“Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone, It’s with O’Leary in the grave. Was it for this the wild greese spread The grey wing upon every tide?” William Butler Yeats, 1913 When the late afternoon light bathes the farmland of County Kerry with a warm autumn glow, one can truly understand why Ireland is known as…
Taiwan, a country of 23 million people and one of Australia’s largest trading partners, recently conducted a series of referenda on questions of vital importance to the future of the country, and of great interest to Australia, including same-sex marriage, nuclear power and the future of coal-fired power generation. The outcome of the referenda…
HOW POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IS DESTROYING AUSTRALIA: Enemies Within and Without by Dr Kevin Donnelly Wilkinson Publishing, Melbourne Paperback: 204 pages Price: AUD$29.99 Reviewed by David Daintree Kevin Donnelly is one of the most outspoken and persuasive defenders of conservative values in the Australian public square today. He is a cheerful, gutsy warrior, proud of his working-class background (he cheerfully boasts that some of his opponents call him a “class traitor”), terrier-like on the attack, but kindly and generous by nature: he is a man who would take prisoners, and treat them well; but, if they don’t surrender, he’ll give them…
He was drunk. He took care to be always drunk. More than half the contents of his pack was gin. There was no shortage of it. Every bottle of gin distilled in the world was his for the asking. Whisky, vodka, schnapps – he ran the names through his head, faster and faster. To make…
In the area of philosophy, especially moral philosophy, one of the most influential books in the second half of the 20th century was Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue. One might even claim that it was the book that launched a new wave of interest in Aristotelianism and in virtue ethics. In developing his arguments, MacIntyre…
Former South African Special Forces commander Wynand du Toit, like another famous POW, South Vietnam’s Colonel Vo Dai Ton (“Reminder of communist tyranny from a good man”, News Weekly, September 10, 2016), was imprisoned by the communists during the Cold War and subsequently turned wordsmith. Wynand du Toit South Africans…
THE WESTERN FRONT DIARIES OF CHARLES BEAN edited by Peter Burness NewSouth, Sydney Hardcover: 640 pages Price: AUD$79.99 Reviewed by Anthony Staunton Charles Bean sailed to the Middle East in 1914 with the first Australian contingent as Australia’s official war correspondent and would later be appointed Australia’s official war historian. He wrote six of the 12 volumes of the official history and edited the other six. Bean’s Gallipoli diaries edited by Kevin Fewster have been in print for more than 30 years. This volume covers his diaries on the Western Front from 1916 to 1918 and is most…
If not for the sheer wonder of the Coalition’s magnificent ten, or the heroics of the Aussie divers in Thailand, Ken Hayne would surely be topping the leader board for the next Australian of the Year. Those worthy Nationals Members and Senators who pushed for the Banking Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation…
Recently the CSIRO released a report detailing the potential of underground water supplies in the Fitzroy river valley, in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, supplies that could be utilised for broad-scale agriculture. A team of 250 scientists worked for 2½ years to release hundreds of pages of detailed studies on the hydrology, soils, and…
THE MANNIX ERA: Melbourne Catholic Leadership 1920–1970 by Patrick Morgan Connor Court, Redland Bay Paperback: 320 pages Price: AUD$29.95 News Weekly is pleased to present for our readers an extract from Australian historian Patrick Morgan’s forthcoming book, The Mannix Era: Melbourne Catholic Leadership 1920-70. Patrick Morgan is…
The courageous and outspoken defence of free speech at universities by University of Western Australia chancellor and former High Court Chief Justice Robert French (News Weekly, October 6, 2018) may have helped waken a realisation among his peers that, thanks to the thuggery of some leftist students and staff, universities are losing their reputation as…
MAKING AUSTRALIA RIGHT: Where to from Here? edited by James Allan Connor Court, Redland Bay Paperback: 212 pages Price: AUD$29.95 Reviewed by Chris Rule James Allan states in his introduction that the overall theme of this book is “where to from here for the right side of politics” and that he gave each contributor “a very laissez-faire and minimal set of instructions”. The book, published in December 2016, gets off to a good start with a Bill Leak cartoon on the front cover. It points out what isn’t right with Australia, what he calls the heavy industries of Canberra –…
GOD IS GOOD FOR YOU: A Defence of Christianity in Troubled Times by Greg Sheridan Allen & Unwin, Sydney Paperback: 320 pages Price: AUD$32.99 Reviewed by Therese Mount You may want to hold onto this book for a while after you read it. Use it as a reference. It is so well researched it could find a home on your shelf quite comfortably. Greg Sheridan isn’t a theologian, nor is he a philosopher. He is a foreign affairs journalist and is the current Foreign Editor for The Australian newspaper. Yet, while his previous work has focused on politics, Sheridan demonstrates…
A push by the European Parliament to punish Hungary because of its refusal to take immigrants from the Middle East, its opposition to the European Union’s extreme environmental policies, and laws preventing overseas-funded NGOs operating in the country, is further dividing the EU, from which Britain is expected to withdraw early next year. …
PHISHING FOR PHOOLS: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception by George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller Princeton UP, Princeton, New Jersey Hardcover: 288 pages Price: AUD$54.99 Reviewed by David James Mainstream economic theory is riddled with circular arguments, the most prominent of which is the idea that markets, and the consumers in them, are rational. Restated, the idea is something like this: “Whatever traders do in markets is necessarily in their self-interest; to act in your own self-interest is rational; therefore markets always behave rationally.” Put that way, it is hard to argue with because it is a tautology.…