Monday’s Missing Link

After watching a replay of a Geraldine Doogue interview with Heavy Kevy on Compass last night, I find it increasingly difficult to credit Amanda’s and Chris Sheil’s hypothesis (developed on this thread here at Club Troppo) that he has already endeared himself to the general populus through his apparently regular slot on Channel 7’s Sunrise program. Hyper-reality or not, Rudd’s mix of nerdy awkwardness and calculating insincerity is anything but endearing, at least to my taste.   Of course, John Howard managed to get himself elected despite (or maybe because of) a similar public persona, but I suspect he only managed it because most people hated Paul Keating so much more.   I’d like to think Rudd can win, and the opinion polling certainly says so, although the bookies don’t.   Anyway, it’s a good excuse for posting  a Photoshop effort by Sublimely Gothic Cowgirl.   Her advice for Kevy? “Billy Idol pulled off an 80’s cyber-goth-punk look quite well, but Kev – a word of advice – lose the wispy bowl ‘do and throw in the odd sneer here and there“.

Anyway, on with the day’s Missing Link business.

News and politics stuff

Blogosphere Media Watch

• Phil Gomes does his weekly meander through the weekend newspaper op-eds,  unmasking assorted dastardly deeds of right wing pundits.
• Tim Blair reciprocates, revealing that Adele Horin recycles her own old columns (in contrast to Phillip Adams and Mark Steyn, who frequently recycle those of other people).

 We’ll all be rooned

• Ian Macfarlane’s worried, Glenn Stevens is worried… – Peter Martin

The former head of the Reserve Bank says “major financial instability” is likely to hit Australia within the next two decades and he believes we lack the tools to deal with it.

In the sixth and final of his Boyer Lectures to be broadcast on the ABC on Sunday Ian Macfarlane says he believes that Australia faces a threat “greater than the threat of inflation, deflation, the balance of payments and the other familiar economic variables that we have confronted in the past”…

• Money money money – Phil Gomes also muses about Macfarlane’s comments.

Other newsy  stuff

• Housing is a human right – Andrew Bartlett

The figures suggest that more than 100 000 are homeless at any one time, which is around 1 in every 200 people. This makes it a minority issue in a political sense. But there are far more than this who have to pay high or very high proportions of their weekly income just to keep a roof over their heads

•  Howard to Rudd: I’m a bigger socialist than you – I’m not sure I entirely accept Tim Dunlop’s hypothesis, but it’s certainly true that a significant part of the explanation for John Howard’s success is his blending of pro-business neoliberal policies with moderate and populist social democracy  and professed (but seldom substantively enacted) socially conservative views.
• Three feet high and rising – Eric Martin on global warming and sea level rise.   Nothing terrbly new but well expressed.
• Decency – Pavlov’s Cat muses on the implications of labelling Kim Beazley ‘a decent man’.
• Public Private Partnerships no ‘magic pudding’ – Tristan Ewins with a good  long-ish post at Labor First blog.
• Sarah demonstrates the irony of her blog’s title with a series of passionate posts over the weekend on democracy Singapore-style, the even more barbaric than usual  execution of a man in Florida, and a seemingly light sentence given to a seal-slaughtering fisherman in Victoria.
• The despair of centrality – “Human Behaviour” wonders whether labelling the main non-government party as “The Opposition” and its portfolio spokespeople as “shadow Ministers” has any effect on the political process …
• The new leisure crisis? – Andrew Leigh takes issue with the statement that: “The solution to mass underemployment, first and foremost, is to recognise there is no solution to mass underemployment.”
• Stopgap fighter planes and a lazy couple of billion or so – Robert Merkel on the  perennial fiasco of Australian defence procurement.
• The lack of critical thinking in higher ed policy – Andrew Norton criticises Kevin Rudd for some seemingly  woolly thinking.

Life and other serious stuff

• What is neighbourhood character? – Aaron Hewett

… Neighbourhood character is an often abused concept that tries to make conservatism look respectable. It has been used to argue against the building of mosques, against the building of student apartments and against anything that doesn’t fit within a very defined and narrow view of the world. Neighbourhoods should be allowed to change over time and the concept of ‘neighbourhood character’ should not be hijacked by prejudice and a fear of modern architecture.

• Neither of my Blue Mountains nieces is 8 years old – Tigtog

Obviously, whenever a child drowns someone blames themselves for not supervising carefully enough. The parents and any other adult who could hypothetically have been watching more closely will castigate themselves for the rest of their lives. Few will have to cope with the horror-blamefest awaiting Kerry Lucas, though …

• On bodies and bits – Ampersdand Duck blogs on the significance of underam hair and vaginoplasties …

The Yartz

• Things That Didn’t Happen: 2006 in Review – The Art Life with an imaginary satirical review of the year in visual arts.   It may well be screamingly funny if you know the scene, but I have to confess  most of it escaped me.
• The Milk in the Sky – ‘El’ reviews an anthology of essays and poetry about living in Central Australia.
• What would you do if Bob Dylan answered the phone when you rang a friend?
• Review: Short and Sweet – Alison Croggon reviews a festival of short (10 minute) plays currently on in Melbourne.
• That “entertainment” word – Alison Croggon

Prompted in part by a glum viewing of the Short & Sweet website, our favourite New York tragedian George Hunka lets rip on the commodification of theatre as mere “entertainment”, which he calls “the new Fascism”. …

• Crampton on criticism – Alison Croggon links to several other posts dealing with what she characterises as “the critical debate raging across the blogosphere” …

Mad Bad Sad and Glad

• Landeryou gets his man – Anonymous Lefty ‘fesses up to his true identity after being outed by another blogger for the 700th time
• Talking to ourselves – Andrew Norton focuses on a media survey that shows what any experienced blogger already knows: – we’re mostly just preaching to the converted, because most readers  gravitate semi-permanently  to  blogs which share their own opinions and only venture out for an occasional bracing stoush with the enemy.
• Vote Now; UnAustralian of the Year 2007 final – Daily Flute announces the finalists. So go and vote for your least favourite person in a strong field of contenders.
• Gideon Haigh blogs the Ashes cricket, and so does Tony the Teacher, as do assorted bloggers at Sidelined.
• Anti-football conspiracy part 3 – Guido with more on a seeming campaign by some MSM organisations to denigrate soccer’s successful national league.   It’s a wonder this story isn’t getting more exposure.
• Feed your head – Darryl Mason with an eclectic bizarre  links post.