In this fast-paced go-go world of ours some issues are too important to be left to the ham-fisted, half-arsed witless hysterics of so-called web journalism. But that's too bad. Because that's all John Birmingham has. He's unfair, unreasonable and often unbalanced - but in a good way. Words are weapons, and this weapon is a Blunt Instrument.
Howard would fix this mess (I can't believe I just wrote that)
John Birmingham It's a small, overlooked tragedy of the scandal currently swirling around Pakistan's cricket team, that bringing the game into disrepute there is of much greater consequence than it would be here, or...
You say tomato, I just say no
John Birmingham I’ve had it with politics. I kind of like the way nothing’s happening down in Canberra. As Tony Windsor points out, the sun still comes up every day. So what if there’s no ...
Can Australian politics - an adversarial, violent beast - really morph into a cuddly koala?
John Birmingham Can a handful of grizzled agrarian idealists, and one soft handed Green change the adversarial, winner takes all nature of politics?
The joys and pains of a well hung parliament
John Birmingham What's the benefit of a hung parliament, besides the obvious one of seeing the big parties squirm?
Live blog: the Orange Roughie and Mr Rabbit face the punters at Broncos Leagues Club
John Birmingham
Whoops, Tony's done it again
John Birmingham Pity poor Tony Abbott. He might well be PM by this time next week, but he’s going to have a hell of a time of it. Even when he’s trying to do you favour, he can’t help but come ...
Tumbling down the Mr Rabbit hole
John Birmingham The time has come to consider the government in waiting. The would be government of Mr Rabbit. It has but recently dawned on your correspondent that we could all end up joining hands and dancing down...
Who will rid me of turbulent god-botherers? Not our first atheist PM
John Birmingham Two hundred and twenty million dollars would be an impressive chunk of change, even in the huge amount of dough carved out of the federal tax take for education. Much less impressive ...
What's keeping the Coalition together?
John Birmingham What is it besides a few shared beliefs about social issues that keeps Nats and Libs together?
The good cop's story of a very bad state
John Birmingham Domenico Cacciola was a cop. A good cop in a bad place at the wrong time.
Somebody mention the war
John Birmingham Continuing our series of blogs about The Stuff They're Not Discussing In The Election Campaign, it's time to mention the war. Not so much the ''war on terror'', which nobody talks about these days, ..
Why climate change is no game-changer
John Birmingham There’s any number of reasons that climate change won’t be a game-changer this election, even with the Greens jumping up and down on the margins, setting off firecrackers and ...
Honestly, does population policy keep you awake at night?
John Birmingham John Howard must be eating his own liver around about now. He had only to look sideways at a little brown foreign chap and the media would be all over him for dog-whistling up a storm of racism. ...
Men, I fear this 'moving forward' rubbish is just PC code
John Birmingham Four days now and nobody has said it. Political correctness gone mad, that’s what I blame. There can be no other explanation for why, halfway through the first week of The Most Important ...
Cheesy, crunchy, carby change: time for International Year of the Parma
John Birmingham Can you feel it? That slight tilting of the world off its axis? That's the feeling of change coming. Of an old world passing away and something new coming into being. That's what it feels like when ..
One man's trash is another man's apocalypse
John Birmingham I have seen the end of the world. It drives a Toyota Hilux and it looks like kerbside hard rubbish pick-up day.
Manipulating fears for a shot at power with Gillard's not-yet-final solution
John Birmingham "How can something that was supposedly immoral when done by John Howard be a stroke of political genius when done by Julia Gillard?" asked Tony Abbott, which is fair enough, except for the fact that .
Bloggers: are you lonesome tonight? Didn't think so
John Birmingham I missed my turn on the 7.30 Report last night. I’d agreed to an interview as part of a story they were doing on social media.
Price, Arndt wrong in irrelevant family feud
John Birmingham The only thing surprising about the ridiculous ‘moral backlash’ against Julia Gillard's embiggening to the Prime Minister's office is that it took all of four days to happen.
Spamming all over my Facebook
John Birmingham Apparently, Mr. Ahmed Khizer Khan, a citizen of the United Arab Emirates, has in his personal bank account “the existence of a very big amount of money that belongs to a customer, Mr. Daniel ...
