I'll admit to more than a little sympathy for my youngest son when he protested against my refusal in July to fudge his learner driver's logbook. "But everyone does it!" he cried, and since the minimum qualifying experience has been increased to 120 hours I believe he is very nearly right. That column was, if response is the measure, one of my highs of the year. A couple of weeks later I tackled a more sensitive subject when I pointed out an inconsistency in our attitude to any proposal to adopt Muslim law, or sharia, in Australia. We have, for example, law that enshrines and protects the Catholic law of confidentiality in the confessional, and that law and an effective exemption in another law excuses Catholic priests from reporting child abuse. If we make such room for Catholic law why not Muslim law? Making the inconsistency more marked is that the horrifying litany of pedophilia among Catholic clergy means they should be the last people given any slack in matters of child abuse.

Should the baby bonus be traded for a parenting bonus, one paid when the child reaches a certain age with an education and a clean record? To make that point I told you, in August, of the Hunter Region woman who at age 25 has just had her eighth child, and her eighth child removed from her care by DOCS, yet we continue to pay her a baby bonus! Genes we don't need more of.

In that same month I dared to suggest that our federal political leaders falling over themselves to glorify as heroes our soldiers killed in Afghanistan is more about justifying their support for sending our solders there than any heroism.

Vegans, as you know, are holier than the rest of us, and especially holier than vegetarians, and they don't use animal products lest they cause suffering to an animal. So why, I wrote in September, don't they eat roadkill? The vegans who responded were a great deal holier than me.

Did you read this week that Myer is closing or reducing some of its department stores in response partly to sales lost to online competition? I did, and I'm reminded of the great difference between the prices of online and traditional retailers when I went looking for a camera in September.

A cherry or a grape, or even one of each, shouldn't cause a supermarket any grief, and I don't think they do, but the question of whether sampling either is excusable as grazing or whether it is theft brought out the sanctimonious pedants in force. Geez, what an eye opener that was!

And my exposing the ugly behaviour of the Jets' fans at Gosford last weekend was a wonderful cap to the year.

Have I missed a blog subject that struck a chord with your good self?