Does the Centre for Independent Studies' Peter Saunders want you to believe something he thinks isn't true? Peter Saunders says that " we should endeavour to make the meritocratic principle work ". At the same time, however, he argues that we should roll back government involv...
Continue reading →
I'm back jetlagged from Japan, about which I may have the strength to post a little in the future. For now a thought - a big generalisation with only the sketchiest of evidence. Please don't take it too seriously - or think that I have. It just occured to me as the hours and t...
Continue reading →
Taking up a passing comment by Gummo Trotsky on the apparent failure of liberal education, it is tempting to compose a small essay or meditation to explore some points of entry to this rather large issue. Talk of failure (or of deferred success) raises the question, when do we...
Continue reading →
Jacques Barzun is one of the great pioneering figures in cultural studies and he is also a most illuminating commentator on the problems of education at all levels. In 1973 he delivered some lectures at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D. C. and they were published in...
Continue reading →
Toby Fattore, of the New South Wales Commission for Children and Young People has written an insightful and nuanced review of a book of international readings on child labour . Some of the more strident commentators on this topic are unfortunately still in the grip of the mora...
Continue reading →
Following a debunking post on Che Guevara , John Quiggin made an interesting comment. "The orthodox history I was taught at school consisted largely of glorification of people who were pretty much identical to Che in all essentials (Alexander the Great, Richard the Lionheart,...
Continue reading →
In an article for Policy , Peter Saunders of the Centre for Independent Studies compares life to a game of Monopoly. But over at Tug Boat Potemkin , Gummo Trotsky is unconvinced. The aim of Monopoly is to drive your opponents into bankruptcy. For decades arrogant older brother...
Continue reading →
You can't help wondering about legal academics. What with Deakin University's Mirko Bagaric waxing lyrical about the inherent morality of torture, and his colleague James McConvill arguing a variety of increasingly bizarre propositions (most recently today's article claiming t...
Continue reading →
On the eve of the first test in the Ashes series, with Brett Lee selected to play and some green in the wicket, Catallaxy appropriately has a thread "In defence of bouncers" . Not to be outdone, here is a piece from the Rathouse on the role of gambling and other commercial inc...
Continue reading →
Jon Hawkes was one of my class mates at Launceston Grammar. He was the brightest kid in the class and also the youngest by a fair margin. Mr Hawkes was an anglican cleric with an interesting series of posts - Jamaica, King Island, the Huon Valley in Southern Tasmania, Monash U...
Continue reading →
This week's column. It's pretty self explanatory. For anyone who has arrived here via Counterpoint on ABC Radio National or the Courier Mail where this site is mentioned, welcome. I hope you like our site and you'll come back for more. Simples Surpreendente I'm excited! Seriou...
Continue reading →
This is reminiscent of the time a Melbourne company offered stoves in VFL club colours. The marketing ploy did not suceed, presumably due to the regretable prevalence of mixed marriages and other forms of social mixing between the tribes. "Fans of soccer club Reading can now t...
Continue reading →
Interesting problem halts games in the Nigerian football league. "Away teams rarely win games in the Nigerian league while many teams usually rely on securing points through protests to the league's disciplinary committee."
Continue reading →
A disturbing report from the Old Dart. The Anglican Consultative Council has recommended that its member churches divest their investments with firms that support the Israeli occupation of Arab territories. A strangely misplaced example of moral equivalence.
Continue reading →
Andrew Ford - the lead ABC Radio National broadcaster on the world of music - seems like a remarkably nice guy. He just radiates good mental health. Talented, hard working, nice, modest. Daggy but just a tad - enough for it to be engaging rather than painful. In addition to be...
Continue reading →
Lingua Franca is usually a teriffic little program, yet another hidden gem on our great national broadcaster. Being in bed with a nasty wog (so to speak) I taped and then listened to this week's episode at some time in the wee small hours. It really has to be heard so if you w...
Continue reading →
This article indicates that the US provides nearly 0.7% of GDP to third world nations, compared with the usually quoted figure of 0.15%. It also notes the importance of other forms of aid such as private capital to establish so-called sweatshops that provide a ladder of opport...
Continue reading →
Peter Saunders wants unemployed people to pay their own dole. In a recent paper for the Centre for Independent Studies, he suggests that unemployment allowances could be replaced with Unemployment Savings Accounts (USAs). Under this system workers would be expected to save eno...
Continue reading →
I just found this on the net on David Walker's interesting site Shorewalker . It's Paul Graham explaining why one might write an essay. To understand what a real essay is, we have to reach back into history ... to Michel de Montaigne, who in 1580 published a book of what he ca...
Continue reading →
The Age ran an interesting and quite critical piece on Live 8 yesterday. One of its themes is a line that irritates me a little. The romanticisation of the idea of music 'changing the world'. But the article does make the point that this time around, for all his scruffiness, S...
Continue reading →
Troppo has been quite blokey lately, what with Wen and Sophie AWOL and Jen in Melbourne. So I thought I'd post over the fold something to indulge the prejudices of female readers just for a change. There is of course no resemblance to my own domestic behaviour in any of these...
Continue reading →
You may nor may not think this is a good colum, but it took me bloody ages to write. It helps to have a single line to stick to in a column given the need for simplicity, clarity and brevity. But it seemed to me that there were important parallels between what William Easterly...
Continue reading →
In case anyone finds this observation reassuring, less people have died in the London bombing than the US authorities incinerated at Waco . I support joint activities with our ally when it is proper or expedient to do so (and especially when it is both proper and expedient). S...
Continue reading →
As some readers may have noticed, the Troppo commenting system has been malfunctioning badly for the last week or so. When you try to post a comment, it invariably returns an error message saying that the " server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unabl...
Continue reading →
I have just discovered that this post has been linked to by Tim Blair . Please take your pick. a) do a quick word association on some words chosen at random (but inflenced by Blair's misleading heading "VILE MURDERING SCUM HAVE FEELINGS TOO" and put whatever abuse you like in...
Continue reading →
I regret to announce that the wars between humans and computers have pretty much been won - by computers. Michael Adams, a very talented young Englishman and number 7 in the world played a nasty contraption called Hydra in a six game chess match. Result. Five wins - all to the...
Continue reading →
Don Arthur has posted on the London bombings immediately below (although there's something very strange going on with his post at the moment). For me, it's too early to say anything wise or even sensible about these dreadful events. We don't even know how many have been killed...
Continue reading →
Today I found the message that Ken posted when Mark Bahnisch joined the team, with a profile and all that stuff, and I realised that Ken has been too busy to post the my cv. This is no big deal, but in case anyone is interested... There is also a photo that is only few years o...
Continue reading →
The post immediately below argues that we could achieve something worthwhile by changing the 'default setting' of our superannuation contributions. Namely we could require that the level of super contribution required from someone who doesn't make any active election is not 9%...
Continue reading →
This week's column is the third in about five weeks on super to co-incide with the introduction of super-choice. The other two are here and here . So as someone who commented on a draft said, I might be getting near the stage when I can call it a Gruen Plan. I wrote it in thre...
Continue reading →
Lots of you will have already been there, but for those who haven't seen it, John Falkner's speech in launching Latham's bio is terrific. And what did Falkner go an do? Resign :( *PS - thanks to Liam Hogan for correction on the simple task of spelling Faulkner's name. I left o...
Continue reading →
This looks like a recreational event that could take off in the Territory, perhaps with the requirement that in addition to having fun the participants should consume a slab of beer or so before taking the field.
Continue reading →
Gavin Kennedy, Adam Smith enthusiast after my own heart e-mailed me recently to tell me of a weblog post he'd done after reading a column of mine on on-line opinion (the longer version of which was posted at troppo ) arguing that economic and social success comes not from a pr...
Continue reading →
Armadillo afficionados might be interested to know that Cambodia has issued a postage stamp to celebrate a prehistoric armadillo .
Continue reading →
It's lucky I'm feeling positive about life generally, or this would be an unbearably depressing Friday night. Not only does Jen insist on watching some mind-numbingly dreadful Walt Disney telemovie starring Julie Andrews, but it's "Territory Night". The NT is the only part of...
Continue reading →
