Seeing a Prominent Local Politician  in a Box at ‘Countess Maritza’, November, 1989  How unpleasant to see you, almost marring our evening A lightning conductor for disgust and rage Perched like a sour, glum, egg-bound parrot Above the lights and gaiety of the stage. But it does nothing for Kalman’s gentle memory To deign to notice your lugubrious presence at all In this…

Ethanol adequate to a T When the T Model Ford was built it was possible to drive along on ethanol as its fuel. Ethanol or a mixture of it with gasoline was a recognised fuel in Australia at least until 1957. Oil company competition forced ethanol out and smog started to develop, particularly in cities. I believe oil is still the greatest cause…

Carbon Dating: The Materialist Scientist’s Guide to the Opposite Sex, by Greer Garson, Greta Garbo, Ava Gardner and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Booky McBookface Publishers, Deniliquin Price: $35 Reviewed by Sebastian Gunlighter Well, here it is. And not before time. Starring Mule Skinner as the dapper bald guy with a past and Mardi Gras as the flyleaf. While text of this supremely…

THE FRACTURED REPUBLIC: Renewing America’s Social Contract in the Age of Individualism by Yuval Levin Basic Books, New York Hardcover: 249 pages Price: AUD$39.99 Reviewed by Colin Teese The Fractured Republic is a difficult work to review. The author’s concept of “fracture” is different from any conventional understanding of that term as it refers to current problems confronting the United…

RED FAMINE: Stalin’s war on Ukraine, 1921–33 by Anne Applebaum Allen Lane, London Hardcover: 512 pages Price: AUD$55 Reviewed by Bill James The black American singer and actor, Paul Robeson, visited the Soviet Union in 1934. In understandable reaction against both the racism that he had experienced in the United States, and the new Nazi regime in Germany, he typified…

As the Queensland Government moves to allow men to self-identify as women, 300 angry women have quit the British Labour Party over guaranteeing transgender male-to-females on the party’s All-Women Shortlist.   UK Labour’s All-Women Shortlist is the equivalent of the Australian Labor Party’s affirmative action policy to having women preselected in 40 per cent of winnable seats.     300 women quit UK…