Focusing on Facebook could mean not facing up to reality
Twenty-two year old Jamila Rizvi is ”deliberately barren”. So too are several hundred of her female university friends. Or they were, but fortunately not anymore. Which is just as well, as infertility is perhaps not the best kind of advertisement a healthy young woman wants to put out there.
Hillary’s campaign will end in tears, with no thanks to Bill
So who will weep the most him or her? My guess is Bill will cry and Hillary will just sniffle. Her eyes might mist up, like in New Hampshire. But it will be brief. Hillary isn’t a crier. It’s Bill who’s the sook.
How many knobs does it take to distort a TV perception?
Sam Newman is probably right about grabbing a lingerie- clad plastic doll on the crutch. It’s hard not to.
Call the cops aggressive footballers deserve a mauling
I would like to report a crime to the police. And I want them to lay charges.
Why there’s only room for one star career in a family
A friend of mine has just been poached by an international firm to head up a global team in Britain. It’s a super plum job that comes with a seven- figure salary and various globe- trotting perks in addition to excruciatingly long hours to account for various time zones. He hasn’t decided if he’ll take it yet, but with private school fees still ahead, as well as a thumping big mortgage, the lure of such a lucrative package is strong.
When the ordinary is extraordinary – and sadness is a virtue
There are myriad reasons why Asmi Wood might feel angst about his complex roots. The Arab-speaking Torres Strait Islander, who looks like Tom Cruise and is an Islamic convert (having fallen in love with a Muslim woman) – and who also happens to be a lecturer in Law at the ANU – found himself trying to explain his identity to a disbelieving customs official in the Middle East recently.
Timor-Leste’s First Lady – Kirsty Sword Gusmao
From suburban Melbourne to First Lady of a small nation, Kirsty Sword Gusmao plays her audiacious part with gentleness and calm.
Bimbo blast: this online ‘game’ is nasty and demeaning
There is something perverse about this scene: a 23-year- old French lad, Nicolas Jacquart, sits at the kitchen table in his rather dreary little London bedsit, with a CNN reporter at his side. The reporter, a grown-up lad in a suit, stares at the lap-top screen in front of them. ”So Nicolas, this is your bimbo?” Jacquart croons, ”Yah. I can put on her this T-shirt, like this,” he clicks the mouse, ”and make her look beautiful.” Both lads smile.
Olympian hospitality puts torch to Tibet
China’s notion of ”calm” leaves me blue with cold
Silda stands by her man in a betrayal of herself
It’s a hell of a shame that women talk too much when we shouldn’t and don’t speak up when we should. And right now the stupefying silence of Silda Wall Spitzer is sending me crazy. I want to slap her.
Littlejohn still driving women to strive for more
Every year on International Women’s Day, Linda Littlejohn and I have a bit of a sparring match. It began as a polite thing, when we didn’t really know each other. We’d just skirt around the periphery. But of recent years, Littlejohn has got a bit ballsy. And maybe so have I. Either way, we both get a bit ”edgy” at this time of year, and by the time the day comes around we’re both rattled. Inevitably, there’s a bit of a dust-up.
Rudd’s 2020 vision overlooks our best and brightest women
Oh, to be a fly on the wall the next time Lachlan Harris is face to face with his mother. He may well be important in the Kevin07 scheme of things, given he’s the Big Man’s senior media adviser. But to his mum right now, the charming Lachie is not the messiah. He’s just a naughty boy.
Down Ralph! Nothing sexy in belittling high-profile women
In Australian public life it’s easy to dismiss women. To belittle them with a verbal thump, and a sexist sound-bite that’s as good as an elbow shove in the guts.
Blundering Nelson spoils the mood of a healing day
Brendan Nelson began in splendid spirit, and Lily Arthur was ready to hang on his every word. By the time he got to his feet in Parliament on Wednesday, many hearts had opened and softened. Those who previously felt no particular connection with Australia’s indigenous people were now surprised by their own emotional response to this moment.
