Category Archives: Humour and Democracy

Andrew L. Urban’s entry in the 2017 Thawley Prize * at Spectator Australia. It didn’t win. The following speech was recorded on a mobile phone by the head waiter at the Climate Council’s ‘sorry dinner’ in December 2017, held at … Continue reading →

Der Spiegel cover, November 12, 2016 Imagine if Der Spiegel went over the top about the Trump victory ..

With Bono named Woman of the Year by Glamour magazine (November 2016), the world of social engineering has reached the climax of gender politics. In Australia, school children are being urged to imagine themselves without genitals – or genitals that … Continue reading →

By Andrew L. Urban. I received this in an email from a friend (December 1, 2015) – worth sharing, I think.

By Andrew L. Urban I was reading about the dismissal (December 2012) of Richard Falk from the Santa Barbara Committee of the prestigious Human Rights Watch, after an open letter of complaint to HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth (December 17, 2012) … Continue reading →

Offend me, please! Unlike so many thoughtful, democratically minded commentators, I welcome the proposed new ‘Take Your Offence to Court’ legislation that Attorney General Nicola Roxon is trying to shepherd through Parliament in 2013. Finally, I will be able to take … Continue reading →

As British writer, wit and actor Stephen Fry once said, ‘It is easy to forget that the most important aspect of comedy, after all, its great saving grace, is its ambiguity. You can simultaneously laugh at a situation and take … Continue reading →