Thursday last week I went to hear Jared Diamond, over here, over-hyped and with the most outrageous comb-over I’ve ever seen. What is it with Australians that we are such suckers for the latest snake-oil salesman from the US, unless their name is George Bush?
Diamond is the author of […] Continue Reading…
June 05, 2005 | Graham
Some days are Diamond, some days are Jared
Posted by Graham at 2:20 pm |
Comments (13)
May 31, 2005 | Graham
Queensland Government spends $50M to make homelessness worse
It’s good news for the homeless and their advocates, but bad news for homelessness statistics, making it even better news for the advocates.
According to The Courier Mail the Queensland Government plans to spend $50 million upgrading “run-down hostels” and building “extra boarding houses”.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 9:52 am |
Comments (8)
May 29, 2005 | Ronda Jambe
Under the Moruya Moon (2)
As Canberra gets colder, the coast beckons. Just over 2 hours away, you can count on temperatures 4-5 C warmer. And the possibility of rain is a lure on its own. Repeatedly I am taken aback in Canberra by middle aged women who tell me of […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Ronda Jambe at 12:54 pm |
Comments (2)
May 28, 2005 | Graham
Christian Right the morning after
The latest fantastic obsession of the left is the imagined dominance of the religious right in the US, which is then projected to be on the verge of engineering the same feat here. Thus the last but one edition of the Griffith Review Weekly tackled the issue of fundamentalism […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 11:13 pm |
Comments (5)
May 27, 2005 | Graham
Corby and the battle of Waterloo
Schapelle Corby has been found guilty under a system of law which is very similar to many other systems which draw their provenance from France – an indirect legacy of the Napoleonic Empire. It should be a basic human right that in criminal matters one is presumed innocent until […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 11:05 pm |
Comments (5)
May 27, 2005 | Graham
Memoirs In Memoriam
I’m generally a bit of a fan of Peter Beattie’s but his most recent foray suggests he’s losing more than his hair. Beattie has chosen to celebrate his life by releasing his autobiography. This at a time when a Commission of Inquiry is hearing allegations that patients were murdered […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 12:10 pm |
Comments (2)
May 25, 2005 | Graham
Meet another “balance of power” senator
It is amazing how many people miss the bleeding obvious, including those who should know better. Barnaby Joyce has been salivating with glee at the prospect of being able to hold the Howard Government to ransom on rural issues. (His latest demand a 15% tax rate for rural workers.) […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 1:54 pm |
Comments (6)
May 24, 2005 | Graham
Child support advice for Federal Cabinet
Yesterday’s Australian revealed that Federal Cabinet is to take submissions on proposed changes to the Child Support regime. I don’t have time to send them a paper-based submission, so here are my random digitally produced thoughts.
First thing is that I don’t see how anyone living below the average wage […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 5:27 pm |
Comments (5)
May 20, 2005 | Graham
Torture Blofeld
There has been a furore over a paper (yet to be published) by two Australian academics claiming that torture should be legal in some circumstances.
Most Aussie cinema-goers would agree, so long as the torturer was James Bond, it was Blofeld and his cat that were rapping along with […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 2:33 pm |
Comments (3)
May 19, 2005 | Graham
Google ranking Queensland Senators
In a recent post I congratulated Queensland Senator Brett Mason on earning a PhD whilst being a full-time senator for Queensland. The post attracted a couple of very heated responses, suggesting that I had hit a raw nerve. While no-one denies anyone the right to further educate themselves part-time […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 7:07 am |
Comments (11)