looking for a job? sanitise your social media presence before applying for anything

Beware party animals, hardliners and idiots, especially if you're unemployed or looking for a new role. Now that everyone is on Facebook or something like it, employers are more and more likely to complement any reference checking with a well conducted search on social networks.

i am praying that religious education will be removed from the Victorian state school curriculum

When I was a child, I had a note from my parents that excused me from religious instruction. This was mainly due to my mother's wishes. She was as staunch an atheist as anyone I have ever met. I believe the class was somewhere from half an hour to an hour a week, during which time myself, a Japanese kid and another boy who I now assume was Jewish, would sit and draw or read. 

It wasn't exactly wasted time, as I have fond memories of how quiet and relaxing it was. A much more effective alternative however would have been to have the whole class sit through a session on ethics, rationality and morality as applied to society as a whole, taken by a real teacher. 

raising boys

A week or so after the birth of my son I went into a panic. A thought had struck me: How am I going to raise this boy so that he becomes a good, decent and loving man?

I believe that times are confusing for men, and they have been for a while. It's hard to like yourself when the undercurrent in the world around you is that being a man is tainted with the misdoings of men throughout history. It is the maleness of the wrongdoers, not their social standing, race, religion etc. that is remembered.