Urban Affairs

Nothing to covet about troublesome todgers

Sam de Brito My daughter is fascinated by penises. Aside from The Octonauts, chocolate ice-cream and garbage trucks, I reckon ''willies'' are the most intense focus of her curiosity. On. The. Planet.

Dugald Jellie

Whether to run chooks in the city is a paltry matter

Dugald Jellie After voicing some concern, the Stonnington council is letting feathers fly.

The Fitz Files

Give Fred an inch, he'll end up Sen Nile

Peter FitzSimons On the subject of last week's item about the Reverend Fred Nile wanting the NSW Legislative Council to officially be known as the State Senate, meaning he would have the title of Senator Nile, a...

Danny Katz

Forget Margaret and David, this is the pick of post-flick shtick

Danny Katz Thank you, thank you for your rousingly half-arsed applause and welcome to the yearly Pre-Oscars Katzy Movie Award Ceremony Thingie Night!

Surprise! Paper beats space rock

John Birmingham 'Asteroids are nature's way of asking, 'Hey, how's that space program working out?''' It sounds like a tweet but it was something a little more old school: words on a T-shirt.

Only Pistorius knows the whole truth

Charles Waterstreet Crime-scene experts and Hollywood agents are descending on Pretoria in droves, as the Pistorius murder case proves once again that a highly skilled cross-examiner and defence team can devastate even...

Bruce Guthrie

Castlemaine verdict changes the odds, but there's a blight in sight

Bruce Guthrie After 20 years, we still can't seem to agree on the best way to manage those pokies.

Chris Berg

An assault on diet

Chris Berg A proposed eating plan is far removed from the reality of the food we put on our plate.

Kenneth Davidson

How to save billions: dump the desal deal

Kenneth Davidson It's official. Melbourne Water users will pay $19.4 billion in contract payments to AquaSure.

Tim Soutphommasane

After the Wilders trip, multicultural Australia can take a bow

Tim Soutphommasane It was a good thing that Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician, came to visit Australia last week.

Comments 425

Paul Monk

Pondering the possibilities of bridge-building after Benedict

Paul Monk Almost all of the commentary following the announcement by Pope Benedict XVI that he was retiring seems to have concentrated on relatively banal topics, such as what he will do now, who will succeed...

Ken Lay

Police committed to focusing on crime, not race

Ken Lay Racial profiling. Over the past week, these two words have been used in conjunction with Victoria Police. It's something I don't want to see happen again.

Barbara Taylor Bradford

Something for Kate? Not this Mantel piece portrait of a young duchess

Barbara Taylor Bradford I am a fan of Hilary Mantel's books. I even sent her a congratulatory email when she won her second Booker Prize.

Gerard Henderson

Talk of dual-citizen disloyalty in Zygier affair simply irresponsible

Gerard Henderson The concept of dual loyalties in Australia has an unpleasant connotation since it invariably implies disloyalty. A century ago, some sectarians labelled Catholics as possessing a dual loyalty.

Comments 58

Rubenstein/Ben Moshe

Modern migrant's loyalty is an asset to the world

Kim Rubenstein and Danny Ben Moshe It is staggering that with one albeit very serious case overseas, that of the Ben Zygier suicide, Ben Saul (The Age, 20/2/13) wants to turn back the clock of globalisation and multiculturalism.