Club Troppo

Whew! If you were concerned about the potential effects of another Ralph Nader presidential punt on the Bush/Kerry race, you can now officially relax! Phillip Adams and Barry Jones are on the job . According to Phillip, he and Barry are about to change Nader's mind as only the...

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The question on lips everywhere seems to be, "Vietnam?" "I don't think so'' would be my response though the realpolitik underlying American withdrawal from that particular quagmire an innate liberal democratic society squeamishness about engaging in wars that produce televisu...

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Let me tell you about my Mr Parish. The one you have here in what you call the blogosphere is stunningly sane. Mr Parish has hit hard times and is so tired of reading his own posts, he is not quite begging passersby to contribute - but almost. So almost, that this piece of tri...

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Being currently much more focussed on pleasures of the flesh than those of the mind, the prospect of my producing a fertile stream of blog posts in the immediate future is fairly remote. In the circumstances, I can't help wondering aloud what's happened to my fellow Armadillos...

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A few days ago Paddy McGuinness published a rant in the SMH that stuck in my memory. It touched on urban development strategies, and in particular the vogue topic of "urban consolidation": - Roads and other infrastructure, even waste disposal, can no longer be left to conflict...

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The cosmic echoes of April Fool's Day continue to reverberate, through blogosphere and mainstream media alike. Gianna has begun posting cute baby photos of newborn Harley , prompting Sedgwick to speculate on his parentage and implicate, wait for it, John Quiggin !! He seems to...

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It's well over-time to acknowledge Tim Dunlop's spectacular blogging achievement in undertaking an in-depth, multiple part review of former White House counterterrorism official Richard Clarke's book Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror . Tim combines his book r...

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Geoffrey de Q Walker is a conservative legal academic for whom I usually have a fair amount of respect. However, his opinion piece in today's Australian , claiming that Australia's tax system undermines the rule of law, does nothing to enhance my opinion of him. For a start, W...

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I'm not currently blogging - you didn't notice? Oh. Anyway it's terrific that Ken is blogging. The reason I'm not blogging is pretty much directly related to a deadline drawing ever closer. Early next week I'm due to deliver a draft submission in respect of the Australia/US Fr...

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Jason Soon has lost no time in taking advantage of the Movable Type extended page facility at Catallaxy's new home . He's posted a long-ish rant about the benefits (and to some extent the problems) of a flat tax system . I'm inherently sceptical about flat tax, although I cert...

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I've never been much impressed by Mel Gibson, either as an actor or a man. Moreover, the manufactured controversy over his Passion of the Christ didn't exactly fill me with joyful anticipation at the prospect of going to see it. So it was almost a shock to discover that the mo...

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Robert Corr sums up my attitude to Germaine Greer's latest repugnant attention-seeking effort in the Sydney Morning Herald, about footballers and gang rape. I just chose to ignore the pathetic old cow to avoid gratifying her increasingly pathological desire to be noticed. But...

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You'd have to wonder why a prestigious national broadsheet newspaper like the Australian would give column space to an utterly discredited shyster like US pro-gun "academic" John Lott Jnr . Have a read of the redoubtable Tim Lambert's blog if you think I'm being overly harsh o...

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What do these 2 stories from today's media have in common? Escaped pederast gets 4 months A CONVICTED pedophile claimed he had turned his life around after realising his "abhorrent tendencies" needed to be channelled into creative activities, a Perth court heard yesterday. Pau...

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One of the many things I like about Professor Bunyip is his utter contempt for anything remotely resembling politically correct sentiments. His latest post is a typical example: The Professor gave up on the disadvantaged some years ago, having finally accepted Jesus' admonitio...

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News today from Rhea County, Tennessee where county commissioners have just voted 8-0 to ban homosexual acts. "We need to keep them out of here," said Commissioner J.C. Fugate, who introduced the motion - and who appears to be blissfully unaware that the US Supreme Court has r...

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The day started badly. I'd forgotten I had a "share accommodation" ad in today's paper, until the phone rang at 7.20. "Randall here. When can I come round and look at the room you've got for rent?" "Aaaaah, why don't you just give me your phone number and I'll ring you back la...

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An interesting OpEd in The Washington Post considers the health benefits that have accrued in eastern Europe since the Iron Curtain rusted through. In Poland, rates of smoking, cardiovascular disease and alcoholism have all plummetted (despite the presence of western product m...

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British journalist, Simon Jenkins, in the latest issue of the Spectator - published on March 11 - offers this no doubt enduring testament to the importance of timing: "Nothing to fear but fear itself: Simon Jenkins says that Tony Blair's Sedgefield speech was just another atte...

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I seem to have developed an Iraq obsession over the last couple of days. I'll try to make this my final post on the subject for the moment at least. However, Alan from Southerly Buster has now posted his promised article on the Iraq interim constitution. It's well worth readin...

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