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Keywords: Merit

  • AUSTRALIA

    Boston bomber sentence shows death penalty is always political

    • Frank Brennan
    • 19 May 2015
    11 Comments

    The lesson from the trials of Boston Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and the Bali nine is that the death penalty is always political and macabre. In the US, Justice Scalia was not at all minded to consider the merits of the argument about the effects of the drug Midazolam because he thought the case was all part of a long term political campaign to delegitimise the death penalty. 

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  • Mindfulness an alternative to fear in face of security threats

    • James O'Brien
    • 02 March 2015
    9 Comments

    With fear mongering talk of a national security emergency from our Prime Minister, perhaps we need practices which help us engage our reality with gratitude rather than panic.  We speak of health of mind and body as we are increasingly conscious of the mental health challenges we face as a community. Amidst the unrelenting busyness and worry of our days, the merits of pausing in silence are becoming clearer. Silence in mindfulness and listening to loud music while exercising are two interesting parallel experiences in our society. There’s a key question here about whether in our moments of silence or music listening we are seeking to forget our day or rest in gratitude for it. Read more  

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Bill Shorten's WorkChoices moment

    • Fatima Measham
    • 19 May 2014
    16 Comments

    Notwithstanding Kevin Rudd's merit as a candidate, there is no doubt that the unions-led campaign against WorkChoices was pivotal to handing government to Labor. What Bill Shorten has been handed this week in the Federal Budget is several WorkChoices with which to galvanise people. He needed it. His Budget reply offered a glimpse of the sort of Opposition Leader that Australians deserve.

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  • ECONOMICS

    Economics as if people mattered

    • Chris Middleton
    • 08 November 2011
    8 Comments

    Whatever the merits of Occupy Wall Street, it is far too early to speak of any substantial challenge to the dominance of capitalism. Yet there is a real taste for exploring alternatives. The most influential of faith-based approaches to economic theory is that of distributism.

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  • RELIGION

    Parliament as conversation that gets things done

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 03 December 2009

    The job of parliaments is to pass legislation after debating its merits. They get things done. The Parliament of Religions, which begins in Melbourne today, offers religious perspectives on public issues including discrimination, poverty, indigenous welfare and care for the environment.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Demerit points for bad poetry

    • Brian Doyle
    • 06 May 2009
    4 Comments

    It is a useful truth that every real feat is built on a mountain of failures. The price for poetry's occasional power is the ocean of self-indulgent, mewling muck produced and published annually under the tattered banner of the Poem.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    'Best' essays merit book title's reckless superlative

    • Alexandra Coghlan
    • 13 December 2007

    The recurrence of the ‘big' issues of politics, religion, and sexuality in Best Australian Essays 2007 is predictable enough. But the essays become more interesting when we see particular trends, such as surveillance and the individual's right to privacy, emerge in each.

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  • CONTRIBUTORS

    Peter Steele

    • Peter Steele
    • 26 July 2007

    Peter Steele SJ is a poet and scholar and a longtime contributor to Eureka Street. He is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Melbourne. He also holds a a visiting chair at Georgetown University in Washington DC, to which he will return in July.

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  • CONTRIBUTORS

    Veronica Brady IBVM

    • Veronica Brady
    • 17 May 2007

    A Loreto nun, Sister Veronica is emeritus Professor of English at the University of Western Australia who was a member of the inaugural ABC Board in the 1980s.

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  • CONTRIBUTORS

    Max Charlesworth

    • Max Charlesworth
    • 17 May 2007

    Max Charlesworth is an emeritus professor of philosophy .He has written on conscience and related issues in Church, State and Conscience and Religious Inventions.  

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  • RELIGION

    Talking about community

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 14 May 2006

    Lindsay Tanner and Tony Abbott recently gave thoughtful speeches about the place of the churches in public life, which merit a reflective response.

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  • CONTRIBUTORS

    John Warhurst

    • John Warhurst

    John Warhurst AO is Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the Australian National University in Canberra where he was Professor of Political Science from 1993-2008. Before that he was Professor of Politics at the University of New England in Armidale, NSW, from 1985-1993. He has been a weekly columnist for The Canberra Times since 1998. He also writes occasionally for The Footy Almanac. He has been chair of the Australian Republican Movement (2002-2005), campaigning for an Australian Head of State for Australia, and Deputy Chair of Catholic Social Services Australia (2007-2012), the church's peak body for social services. In 2009 he was made an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) for services to political science and to the community.

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