Missing Link

Artist’s impression of Brisbane’s proposed Northbank development, on which The Pencil Guy gives his thoughts (see under “life and other serious stuff”)

The wiki is playing up today, so no internal hyperlinks. And I only had time to insert one photo, liberated from The Pencil Guy (who presumably liberated it from some Brisbane newspaper). But we do have the usual rich assortment of blogosphere goodies for readers’ delectation.

This edition by Jason Soon, Amanda Rose, Patrick Garson, James Farrell and Ken Parish. Helen Dale was busy, so the moderate right blogs remain unscanned until Monday.

1. News and Politics Stuff

Peter Martin has a justified bee in his bonnet about the Coalition’s dissing of Treasury head Ken Henry for daring to suggest that their $10 billion Water Plan might be a poorly planned fiasco which they carefully kept from meaningful Treasury and Finance scrutiny. See here and here and here and here and here.

Niall “Bannerman” Cook muses about interest rates in the wake of their temporary failure to rise this week, as does Peter Martin.

Daily Flute has an acerbically realistic view about the state of NSW State politics.

In a nice change from his usual tabloidish character assassination pieces, Andrew Landeryou has written two thoughtful pieces, one on the possible implications of the new tort on privacy that appears to have been created by the Victorian County Court and one on the many ways Kevvy Rudd could lose the next Federal election.

John Ray at A Western Heart thinks there are some hidden and possibly sinister motives behind leftist peacenik-ery. The sinister motivations of the Left are also a concern of Diogenes Lamp who laments Kevvy Rudd’s bullying of the Chinese over their greenhouse gas emissions. The ALS’ Justin Jefferson has a long and thoughtful piece on why he thinks the welfare state doesn’t really help the poor.

Gary Sauer Thompson also is burning with curiosity as to exactly what advice the government has been ignoring from Treasury. But Gary is a man of many has interests. Over at Junk for Code, he has look at a bit of argy-bargy caused by an article about Kath and Kim posted on Spiked in the UK. He ties it back to that old devil called class. Interestingly, his critique of the Brits could easily be applied to a reasonable proportion of Australians, too, I think.

Audrey is fan of Maxine Mc Kew, and highlights the inevitable double standards we’re happy to apply when it comes to a woman’s choice not to have children and focus on her career, as opposed to a man. Over at Stoush.net, Arleeshar argues that Australian Democrats plans to recruit David Hicks as a political candidate is extraordinarily stupid, a proposition with which it’s hard to disagree. Mind you, his reported views about women and the Great Satan would probably make him quite popular in a seat based on Lakemba. Meanwhile, Gilmae has some pithy thoughts on Hicks:

I wouldnât piss on the guy if he was on fire.

He didnât break any laws though.1

¹ KP: I agree. The whole retrospective law issue seems to have completely disappeared from MSM consciousness, despite the fact that the law to which Hicks copped a plea is fairly clearly retrospective, and retrospective laws are proscribed by the US Constitution.

Ken Lovell guffaws at Howard’s logical contortions in trying to represent the Hicks outcome as a simple matter of justice taking its inexhorable course.

At Blogocracy, Tim is scathing about Our Leader’s exhortation to work until the age of 100:

Not only has Mr Howard presided over an IR regime that allows employment conditions conditions like tea-breaks and annual leave and public holidays to be ânegotiated❠away, he now wants everyone to eat into their own retirement, all in the name of his precious economy. Makes you wonder what the next phase of industrial reforms are going to include, doesnât it?

Taking a short break from her nude self-portait project, Gianna visits Surfdom to unravel the causes and consequences of declining union numbers.

If workers felt pushed to move onto an AWA, this will not magically translate to support for the Liberals and IR changes; they may even be more embittered towards John Howard. The question remains, how much of a choice do workers really have in signing AWAs?

Sarah makes a parallel argument about the health system: the growth of the private health sector, which the Opposition offers as a reason to expand its role in their new policy, has occurred precisely because the Government has coerced us into taking out private cover. Seeking a distraction from these depressing developments, she and her partner in apathy announce their nominations for the Thinking Blogger Award. The list just happens to include a certain Patrick, who is back after a short hiatus with some reactions to a New Yorker article on Wolfowitz and the World Bank. This tale of good intentions and havoc:

is a perfect snapshot of US administration in general. Convinced he’s right, Wolfowitz has gone about achieving his aims with little regard to the counsel or feelings of others. Moreover, he’s convinced he’s right, even when he’s wrong. The checks and balances designed to limit bad (and more broadly I guess all) decison-making in large bureaucracies have been steadily removed, with predictable consequences.

Meanwhile, down in his duckpond, Wmmbb argues that, however the Americans choreograph it, their withdrawal from Iraq will be more painful than their withdrawal from Vietnam, in terms of regional stability, internal stability, and their own prestige.

2. Life and Other Serious Stuff

Home Cooked Theory examines a regular meme – that “kids aren’t the same nowadays, in our day respect etc. etc.” – with respect to the way teenagers are dating, or not. Mel argues that teenagers are still doing the same things they always did, just in a different way.

Bryan “Ozpolitics” Palmer (back at his usual digs after server problems) highlights some relatively minor electoral law reforms, including abolition of criminal penalties for defamation of election candidates (with which some disgruntled loser tried to zap William “Pollbludger” Bowe not so long ago).

The Pencil Guy has a great post on the proposed Brisbane CBD Northbank development. Looks as if, like Darwin, Brisbane also hosts some nostalgic yearners for the days when Brissie (I refuse to use the idiotic expression “Brisvegas”) was a sleepy country town. But at least they’re not prominent journalists.

Dr Faustus zeroes in on research showing that Powerpoint presentations may often actually inhibit rather than enhance learning:

Whilst making information accessible is a good thing, it shouldn’t be assumed that you can explain rocket science to morons managers by reducing it to dot points.2

² KP: I canvassed my own students about the research yesterday, and the consensus was that they found my Powerpoints helpful and wanted me to keep using them.

Faustus also examines the research on the medical and other effects of “ice” (crystal methamphetamine).

In another of his useful science tutorials, Brian Bahnisch highlights a lesser-known consequence of C02 buildup, namely, the increasing acidity of the oceans, which in turn has grim implications for the marine ecosystem.

Modia Minotaur marks the passing of Dr John Billings with a survey of birth control politics.

(Via Andrew Leigh) A quick roundup of economics blog posts:

1. 1[↩]
2. 2[↩]