Skip to content →

Category: word power

Word power: on Putin’s nigh-inevitable but Pyrrhic “victory”

Combine Putin’s utter lack of scruples/decency/humanity with Russia’s overwhelming military superiority, and the result of the  invasion of Ukraine is almost inevitable: Russia “wins”.

However, ultimately, Russia loses; almost as inevitable as its initial “success” is Russia’s eventual failure – an inability to rule Ukraine, the collapse of Russia’s economy, and a decline in the “greatness” of Russia as a “world” power.

This post links to two of the better articles that seek to explain the nature of Putin’s miscalculation, and how “success” can be just another word for failure.

Comments closed

Word Power: “Is Old Music Killing New Music?”

 

This post’s headline is the name of an excellent, albeit US-centric & Western “pop”-centric, article by Ted Gioia.

As he notes:

The song catalogs in most demand are by musicians who are in their 70s or 80s (Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen) or already dead (David Bowie, James Brown).

This post’s photo is a reminder that in 2022 the “Music Biz” also resolutely ignores much of the world’s remarkable “old” music…

Comments closed

Hope

 

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all…

So begins a justly celebrated poem by Emily Dickinson.

In this post “hope” is viewed through photographic, musical and poetic “lenses”.

 

Comments closed

Word power: the folly of further-advantaging the already-fine-feathered

 

 

How did Australia come to adopt such an unusual, infantile, and palpably unfair approach to inherited wealth?

How can Australian taxpayers/non-payers – and Australia’s remarkably craven/spineless governments – be persuaded to change it?

Peter Browne attempts to answer those questions in his essay, Syd Negus, the forgotten tax-slayer.

Comments closed

The “aw shucks, us too” taxation policy now adopted by the ALP strains beyond breaking point any reasonable definition of “alternative government”…or “Opposition”…or “Labor”…or “progressive”. Alas, many fewer words than those in this verbose header are more than enough to say everything that needs to be said about it…

…as Jon Kudelka has demonstrated in today’s edition of The Saturday Paper:

 

One Comment