Merry Christmas from a devout Muslim
By Khaled Elomar As a devout Muslim, I keep hearing from others that wishing anyone a Merry Christmas is Blasphemous. In my opinion, and that […]
AIM Extra
Christmas comes but a hundred times a year
For my school holidays in 1965 I was staying with my newly-wed brother and his wife’s family in country NSW. On Christmas Eve my brother […]
The Misuses of History: The Christmas 1914 Truce
All memorialised events, when passing into mythology, must be seen critically. In some cases, there should be more than a hint of suspicion. The Christmas […]
It’s never been so hard to do something so easy
Well that was embarrassing. Egg on face. Eating humble pie. Feeling two feet tall. Call it what you will … we’re going through it. With […]
Orbán’s Latest Dance
Viktor Orbán of Hungary is not to be hectored to. Arching with fury at the EU’s September motion to sanction Hungary for bad behaviour under […]
Tumblr and the Cult of the Safe
Be aware of the titty. Or pudenda. Or anything else suggesting a copulative angle familiar to most adults with a decent constituency of desire. The […]
The Kosovo Blunder: Moves Towards a Standing Army
There never is a time not to worry in the Balkans. The next conflict always seems to be peering around the corner with a malicious […]
Be Offensive and Be Damned: The Cases of Peter Ridd and Tim Anderson
It has been an ordinary year for universities in Australia. While the National Tertiary Education Union pats itself on the back for supposedly advancing the […]
From Oedipus to Morrison
They came to him. The Theban citizens, in pain and in prayer. They came to king Oedipus and cried for his help. “…But, you, too, […]
William Blum: Anti-Imperial Advocate
In the incessant self-praise of the US imperial project, kept safe in a state of permanently enforced amnesia, occasional writings prod and puncture. Mark Twain […]
Exhuming Franco: Spain’s Immemorial Divisions
“Of course there’s one Spain. If there was another, we’d all be in that one.” (Joke on Franco’s Spain, in LondonReview of Books, 37, July, […]
Deflating democracy
Earlier this week my neighbour asked, “Is America a democracy?” I replied, “America is a republic which aspires to democracy via its Constitution and Bill […]
Satanic Football Ban – Christian School Acts
By David Ayliffe Children at a remote Victorian Christian School have been forbidden to watch, play or discuss football by the conservative Principal of the school, […]
Lying About Age: The Legal Efforts of Emile Ratelband
Oscar Wilde famously warned that one should never trust a woman who revealed her true age; anyone so inclined to do so was bound to […]