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Monthly Archives: May 2008
Missing Link Daily
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill
Politics
Australian
Worst of Perth wonders about the values of all the bogan talkback ranters harassing Henson, when many of them clad their kids in tiny T-shirts like these ones. In similar vein Louise Adler on TV last night noted that many of the Tory commentators professing deep concern for children’s welfare over Henson were strangely silent about Australia’s detention of asylum seeker children for years on end with horrific mental health consequences. |
Andrew Frost at The Art Life posts a sane and surprisingly balanced detailed evaluation of the Henson teen nudes affair.11. KP: Incidentally, my own attitude, if not already clear from assorted ML extracts, is that Henson’s work is clearly art not porn, that banning it would be a socially regressive step, and that most of the arguments of conservative opponents are without merit. Mind you, Andrew Landeryou has a point about the hypocrisy of many lefties who decried DJs for “corporate pedophilia” for using clothed teen models but now blithely defend Henson’s artistic freedom. OTO there are real issues surrounding “consent” by young teenage models, and my “gut” reaction to Henson and his body of work is that while exploring important social and cultural issues they emit a disturbingly Wicked Uncle Pervy vibe. [↩]
Ken Lovell frets that the Yanks are cranking up for an Iran invasion and wonders why Rudd remains so unconcerned.
Robert Merkel is glad that Australian Middle East troop deployments are mostly window-dressing.
International
Dianne Sharma-Winter looks at the abolition of the Nepalese monarchy, which might be more of a cause for international celebration had it not been effected by the new Maoist government intent on cementing its power.
Lauren Hilgers examines China’s crackdown on its human rights lawyers in the wake of Tibet and the leadup to the Olympics.
Sean at Road to Surfdom bravely argues that Hillary should be the choice of sane Americans!
Economics
Peter Martin reports that the Fuel Watch scheme will have been voted on by the time you read this. He and Joshua Gans looks at the ACCCs latest update to their Fuel Watch econometrics which found statistically significant beneficial effects on petrol prices in WA post introduction. Possum does his own number-crunching reaching similar conclusions. Jason Soon, on the other hand, discovers that Martin Ferguson is “smarter than I thought.” 22. gilmae: Faint praise, I dare say. [↩]
Law
Norman Geras reports that George Monbiot made good on attempting to “arrest” Bush flunkie John Bolton, but failed in the attempt. Norm seizes the opportunity to excoriate Monbiot for “hypocrisy” on Iraq. 33. KP: though making one or two unphilosophical value assumptions in the process. [↩]
Jack Chin dissects the factors behind the disparity between drug warrants/arrests between African-American and wealthier white neighbourhoods (and universities).
Missing Link Daily
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A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill
Politics
Australian
Suggest a caption (via Terry Sedgwick).
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Unlike the Quranic Society, James Farrell is staking out a position on the Islamic private school.
Helen “skepticlawyer” Dale responds with a long thoughtful post (which looks suspiciously like a recycled university paper) on whether religious discrimination can be justified.
International
Bloggers monitoring possible corruption in China earthquake relief efforts.
Daniel Drezner argues that Al Qaeda is losing.
Hilzoy can’t understand why the media and blogs are obsessing over Obama’s confusing Auschwitz with Buchenwald, but ignoring the revelations that McCain’s senior economic adviser is in the pocket of a Swiss bank.
At openDemocracy, Carsten Weiland puts Israel-Syria peace talks under the microscope and wonders whether they represent “a new beginning or merely a rehashing of old constellations and positions”.
Wylie Bradford looks at Burma: cyclone, aid and sanctions.
Amazon.com has marked down Hillary’s book from $29.99 to $19.49 and notes second hand offers as low as $1.22. And in a further indignity, Daniel Drezner suggests some more realistic post-candidacy jobs for Mrs Clinton, while Doug DeLong visits the blog inner sanctum of the increasingly desperate and depressed Clintonistas.
Economics
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Predictions the Australian dollar will break on through to the other side by the end of the year. Oh, and interest rate rises. You can see why economics is the dismal science, because “Henry Thornton” agrees.
Joshua Gans posts a transcript of a radio interview he did on the FuelWatch fiasco.
Law
Eugene Volokh and Rick Hills continue to batter “slippery slope” arguments to death slowly.
In what may well be the policy proposal least likely ever to be implemented, Peter Timmins suggests the federal government should publicly release all legal opinions it obtains about the constitutionality or otherwise of new legislation.
Legal Eagle ponders why more judges don’t blog.
Norman Geras doubts the legality of George Monbiot’s plan to effect a citizen’s arrest on former Bush flunkie John Bolton when he visits the UK.
Eric E Johnson posts about the Museum of Intellectual Property he’s creating (it’s actually a museum of IP items that have generated landmark IP litigation).
Mini announcement.
Once again abusing my posting privileges, I’d like to draw the attention of Troppodillians to The Wonkery, where I am looking for ideas on how to rate and index inquiries.
The Odd Couples
“Loose Coupling”. Don’t snigger, because loose coupling is one of the most important ideas in software development: that program A should be able to use program B without caring about how B does its job.
Coupling has parallels everywhere in every day life. The economic theory of price signals is one — how firms allocate resources is, in general, supremely unimportant to the buyer. All the buyer knows is the price. Loosely coupled economies are flexible, with individual firms able to connect to each other without having to bear the costs and complexities of knowing how their suppliers and buyers do business. They can stick to their knitting.
Continue reading
Ugly
‘One of my closest friends is Turkish, and she won’t have anything to do with Muslims, OK?’ |
Camden Council has finally voted on the Quranic Society’s development application, and has unanimously voted against it. We now have to wait and see whether the applicants will appeal, and if so there will be another long wait for the outcome.
I’ve already tried to carve out a position on all this, so I’ll just summarise where I stand.
1. I wish we didn’t have religious schools at all. Some forms of religion are harmless, and indeed almost indistinguishable from humanism, in stressing contemplation, love of others and so on. But to the extent that religion demands and rationalises blind adherence to arbitrary doctrines, it’s antithetical to liberal values and it perpetuates tribalism and bigotry. Only the latter kind of religion has any need for its own schools, as instruments of indoctrination.
2. The interests of secular liberalism will not be served by blocking this or that Islamic school. Enlightenment is a long process, and is prone to setbacks as instanced by the resurgence of religious dogma in some middle eastern countries, including Israel, and in the US. But, given the right conditions, it marches on. Among those conditions are cosmopolitanism, freedom of expression (including religion) and social tolerance. None of the above are enhanced when pig-ignorant, Hansonite would-be patriots like Kate McCulloch, are seen to get their way. If migrant groups perceive our planning processes to be captive to that kind of stupidity, it will be no wonder that they feel alienated and maligned, nor any wonder if they turn inward, seek consolation in tribal bonds, and frame their grievances in terms of theological struggle. Continue reading
Missing Link Daily
|
A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill
Politics
Australian
Random photo from Flickr – page 1 of 72,701 hits for “teenager”. Is this more or less “sexualised” than those of Bill Henson? Does the nakedness of some of the latter make them porn? How do you “sexualise” teenagers who spend much of their time obsessed with sexuality anyway? Would a pedophile be more or less aroused by a Henson shot than by the innocently posed kiddie underwear models in Target catalogues? Is the incidence of child sexual abuse rising or falling? Would it be reduced by banning publication of all images of children under (say) 16? Or only “sexualised” ones? Would teenagers be less likely to develop anorexia or depression if the media didn’t “sexualise” them? Who decides what is unacceptable “sexualisation”? The police? Kevin Rudd? Hetty Johnson? Roslyn Oxley Gallery? Me? What will be the next issue to obsessively occupy the fleeting attention span of blogosphere and talkback radio? How can I stop myself typing these bloody rhetorical questions? |
Graham details the Queensland electorate redistribution.
tigtog is contemptuous of Glenn Milne’s attempt to smear Darren McCubbin, the ALP candidate in the Gippsland by-election. Brendan Nelson tragic in denial, The Editor, despises Brendan for repeating the smear in Parliament. Andrew Landeryou notes that Brendan has dropped Ted Baillieu right in it.
It’s Senate Estimates time again for Andrew Bartlett. He’s also been learning more about autism over breakfast.
tigtog applauds ABC’s passing of a journalistic standards test/survey, but churlishly suggests its TV current affairs programs have deteriorated through the imposition of balance requirements.
John Quiggin and Robert Merkel are both mightily unimpressed by Labor government noises about removing GST on petrol, and comforted only by their vagueness. Meanwhile Trevor Cook looks at the leaking of a letter from Mar’n Ferguson opposing the proposed Labor FuelWatch scheme. Mark Bahnisch, Peter Martin and Jeremy also take a gander at the issue.
Euthanasia supporter Niall Cook has severe doubts about its imposition by bureaucrats by backdoor means.
Andrew Norton lays out the welcome mat for a new left-wing think tank.
Ralph Buttigeg feels the pain of the (ADF) man (not) in the (Iraqi) street.
International
Roger Migently looks at a US military decision unlikely to endear occupying forces to the Afghan people.
Derek Barry reports on Rupert’s appointment of a new publisher for The Wall Street Journal.
wmmbb thinks Paul Krugman makes a better economist than political analyst.
Lauredhel lays into the Beijing Olympics guide for volunteers.
Dale looks at ignorance, elitism and the American voter, while Dave Nalle defends beleaguered Hillary Clinton’s remark about the Robert Kennedy assassination.
At openDemocracy, Antoni Kapcia looks at Cuba after Castro.
Missing Link missing today
I’ve just spent two hours finding stuff for Missing Link because other team members (except the arts ones) didn’t have time. However I’ve now discovered that the arts section, while full of great material, is also full of extraneous formatting code that will need to be stripped out before the edition can be published. As I’ve run out of time to do this now before going to work, today’s Missing Link will be held over until tomorrow.