A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Stephen Hill and Saint.
Politics
Australian
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Andrew Leigh summarises some of his favourite results from an ANU-run Governance poll. dr. faustus, on the other hand, looks askance at some research on testosterone and risk-taking.
Pommygranate concedes Kevin Rudd’s political astuteness but wonders whether he’ll be a man of words not deeds like Tony Blair.
Kevin Rennie reports that Broome and remote Kimberley Communities are to get faster broadband.
The Liberal Party – still flogging a lame duck.
Dave “The Dominator” Bath wants you to submit, once again – this time to a NSW Privacy Commission consultation.
Ken Lovell gives the Bush Administration an F- for geographical knowledge.
Paul Norton nails the contradictory message of the minimalist republicans:
It should hardly be necessary to remind people that in order to win a Constitutional referendum, it is necessary to convince, not only a majority of voters, but a majority of voters in a majority of states, to vote for the change being proposed…
This, of course, presents a peculiar difficulty for advocates of non-elective models of an Australian republic. They must attempt to persuade ordinary voters, in the context of a process in which ordinary voters are trusted to make an important decision, that it is not desirable for ordinary voters to be enabled to decide who the Head of State should be.
Jeremy would like those Chinese students to wake up to themselves.
slim believes that it would be win-win if Australia copies a Pacific Island guest worker program from New Zealand. ((Well, win-win except for multitudes of UK backpackers.~gilmae))
Image via Simon Jackman.
International
At Jonestown distributorcap looks ahead to 2010, when the Bush Tax cuts expire – leaving the next President to deal with the mess. Publius argues that John McCain’s current campaign rhetoric and policies are far more elitist and intellectually insulting than Obama’s efforts. ((But why is “elitism” a dirty word? Discuss. ~ KP))
The Village Voice election-season guide to the 1 right-wing blogosphere, by Roy Edroso.
Norman Geras covers the increasingly depressingly familar thuggery and intimidation in Zimbabwe as the post-election situation remains unresolved. ((I wonder why no-one is asking the obvious question – is this a situation where a short-term targetted international intervention to impose a free and fair election process should be considered? ~ KP))
Henry Farrell covers the Pope’s visit to Washington (coming soon to Oz too, folks):
Nor was the 1979 experience complicated by evangelical Christians with bullhorns vigorously denouncing false religion and telling the cheering nuns and folks in Pope Benedict t-shirts that they were all going to go to hell unless they were born again in Christ. …
Economics
John Quiggin discusses recent increases in food prices.
Will Wilkinson focuses again on oz expat Justin Wolfers’ research (with Betsey Stevenson) which seems to confoud previous “happiness research” findings of a disconnect between money and happiness, while Joshua Gans points to much earlier and more succinct research on the question by Tim and Debbie.
Joshua Gans dissects the economic effects of making petrol pricing more transparent and accessible, and convicts Brendan Nelson of either stupidity or shilling for the oil companies (or both), but Graham Young thinks it’s all poppycock.
Andrew Norton wonders whether Australia really does need lots more university graduates.
Law
Legal Eagle on the necessity of judicial activism when confronted with novel cases.
Andrew Bartlett posts from Darwin on Senate committee hearings into Bob Brown’s euthanasia bill (which if passed would restore the NT’s constitutional ability to re-enact a euthanasia law).
Mark Davison dissects the most recent court judgment in the long-running Chocolate War between Cadbury and Darrell Lea (much more interesting than the Culture Wars).
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Issues analysis
Lynn Calcutt makes a passing reference to Monday’s Four Corners, before moving on to discuss what happens when developers don’t get their foot in the door. No mention of the ALP’s rampant culture of child sexual abuse, naturally.
David Jeffery would like to see some clear thinking on plastic bags((Seems simple enough to me – you buy a couple of those coloured shopping bags and remember to take them to the supermarket with you. I mean, how difficult is that? ~GT)).
Skills shortage or crap management?
Robert Merkel does his defence spending thing again.
Arts
Tim Cashmere posts on rumours that eccentric hatsters Devo will be one of the headline acts at this years Splendour in the Grass.
Marcellous considers the travails of Kim Walker, Dean of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Darryl Mason is impressed with the recent achievements of British graffiti artist Banksy.
The Editor thinks that a certain James Bond is badly underappreciated.
Tony O’Brien reviews Maryann Wolf’s Proust and the Squid, a study of the evolutionary impact of reading, exploring everything from the development of alphabets to the neurological studies of the nature of cognition.
The Orange Prize announces its shortlist of novels for 2008.
The Dodos: “the most vital, exciting music I have heard this year.” At Oceans Never Listen.
Sport
Guido’s hanging out for a Melbourne Victory/Juventus match.
Shaun Cronin argues that Parra’s Tim Smith is a courageous example for all blokedom.
Snark, strangeness and charm
I knew there was a reason why Peter Russell Clark was one of my (KP) favourite celebrity chefs – he’s got a sense of humour (if expletive-laden), unlike that bullying turd Gordon Ramsey.
Be careful what you get up to out there – you never know who might have a camera phone handy((Jeez my lot have been bloody prolific today ~GT)).
Dave Bath gives short shrift to homeopathy.
- US[↩]
What with that militia support Mugabe has, perhaps people are a little worried of having Iraq thrown in their faces if they bring it up.
The Left can’t mention it because it would be tremendously hypocritical to have spent five+ years using any and all excuses to oppose an intervention in Iraq. The Right don’t care to mention it because it would take eyeballs away from their concerted efforts to blame the last 28 years of Zimbabwe history on that Machiavelli of the Western Districts, Malcolm Fraser.
But seriously, I don’t think you could pull it off. I think once again you’d have to go in planning to be there a long time because otherwise there’s far too high a chance for militia on militia civil war and murder as soon as you leave.
Where’d you find the Peter Russell Clarke video?
Ken:
I didn’t mention a “NSW” privacy commission inquiry (the “privacy.gov.au” in the email address rather than “privacy.nsw.gov.au” was a bit of a giveaway). It was a federal gov media release that alerted me. And in what sense “dominator?” – that post in particular was less from a dominus and more from a hemi-demi-semi-urge.
Poor Ken – you really are getting the blame for everything written in ML!! Luckily comments at least are specifically attributed :)
Dave,
It was me – bad pun on submit, written late at night when I was a bit tired, shagged out and woolly-headed.
I got the impression that the it was the privacy commission for NSW from the address – had it been a Canberra address, I might not have made that mistake.
Well yes, but failing to give due credit to Tony the Teacher for finding the Peter Russell Clark video was certainly my fault. Sorry Tony, ya f***in’ p***k.
And in aid of due credit, I’ll pass on your thanks to my f***in students.
That Peter Russell Clark thing was hilarious. It’s also worth listening to his response on JJJ. Very funny bugger.
Far more amusing US electorate news, is that McCain’s wife has lifted recipes from the internet as an addition to Repub campaign. Would have been nice to see Therese’s recipe for Beijing Duck up against Jeanette’s Stone Soup at the last election here.
http://foodpluspolitics.com/2008/04/15/open-letter-to-cindy-mccain/
The Worst of Perth
Gummo: If you are into bad puns, there’ll be a few in this suite of groan inducers (and sometimes a tired, shagged out and woolly headed brain helps get the perspective required to solve the puzzle). And, oh dear, the punner in me is going “the subject of the submission” in sense of grammar (v object), metadata (the topic), and as one subject to the laws of the realm.
Why is elitism a dirty word?
Here’s one theory.
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