Friday’s Missing Link

The Bomber among friends yesterday, but how many will he have in Caucus next week? We’ll add links here to developing blogosphere coverage …

Just in case you thought Wednesday’s first Missing Link feature  was  a fluke and doubted that the blogosphere really does consistently produce  a wealth of great reading material, today’s  second Missing Link should dispel your  scepticism.

I’ve also included an arts section in today’s Missing Link, and I’ll try to do so every Friday.    Tips from  readers  on good arts posts worth highlighting  (theatre, visual arts, film or whatever) would be most welcome.

I’m also going to include an animation when I add images to the post later this morning, as well as a very funny YouTube movie.   Again reader tips about good YouTube or other videos worth highlighting here would be very welcome.

Politics and stuff

 — Labor leadership challenge

• Tim Dunlop on the spill (regularly updated)
• Kim from Larva Rodeo has her tuppence worth
• Daily Flute  unmasks conspiracy to promote  the Yellow Wiggle  into Bomber’s job
• This is why the spill is on – Aussie Bob at Tim’s place
• Early election? – Daily Flute asks …
• And Tim Blair is on the story too ..
• So too is Andrew Norton – “The Labor Party’s capacity to talk itself into a crisis is quite amazing. Here they are, tracking reasonably well in the polls, and what do they decide to do? Yes, have a leadership spill. …

Whoever wins, I reckon John Howard has an early Xmas present. Rudd wouldn’t challenge if he didn’t think he had a reasonable chance, so even if Beazley hangs on we’ll all know that even much his own party doesn’t think he is fit to be PM. If Rudd wins, the ALP will have as leader a man without the common touch. ”

I’m with Andrew (although I’m just as pessimistic  about Labor’s chances  under Beazley’s lacklustre leadership).

— Other politics stuff

Courtesy Daily Flute …

• Glenn Milne: sponsored by Fosters  – Bryan Palmer on the bizarre attack by pissed Murdoch journo Glenn Milne on Stephen ‘Crikey’ Mayne at last night’s Walkely Awards (watch the video).   Tim Blair (displaying his usual cool objective and utterly unbiased judgment) reckons Mayne’s reaction was cowardly! Sensible and quite restrained I would have said.   Theatre critic Chris Boyd also fortuitously attended the Walkley Awards night and has a much more interesting take
• Tony the Teacher photoblogs yesterday’s Work Choices demo in Melbourne, and proves fairly conclusively that Labor claims of a crowd of 70,000 were about double the true numbers.
• The rally that did workers more harm than WorkChoices  – Andrew Norton argues fairly persuasively that claims of a fall in Australian average weekly earnings flowing from Work Choices are probably bull****.
• Brown garottes Garrett  – Australian Democrats Senator Andrew Bartlett justifiably hoes into Greens Senator Bob Brown for  a stupid  ad hominem attack on Peter Garrett.
• Shock! PM’s approval rating drop leads to leadership rumbles! Bishop doesn’t know her history!  – Mark Bahnisch highlights double standards in the way media treats the respective poll ratins of Kim Beazley and John Howard, not to mention the  treatment of  historical facts  trivial pursuit ignorance of  both NSW Labor Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt and Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop.
• To Helen back in less than a month – Meanwhile, Terry Sedgwick focuses on Communications Minister Helen Coonan’s remarkably adaptable attitude towards Australia’s broadband/fraudband Internet speeds.
• Over-reaction to use of ‘Pom’ – Tim Dunlop defends the Poms (well, sort of).
• Harrying Howard – Tim focuses on venerable conservative commentator owen Harries’ verdict on John Howard’s foreign policy performance.
• Sunday Barbeque  – Helen has an update on an old but still  harrowing story about Phillip Ruddock’s well known compassion towards asylum seekers.
• Hard to believe  – blogosphere Godfather John Quiggin focuses on the almost complete failure of both the US and Australia to grant asylum to the million or so Iraqi refugees generated by our disastrous invasion and occupation.
• ALP–they’ve got problems – philosopher Gary Sauer-Thompson highlights the Beazley opposition’s lack of any coherent (or even visible)  approach to climate change and related issues (where one would have thought Howard would be eminently vulnerable given his recent clumsy backflip).
• Being sold for scrap – Paul Watson blogs on the media’s strange treatment of the  theft of Melbourne’s overhead train powerlines, and equally cavalier treatment of rorting in the federal government Job Network.

The Yartz

• I can’t resist this caption animation of Madonna chatting with Oprah:
  
  
  
• For Samuel Beckett – Alison Croggon reviews the play of that name (on in Fitzroy in Melbourne until 9 December)
• The problem of praise – Alison Croggon – “When critics go to the theatre, it is a given that they have differing responses. One man’s meat, as the proverb runs, is another man’s poison. And this is as it should be: theatre audiences are as various as the theatre itself. But sometimes there are extremes that ought to be noted. …”
• Around the web – Alison Croggon adds some links to arts blogs around the place, and also has links to a couple of YouTube videos on Samuel Beckett.
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman: The Yellow Wallpaper – Chris Boyd reviews a play (currently on in  Melbourne  – “According to Deborah Philips, a co-founder of Women’s Review, Ibsen’s A Doll’s House was based on actual events. But while Nora ends the play slamming the door of her doll’s house behind her — boldly going where no actress had gone before — the real life ‘Nora’ sweated out her days in a mad house.
• Geoffrey Blainey on Nial Ferguson’s The War of the Worlds (at Australian Book Review) – ‘In essence, there is something shaky in the whole concept of this book. It is not clear whether the author thinks the book is about violence or hatred, and they are very different things. It is not clear whether the book is trying to make a major and damnatory assessment of the twentieth century in terms of all history or simply of modern history.’
• Kerryn Goldsworthy on Janine Burke’s The Gods of Freud (at Australian Book Review) -‘There are some who cannot hear his name without declaring that they ‘don’t believe in’ Freud, as though he were the Easter Bunny; there are others who feel they must take up a position on him, either for or against, as though he were, say, Collingwood. Burke sensibly eschews all such weirdness and goes for a tone at once affectionate and cool, demonstrating the power of some of Freud’s ideas and calmly pointing out the weaknesses of others.’

Science, technology and environment

• Court Hears Global Warming Case – not a blog post, but the  US Supreme Court is currently hearing a challenge by some States to the refusal of the Bush government to impose any carbon controls/standards on motor vehicle emission.   Ultra-conservative Justice Antonin Scalia:

At one point, ¹ acknowledged the role of carbon dioxide as a pollutant in the air but wondered about it being a pollutant in the “stratosphere.”

“Respectfully, Your Honor, it is not the stratosphere. It’s the troposphere,” Milkey said.

“Troposphere, whatever. I told you before I’m not a scientist,” Scalia said to laughter. “That’s why I don’t want to have to deal with global warming, to tell you the truth.”

• Lomborg spreads DDT ban myth  – Tim Lambert with a succinct take on a favourite target.
• Black gold of the sun – Mr Zilla – “Two German scientists, Dr Gerhard Knies and Dr Franz Trieb, calculate that covering just 0.5% of the world’s hot deserts with a technology called concentrated solar power (CSP) would provide the world’s entire electricity needs …”
• Safety, risk and nuclear power – Steve Edney – “²any people over estimate the risk of nuclear compared with other risks that they don’t even consider or take for granted. On the other hand its also seductively easy to look at nuclear power’s track record in the west and do the reverse. It’s easy to believe there are no black swans if you’ve never seen one. …”

Whimsical stuff

Moses receives Work Choices Bill from God …

• Care of Zoe at CrazyBrave, do yourself a favour and watch this YouTube video of the Helsinki Complaints Choir (can someone give me some hints on how to embed a YouTube video?? – I’ve tried pasting in the code for “embed” from the YouTube site but it didn’t work for some reason)
• Push Your Musical Barrows Here!  – Amanda solicits readers to list the 25 greatest songs they’ve never heard (which may well be a testing challenge).
• Headphone deafness – Susoz highlights the bastardry of motorists towards cyclists.
• History Carnival XLIV  – the great David ‘Barista’ Tiley posts a feature that contains several days diverting reading all on its own.
• One for the tragics  – economist Andrew Leigh examines reports on research examining the economic efficiency of cricket betting markets!
• Speed Dating  – Andrew Leigh also examines reports on research examining speed dating services and mate selection from an economic perspective!!
• Open Ashes thread – Second Test  – Helen ‘scepticlawyer’ Dale invites readers to comment on the Second Ashes Test as it develops from today, and also slags the cops’  needlessly authoritarian approach towards harmless crowd antics at the First test in Brissie.
• Fine result – Adrian the Cabbie shows that it’s possible to beat parking fines in Sydney without claiming your vehicle was being driven by someone who inconveniently turns out to have been dead at the time.
• God is a boss – Beware of the Gods – “It’s one thing for Ian Harper, head of Australia’s Fair Pay Commission to say that God will help him set the minimum wage.But in Colorado, TV ads against a $1.70 raise in the minimum wage suggest that God is a member of the chamber of commerce. Have a look.“

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