Club Troppo

A while back, I came upon Beth Noveck who is doing some interesting things in trying to bring the techniques and possibilities of Web 2.0 to government. For instance in addition to theorising at American law journal article length about ways of moving governments into the Web...

Continue reading →

This week the Twentieth Century's seventh greatest mass murderer died a dignified death in his bed, amidst tributes from Western leaders. According to The Washington Post , President Bush sent his regrets over Suharto's death. "President Bush expresses his condolences to the p...

Continue reading →

Who's been watching Bob the Builder ? I've got to say I'm loving this. The speeches just get better. This guy can run up or get run up a hell of a speech and read an autocue like there's no tomorrow Aflac <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/abbie2637/web/free-polyphonic-ri...

Continue reading →

Juno is a great movie -- but there's something a little odd about the music. So you haven't seen the film? It's about a 16 year old girl called Juno who gets herself pregnant. And yes ... I can hear you. You're saying, "Gets HERSELF pregnant! Isn't there some male person who's...

Continue reading →

In the latest edition of Dissent , Jesse Larner has a leftist take on libertarian icon Friedrich Hayek . He " talks about what Hayek gets right, what he gets wrong, and where he is just a crackpot ". Larner joins a growing list of leftist writers and thinkers who share Hayek's...

Continue reading →

Sometimes I'm overcome with a feeling that Club Troppo's tone is rather too uniformly earnest and worthy. Dr Troppo's posts sometimes help to dispel the ennui, but I can't help thinking more is needed. There's so much more to life than politics, law and economics. Love and rel...

Continue reading →

The Democrats seem to be going to their usual lengths to lose the next election, bogging their own primary down in squabbles between Hillary and Obama which has both of them at their worst for reasons explained by Clive Crook . From my distance I wouldn't know, but I think Kar...

Continue reading →

A while back I posted a brief endorsement of a Guy Rundle piece, which brought forth a reference to another essay by Rundle . I disagree - sometimes to the point of strong irritation with some of the things he says, especially in the last half of the piece, but I recommend it...

Continue reading →

Unemployment fell as low as 4.3% of the work force in December 2007 the lowest rate for 30 years. While there is still much hidden unemployment (under-employed and discouraged workers), this too has been falling. Should we rejoice or have we been living in a fools paradise? Is...

Continue reading →

Paddy McGuinness died this morning . He was 69. As a columnist and editor McGuinness thrived on controversy. As Matthew Ricketson wrote , he was "loved and loathed in roughly equal measure, and that is the point -- and the trick -- with such columnists." At Catallaxy, Jason So...

Continue reading →

I was staying in an FAQ hotel in Adelaide last week and was asked to pay for WiFi access. Fortunately I'd brought my own wireless broadband connection (which is much more expensive using as it does the mobile telephony infrastructure rather than wires and WiFi) so I didn't hav...

Continue reading →

What a wonderful guy. Might we all have such quiet modesty, magnanimity and achievement written on our face when we're getting on a little. Heartfelt congratulations to David Bussau on his long overdue recognition - he has just been made Senior Australian of the Year. He is a...

Continue reading →

If you've ever been quoted out of context by journalist you'll know what it's like to be a fictional character. As a therapist to troubled inhabitants of fictional works, I see what happens when authors abuse characters who are often finer human beings than themselves . The in...

Continue reading →

I am always happy to assist readers in distress. Recently I received this letter. Dear Dr Troppo, Despite a protective screen of refractor rays, my gulch has been invaded by a small army of talking tin cans with sink plungers for hands. The leader of these metallic looters say...

Continue reading →

Keiren Healy at Crooked Timber talks about the ways in which disciplinary orientations can bugger up sensible problem solving opportunities in a policy area in which he has specialised - organ donation. The claim that presumed consent systems perform better than informed conse...

Continue reading →

PPE, the combined undergraduate course of philosophy, politics and economics became popular in Oxford in the early part of the twentieth century. It acquired the name "Modern Greats" by analogy with "Greats" or classics which was ancient history, philosophy and languages which...

Continue reading →

One of Australian blogging's pioneers Tim Blair has announced that he has bowel cancer and is to have major surgery tomorrow. Tim has always been a combative and even divisive blogosphere figure, but it isn't so widely known that he has often provided considerable behind the s...

Continue reading →

The most amazing chess player there ever was has just died. The idea of some link between madness and genius is probably a bit hackneyed, and in chess, I can't think of any other geniuses who were that crazy mad, but we sure got a doozy in Bobby. It's surprising more chess cha...

Continue reading →

There have been three important developments since my last posting a statement by Federal Reserve chairman Bernanke; a policy preview by President Bush; and a comment by RBA Governor, Glenn Stevens. In this posting I also explore policy options for Australia if the worst case...

Continue reading →

It is now widely expected that the world economy will slow down in 2008 and could start to affect Australias own economic vitality in 2008/9. A mild economic slow down in Australia would not be a bad thing. It would help relieve the skills shortages, dampen wage-price pressure...

Continue reading →