Poor editing. The word, shear, is used where the word, sheer, is apparently meant.

The article is a lament for the good old days that never were when men were men and the women were double breasted.

Extreme logic fail.

This article takes individual anecdotes, that the author doesn't even pretend aren't biased.

That's all well and good, until you start using those instances to make such sweeping claims.

Mate, brush up on a few of these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacies

Particularly the "Converse fallacy of accident or hasty generalization."

"Argument: Every person I've met has ten fingers, therefore, all people have ten fingers.
Problem: Those who have been met are not a representative subset of the entire set."

Describes this article perfectly.

Try some stats next time. It's far more likely that the younger Fairfax staff didn't want to hang out with the older Fairfax staff. Go check out the Brisbanetimes website and see the mugshots of most of the commentators.

The 'aging hippy' claim falls pretty goddamn flat.