Author: Peter Smith

  • The ABC does not exist in a vacuum

    Gerard Henderson regularly and rightly criticises the ABC. A “staff collective” he calls it, which has not one single conservative commentator presenting a prominent show. I can’t speak first hand these days. I neither watch nor listen to the ABC. I suppose episodes of Four Corners, e.g., on the Trump “Russian collusion”, the 7.30 report…

  • Insanity Reigns

    Chris Bowen, Minister for Climate Change and Energy, is gung-ho for more wind despite rising power prices and evidence of frequent and extensive wind droughts across the whole of Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM). Apropos the period from 11 am on August 7 until 4 am on August 9. For 42 hours wind delivered just…

  • All One in Jesus Christ

    Out of hospital, appeared to have survived temporarily. Our stays on planet earth are temporary. Thanks by the way to those who sent their best wishes in their comments on my last piece. Unexpected. Greatly appreciated. My Anglican minister, who visited me, asked whether I would like to be included in prayers in the upcoming…

  • Abandon All Dignity Ye Who Enter Here

    Life took a turn last Monday morning at 3 am. All unheralded I woke with acute pain in my abdomen. Was it wind I thought and tried every position imaginable to rid myself of the morbid affliction. Nothing worked. Felt nauseous. Threw up. Unexpectedly did a number two. Normal enough. No relief followed. Living alone…

  • God Save The King

    Until last evening, I hadn’t seen The King’s Speech with Geoffrey Rush, Colin Firth and company. Usually watch some shoot-‘em up over a red wine or three.  Good movie. I enjoyed it. Whether the dialogue between the King and Lionel Logue is remotely close to the truth I doubt, but the substance of the plotline…

  • When you can’t believe what you read

    Read a left-wing tendentious article yesterday (6 May) in the Weekend Australian (page 13) from a Hugh Tomlinson in London. All about the so-called Proud Boys and their Trumpian plot to storm the US Capitol buildings. Here’s a short extract One protester was shot dead and hundreds injured, including more than 150 police officers. One officer…

  • Bits and Pieces

    Barry Humphries leaving us is a sad event. In my view he was he was the best comedian ever. I’m not talking about duos (e.g., Laurel and Hardy, Amos and Andy) or sit comms (e.g., Fawlty Towers, Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm) or sketch shows (Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Little Britain, The fast Show) or Joke…

  • Good Cop, Bad Cop on Sky

    Andrew Bolt interviewed Lidia Thorpe’s (white) father on Thursday evening. How that happened who knows. Did Roy Illingworth knock on Bolt’s door? Did Bolt approach Mr Illingworth? Were commercial terms involved?  What is clear is that Illingworth would have done better not to do the interview. Bolt asked him some personal questions about his daughter…

  • When words don’t count, God’s on your side, and privilege equals equality

    “As I have pointed out repeatedly the only point of contention is constitutional enshrinement, the rest is noise.” So says Chris Kenny in the Weekend Australian. The only point? Yes, that’s right. That is the whole and complete point of the referendum. All kinds of stupid legislation is routinely enacted – net zero, for example.…

  • Men Ain’t Women and Vice Versa

    The Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, published the results of some research in 2017 which was directed to try to explain the different incidences of particular diseases in men and women. Researchers analysed 20,000 different genes, sorting them by sex and for differences in expression in each body tissue. They found that around 6,500 of…