http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/david-southwell/ David Southwell is a journalist, sub editor, and blogger at news.com.au. His primary duties are to scout for free food left over from marketing meetings in the kitchen and search the picture wires for bikini shots. All in the line of work, of course! He occasionally posts at his Sub in the Pub blog and likes to collect old tea cups and newspapers on his desk. He has thoughtfully laid a trail of typos to trace his journalistic career back through news.com.au, AAP and the Balmain Village Voice, where he was a distinguished morning tea correspondent. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/travel-lessons-a-broader-view-on-fat-dumb-americans/ Does travel broaden the mind or is it a merely a generally pleasant meandering about in search of the least untrustworthy taxi driver? While preparing to return home from a 7-month round-the-world trip spanning 21 countries and five continents I have been pondering this question. I would be loathe to press the case that touristic travel bestows anything more than a passport full of visa ink and a credit card more overworked than Ian Thorpe’s personal stylist. feedback@thepunch.com.au (David Southwell) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/travel-lessons-a-broader-view-on-fat-dumb-americans/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/travel-lessons-a-broader-view-on-fat-dumb-americans/#item4169 Sun, 03 Oct 2010 20:00:38 +0000 David Southwell | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-night-at-the-ballot-election-2010-the-musical/ Having recently been in New York I am able to present the playbill lyrics of a show that opened off-off-off-off-off Broadway last month. Despite overwhelmingly harsh reviews from numerous critics it appears the production is going to have a surprisingly extended run. A Night at the Ballot Opening scene: Julia Gillard’s office. A number of faceless men lurk in the shadows behind Julia. feedback@thepunch.com.au (David Southwell) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-night-at-the-ballot-election-2010-the-musical/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-night-at-the-ballot-election-2010-the-musical/#item3943 Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:45:28 +0000 David Southwell | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/theres-no-more-nobility-in-travelling-on-the-cheap/ Among the many hazards that you might encounter during a long overseas trip, perhaps the worst one is starting to sound like the Lonely Planet. I don’t mean just quoting the guidebooks’ neat little factoids and pat judgments in place of any other real conversation or insight, something my wife and I have been reduced to doing for the past few months of our world trip. A more serious sign of the malady is when you start to refer to yourself as an “independent traveller”, the standard description the books employ for their readership. feedback@thepunch.com.au (David Southwell) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/theres-no-more-nobility-in-travelling-on-the-cheap/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/theres-no-more-nobility-in-travelling-on-the-cheap/#item3483 Mon, 05 Jul 2010 20:00:05 +0000 David Southwell | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/carn-rba-get-those-rates-up-you-good-thing/ Now I have vacated the job of helping edit news.com.au, let me reveal my dreadful desire to write an almost unthinkable headline: “Rates hike means more gain for savers”. It’s pretty well inconceivable that any major media outlet would lead with this sentiment for fear of alienating all the hard-pressed homeowners, the millions of working families and Aussie battlers feeling the pinch in the ever-tightening mortgage belt. This holds true from the most rabid reactionary radio shock jock, through the marching minions of Murdochdom (I am yet to hand back the company-issued electric shock collar), to the fairy floss fops of Fairfax and even unto the ABC commissars of collectivist cant. feedback@thepunch.com.au (David Southwell) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/carn-rba-get-those-rates-up-you-good-thing/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/carn-rba-get-those-rates-up-you-good-thing/#item2536 Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:50:36 +0000 David Southwell | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/industry-is-people-at-their-best.-why-curb-it-for-climate/ IF climate change really represents a threat to our civilisation comparable to the Nazis than it is time for us to stop backing off in half-hearted surrender and instead tell Mother Nature to shove it. Recently in arguing against the “disaster track” of a Copenhagen UN compromise agreement on reducing emissions, NASA scientist James Hansen - in many ways the granddaddy of climate change theory - said global warming should be treated like an evil enemy. “This is analogous to the issue of slavery faced by Abraham Lincoln or the issue of Nazism faced by Winston Churchill,” Hansen said. How did Winston Churchill and more broadly the Allied powers defeat the Nazis and their Axis partners? feedback@thepunch.com.au (David Southwell) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/industry-is-people-at-their-best.-why-curb-it-for-climate/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/industry-is-people-at-their-best.-why-curb-it-for-climate/#item1945 Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:35:15 +0000 David Southwell | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/thanksgiving-australia-style-10-things-im-thankful-for/ Today in the US it’s Thanksgiving, where Americans gather around tables groaning under turkeys the size of footstools and serve what appear to be marshmallow-laden deserts as salads. It is the biggest family holiday in the US and the idea of being thankful for being an American certainly has a great appeal that admittedly might be a little lost on the nation’s original Indians. Our national day isn’t for a couple of months but I thought it apt to list ten things I am thankful for about being an Australian and living Australia. feedback@thepunch.com.au (David Southwell) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/thanksgiving-australia-style-10-things-im-thankful-for/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/thanksgiving-australia-style-10-things-im-thankful-for/#item1858 Fri, 27 Nov 2009 03:39:11 +0000 David Southwell | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/rednecks-the-new-racist-term-for-ordinary-australians/ As a moderator of comments for news.com.au I see a lot of intolerance expressed in the debate over asylum seeker boats, especially from a vocal minority prepared to get very nasty. The comments from this quarter typically employ broad-brush terms of abuse to stereotype on the basis of nationality. The targets of these hateful attacks are Australians. The most popular terms of abuse are “redneck” and “racist”. feedback@thepunch.com.au (David Southwell) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/rednecks-the-new-racist-term-for-ordinary-australians/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/rednecks-the-new-racist-term-for-ordinary-australians/#item1787 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:50:11 +0000 David Southwell | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Greentopia-2050-how-I-became-one-with-a-lettuce/ Everyone must radically change the way they live - and even their culture - to save the planet, the Greens say. They want people to live in car-less “urban villages’‘, feed off community gardens and re-localise schools and hospitals. Deputy leader of the Australian Greens Christine Milne outlined her green dream in a speech in Canberra earlier this year. “Our wealth has not brought us happiness,’’ Senator Milne told the National Press Club. “The political, social and economic makeover required is so transformative that it creates the opportunity to go greenfields.’’ Here is a preview of what this world looks like… feedback@thepunch.com.au (David Southwell) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Greentopia-2050-how-I-became-one-with-a-lettuce/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Greentopia-2050-how-I-became-one-with-a-lettuce/#item1675 Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:20:30 +0000 David Southwell | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/southwell-dummy/ Prime Minister Kevin Rudd today said that the Government was moving with “the utmost urgent speed” to fix what might be “perceived as an unfortunate conceptual misalignment” regarding the issue of asylum seekers. “Up until now we have described our policy as ‘tough but humane’, however from now on the correct designation will be ‘harsh but kind’,” Mr Rudd said. The Prime Minister looked annoyed when a reporter suggested that perhaps a better alternative might be “sweet and sour”. “Let me say this, do I apologise for saying what I mean and meaning what I say? Not withstanding the various qualifications existent for meeting the dynamic fluidity of changing contingencies,  no, I do not apologise, not in the slightest,” Mr Rudd said. feedback@thepunch.com.au (David Southwell) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/southwell-dummy/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/southwell-dummy/#item1645 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:35:08 +0000 David Southwell | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Communism-isnt-cool-and-never-has-been/ Near Sydney’s Circular Quay sits the Hitler Bar. The door sign has Hitler’s name in Germanic script on a swastika background. Similar nazi era iconography decorates the menus. Alright, not surprisingly, there is no Hitler Bar. Instead what overlooks Sydney Harbour is the Lenin Bar, replete with the nostalgic/ironic hip communist hammer, sickle and Soviet star kitsch. This is strange because in overall scope, communism presents as a greater man-made humanitarian catastrophe than nazism, or almost certainly any other ism. feedback@thepunch.com.au (David Southwell) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Communism-isnt-cool-and-never-has-been/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Communism-isnt-cool-and-never-has-been/#item1568 Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:55:33 +0000 David Southwell | Author bios | The Punch