Politics

Why saints and science shouldn’t mix

ABC television’s Q&A program earlier this week started with discussion about the canonisation of Mary MacKillop and ended with debate about climate change. Which of these topics do you think the following response, from Greg Hunt, the shadow minister for climate action, environment and heritage was in relation to? “I think the answer for me [...]

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Steve’s Diabolical Challenge

Like Senator Steve Fielding, I am a lapsed engineer. Like Steve, I have attempted to understand the science of climate change. Unlike Steve, I eventually understood that the task is beyond ordinary mortals. In fact it is even beyond the intellect of a single engineer. I realised that we should be leaving it to the [...]

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Do we Expect too Much of our Politicians?

Like my father, I like to converse with the television. Every time a politician talks out at me from the box, I can’t resist the urge to talk back. If I were to read a headline like the one on this post, I would probably head straight for the comments box and launch into a tirade against the average parliamentary representative. As a rule, politicians are self-absorbed, narcissistic egomaniacs … or is there another side to this story?

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Obama’s Cairo Speech Dissected: The Power of Language

So Barack Obama has made another inspirational speech. This is hardly remarkable: we’ve known for some time that Obama makes George W. look like a performing seal, and an inarticulate one at that. Yet even in this context Obama’s speech in Cairo was remarkable. In less than 6000 words he was able to strip bare [...]

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Inspiration from a Clown and a President

The night before Barack Obama’s inauguration we watched the 1998 movie ‘Patch Adams‘. It turns out that Patch has a bit in common with Mr Obama. Both can provide us with inspiration for dealing with challenging times and for getting more life out of life. Patch Adams is an American doctor who believes, literally, that [...]

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The Hidden Truths of Climate Change and Globalization

At the risk of getting political, a comment on the two major debates currently dominating Australian politics: climate change and industrial relations. What’s fascinating about these debates is the consistent avoidance of the simple truths at their centre – particularly given that we all know politicians are only to happy to over-simplify complex situations when [...]

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