Club Troppo

I closed yesterday's post on national imprisonment rates by rhetorically asking why the mainstream media hasn't perceived as newsworthy the quite marked increase in imprisonment over the last decade and more. One reason may be that, despite significantly greater resort to impr...

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A US prison, but you get the picture ... The ABS's fascinating report Measures of Australia's Progress 2006 received a certain amount of coverage in the MSM when it was released last week. Most of its findings are very positive. But one disturbing aspect that hasn't received a...

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Prompted by comments from Uncle Milton and Chris Lloyd under my previous post about an apparent blowout in state public sector numbers and wages over the last few years, I decided to look a bit more closely at the claims of the IPA's Mike Nahan that state governments have "squ...

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I thought it was funny anyway

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Nicholas Gruen was certainly in tune with the zeitgeist when he posted about the lack of vision in Australian government, especially in relation to the way governments have spent the massive revenue "growth dividend" of the last few years. But of all people, it has been the Da...

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Yes, the federal government listened to the people and scuttled the sale of its 13 per cent share in the Snowy Hydro Corporation, and NSW reluctantly followed. But if you consider the statements by relevant ministers, you will find a farrago of deception. Most people will not...

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Customary Law is in the news again, but the Greek Gods aren't. Maybe they should be, perhaps their old dramas and poems would allow us all to see in dreaming a non-kissing cousin in the dance we have no choice but to partner. Remember a good dancer has good balance and that no...

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I don't often get time these days for a leisurely browse around the blogosphere. But I found a few spare minutes today, and happened to stumble across an unbelievably trivial but nasty spat between the lefties at Larva Rodeo and compulsive attention-seeking legal academic Jame...

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I heard this track (2 Meg mp3) on Andrew Ford's marvellous Music Show this morning. It's quite striking I thought and perhaps many troppodillians have heard it. But I hadn't. It won't take you long to figure out who is singing it, but some other things about the song might sur...

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In his book "A time of hope", Donald Horne details a remarkable passage in a speech about how we have all lost our bearings and how we needed to appreciate our environment more, worry about money less etc etc. The thing that was remarkable about it was not what it said it was...

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What a week. In terms of footy played round 12 had some great games and two golden point results. As for the players, one launched a spray at his team mates via the media, another was caught out after an on field incident was ignored by everyone else and one player ended up 'b...

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I posted about the Howard government's new(ish) sedition laws last year when they were going through Parliament, and expressed the view that they might well breach the implied cosntitutional freedom of political speech. Constitutional law academic George Williams expresses a s...

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When Ken Parish blogged on remote Aboriginal communities last week, prompting John Quiggin to blog more specifically on employment subsidies , I was reminded of the visit I paid last year with my family to Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park , twenty km north of Cairns. On that...

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Courtesy of my brother, here's a quote which would be nice on our banner above, but which is a little long. The one really rousing thing about human history is that, whether or no the proceedings go right, at any rate, the prophecies always go wrong. The promises are never ful...

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PM Alkatiri (right) and National Parliament Speaker Francisco "Lu Olo" Gutteres at the recent Fretilin Party Congress which confirmed Alkatiri's leadership Further to my previous post , it appears that Australia is exerting significant and fairly open pressure to persuade East...

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You aim too please. Iintroducing the latest in gaming technology. And who said my subscription to slashdot was a waste of time.

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Anyone who missed them should try not to miss the repeats of 'Torn Curtain' the ABC Hindsight programs on the cold war. Excellent radio documentary and not too late to pick up one of the most alarming episodes. How Richard Nixon wanted the Russians to think that he was mad and...

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Visiting this site I discovered that we've missed JS Mill's 200th birthday which occured on the 20th May 2006. He was a good guy and, exemplifies much of what was uplifting about the tradition of classical economics begun by our old friend Adam Smith. Like Smith, Mill abhored...

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