Club Troppo

The poster If anyone's been wondering why I've been AWOL from Club Troppo recently (notably from last week's Missing Link posts), well, apart from the usual pre-semester university administrative panic, I've also been moonlighting as a web designer, publicist and general dogsb...

Continue reading →

Iâve not made a habit of reading Hansard so these comments are necessarily those of a newcomer when it comes to parliamentary performance. Perhaps those of you who are old hands can disabuse me of the impression Iâve gained from the last four sessions and in particular todayâs...

Continue reading →

meika's book - well its cover anyway I have just been emailed by some time Troppodillian lurker, commenter and collaborator in BBO6 meika loofs samorzewski (he's pretty sparing with - but not totally against - capital letters). He finished his book a few months ago. I'm flat o...

Continue reading →

In situations of scarce tax resources and unlimited wants of its population, governments throughout the world have to decide whose wants are more worthy than those of others. They would ideally want to choose a more or less consistent yardstick to base those tough decisions on...

Continue reading →

Setting out my response to Don Arthur's great post below sent me scurrying to a book I read a few years ago. I thought someone had thrown it out but fortunately no. The book is The Silent Woman and it's about Sylvia Plath and the biographical writings she inspired. The author,...

Continue reading →

In the world of the Matrix , Richard Layard would side with the machines. After all, the machines are only doing what any good government should do -- keeping people as happy as possible. During the war between humans and machines, the earth was plunged into darkness. Knowing...

Continue reading →

Ken discovered that work kept him from fulfilling his Missing Link duties for this week, which upset him greatly but couldn't be helped. So that Darlene Taylor - next week's Missing Link custodian - isn't completely overwhelmed come Monday, I've compiled a weekend version. It'...

Continue reading →

It's fairly standard for it to take 30 days to get an invoice paid. Often this means that internal systems are geared to a 30 day cycle and if something slips, the period can stretch out to nearly 60 days quite often. In this day and age when payments can be made with a few mo...

Continue reading →

It was compelling telly . All the actors were there. A testament to how high profile the continuing detention of David Hicks has become. Col. Moe Davis of the prosecution: Representing the rights of politicians to make up laws and arbitrarily detain people for political reason...

Continue reading →

Paul Frijtersâ inaugural post last week raised several interlocking issues around the theme of growth fetish. Iâd like to revisit one of them, namely the contribution of income to happiness. The timing is good, because one of our honours students is doing a dissertation on the...

Continue reading →

We never quite got to any 'official' best blog comments in our recent Best Blogs exercise. And it wouldn't qualify because it wasn't Australian. But (and apologies to regular readers who saw it when first posted) I've just come across this marvellous intervention by commenter...

Continue reading →

A recently released report by Tim Ambler of the London Business School and Francis Chittenden of the Manchester Business School for the British Chambers of Commerce shows how the UK experience of regulation review is pretty much as Australia's has been - farcical. It is a litt...

Continue reading →

This week saw three curious events in Australian foreign policy. First, the Prime Minister's attack on a US Presidential candidate, the release of allegations against David Hicks, and a letter from the US Department of Defense stating that the F22 Raptor will not be made for e...

Continue reading →

Taking off on a dangerous ride at Wedding Cake Island off Coogee ... You'd expect right wing shills like Tim Blair and JF Beck to be gleefully stirring up fear and loathing over Peter Garrett's refusal to distance himself from federal ALP support for a proposed new US military...

Continue reading →

Peter Martinâs take: 'Where's the power, where's the passion?' In my fitful hours of semi-sleep, the Google Reader has become the Google Rider, a monstrous amusement park feature that looks like a jolly good challenge, but reduces you to a disoriented and quivering jelly. With...

Continue reading →

US military authorities have now published the new Particulars of Charge against David Hicks on the Internet. Contrary to my previous post , they make a quite damning and convincing case that Hicks was an Al Qaeda fighter not a Taliban one (assuming the Particulars can be prov...

Continue reading →

To rule is to look ahead, it has been said. Let us therefore cast our eyes at the virtually universal wish of nations and their population to achieve economic growth. Jared Diamond argues in his latest book âCatastropheâ that this âgrowth fetishâ (as Clive Hamilton calls it) m...

Continue reading →

Prof Paul emailed me earlier today asking if he could post occasionally at Troppo and naturally I said we'd be delighted. Paul is a very knowledgeable social scientist born in Holland. You can check out his background, publications and interests - and what he looks like - at t...

Continue reading →

I have been observing with interest the latest news that ASIC has commenced action against the directors of James Hardie Industries for breaches of the Corporations Act between 2001 and 2003 . Now you may recall that in a blaze of publicity over asbestos related illnesses and...

Continue reading →

Courtesy of Joe Cambria who observes - quite rightly - that I seem to like this kind of thing .

Continue reading →