In the MacStuttles household Joan handles all matters judicatory: impeachment, impearment, jam torts, habeas octopus! She’s Judge, Jury and X-ecutioner. Court artist’s rendition of Patrick MacStuttles at the bar … ordering an LLB cocktail: two parts donkey tail and a shake of the ass’s head. No asses were injured in the drawing of this portrait, although MacStuttles got his kicked. My advice to anyone that is thinking about taking on Joan at the bar (legal bench or front … of the Roo and Emu)…

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Jan252020

HUMAN RIGHTS A Magnitsky-style law for Australia?

DEFENCE & SECURITY, FOREIGN AFFAIRSJanuary 25, 2020

Sergei Magnitsky was a tax accountant who was murdered in a Russian prison in 2009, having previously been refused medical treatment for severe illnesses. He had been detained after investigating a $US230 million ($A336 million) fraud involving Russian tax officials. Sergei Magnitsky An American friend and businessman, Bill Browder, took up the case, lobbying the United States Congress to sanction the officials involved. Through the advocacy of Senators Benjamin Cardin and John McCain, the Magnitsky Bill passed the Congress in 2012 and was signed into law by President Barak Obama. The purpose of the law was to prevent entry into…

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Jan252020

CINEMA Three times the bravura: 1917, The Gentlemen, Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon

MUSIC CINEMA & BOOKSJanuary 25, 2020

1917 is Sam Mendes’ – of American Beauty and Skyfall fame – critically acclaimed war epic shot in long takes and cut together in such a way that it appears as one continuous shot. It is April 1917, and General Erinmore (Colin Firth) tasks Lance Corporals Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Schofield (George MacKay) to deliver an urgent message to Colonel Mackenzie (Benedict Cumberbatch) of the 2nd Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment, ordering them to stop a planned attack on retreating German forces, who are luring the English into a trap. The Germans have cut communications and the two men have…

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Jan252020

MUSIC From retch to wretched

MUSIC CINEMA & BOOKSJanuary 25, 2020

Now I freely admit that when it comes to Chinese opera I know absolutely nothing. My ignorance is total. So, when I say that the sound of screaming cats drowning in molten lead is like angelic, harmonious choirs when compared with Chinese opera I am, of course, being culturally insensitive and a bit of a barbarian – actually, make that a lot of a barbarian. Nevertheless, I stand behind my comment. It’s rubbish. This writer heard Chinese opera in Beijing and wishes never to repeat the experience unless he is allowed to take industrial-strength sound-proofing headphones into the auditorium along…

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