Missing Link Daily

A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, James Farrell, Gilmae, Darlene Taylor and Saint.

Politics

Australian

Terry Sedgwick continues his focus on occasional Coalition MP Mark Vaile

The Currency Lad on the limits of Rudd’s Brutopia and Nelson’s inheritance.

Tim Blair examines the clean, green, Chinese machine which has escaped our shores.

What a relief, says Jeremy, that we finally have a government with the guts to take on those demanding and parasitic carers.

International

Lee Malatesta explains why he believes Republicans are as misnamed as the Australian Liberal Party, although no failing he ascribes to the Republicans couldn’t also be used to describe the Democrats.

Publius argues that there’s nothing democratically illegitimate about Hillary Clinton aiming at winning the Presidential nomination by persuading superdelegates to support her notwithstanding that Obama may win more formally committed delegates.

Jonathan Pearce reports that Labour-leaning Maltese are cross after their party lost the elections to the Nationalists by less than 1000 votes.

Juan Cole looks at the just-reached accord between the PPP and Muslim League in Pakistan in the wake of the recent elections there.

Savo Heleta takes a pessimistic look at the situation in Zimbabwe in the leadup to local, parliamentary and presidential elections on 29 March.

Economics

Joshua Gans hopes he hasn’t given the kiss of death to the very sensible proposal for a traffic congestion tax.

Law

Inchoate gives some brief observations on last week’s Telstra v Commonwealth decision by the High Court.

Although his own blog displays ads prominently, Eugene Volokh advises against selling ads on your blog (at least in certain circumstances). 

Eugene also observes that you know you’re in trouble when the appellate court handling your constitutional appeal begins its opinion by putting “civil rights” in quotes.  The law professor trying to sue former screw-and-tell blogging intern Jessica Cutler has just discovered this to his cost.

Issues analysis

Sukrit Sabhlok on how ACOSS exaggerates levels of poverty. ((He just means that like everyone else they use relative rather than absolute poverty, which isn’t really news to anyone who follows these things, although he is of courser correct that it means poverty per se can never be eliminated, which effectively makes it a meaningless concept ~ KP))

Mark “Oz Conservative” Richardson looks at false accusations of date rape, and also argues that Gillard is wrong about the pay gap.  ((With a romantic twist: it’s good for the birth rate. ~saint)) ((That’s romance?!? I’ll try that with the lady-wife; flowers, chocolate, Season 5 of Lost from the future and an insulting pay rate. ~gilmae))

Jack Lacton briefly notes that green is the new red.

Ashleigh responds to Duncan over banks pricing their product at a rate that will garner them a profit. ((Oh and to enable them to laugh manically while watching their brutish overseers whip the customers into having a fifth bedroom added to the plans.~gilmae))

tigtog takes the reports of ‘white flight’ from public schools seriously, but is saddened by the misguided perceptions that in her view motivate the tendency.

Ken Lovell wonders why disciples of Hayek see the state as the only threat to freedom:

Speaking personally, I am just as concerned about the technological possibilities of mind control in the hands of private corporations as I am about anything the state is likely to do.

Meanwhile, Jason Soon does some Rafe-baiting by suggesting that Karl Popper would have supported anti-vilification laws.

Caste-iron Helen has a muscular essay investigating the meme that feminists scorn the fashion industry.

Arts

Paul Martin blogs the Melbourne French Film Festival (and again). 

Whoda thunk there were so many crime fiction authors in Australia?  The ozlit bloggers have even done one with Peter Corris now (although he got a mite tetchy with a couple of the questions).

Snark, strangeness and charm

Ben Peek presents the life story of a nerd in diagramatic form.

Tim Blair has never found an anti-global warming story he couldn’t instantly embrace.

David Tiley reveals that there’s a lot more to the study of superheroes than you may have thought …

Coturnix covers the latest scandal from the American nerdosphere – the student who was charged with academic misconduct for organising a Facebook study group.

Star Wars meets the Avengers.  Speaking of nerdgasms.  And again. ((saint wonders who would want to visit Azerbaijan; every single Star Wars fan ever, *now*.~gilmae))

Images – Terry Sedgwick; De Mí… from z-nub ; David Tiley