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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
Liberal politician Sophie Mirabella and demon spawn imagined (and explained) by Apathetic Sarah … |
Joshua Gans links to the final copy of the 2020 Conference report.
Liberal outcast Graham Young reports the landslide win by Mal Brough to gain the presidency of the Queensland Branch, and also mentions Barry O’Farrell managing to act like a leader in NSW. Andrew Elder also sees a ray of sunshine in O’Barrell’s moves.
Peter Martin believes that when the government’s trading scheme is green papered, the pressure from the current petrol price debate will create a temptation to exempt petrol from the emissions trading system, creating higher prices for everything else effected by the scheme.
Also, be wary when shopping; sometimes stores pull a fast one on shopper’s expectations and charge more per unit on the three litre bottle compared to the two litre.
dr faustus suggests Mr Rudd has a rather selective concern for “working families”, which might have nasty long term consequences.
Andrew Elder argues that Alan Ramsey’s hailing of Brendan Nelson’s political smarts rather suggests the former’s lack of same.
Hide the kiddies’ faces as well as their naughty bits, tigtog successfully demands.
International
Ken Lovell is lukewarm about a belated US agreement to accept some Iraqi refugees.
Charles Bird argues that Obama should execute a graceful u-turn on Iraq but doubts that the “Hard Left” will let him.
Ilana Mercer and Turcopolier both ponder the latest priestly antics at Obama’s (now former) church.
Publius wonders whether the Clinton campaign in the wake of the Michigan/Florida delegate ruling is a “warship loose on the sea with no-one driving”.
Now here’s one for connoisseurs of international esoterica – Douglas Muir on the conflict between Russia and Moldova over Transnistria.
Guy La Roche reviews The politics of Chaos in the Middle East by Olivier Roy.
Law
Robert Merkel outlines Victorian Law Reform Commission proposals for abortion law reform.
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Issues analysis
Harry Clarke is worried about sulphide sediments, or acidic mud. He does some background research before visiting colleagues and invites readers to provide more links.
In other environmental news – sort of – melaleuca reports on the damaging actions of a member Real Climate blog, editing a wikipedia entry to misrepresent a climate change skeptic as a loony.
Mark Richardson believes that nationhood not founded in ethnicity – civic nationhood – can’t survive. That it dooms itself by it’s own logic.
Andrew Norton queries why public opinion on migration is changing. Also, with a fleeting smile perhaps, notes that Kate McCulloch of Camden is spruiking the virtues of public education.
Chris Berg documents a meeting protesting the 2AM lockdown laws for bars in Victoria.
Jono insists that the American Health care system can’t be used as a poster child for the evils of free market health care.
Legal Eagle probes hysteria over childhood obesity.
Arts
Porn among the gum trees – Sir Hans Henson-Lindsay channeled by Terry Sedgwick. |
Alison Croggon uses a Blake poem to elegantly dispatch the egregious (and fleeting Troppo contributor) Kevin Donnelly to the boundary over the Henson affair, and calls on an ex-copper for help.
Laura wants a cyber-chinwag about Jane Austen.
Ben Harper compares and contrasts the sound recreation approaches of Stockhausen and David Tudor.
TimT enjoys the new Indiana Jones movie.
Mountain*7 reckons D.H. Lawrence’s Sea and Sardinia is fundamentally “a hymn to kinesis and the act of travel” with Lawrence “a great, if slightly unsettling travelling companion”.
Alison Croggon and Michael Magnusson review Peter Dixon’s play about “Tricky Dicky” Nixon’s difficult interaction with the nascent medium of television broadcasting Nixon/Frost, currently showing at the Melbourne Arts Centre.
January Magazine provides an interview with award-winning Australian novelist and academic Gail Jones
Boyd van Hoeij considers the Flemish working-class comedy Aanridjing in Moscou, which was shown as part of the Critics’ Week selection at the Cannes Film Festival
Shooting Down Pictures considers Alejandro Jodorowski’s 1971 film El Topo offering a video-essay that documents the diverse audience reactions, as this blog-poster struggles in his own assessment of this extravagantly exaggerated Western.
Still my opinion is one somewhat founded upon reaction to others. On many levels its a film thats easy to ridicule, perhaps too easy: its flagrant borrowing of Biblical and mythical tropes, its misogyny, its P.T. Barnumesque exhibitionism of human freaks and gross-out effects all feels obvious. But something about this blatantness is what is behind the brilliance of the film, that it does function on multiple levels – the obvious and the sublime. Theres a certain frequency the film attains at points that feels singularly uncanny and just right if you happened to be tuned in. Its chiefly in the insistence of the montage, how it keeps bombarding you with images, cuts, flashes, each scene proclaiming let there be with sanctimonious bombast. Its pretentious, yes, and it may amount to nothing in terms of meaning, but as a flow of imagery, its sensuality is insistent until it becomes indelible.
With rumours of a band reunion Live Music Blog offers some concert footage of eclectic Vermont rockers Phish performing Spock’s Brain.
Marcellous reviews a weekend SSO concert.
Sport
Mark at stoushnet wonders about Her Maj’s qualifications to tell Kate Middleton to go get a job … |
The Serve argues that a bum TV rights deal is the main reason for NRL financial woes, and competitive packaging is the solution.
Shaun Cronin looks at arguments on whether the NRL salary cap should go up or down, and ponders the future of the Rabbitohs.
Tony Tannous rates Australia’s World Cup qualifier win over Iraq.
Matt at Green and Gold Rugby reviews the Tahs sad loss to the Crusaders in the Super 14 final (if only they had a decent kicker) and reveals a popularly voted Wallabies lineup which doesn’t look too bad considering the old saying about a camel being a horse designed by committee.
Snark, strangeness and charm
Mel ponders the pedagogies of supermarket catalogue, including relative newcomer Aldi, whose catalogues are apparently as cheap and nasty as some of the stuff they sell.(KP – Wasn’t there some politician, not to mention Peter Martin, who reckoned people were idiots if they didn’t shop there? We don’t have Aldi in Darwin so I wouldn’t know. But my sister’s son was an Aldi manager before recently heading o/s before joining the NSW coppers. Just thought I’d tell you that as my little contribution to conveying the “rich, dense micro-detail of people’s daily lives“.)
barista found similarities in a Bergman film and A Crooked Timber post.
Jeremy Sear examines the monstering of an activist legal aid lawyer by a Herald Sun journalist and (predictably obnoxious as usual) Andrew Landeryou.
 TroppoSphere, in case Missing Link email subscribers haven’t noticed, is now available as a convenient gateway to a world of news and expert opinion and analysis for those with feed reader phobia. It contains feeds to most of the blogs and other sources whose best/selected content we most regularly feature in Missing Link, as well as general news feeds and those from selected online magazines like openDemocracy, Reason, Slate, Spiked, New Matilda, Australian Opinion Online and Online Opinion. |
It is difficult to say which was a greater example of Luvvie naivety: Little Lord Fauntleroy’s crocodile tears over “working families” or the plagiarised ignorance of his “Brutopia” or their belief he was anything other than a bible-bashing priggish philistine. And let’s not even start on his Ayn Rand meets Slum Lord missus!
John:
What are you tripping on today. Is it Crack or heroine?
Yeah, I wasn’t the only one to enjoy it. Maria did too. Also Steve, though he posted about it a week ago.
I hope this wasn’t news to anyone. Happily my wife is good enough at maths and conscientious to see this off the labels, but this is certainly very often the case.
Some thoughts on why this might be, here. I suspect it is more to a psychological trick – people assuming that bigger is cheaper (per unit) and not checking.
Poor Greenfield. He can’t possibly aim one of the products of his ‘wit’ at the ‘luvvie’ supporters ofd Rudd without at the same time being be on the side of ‘luvvie’ Bill Henson and his supporters.
Once a Marxist, always a Marxists. We righties don’t need your kind around our neighbourhood, JG.
JG:
Heh.
I love JG – bringing right and left together in universal derision. He’s just what this country needs, with his ‘luvvies’ and his, well that’s it really, but you get the picture.
I do love that people as diverse as JC, Jason Soon, Tim T, James Farrell, Ken Parish, etc. etc. can all find something to agree on.
I don’t know. I actually thought comment #1 was JG at his hyperbolic hyperventilating best. “Little Lord Fauntleroys crocodile tears over working families” is quite a memorable line, as is “bible-bashing priggish philistine”. In fact I reckon both sentiments about Kevy are fair comment. OTO I’m completely mystified by “plagiarised ignorance of his Brutopia”, and “Ayn Rand meets Slum Lord missus” is just typical kneejerk JG dickhead. Still, there’s enough paydirt in there to make it entertaining, and he’s a much more amiable loon than Graeme Bird (which is why I happily tolerate him).
“hes a much more amiable loon”
Yeah, pretty harmless. And totally charmless.
I used to feel cheerful contempt for him. Now it’s morphed into glancing pity.
The poor little bugger sailed out into the blogosphere, desperate to make a splash by recycling his peak life experiences as a mature age student being ripped off for bad drugs in Oxford St one summer, deploying his few carefully hoarded and very threadbare bon mots and parroting his scrawled lecture notes – only to find out he still comes across as a four year old loudly saying “poo” a lot to get the attention of grown ups.
Truly a troll’s troll. No bite, all spite.
Bird is way funnier. I actually miss the loon.
Still, debate has improved without him and we shall press on.