July, 2009

Just a week after demolishing his credentials as a science commentator by saying there is no evidence of atmospheric carbon dioxide, Piers Akerman returns to demolishing his credentials as a political commentator. His latest column is a critique of Kevin Rudd and Stephen Smith’s failure to act on an Australian being held without charge in [...]

Last week, Jeremy critiqued Andrew Bolt’s suggestion that the justice system needs to be tougher on young offenders. Last week’s Stateline NSW gave some data that contradicts Bolt’s pontifications. (NB: Before going on, I have to note something as an aside. It has taken the ABC a full week to get the transcript from the [...]

We love having you comment here at Pure Poison but it’s a little bit difficult for discussion to continue uninterrupted on specific posts when off-topic comments land in the middle of them. So each day we’ll launch an open thread where you can leave comments that don’t quite fit on one of the other posts. [...]

Amnesty releases the results of a poll on the subject of asylum seekers, which reveal that: a clear majority of Australians think asylum seekers should be treated equally regardless of the method of their arrival; and Australians are stunningly poorly-informed on the subject of “boat people” and massively overestimate their impact: On average, Australians believe [...]

A couple of weeks ago I discussed The Age‘s article suggesting that editorial decision-making by On Line Opinion was affected by partisan bias. The Age‘s edior-in-chief Paul Ramadge has not responded to Graham Young’s questions, so Young has posted a final analysis at On Line Opinion. I won’t quote any of it here, because Young [...]

We love having you comment here at Pure Poison but it’s a little bit difficult for discussion to continue uninterrupted on specific posts when off-topic comments land in the middle of them. So each day we’ll launch an open thread where you can leave comments that don’t quite fit on one of the other posts. [...]

The state government gives Andrew Bolt and Tim Blair and every “unelected elitist judges are TAKING YOU FOR A RIDE” polemicist a free kick – an excuse for a neverending series of “overpaid judges” asides and links and… nothing? Not a mention? It’s like I don’t even know them any more.

Following on from Monday’s post about the proposal to introduce voluntary voting for people aged 16 or 17, Possum has crunched the numbers to look at what the Greens might gain from such a move. His conclusion: While an expansion of the electoral roll would have benefited the Greens, it wouldn’t have done so in [...]

I’d like to applaud The Punch for something: it’s making a point of giving gay couples an opportunity to advocate for equal rights by outlining their experiences – and at a crucial time. A few weeks ago polling revealed that a majority of Australians support marriage equality. And yet neither of the two largest parties [...]

We love having you comment here at Pure Poison, but it’s a little bit difficult for discussion to continue uninterrupted on specific posts when off-topic comments land in the middle of them. So each day we’ll launch an open thread where you can leave comments that don’t quite fit on one of the other posts. [...]