Author Archives: skepticlawyer

Palin v Media, Round 2

September 10, 2008 – 3:46 am

Round 1 ended with Palin ahead on points after Media was subjected to a standing eight count. Round 2 is now underway, with Media trying some new strategies. These include the Not Quite Puff Piece (courtesy the NYT) and the Policy by the Back Door piece (courtesy the Democratic Party itself). The former looks potentially [...]

Posted in Feminism, Media, Politics | Comments (38)

On being good at ‘girly stuff’

September 5, 2008 – 8:19 pm

One of the guys I dated way back when came from an ethnic group with more traditional gender role divisions than mainstream Australian society. He wasn’t notably sexist, although he had characteristics one associates with the nicer conservatives - opening car doors, not swearing in front of women, not butting in when someone else was [...]

Posted in Feminism, Media, Politics | Comments (38)

Disturbia

September 4, 2008 – 1:31 am

Last  week, I got a letter from a postgraduate student at Melbourne University. She’s conducting research into my novel, The Hand that Signed the Paper, and wanted me to answer some questions. To date I haven’t replied, which seems churlish of me, but I get these requests - on average - about once a month, [...]

Posted in History, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Politics, Popular culture | Comments (64)

You know the world has changed…

August 30, 2008 – 2:15 am

… when the best golfer in the world is black, the best rapper in the world is white, and the best basketballer in the world is Chinese.
And when the Republicans endorse a working-class woman for Vice President (not to mention all the other firsts in this topsy-turvy election year).
UPDATE: There’s some analysis from LP here.
My [...]

Posted in Politics | Comments (48)

Divorce may be a Good Thing (quel horreur!)

August 28, 2008 – 8:09 am

Obviously, that headline can be taken any one of a number of ways, and if you’re recently divorced, it may even inspire you to find the homo economicus who wrote it (me) and burn my house down. So - with that in mind - I’ll just ask you to hear me out, and see where [...]

Posted in Economics, Feminism, Law | Comments (21)

Mrs Wu: ‘whose revolution is it anyway?’

August 24, 2008 – 8:26 am

More news funnies, courtesy our friends at Channel 4. And two Chinese grandmothers with a terrific attitude.

Posted in Events, Fark! | Comments (0)

Animal Rights have a Kuznets Curve, too

August 22, 2008 – 1:31 am

It’s commonly observed that wealthy countries do more to protect the environment than poor ones, which seems fair enough - poor countries are poor, and probably have other priorities. However, even when those poor countries start to become rich, they still don’t do much for the environment. Indeed, they have to become ‘almost rich’ before [...]

Posted in Economics, Environment | Comments (45)

Caution: real person wins Olympic medal

August 21, 2008 – 4:27 am

Bryony Shaw wins unexpected medal, drops F-Bomb on national telly, BBC apologises. It doesn’t get any funnier.
British Olympic medalist Bryony Shaw has prompted an apology from the BBC after expressing her euphoria in inappropriate terms during a post-race interview. Expressing her delight at clinching a bronze in the dramatic windsurfing competition in Qingdao, Shaw told [...]

Posted in Sport | Comments (4)

Guilty iPod pleasures

August 19, 2008 – 7:52 pm

Ages ago, Tim Watts tagged me for this exercise in owning up.
This time it’s the five most embarrassing musical moments that still happen to be on one’s iPod (I do recommend Tim’s version, too - he has some real toe-curlers). I’m older than Tim, so I’ve had a few extra years to accumulate music that [...]

Posted in Music | Comments (8)

Cruisin’ for a Wedgie…

August 15, 2008 – 12:45 am

One of the commenters over at Tim Blair’s called this bloke a ‘ponce’, which in British parlance has a pretty specific meaning: living off the immoral earnings of a woman. Thing is, it’s kinda true, because Robert Nelson is the serial nong who stuck a naked pic of his six year old daughter on the [...]

Posted in Art, Sport | Comments (25)