Sick of boring old Dick and Jane readers? Stuck for Christmas stocking-fillers? Fed up with the fascist media / Maoist teachers? Why not try some ‘political education texts for kids’. Reminiscent of those What’s Happening to Me? sex-ed books we sniggered at back in the 80s, all are cute, informative and (of course) thoroughly objective. There’s wonderful titles such as Why Mommy is a Democrat, Why War is a never a Good Idea and The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming.

Our conservative friends shouldn’t feel left out. Also available is Help Mom! There are Liberals under My Bed (a possible crossover into the horror genre Down Under). For Bolt and Blair, there’s The Sky is Not Falling: Why it’s OK to chill about Global Warming (it’s blurb claims to give “kids the scoop, not just about global warming, but the real-world consequences of the Left’s responses to it”). At least we now know what’s on the coffee table at AWH headquarters.

The children of Australia are missing out and need their own titles, like Mummy, When’s the Election? and Why Kevin says Executing People is Wrong, except in Other Countries, Unless they are Australians. Suggestions?

I contributed some work (along with 4 other colleagues) some time ago to a technical book that was recently published. Today the 5 of us each received cheques for 21 pounds and 80 pence for our efforts. Awesome… it’s going to cost me 20 odd bucks to cash the thing, leaving me approximately 30AUD for my trouble. I think I will get it laminated for posterity instead. We actually asked for a single cheque so we could maximise the amount of hookers and blow we could acquire but they did not oblige.

Obviously I didn’t work on it for the money, rather because it would look good on the C.V. However this book is so expensive (400 Euro) that I can’t even afford a copy to put on my bookshelf….. so my dear friends, you won’t be getting signed copies of this riveting tome any time soon.