Why the Pope should use his Google
Traditional Catholics accept that the Pope cannot err on the few occasions when the head of the Catholic Church makes consciously infallible statements on matters pertaining to faith and morals. But on those matters which pertain to governance, the Vatican is just as subject to error as any other political or religious leadership, writes Gerard Henderson.
Our love affair with China is cooling but far from over
I reached a point a few years ago where I stopped reading anything on China that included this quote from Napoleon: "China is a sleeping dragon. Let him sleep. If he wakes, he will shake the world." In the great gush of China boosterism of the past decade, this became one of the ritual incantations, writes Peter Hartcher.
Save the tadpole, say possessive purists
The problem child of English is a tiny, tadpole-shaped bundle of trouble that makes no sound, but spells chaos. Three centuries after it invaded our language, the apostrophe continues to defeat, confuse and humiliate large numbers of people, and, in retaliation, they want to abolish it, writes William Langley.
Rudd must act if race complaint upheld
There is little in the eyes of the international community more serious than a nation being found to have racist laws and policies. This was the claim made last week against Australia by 20 Aborigines, writes George Williams.
World peace for your eyes only
Heckler OK, I get that there are plenty of people with plenty of time on their hands, and plenty more who are really, really smart. So what do we get when some of the really smart ones have little to do, asks Kathy Nolan.
Leaders see rescue package full of ideology
The Prime Minister's essay on neo-liberalism in last week's Monthly
magazine was the most provocative ideological potshot taken by a
prime minister since John Howard, writes Phillip Coorey.
A palmy balm for the financial crisis
We in the West - and, unfortunately, almost all economists - tend to assume everyone in the world wants more modern "money", writes Kirk Huffman.
Ruddslide: debt, distortion, denial
Kevin Rudd's credibility as an honest politician, as a man who does
not engage in evasions and distortions on a grand scale, finally
began to seriously erode last Tuesday, writes Paul Sheehan.
Questions Darwinism cannot answer
Copernicus's demonstration that the Earth was not the centre of the universe was a significant blow to human pride. But Charles Darwin's conclusion that human beings were not unique in the natural world seemed to demolish any pretence that men and women were special, writes Tom Frame.
Two heroes actually worth talking about
The Tribal Mind: GIVE that woman her own series. The most watched piece of television so far this summer has been Jelena Dokic's last match during the Australian Open, which attracted 2.3 million viewers in the mainland capitals. The men's final, which has been the most watched program of several previous years, drew only 2.2 million this year.
The weevils are in the detail
Lack of attention to the unemployed in the stimulus initiative has
caught Labor off guard, writes Michelle Grattan.
Turnbull's stimulus gamble
The Opposition Leader could have answered a political challenge with more circumspection, writes Paul Daley.
Energy savings that hit home
The slightest changes to the way we live can make a difference to
the environment, writes Peter Garrett.
It's time for Costello to decide
The former treasurer enjoyed himself last week but at what cost to his colleagues?, writes Kerry-Anne Walsh.
Wombats court trouble
Nothing in tennis regulations specifically prohibits marsupials
being stuffed down pants, writes Simon Webster.
Pan's labyrinth: how controversy brought conflict to a Chinese charity
One of the curiosities of Sydney is the almost complete lack of
knowledge outsiders have of what goes on in the Chinese community,
despite its size and importance, writes Michael Duffy.
Rudd burnt the midnight oil as lights went out
Pity Therese. It must be tough living with a nocturnal, workaholic
technocrat. While the rest of Australia took Christmas holidays to
put worries aside, Kevin Rudd spent his getting gloomy. The Prime
Minister kept a close daily eye on the economic news from three
pivotal countries and it was uniformly bad, writes Peter Hartcher.
Bipartisan approach is necessary to maintain our academic edge
The global financial crisis demands both short term and long term responses. The higher education sector, representing 1 million students and staff, has a crucial role to play in Australia's recovery, writes Michael Spence.
Field Marshal Rudd uses fog of war to get things done with minimal opposition
Kevin Rudd sounded like a wartime leader on Thursday when he
appeared in Parliament House's main committee room, flanked by his
excited state and territory colleagues, to outline just how his
deficit billions would be spent, writes Annabel Crabb.
Go ahead, Grandpa, make my grey day
My GP says every second patient he sees is 90 and they all have the
following ailments: "Every joint is gone; all have heart disease,
insomnia, bladder problems, incontinence, cancer." They are
"wearing out". A lot are on 20 different pills and no one really
knows how they interact, writes Miranda Devine.
The balm before the storm
IT BEGINS with a bang … and a bong. Let's address the latter
first. A deep breath, please, writes Rick Feneley.
Look to US for guidance on changes
As he unveiled his plan to fix what he called the "pretty appalling" NSW freedom-of-information laws, the state's Ombudsman, Bruce Barbour, couldn't resist a swipe at Kevin Rudd's lame efforts to reform the equivalent Commonwealth legislation, writes Matthew Moore.
I want to grow up to be a scary little old lady who knows her own mind
They sure don't make old people like they used to. On Tuesday night
I was downright shocked by the boisterous rabble of grey haired
hecklers in the audience at the City Recital Hall. They were there
for the IQ2 debate about euthanasia and, as a survey showed, three
quarters of them were in favour of its legalisation. They murmured,
they cheered, they booed. They wouldn't shut up, writes Lisa Pryor.
A reason to smile on the footpath to prosperity
A wonderful sight greeted me one morning this week when I went to
collect my newspapers. A crew of big blokes from the council was
gathered outside the house scrutinising the treacherous strip of
footpath that has been the bane of our lives since we moved in 15
years ago, writes Adele Horin.
Broadway's hunters and gatherers
Winter stories may be welcome in heat-struck Australia right now so it probably counts as good news that New York's weather sensing groundhog, Staten Island Chuck, resisted entreaties this week to leave his hutch, writes Ian Munro.
