Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

Nevertheless it is true for most of us that for the immediately foreseeable future that whatever we publish online isn’t going to go away, and, more significantly, is going to be searchable in a way that microfiche of a newspaper archive is not.

Tolstoy argues that no class of man has the right to punish or sit in judgement upon another, and, from out of the crucible of complexity which he has painstakingly built his story, gives a conclusion almost point-by-point worthy of a lesser evangelist.

"I no longer consent to the continued publication of my work on Webdiary; I do not necessarily continue to endorse the content; I have not received any payment for my contribution; I do not and have never had direct control over its publication. This is not intended as a denial of any legal liability which would otherwise flow from its publication." Solomon Wakeling

Most people prepare themselves for disappointment but Margo Kingston put an excessive and dangerous emotional investment in to a Howard defeat (not a Latham victory) in 2004. She put a misplaced faith in to the spontaneous Iraq war protests and in to her online activism. She set herself up for failure. Then she burnt out.

I felt a very complicated ethical dilemma when photographing a young deaf Hijabi ... .  I felt that in a way there was something a little exploitative about it, to use a person's religious obligations to make a particular visual statement. Muslims don't wear Islamic dress to represent "multiculturalism" or any other agenda, rather, they do it because it is an expectation of their religion.

"s.116 of the Australian Constitution Act enshrines the principle of freedom of religion in to Australian society. To effect any regulation of religious symbols or dress in Australian schools would require a referendum. Referendums are costly and time-consuming and should not be attempted unless there is a reasonable prospect of success and if it is for an issue with substantial contemporary relevance. I will proceed to argue that this is such an issue.": Solomon Wakeling

Solomon locks coffee-cups for a soft-hitting interview with Noel Hadjimichael

Solomon tries his hand at economics, via Thorsten Veblen: "To coin a phrase, we live in a world of conspicuous creation and purposeless splendour."

Solomon decides to go back to reviewing classic novels after all: "Kubrick played up the comedy in the novel and Lyne played up the tragedy. This speaks of something lacking in the work as a whole. The only genius of the work is in the selection of such a taboo topic, not in its execution – bar a few lines of brilliance."

"2006 brings us the political commentary that we deserve – The longest decade by George Megalogenis. It must be read by anyone who wants to be literate in contemporary politics, not, I suppose, because it brings anything new to the table but because these little excursions in to the recent past are necessary once in a while to quell our appetite for politics as entertainment." Solomon Wakeling

"In judging Fitzgerald, it is necessary to look at his work in its entirety, acknowledging that his later virtues for the most part make up for his earlier vices. Racism may be wrong but racists are still people, complex and changeable. Some prejudices may be unclear to the casual observer, forming part of the common ethos of the time. Fitzgerald's work shows a late-blooming but rising awareness of race issues and the injustice perpetrated by racial stereotypes. If we are not judged by our most mature moments, by what should we be judged?": Solomon Wakeling

"Albert Camus's The Outsider is usually billed as a disturbing work about, well, an outsider. Meursault is nothing of the sort. He is a normal person. He could be one of Howard's battlers. His attitude to life is one that ignores social stigmas. Most people do.": Solomon Wakeling

"Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead is one heck of a right-wing propaganda piece. Next to Dostoyevsky's The Possessed it is possibly the best right-wing novel ever produced. It should be read as a companion piece and de-tox from The Communist Manifesto . It should also be read with caution. I came away from reading it with an unwell feeling. I had something like the moral horror Camus intended for the reader to feel in reading The Outsider . The book is alien and unnerving at times, bordering on the surreal. I read it when I was 17 and I wish I hadn't. Propaganda does harm to supple young minds." Solomon Wakeling

"Cathy Trask's single-minded pursuit of her own self interest should make her, in some of her aspects, a feminist heroine. Cathy chooses prostitution as a business because she can't abide the thought of living as a blissful house-wife with her husband. She finds the thought of spending her life with her husband and his friends, with their gentle philosophical musings, unbearable. Who could blame her?" Solomon Wakeling

"Isabel is granted the opportunity to do whatever she wants with her life, thanks to her cousin Ralph Touchett, who organises for her a small fortune in inheritance from his dying Father. He does this from a desire to see her fulfill her true potential, because it amuses him. He is portrayed as loving her but from a safe distance. Economically, Isabel is male, not female, making her squandering of her fate all the more tragic. She is allowed to marry someone poor, who ruins her, thanks to the whim of her cousin who made her rich." Solomon Wakeling

"The tragic figure of the novel is not the sufferer of mental illness but her spouse. Without proper support, there may be more truth in this scenario than fiction. The question I want to ask the forum is: what can be done to ease the burden on family members of those with mental illness, by governments, the mental health system and by the community at large?" Solomon Wakeling

"There is no need to despair about the changes to cross-media ownership proposed by the Howard government. Whilst media diversity is a good thing for democracy, we are living in a time that is saturated with diversity of opinion, and problems in the future are likely to be caused by over-diversity, rather than a lack of diversity. The greatest challenge for democracy in the next century is for us to actively seek out opposing points of view, rather than simply trying to confirm our own existing beliefs.": Solomon Wakeling