A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill
Politics
Australian
Anzac Day march |
Ken Parish indulges in some refuting of Albrechtsen and if nothing else undermines some of the more mendacious of the standard anti-charter-of-rights arguments.
Time for a quick Olympic Torch Relay round up – from Jeremy to Jim Belshaw to gandhi to Dave Bath to John Quiggin and back to Jeremy again. The result – a nil-all propaganda draw between The West (Us) and China (Them).
clarencegirl expects Malcolm Turnbull to lapse into an embarrassed silence on inflation.((It’s more likely he’ll start the “Wayne Swan is a Boring Smart-Arse” Facebook group instead. ~GT))
John Quiggin finds Keating haters more odious than Howard haters, while Ncholas Gruen seeks a centrist explanation.
International
CL spins the spin from the Democratic presidential primaries in Pennsylvania.
Jacob Hornberger speculates on the possibility of CIA albinos visiting Ecuador.
With Hillary doing her best to sound barking mad on foreign policy, is it time to worry about nukes again? Would you have one in your back yard, if it would help save the planet?
Law
Legal Eagle probes the anger of dodgy mediums (but is “fraudulent medium” tautological?).
Rick Hills’ post on adolescent sexuality and the law says rather a lot about the negative effects of American religiosity.
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Issues analysis
I’m still not entirely sure what the “deficit model of poverty” is after reading Harry Brighouse’s post, but apparently it’s seen as an insult.
Eliezer Yudkowsky follows up her post on Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle.
Eric Rauchway ponders the sinister implications of the “Cryptopticon“, while Guy Herbert examines a rather more official form of oppression: ((incidentally, seemingly not inhibited by the UK’s charter of rights ~ KP))
The Terrorism (UN Measures) Order 2006 and the 2006 al-Qaeda and Taleban (UN Measures) Order were made under section 1 of the 1946 UN Act in order to implement resolutions of the UN Security Council. These orders are not parliamentary instruments but “orders in council” – the council in question being the Queen’s Privy Council, so that the rules under which (according to solicitors for the victims)…
We have the madness of civil servants checking Tesco receipts, a child having to ask for a receipt every time it does a chore by running to the shops for a pint of milk and a neighbour possibly committing a criminal offence by lending a lawnmower.
Norman Geras follows up his initial post on sport, games and philosophy here, here and here.
Rowen catches News Limited indulging in double standards. Lyn Calcutt catches out The Australian (a News Limited newspaper) in a sin of omission. Tigtog catches out Newsweek (which sounds a hell of a lot like News Limited) indulging in a beat-up. Tim Lambert catches out The Australian getting its science wrong.
Arts
At Shooting Down Pictures we have some commentary on two major African films, recently deceased Burkino Faso director Ousmane Sembele’s Moolaade that explores female genital circumcision in its depiction of African tribal life, and Abdherrahmane Sissakos Bamako that through the parameters of a fantasy trial explores the poverty arising from African third-world indebtedness in this critique of Western indifference.
Dean The Happy Antipodean re-examines Miles Franklin’s Old Blastus of Bandicoot providing an interesting commentary on how this novel in its Dickensian overtones is able to position the reader to consider the difficult encounters that would arise from a young nation grappling with ideas of togetherness and community, offering a fascinating portrait of the continent’s slow move from colonialism to representive democracy.
European Film lists all the successful competition entries at the Cannes Film Festival. Included are new films from Wim Wenders, Atom Egoyan, Charlie Kaufman, Clint Eastwood, Steven Soderbergh (no not another Che Guevara vanity opus) and Paolo Sorrentino.
With all things Ballardian, Simon Sellars encounters a Times Survey that places J G Ballard as the 28th most erotic London writer (behind such unerotic writers as Daniel Defoe and Alan Hollinghurst), also Sellar informs us that Ballard’s autobiography Miracles of Life has been included in the long-list for the Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction.
Sport
Shaun posts his Anzac weekend NRL round tips.
Snark, strangeness and charm
Rotwang (? is that David Tiley?) has found some photos of Aboriginal WAAF service women.
Alexander Downer would like to see some political climate change.
Jeremy is aghast to find himself agreeing with Andy.
Lauredhel thinks the RSPCA has crossed the line with one of its new ads((And so it has. ~GT)).
Finally this week’s biggest blogosphere moment: Larvatus Prodeo commenter gotchaed by Tim Blair!
That ad is ridiculous – what is in the water in that State?
Bugger Me! If that’s the “weeks biggest blogosphere moment” then we’re in big, big trouble. Who’s responsible for button-holing that piece of tripe? Oh, hang on…..let me guess……
Niall, I think your sarcasm meter needs adjusting.
No sarcasm intended, Tim. Just fact.
Yes Niall, you weren’t being sarcastic, but the ML collective was.
Tim…..you’ve missed the bus, old son.
Niall as the buttonholer of that piece of tripe (was your guess correct?) I’d say Tim is sitting quite comfortably in the much coveted upstairs front seat right above the driver – unless your #4 is intended to be sarcastic.
Teenager 1: “Dude, were you being sarcastic?”
Teenager 2: “I can’t even tell anymore.”
This is brilliant. A lefty (Burns at LP) makes a small but comical error, which leads to:
* Lefty Gummo posting about my noting it;
* Lefty Niall missing lefty Gummo’s obvious sarcasm;
* Lefty Lambert’s attempt to correct lefty Niall;
* Lefty Niall misunderstanding lefty Lambert’s correction, and offering a bizarre “fact” assertion;
* Lefty Lambert’s second attempt at correcting lefty Niall;
* Lefty Niall insulting lefty Lambert, and;
* Lefty Gummo possibly misunderstanding lefty Niall’s target re “tripe”.
And you people wonder why the rest of us find you so entertaining. Do continue.
Fair cop Tim – there’s not much entertainment to be had from reading people who never disagree with each other is there? I’m glad we’ve been able to to provide you with a little break from the unremitting tedium of reading your own comments threads.
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readingritin your own comments threads…”Shorely shome mishtake, Gummo. Speaking of, TB’s site ain’t the only place short on lacerating satirical critique just now. Anyone else seen the gratuitous job on ‘sceptic’lawyer in the last Eye? Contrived, tawdry, petty, pointless…no fan myself, but some spiteful nob in Oz has obviously got too much time on their hands. I hope she – you, if you’re reading, HD – send them a simple ‘Dear Eye, Get fucked’.
Mind you, I’d be cutting that one out to keep, too. Kudos, dude.
Eye?
Sorry, gilmae,Private Eye, London-based satirical politics/media/chattering class bi-weekly of Peter Cookian provenance. Bit like Crikey, only funny and original and with better withering nicknames for the Public Pomposerati it lampoons. The bit I mean’s not online, but from memory (don’t have my sub copy with me just now) it’s in the literature section and is of a vague ‘look out, UK publishers, Oz hoaxer in town’ nature.
It’s pointless and miserable and contrived as ‘news’ on nothing more than HD’s presence at Oxford ie out of the blue and gratuitous. Slow news day. Or someone with a bitchier motive. I’m quite sure ‘Skeptic’ neither needs nor particularly welcomes my empathetic disdain for it. But like the treatment of THTSTP PE’s dig seemed incongruous and contrived and grubby. Is all.
Sorry about the botched html.
Ta JC, much ‘preciated.
Didn’t even know it was there, Jack – and our College MCR subscribes, too. Was it the one with Mugabe on the cover? That’s the last copy I’ve seen, anyway. It’ll be someone in Oz, no doubt – no-one over here cares. In fact, the only thing that animates the Poms about Australians is the continuing success of our cricketers. They may also get interested if we have another go round at knocking Queenie off her perch.