Club Troppo

Clive Crook defends Obama's oratory from accusations that it's vapid and empty. "Of course it is" he insists. And when you think about it, he has a point. The great speeches, however uniquely crafted are usually simple exhortations. "We shall fight them on the beaches and all...

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Meanwhile, an avalanche on Mars, the first extra-terrestrial avalanche observed by humangoes. And just to remind you of your place in the world, here's a bit of a galaxy - which appropriately enough is part of one of your standard galaxy clusters. It's 50,000 light years acros...

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I've been playing around today with a Google Map Generator utility, to show CDU law students how to find the venues for various interstate intensive seminars we're running for our external undergraduate program over the next few weeks. It's pretty nifty, and depicts a location...

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Thanks to Ken Parish for sending me a link to this (pdf) article on Gordon Tullock's critique of common law. As I read the article I was respectively irritated, pleased and then irritated again. But it's a good and interesting article. My irritation comes from the Procrustean...

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I went to the Archibald when in Sydney yesterday. I didn't think much of the winner - though I don't think I really 'got' it. But I was amazed at how many good portraits there were - I'd say at least ten really good ones. I looked around and thought - "well maybe that's what a...

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Good on the monthly for putting up videos of various things related to its flagship publication - the monthly mag. But one request. I virtually never look at videos on the computer. I've got too much else to do. So when I go to Ted if I want to listen to something, I'm gratefu...

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Yikes? The last house that Adam Smith lived in - at Canongate - is up for sale. And the local council may let it go to developers. Oh cruel irony of ironies, the ultimate Adam Smith problem - a council that doesn't know the difference between the Theory of Moral Sentiments and...

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Well books actually! But the heading above was the caption of an early Leunig cartoon - with the graphic being . . . yes, a tong sale. And remember, print the linked coupon out as many times as you like for separate book purchases.

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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 Gummo Trotsky's Word of the Day (Expression of the Day?) is ex gratia , as in the ex gratia payments to carers that t...

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Has anybody else who has read Mark Bahnisch's Online Opinion article today about Kevin Rudd's IR reforms been instantly reminded of the Monty Python sketch about how to rid the world of all known diseases ?

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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 Ken Lovell highlights the hijinks of a WA building industry employer : Given this long history of bastardry by builde...

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So the cash rate has gone up to 7.25%, and the banks will probably raise their lending rates by more than 0.25%. We all understand the official reasons why the RBA has done this. The inflation rate is too high and shows no immediate signs of falling. It's too high because tota...

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There was an extraordinary article in the Australian yesterday ( here ) by Vaclav Klaus. In his article, which is a condensation of a speech for a conference of climate sceptics, Vaclav makes mince meat out of the climate alarmists and accuses them of having bad intentions. He...

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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 Mary, Frederik and family as Bald Archy winners Peter Martin is contemptuous of media and Coalition scare-mongering o...

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Hello boys and girls. See if you can work out where this picture was taken?

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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 Bru...

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On Line Opinion (OLO) asked for some ideas for the Rudd 2020 Summit. I submitted a piece which was published today in OLO . It argues that fear of inflation should not force Australia to accept a permanent army of half a million jobless persons. There are alternatives. If I ha...

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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 Jim Fryar takes a libertarian look at (repugnant) police raids in Melbourne on the homes of terminally ill people con...

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Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams on the result of the Wyoming caucuses - which split 61% to Obama and 38% Clinton. "We are thrilled with this near-split in delegates and are grateful to the people of Wyoming for their support." Wyoming's 12 delegates go 7 to Obama and...

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I was intrigued to find that when the Public Service Commission launched into the project of tackling red tape, they found they were beset by myths. Just like Lateral Economics said in its report on Regulation and Innovation for the Victorian Government: The finer points of mu...

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