Water, water everywhere? Not for much longer
ELIZABETH FARRELLY 11:59pm When a water main bursts, as one did in our back lane on Monday, you’re forced into instant recognition of value.
Brazil's own goals stand out in World Cup
PAUL SHEEHAN 12:15am During the shocking meltdown of Brazil’s football team during the semi-final of the World Cup, the crowd broke into a crude and sustained chant directed at shell-shocked President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff.
Using violence does not display responsibility
Ross Tarlinton 12:15am For many years, I have listened to arguments both "for" and "against" the place of corporal punishment in schools.
A Gaza solution can only come from within
Thomas L. Friedman 12:15am I've argued for a while now that it is always useful to study the Israeli-Arab conflict because it is to the wider war of civilisations what off-Broadway is to Broadway.
HIV/AIDS plague feeds on discrimination
Michael Kirby and Mark Dybul 12:15am Infection rates are growing as the vulnerable people affected by HIV/AIDS are pushed into the dark corners of society.
Abbott's praise of submariners delivers a blow
Julie Szego 12:15am The Prime Minister's comments about Japan's submariners virtually prostituted our history for his own geo-political ends.
We should raise our tolerance to drugs in sport
Bob Stewart 12:15am Doping policy should focus on player welfare, not public shaming and punishment.
Clive Palmer strikes bad deal on risky advice
12:01am Clive Palmer's commitments do almost nothing to redress the federal government's dangerous weakening of safeguards against shonky financial advice.
JULY 17
Letters to the Editor
12:49am Corporal punishment does nothing to help a child learn ("Pyne's man not against old-school ways", July 16). It simply teaches children that violence is the way to get what you want.
Column 8
12:15am Many readers have told us that the school milk ration was a third of a pint, not half as we suggested on Tuesday, but all agreed that it didn’t taste all that flash after being left out in the sun for hours before recess.
In the Herald: July 17, 1914
Brian Yatman 12:00am British suffragette and recent emigre Adela Pankhurst (daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst) received a "great reception" from the Labour Council of NSW.
Carbon tax merely a blip in power price scandal
ROSS GITTINS Prime Minister Tony Abbott is right about one thing: the price of electricity has shot up and is now a lot higher than it should be. It's a scandal, in fact.
Opal disclosure rules undermine user privacy
Stephen Blanks Like too many privacy policies, Transport NSW's Opal Privacy Policy contains a term which allows disclosure of personal information to law enforcement agencies without the issue of any warrant.
Real life lessons from the Saggy Baggy Elephant
ALAN STOKES So often it takes a re-reading of a Little Golden Book to help us get our priorities back in order; to rein in that ambition to have the best and biggest car, house or job; to see the innocent joys in life.
The Australian, the nation's bitchiest paper
Jonathan Holmes An academic study explores the broadsheet’s new role as a vitriolic attack dog.
Anglicans have women priests in their sights
Muriel Porter In the current climate of the national church, the repeal of legislation for women priests in Australia seems a realistic possibility.
Right to be forgotten sets dangerous precedent
Simon Breheny An EU court forcing search engines to remove online material is a threat to freedom of speech.
Time for church to catch up to community
The Catholic and Anglican churches are moving to further reduce the barriers between the lives of their members and the lives of their clergy.
JULY 16
Letters to the Editor
Tony Abbott and his government are definitely on the nose with voters. Surely they are looking for a good news story to boost their political currency. How about the Liberal party room meet and decide to support same-sex marriage?
Column 8
"Do you have room for one more mathematical monstrosity?" pleads Jenny Archbold, of Bellingen (innumerate sales staff, Column 8, for ... er ... some number of days). And yes Jenny, of course we do.
In the Herald: July 16, 1851
Brian Yatman Considerably elevated, the Turon Diggings and weights and measures.
Will Indonesians get what they voted for?
PETER HARTCHER Do you remember the smear campaign against Barack Obama when he ran for the presidency? The claim that he was Kenyan, not American? That he was a Muslim? That he was a communist?
Renting in Sydney will break your heart
MICHAEL KOZIOL If there's one thing that can make a mortgage appealing, it's the reality of renting in the fair township of Sydney.
The reality TV star of Australian politics
SAM DE BRITO Clive is no clown, his party is not a circus. A far more accurate metaphor for Palmer and our attraction to him is reality TV.
First Word: Letter of the Morning
The great property swindle we ignore
Another diversion from the only housing story worth considering: the one about the society-changing epidemic of white-collar theft that’s been underway for decades in the form of outrageously regressive housing tax breaks for the property rich at the expense of the property poor.
How Abbott can play double dissolution card
GEORGE WILLIAMS As sure as night follows day, government defeats in the Senate lead to suggestions of a double dissolution. Tony Abbott has fuelled this by saying that such an election could be held in six to 12 months.
Palmer cannot be trusted to deliver on reforms
PETER REITH The idea that Clive Palmer and his PUPs would be a positive force for good policy has taken a beating.
We owe Ian Thorpe an apology
John Birmingham
We owe Ian Thorpe an apology. All of us.
Because of us he could not be who he is. Because of us, he had to hide himself away, despite living most of his adult life in the hot, white light ...
Thorpe owed it to himself, public to be honest
Kerryn Phelps Like many Australians, I sat down on Sunday night to watch the much-touted Michael Parkinson interview with Ian Thorpe.
For Hamas and Israel, what is the endgame?
David Blair How much pain and suffering can both sides of this conflict inflict on each other and endure?
Expect letters from your financial planner
PETER MARTIN Expect letters. If you have ever had a financial planner steer you into a product, that person is about to write to you. He or she will have to, even if they haven’t been in touch for years.
Ian Thorpe offers hope for same-sex dignity
It's time to end a blight on Australia. We must debate equality for same-sex people like a mature, democratic nation - without hatred, political expedience or convenient resort to freedom of speech.
JULY 15
Letters to the Editor
It is sad that Ian Thorpe has been unable come out as gay man because he feared embarrassment, the disappointment of relatives and financial loss (‘‘Deal or no deal: why Thorpe kept quiet’’, July 14).
Column 8
‘‘In September 2009 I posted to a local Sydney address a letter that was returned to me 18 days later endorsed ‘insufficient address’,’’ writes Margaret Spinks, of Gladesville.
In the Herald: July 15, 1995
Brian Yatman Saving the ozone layer, Hugh must be joking and hands off, says Jones.
Why Bush is the worst president in 100 years
PAUL SHEEHAN President Obama has many problems but George Bush was a trillion-dollar disaster.
Hermanos in arms: Congratulations, Germany
Rob Ashton I’ve been barracking for Latin American teams all month and this morning was no different. Of the 32 teams at the start of the tournament, 13 were European and nine were Latin American.
Virtue on both sides of the fairness debate
Jock Cheetham Our obsession with fairness lingers throughout life, all the way to retirement, as the federal budget debate shows. But what do we mean by fairness?
At this rate, equal pay is 75 years away
Julie McKay and Helen Szoke One of the most alarming figures is that at the current rate of progress, it will be 75 years before women are paid equally to men.
Neilson's remarks on incest beneath honour
Judges are only human. Their views on life, and on what is right and wrong, may be as varied - and occasionally as aberrant - as would be found in a random sample of the population.
JULY 14
Letters to the Editor
In the past, people could get stoned for adultery (and in some societies still do): Oscar Wilde was jailed for homosexuality. Neither of these punishments would apply these days because views have changed.
Column 8
"Column 8 readers have recently questioned how newly issued PIN numbers on their American Express credit card could match an existing PIN on a different credit card," responds Dean Chadwick, of American Express Australia.
In the Herald: July 14, 1956
Brian Yatman "Young people of the Central Methodist Mission have formed a ‘Television Club’ for community viewing."
Highlights
Who cares if Ian Thorpe is gay? 15-year-old closeted me, that's who
Tom Ballard: Coming out, like breaking up, is hard to do.
Abbott's harsh treatment of asylum seekers is the same old story
Waleed Aly: In these cruel times it's not a success when we resettle someone fleeing persecution.
Scott Morrison out to lunch
Mike Carlton: Transcript of the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, the Hon Scott Morrison MP, at lunch, Monday, July 7.
Indonesian presidential election hangs on a knife-edge
John Garnaut: Indonesia faces a choice between an unpredictable, maverick general, and a perceived puppet of the Sukarno dynasty.
Australia risks becoming a fuel fossil
Ross Gittins: Doing nothing about climate change will cost us much more than doing something.
Centrelink is designed to fail the most vulnerable
Amy Corderoy: The emails are heart-breaking. People, young and old, responding to the story of Julia Gilchrist, a successful young woman who has had trouble holding down a job because she is profoundly deaf, but has been told she is “not disabled enough” by Centrelink to qualify for disability support.
Pythonesque politics alive and well
Annabel Crabb: Fans of Monty Python might have chuckled at a recent interview with Scott Morrison, says Annabel Crabb.
Rolf Harris not the only 'octopus' in entertainment
Tracey Spicer: Rolf Harris was known as “the Octopus”. But he wasn’t the only one.
Silence on missing asylum seeker boat a disgrace to the nation
Julian Burnside: Has the Australian public given up caring about the fate of other human beings?
The UN must not abandon Syria
Ban Ki-moon: The international community must not abandon the people of Syria and the region to never-ending waves of cruelty and crisis.
Australians must stop visiting Egypt to support Peter Greste
Peter Reith: Australia should not just sit pat in the face of the gross injustice meted out to our Aussie mate Peter Greste.
A budget to take Australia to the starting line
Joe Hockey: Welfare has been available to too many people. Only equality of opportunity can reduce the rich-poor gap.
Australia hinders progress in Middle East peace process
Bob Carr & Gareth Evans: Australia’s new policy of refusing to describe East Jerusalem as “occupied”, confirmed by a statement made by Attorney-General George Brandis in consultation with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, will not be helpful to Australia’s reputation, the peace process or Israel itself.
