Missing Link Daily

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

Bernice Balconey, Kim and clarencegirl review Morris and Michael’s most recent public performances on electricity privatisation. Kim and Darryl Mason give a big WTF to proposals for dry areas to be established in New South Wales.

blondecanadian and The Editor are pleased to find themselves numbered among the country’s best paid teachers. Harry Clarke has a dissenting view.

Anna Winter casts a scornful look over the WA Liberals.

Andrew Bartlett continues his campaigning on stolen wages.

Jeremy is sick of Labor’s antics on same-sex unions.

For those interested in the federal Gippsland by-election (McGauran’s old seat, I think), William “Pollbludger” Bowe has a running updating post keeping abreast of developments between now and polling day (in June!). 


International

Today’s image is an international news video feed, included because of the dreadful news about the Burma cyclone (see here and here and Neil Aquino for lots of links to Burmese bloggers and othe information sources). And from Global Voices Online, Burmese and other Asian bloggers respond to Cyclone Nargis.

For those looking for signs of whether and how much damage the renewed focus on Rev Wright and others has done to Obama, exit polling from the Indiana primary would have his campaign team plenty worried. Clinton might not be a dead woman walking after all.  OTO you’d expect Obama to do better in North Carolina because of the larger black population.  They’ll probably still split one apiece as most pundits have predicted, though the Indiana exit polls for Clinton look stronger than many had expected.

Darryl Mason finds the Carribean’s worst holiday resort((You won’t find it in any of the Lonely Planet guides ~GT)).

Gary Sauer-Thompson looks at the Democratic Primary chariot race.

Derek Barry questions Australia’s continuing presence in Afghanistan.


Law

In a timely intervention given Ken Parish’s post today about Justice Scalia and constitutional “originalism”, Brian Tamanaha has an extract on that very topic from judge and legal academic (and blogger) Richard Posner’s new book How Judges Think.  Here’s an extract from the extract:

The originalists pretense that 1 makes originalism an example of bad faith in Sartres sensebad faith as a denial of freedom to choose, and so the shirking of personal responsibility…2.

Sartrean bad faith need not be conscious.He considers his decisions legitimate, concludes they must therefore be legalist, and constructs a legalist rationale that convinces him that his decision was not the product of his personal ideology.

Peter Timmins highlights the NSW Attorney-General’s seemingly widespread flouting of mandatory reporting requirements to Parliament on legislative reviews. 

Meanwhile, ZDNet has a disturbing article about how seriously (not) both the corporate sector and the federal Privacy Commissioner take breaches of security of personal information in the public and private sector.


public transport

dolly

twins

yours like this?

Issues analysis

Andrew Leigh considers alternative uses for the money presently allocated to the Baby Bonus policy – increase teacher pay.

tigtog points out the elephant in the room in discussions of declining parenting skills((I hope someone’s keeping an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t tread on one of the kiddies ~GT)).

Darryl Mason finds that we’re less scared of terrorism these days.

Kathy G examines the Iraq war and the influence of two books, Edward Said’s Orientalism and Raphael Patai’s The Arab Mind.  Recommended reading.


Arts

Alison Croggon reviews Neal Harvey’s adaptation of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s novel of destructive desire, Venus in Furs.

Matilda provides the shortlist for the Nielsen BookData Booksellers Award, which includes Christopher Koch, Janette Turner Hospital and Li Cunxin.

 Margarita Shalina reviews a new packaged collection of the work of experimental Russian writer Vladimir Mayakovsky, Night Wraps the Sky: Writings By And About Mayakovsky (edited by Michael Almereyda)

 Bud Parr at Chekhov’s Mistress asks what makes a good book review?

Scarlet Blue has a thing for Medieval Hotties.

Gary Sauer-Thompson explores German photography.


Snark, strangeness and charm

Tim Lambert discovers his psychic powers.

John Quiggin is looking for a little help with video-conferencing.

Stuck for any worthwhile RWDB  snark, Gummo Trotsky resorts to linking one of his own rants((It’s about a slack Fairfax journalist – that’s what makes it an acceptable RWDB snark surrogate ~GT))

 

  1. one can derive authoritative interpretations applicable to present disputes in this manner[]
  2. Justice Breyer also gets some criticism here[]
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Patrick
Patrick
16 years ago

And in yet more on torture:
Attorney-General Robert McClelland and Foreign Minister Stephen Smith today announced that the Rudd Government has begun the necessary consultations on Australia becoming a party to the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture.

Scarlet W. Blue
16 years ago

Thanks for the nod!