I've heard of factional heavies, but this is ridiculous ...
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The current relatively conservative makeup of the High Court has a range of manifestations, not just in more newsworthy decisions like indefinite detention of asylum seekers or preservation of barristers' unconscionable immunity from suit . One may also argue with some force t...
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Japanese beer companies are making beer out of peas and soy beans. They don't taste as good as beer made with malted barley so why do they do it? According to BeverageDaily.com it's about tax. When the Japanese government decided to tax beer it defined it in terms of its malt...
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Phil Gomes kindly suggested on another thread that I should stop blogging for the evening and go fishing or go to the pub. At least I think he was being kind. But I had to decline his suggestion. I detest fishing with a passion. Yes, I know it's utterly un-Territorian to confe...
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I think I must reluctantly agree with Christopher Sheil (and I conceded in my previous post anyway) that any scheme to levy a state-based income tax would in all probability be a political suicide note for any state government introducing it. However, as Chris also observed, t...
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In a post a week or so ago I lamented the seemingly imminent terminal dismemberment of Australian federalism at the hands of an arrogant fourth term Howard government with apparently little or no understanding or respect for the fundamental principles of liberal democratic con...
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Tim Dunlop has a very nice post up at Road to Surfdom, about his Catholic education Reading it, and the comments people made on it, made me reflect once again on just what it is that my own Catholic education gave me, and the tensions and gifts it bequeathed to me. My experien...
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Sound familiar? A DECISION will be taken within weeks on whether to switch off the "futile" life support for the woman left for dead in the boot of her car in Melbourne earlier this year. Melbourne Magistrates Court heard today that Maria Korp would die in two weeks if medical...
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Meika the Dolebludger has been writing a novel , and it's nearly finished. An intensely thoughtful (if perversely prickly) individual, Meika poses the following question? Now, a[n] ethical problem. As a longterm dolebludger, should I:- A) sell it to a mainstream print publishe...
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Amazing news this morning--Jalal Talabani, the respected and doughty Kurdish leader of the 'peshmergas' (literally 'those who walk with death') and the founder of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, has been elected President of Iraq. He is the first Kurd ever to be in the top p...
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Another sad thing to report on the Australian film front, as yet another 'great white hope' looks set to segue into 'big flat flop.' Apparently, the film version of Robin Klein's well-loved, funny, tender and whimsical novel of school and family life, Hating Alison Ashley, is...
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As various other bloggers have already noted, the UK election campaign is off and running towards a 5 May election date. I was particularly interested in Antony Loewenstein's claim that the Liberal Democrats are poised to overtake the Tories as the second most popular politica...
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Australian Democrats deputy leader (and serious blogger) Andrew Bartlett has a post about the role and importance of blogs (or rather their lack of importance) from the viewpoint of working politicians: Occasionally I read something usually on a blog - about the power of the b...
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For the last couple of days Jen has been attending a teachers' conference at CDU. Yesterday I attended a session with her to listen to Dale Spender, aging 'digital diva' and former guru of the non-radical feminist movement, spruik about her new hobby horse: information technol...
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I'm really not good at putting sorrow into words but there was something really depressing about the Sea King crash that killed nine Australian servicemen and women on the weekend. They brought the bodies back home . I'm glad the Governor General put a sprig of wattle on the c...
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On North Terrace here in Adelaide there is a fine building known as Parliament House. This ornate structure is home to the most laughable legislature known to man. There are plenty worse around- Zimbabwe's springs to mind just at the moment, but for comic ineptitude, it is har...
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I was asked recently by the editors of Online Opinion to write a short op-ed piece on what I saw as the future of new media, such as blogs. I thought Troppo readers might be interested in the piece, which has just been published on the Online Opinion site My own piece, if you...
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Nicholas Gruen must be psychic. He's been spruiking in these pages for creative ideas for state government co-operative policy action. And lo and behold! The States themselves, led by longtime Kyoto advocate NSW Premier Bob Carr, come out with a proposal to introduce a State-b...
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Just popping in to my old home quickly to alert Troppo readers to a post on the Politics of Civility over at my new digs at LP . It's not a comment on recent controversies on these pages , but rather some reflection on how civility works politically in blogosphere debates, and...
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I never cease to be amazed at how, with only a few questions, the quizilla people seem to get it so right. Or perhaps they simply feed back what we want to hear. From Timbuktu to Tijuana, you know all about world culture and politics. You've seen it all, and what you haven't s...
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