Top 5
Used for weekly email
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Ukraine: The ignominious unravelling of the West has begun
Western powers appear to have no viable strategy to bring the Ukraine war to an end. The best they can do is keep Ukraine on life support. But, as Sun Tzu put it, tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. Continue reading »
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Reforming the productivity commission
As federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers ponders the future of Australia’s Productivity Commission (PC), calls for its reform or even abolition have grown louder. Anyone following the media commentary might have the impression that its recommendations have been steadfastly ignored by government for the last two decades. Continue reading »
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Conservatives fight desperate, losing battle against decolonisation of Australia
Conservatives rail against references to “invasion day”. Ultimately, however, these are the despairing sighs of an old, dying Australia which no longer exists and isn’t coming back. Continue reading »
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Three extraordinary Australian journalists: Burchett, Pilger and Assange
They span three generations and give their country reason to be enormously proud, writes Rick Sterling. All have depended on freedom of the press, which is now at stake. Continue reading »
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Four dud PMs – geo-strategically barren, unable to identify Australia’s interests
The risks for Australia in joining another “failed” American war, this one contrived to crush China, are worse than even-money, and climbing. The consequences verge on existential. Continue reading »
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Jacinda Ardern, the ultimate accolade, and Jim Molan
The least well-developed political sense is the feel for when it is time to move on. Continue reading »
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Australia Day: The contention is inescapable
Contemporary Australia is not the wayward step-child of Britain. It was created in our own country. Is it time to establish an Australia Day freed from the dark shadows cast by the now discredited British Empire? Continue reading »
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‘The bell tolls for Pell and the church I knew’
As some gather to honour the passing of Cardinal George Pell, I lament what the Church has become under clerics like him. When I was a priest (1975-1980), the Church had a credible voice, and priests were respected as pastoral leaders. With some hope for the future, my feelings lately are of sadness. Continue reading »
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Defend independent media: Pearls and Irritations needs your support
Pearls and Irritations needs your financial support to keep improving and growing. Continue reading »
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The dilemma of economic growth
Economic growth has been the holy grail of post-industrial society, but there is now mounting evidence that it needs to be slowed down for the sake of the environment. It is therefore a welcome sign that Mark Diesendorf reiterates the call for ‘Limits to Growth’ which has been voiced since the 1970s – largely to no Continue reading »
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The Iraq war, Fallujah and Jim Molan
The late Jim Molan will be remembered for many things. Few will remember him for the widespread violence by Coalition troops under Molan’s command during the brutal assault on Fallujah and other Sunni cities during the illegal occupation of Iraq in late 2004. Continue reading »
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At war, the US dollar is on the brink of collapse
The US is at war, and the dollar is at risk of imminent collapse. Australia’s lobbying of the United States as a good ally should focus on these issues above all else. Continue reading »
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David McBride: the Army whistleblower. Read the full interview here
“When a soldier dies, the one thing we need to be able to do is to look their widow in the eye and say, “Your husband didn’t die in vain”. If that is bullshit and their husband died for nothing, then that is an outrage.” Continue reading »
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Netball Australia should and can do better with First Nations players
Although netball is highly popular among Australian girls, it also has a history of failing to retain and protect First Nations players. Continue reading »
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Japanese Ambassador breaches protocol, pushes Australia to embrace ‘China threat’
As a nation Japan would not win many Nobel peace prizes. Continue reading »
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George Pell leaves a diminished church, to successors hardly better
George Pell was, by temperament and personality, about the worst possible choice to be made a bishop, then an archbishop, and ultimately a cardinal — one of the inner circle of the church entrusted with central church administration and the selection of new Popes. Continue reading »
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America’s cruel game with Australia
Australia’s security policy is a mess. We have been betrayed by our national leaders. Without exception, from Prime Minister Gillard on – with Anthony Albanese shaping up to join – the sell-out to America’s war neurosis is complete. Our leaders have been party to the fabrication of China as a military threat to Australia, by Continue reading »
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The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, the Bourbons of the Pacific
The Japanese are hanging out for some Quad which has us, the Americans and the Indians in it. I mean, this is the kind of hopeless environment we’re in. China is simply too big and too central to be ostracised. Continue reading »
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Cardinal George Pell
The media reaction to the death of Cardinal George Pell is extraordinary. But his contribution to Australian Catholicism is very much a mixed blessing. Continue reading »
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Follow the money: ASPI is a front for US propaganda
What is the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), what are its sources of funding, and why does it so consistently advocate for positions favourable to the United States and the weapons industry? Follow the money trail. Continue reading »
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George Pell’s death symbolises the demise of a church out of touch and out of time
Pell was an ideological warrior that resisted the changes of liberal society and its tolerance for diversity and individualism. Continue reading »
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When family and firm collide: escaping a royal horror story
At the heart of Prince Harry’s latest salvo in the trans-Atlantic royal family breakdown, now clearly beyond repair, is his ultimate target – the media-Palace relationship which has torn his family apart and which in its public disintegration now threatens the monarchy itself. Continue reading »
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Influential Japanese want us to join them in their long standing hostility to China
And the Japanese Embassy in Canberra is leading the anti China campaign in Australia. Penny Wong should have a serious discussion with the Ambassador. Continue reading »
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Reduce consumption, or face reality of civilisational collapse
An important debate is developing in Pearls and Irritations on the need to reduce consumption. In his article “Labor’s Environmental Denialism”, Stephen Williams acknowledged several positive steps being taken by the Labor government to help protect the environment, and then argued that Labor was failing to address the fundamental drivers of environmental disaster, which he Continue reading »
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US-Australia ‘Force Posture Agreement’ undermines sovereignty, must be terminated
The US-Australia Force Posture Agreement has opened the gate for the US to set up Australia as a launching pad for its next war against China. The Albanese government must invoke Article XXI to terminate it and reclaim sovereignty. Continue reading »
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Australia’s DFAT blocks FOI request on Israel apartheid status
In November 2022, I brought a Freedom of Information (FOI) request for the Australian Government to disclose the basis of its non-acceptance of the reports that apartheid exists in Israel. Last week, DFAT rejected the request on the risible basis that to process it would “unreasonably divert the department’s resources.” Continue reading »
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The Watchers – Directors of educational decline
A word that comes to mind when thinking about the plight of those left in NSW Public Schools is dystopia, the antonym of utopia. Continue reading »
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Medicare reform must not just be about more money to do the same things the same way
Medicare must now focus on how health services are delivered. When it was established in 1974, Medicare funded the way health services were delivered at that time. That delivery system has not been changed much at all since then. After fifty years the way we deliver health care needs substantial reform and updating. Our health Continue reading »
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Western commentators are blind to their limits on China, Russia
When watching or listening to experts on international affairs—especially those speaking on China or Russia and the war in Ukraine — there’s one question you should keep asking yourself. How do they know? Continue reading »
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Why Japan is not an acceptable military ally
There is some terrible double-foolishness afoot, that is certain to be widely noticed beyond the Western bubble. Australia is stepping forward with gusto to secure its position as a best-military-buddy not only with America, the most warlike nation in history, according to Jimmy Carter, but also with Japan, one of the 20th century’s most infamous Continue reading »
Top 5 most read
- Four dud PMs – geo-strategically barren,…
The risks for Australia in joining another “failed” American war,… - The Iraq war, Fallujah and Jim Molan
The late Jim Molan will be remembered for many things.… - ‘The bell tolls for Pell and the church I knew’
As some gather to honour the passing of Cardinal George… - Ukraine: The ignominious unravelling of the West has begun
Western powers appear to have no viable strategy to bring… - George Pell leaves a diminished church, to…
George Pell was, by temperament and personality, about the worst…
