Club Troppo

Like a blogospherical supernova, this pundit says it all in one brief incandescent burst - and then goes out. Link via Tim Blair . Illuminating!

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I can live with Right Wing Death Beast Paul Sheehan's dissing of Harry Potter , but stretching a single joke, and an unfunny one at that, to fill an entire column is another thing entirely. Even Phillip Adams doesn't usually sink to that level of uninspired op-ed desperation....

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The blogger behind the amusingly named in de-nial has taken blogging anonymity to new heights. S/he doesn't even adopt a pseudonym as far as I can see. I think I'll refer to him/her as Floating Baby Moses, because I suspect this will be a blog I'll be mentioning frequently. FB...

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(Via Aaron Oakley ) Rachel Carson's Silent Spring anti-DDT tract was a fraudulent beat-up , and millions of third world residents have died from malaria and other easily preventable insect-borne diseases as a result of its ill-advised banning in the early 1970s. The author eve...

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It isn't just bloggers who rely heavily on the Google search engine, it seems. Ian Firns , the Perth-based Newcastle University contract lecturer who uncovered the fact that 30% of his Malaysian students had plagiarised large slabs of their assignments by copying and pasting f...

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Posting has been light from me for the last few days because it's been crunch time for NTU Law School's new external law degree program, for whose implementation the Dean and Head of School made me responsible, not least because I've touted it unmercifully for the last 3 years...

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I finally got so irritated with myself that I twisted my own arm behind my back and updated the Troppo Armadillo blogroll!! I've tried to be as inclusive as possible, linking all Australian bloggers who can be described even vaguely as "political". If your blog isn't listed, i...

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Bill Clinton is often described as one of the keenest political intellects of the age. Simon Crean never will be, to which his ill-advised blundering about in the crocodile-infested Second Sydney Airport swamp bears eloquent testament - were further testament to the fact not e...

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Gummo Trotsky has a truly inspired post on why libertarians dislike yum cha! Scott Wickstein spares no sympathy for OzTaliban David Hicks. I agree, but I certainly don't agree that the Americans are justified in depriving him of basic civil rights (like legal representation of...

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After 5 years of an absurdly overheated residential property market, especially in Sydney and Melbourne, it's hardly surprising that housing affordability rates are at record lows : First home buyers in Sydney are being forced to fork out a record 40.6 per cent of average inco...

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Ken rang me today telling me to read a comment he put on a blog exhorting me to comment on the Rugby. When I went there, I notice Chris said the same thing. While I was looking I read the Wog's piece for her/his father - and I had to email her/him saying that her/his father wo...

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My thanks to Gummo for pointing the way to one of the most telling, funny, wry and altogether moving valedictories to a parent, I've read for a long time. If you haven't read it, go there .

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Here's another of Suzy Kruhse's joke emails. I'm sure it's just one of the standard ones that circulate on the Internet, but some of them raised a chuckle in me, anyway. For those who love the philosophy of hypocrisy and ambiguity. 1. Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet...

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Grieving Somali widow Muna Zulu Iyama emails me with the deal of a lifetime. From : Mrs. Muna Zulu Iyama refugee Camp South Africa muna_helpline@indiatimes.com Dear Friend, Complements of the season. I am delighted to contact you after coming across your contact in the interne...

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A reminder that the " 29 bullshit expressions in a single sentence " contest remains open until Friday afternoon. The contest has already attracted some quality entries, the last from William Burroughs' Baboon, who is himself about to initiate a new contest where contestants m...

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We live on the Cook's River, about 10 kms south of the Sydney CBD, and a couple of kilometres upstream of Botany Bay. A 15 minute run downriver from our place brings you to the point where the 6 roaring lanes of the Princes Highway cross the stream. On the far side, a clump of...

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Now that James has access to all the dirt - well everything that goes on in (quasi) government departments must be filed in the library, n'es pas ? - we'll all be much better informed. Personally I'm pleased to see he has got a (nearly) real job, all he needs now is a haircut!

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I've always been profoundly suspicious of flat tax advocates. However, a post this morning by Graham Young on the OLO Forum has me intrigued. In fairness to Graham, I should point out that he's only thinking aloud and not actually advocating a flat tax regime as such. Indeed h...

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Well, we now know what previously we just strongly suspected. The Wallabies are so far behind New Zealand they can only hear the thump of their own reputations hitting the tarmac. The largest loss to the All Blacks ever at 50-21 says most of it. John Connolly in the SMH someho...

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The Right is notoriously short of clever humourists but Canadian RWDB - if that's not oxymoronic - Mark Steyn can be very funny. This piece of his from the UK Telegraph - which I beg you to believe I'm not posting in search of a political debate - is really, very funny. Link v...

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