http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/tory-shepherd/ Tory Shepherd studied anthropology, then travelled, then studied some more, then travelled, then ended up with a cadetship at The Advertiser in 2006. She covered police rounds, politics, general news and health, while working at The Punch on the side. Now Tory is working full time at The Punch. She can be seen and heard on ABC local radio and Radio National, PM Live on Sky, and in other nooks and crannies. She is passionate about words, wine, chilli, soccer, and people (even the ones who hate her or keep praying for her soul). Follow her on Twitter - @ToryShepherd 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/icb-is-white-bread-the-worst-thing-since-sliced-bread/ Welcome to this week’s I Call Bullshit column. It’s a regular column that looks at skulduggery and balderdash, spurious reasoning and bunkum. This week we’re look at the humble loaf of white bread and its apparent demise. White bread. It’s now seen not only as the dieter’s worst enemy, but as an insult to our heightened sense of the gourmet. It’s… vulgar. Health experts decry its sodium content, its high GI, its nutritional vacuum. “The whiter the bread, the quicker you’re dead”, they say. Yes, they really do. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/icb-is-white-bread-the-worst-thing-since-sliced-bread/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/icb-is-white-bread-the-worst-thing-since-sliced-bread/#item8582 Thu, 24 May 2012 02:30:42 +0000 Tory Shepherd | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/need-someone-to-do-your-dirty-work-try-god/ Punishing the baddies is only fun in the movies. In real life it’s messy, expensive, and fraught with guilt and danger. So why not outsource it? Almost anything can be outsourced. Forget the IT department in Bangalore – companies can outsource engineering or software development. Individuals can outsource breasfeeding or shirt ironing or dog walking or shoe stretching. People also, although they may not realise it, outsource punishment. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/need-someone-to-do-your-dirty-work-try-god/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/need-someone-to-do-your-dirty-work-try-god/#item8579 Wed, 23 May 2012 19:50:03 +0000 Tory Shepherd | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/australia-you-have-nothing-to-fear-but-fear-itself/ Hansonism’s back – and we’re not just talking about Pauline appearing as a sometime wannabe journo for Today Tonight. Her ideas are still spreading like the clap. Remember this? I and most Australians want our immigration policy radically reviewed and that of multiculturalism abolished. I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians. They have their own culture and religion, form ghettos and do not assimilate. Of course, I will be called racist but, if I can invite whom I want into my home, then I should have the right to have a say in who comes into my country. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/australia-you-have-nothing-to-fear-but-fear-itself/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/australia-you-have-nothing-to-fear-but-fear-itself/#item8568 Tue, 22 May 2012 19:54:51 +0000 Tory Shepherd | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-discovery-that-will-put-you-off-drinking-forever/ People are always trying to convince us to drink less. Think of the children, they say. Think of the liver. The brain. The money. The embarrassment of drinkwalking into stationary objects and doing that odd drunk-high-heel-tottering walk and tittering. Think of the risk of sexual assault, of falling off things, of being caught singing NKOTB songs at karaoke. Think of the unborn, and the weight gain, and the increased risk of telling your boss what you really think or going home with stinky Ned from finance. Oh yes, drinking is a path littered with the loose morals and lost shoes of its travellers. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-discovery-that-will-put-you-off-drinking-forever/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-discovery-that-will-put-you-off-drinking-forever/#item8560 Tue, 22 May 2012 01:30:22 +0000 Tory Shepherd | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/south-australia-its-the-middle-bottom-bit/ If South Australia had just arrived in the world, red and wrinkled and mewling, what would we call it? Something to reflect our pride – FreeSettlerVille, perhaps? Or our aspirations – New Melbourne might suit. Or something that highlights the diverse range of South Australian attributes, from bogan frenzies to Old Adelaide Family pretensions – Taylyah Ashton-Smith, maybe? Back in 1999 advertising ‘guru’ John Singleton declared the name South Australia “boring” and suggested ‘Bradman’ instead. It may be that having six or seven wives gives one a rather low threshold for boredom – although his enthusiasm for cricket shows he is not entirely averse to the concept. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/south-australia-its-the-middle-bottom-bit/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/south-australia-its-the-middle-bottom-bit/#item8551 Mon, 21 May 2012 19:50:42 +0000 Tory Shepherd | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/mass-hysteria-monkey-men-and-penis-panics/ Shit! Who knew you could catch Tourette’s Syndrome online? Well you, can’t, not really. But you may be able to ‘catch’ similar symptoms from friends in the real world, or through social media. A group of young cheerleaders who started twitching and spasming uncontrollably are at the centre of a recent high-profile case of ‘mass hysteria’. And an expert in mass hysteria and moral panics says such outbreaks will become more common in Australia as we connect more with people through the interwebs. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/mass-hysteria-monkey-men-and-penis-panics/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/mass-hysteria-monkey-men-and-penis-panics/#item8535 Fri, 18 May 2012 02:15:46 +0000 Tory Shepherd | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/labors-new-strategy-of-speaking-no-evil/ Did you know that ostriches do not actually bury their heads in the sand? They do scratch around a bit in the dirt and bury their eggs, but they don’t actually believe that if they can’t see trouble, trouble can’t see them. The Government, on the other hand – perhaps with some help from new spin-doctor-in-chief John McTernan – somehow thinks if they don’t name their Achilles heels, those weaknesses will magically disappear. In the new era of Things Which Shall Not Be Named they scrubbed any mention of the carbon tax, or a carbon price, from their advertisements for the compensation that starts to flow through today. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/labors-new-strategy-of-speaking-no-evil/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/labors-new-strategy-of-speaking-no-evil/#item8516 Wed, 16 May 2012 02:30:35 +0000 Tory Shepherd | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/time-to-put-positive-discrimination-down/ Positive discrimination is, if not dead, at least on life support with an overeager nurse reaching for the off switch. That’s according to a decent-sized survey out today that found two thirds of Australia’s bosses will not mandate that females be included in shortlists for senior management positions. I reckon I wouldn’t be alone in turning a blind eye to that nurse, and wanting quotas put out of their misery. There are much better ways to achieve workplace diversity. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/time-to-put-positive-discrimination-down/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/time-to-put-positive-discrimination-down/#item8501 Tue, 15 May 2012 01:00:04 +0000 Tory Shepherd | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/welfare-for-breeders-is-a-bonus-for-everyone/ The worship of ‘working families’ is a bipartisan affair – all sides of politics fall over themselves to appeal to this valuable voting pool.  It’s enough to make the childless feel like drones, labouring to feed the reproducing queens. First there was Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s cash splash for parents of schoolkids. Then, in his Budget reply speech, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said: “My values are the product of an Australian life, a real life much like yours with Margie, raising three daughters in suburban Sydney, paying a mortgage, worrying about bills.” Sorry, Mr Abbott, but that’s not a real life much like mine. Never mind living in suburban Sydney or having three daughters, even if I fell in love with a Margie I couldn’t marry her. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/welfare-for-breeders-is-a-bonus-for-everyone/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/welfare-for-breeders-is-a-bonus-for-everyone/#item8495 Mon, 14 May 2012 19:45:55 +0000 Tory Shepherd | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/when-skeptics-go-soft-a-slightly-different-icb/ Welcome to this week’s I Call Bullshit. It’s a weird one. An email arrived in my inbox yesterday spruiking “Australian best-selling author Margaret Stuart”, whose gift lets her “see into the bodies and minds of people suffering from different illnesses and help them to remove the thoughts and fears that are literally making them ill”. Bullshit bingo! I took a look at the website, chuckled that the ‘qualifications’ section included kinesiology, Thought Field Therapy, and advanced scaffolding and forklift driving, pulled the old ranty-pants out of the cupboard, lined up an interview, and was good to go. Then a strange thing happened. Margaret Stuart seemed like a nice, genuine woman who just happened to have some beliefs I reckon are a bit kooky. She may think she can cure diseases with mind power, but she doesn’t tell people to stop seeing their doctors and she doesn’t seem to be making a fortune from it. The ranty pants chafed. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/when-skeptics-go-soft-a-slightly-different-icb/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/when-skeptics-go-soft-a-slightly-different-icb/#item8462 Thu, 10 May 2012 01:30:21 +0000 Tory Shepherd | Author bios | The Punch