The Brown Note

Why I Stand With Jimmy Carr - A Defense Of Comic Irony

Another of my world beating popular opinions, why some of our most sophisticated methods of communication - irony and satire - are under great threat from a relentlessly literal cancel culture, that cannot process either. And why comedy - at the vanguard of exploring permissible human expression, in valid ways utilizing shock humor, irony and satire - needs to be defended most of all.

 

Next up why I stand with Kurt Zouma (and if you believed that, that would be ironic)

Scott Morrison And The Question On The Whole Country’s Lips

After the bush fire crisis, the misogyny scandals and now text-gate, the seemingly indestructible Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is entering his third annus horribilis in a row. But hilarious as his senior colleagues calling him a liar, hypocrite and complete psycho are, the one question on the entire country's lips - yet not being asked by any of our fine journalists - is, what about Brittany Higgins was Scott Morrison lying about?

The Housing Market Is Economic Climate Change

Renters are the new share-croppers - working their whole lives with nothing to show and giving any wealth they generate to a richer person to pass on to their children. The baseline birthright of any average wage owner was to own your own home, now in Sydney you can't even afford to rent a one bedroom flat. By every metric the economy tanks but house prices and rent keep going up. None of this makes sense. The impact is devastating. It's ruined our lives.

Why Pregnant Journalist Charlotte Bellis Does Not Deserve Your Sympathy

In one of the years great misreported stories, the world was aghast at demonic New Zealand's treatment of this stranded pregnant journalist. The truth is NZ was her third choice country after she had to leave Qatar and Belgium said no (neither receiving any condemnation at all), and then engineered a PR storm that has enabled her to bypass a scheme to enter New Zealand she did not qualify for, and leap frog thousands of stranded Kiwis.

Neil Young V Joe Rogan V Spotify

With Neil Young being probably my favorite recording artist of all time and a famously curmudgeonly one, I've found his battle with Joe Rogan and Spotify hilarious and very in character. A look at why he has reason to be touchy about vaccines and illness.

The Tragedy Of The Labo(u)r Party

It's the same situation for both the UK and Australia's left wing Labo(u)r parties - after an unforgivable, interminable, in-explainable run of election victories by right wing parties, riven with endless incompetence and corruption, they are both finally in a position to likely win elections.

Why this makes me really sad.

The Wiggles Win The Triple J Hot 100

What used to be an Australia day icon has lost more than its date, with the childrens band The Wiggles winning what used to be a great round up of alternative music. The only problem is, that was the most alternative track in the list.

Australia Day

Australia's great celebration of national pride and unity is with us once again... to bring us together in our mutual hatred of each other

Sexuality Is The New Vegan

A not particularly serious piece about how the new sexualities have replaced Vegans as the people that just can't stop telling you who they are.

J.K. Rowling Is A Feminist Hero

Echoing my "Why I Stand With J.K. Rowling" piece from a year and a half ago, in light of three recent events. The Scottish court's refusal to prosecute a trans activist for doxxing J.K., the mooted though unlikely version of Harry Potter, casting a trans woman in a biological woman's role and the disgraceful treatment of Rowling by the ingrate cast of the movies during the mawkish 20th anniversary celebrations. Why I still support her fight for biological women, in a world where they still come last - even to activists - in ownership of their story, their rights, their politics, their treatment and their self definition.