Barack Obama has been telling the Iranians that “Yes we can” and that the US will take military action against them. I’m not sure whether the “we” includes “us” as in Australian, but I hope it doesn’t. While there were arguable reasons for going into Iraq and Afghanistan, there aren’t any with Iran. At least […]
Continue Reading...Posts in ‘Australian Politics’
The boundaries of legitimate protest
Thursday, January 26th, 2012As far as I can tell from the news reports, Julia Gillard wasn’t subjected to any actual violence today (unless you count being dragged to the car by her coppers), but we’ve never seen a Prime Minister being dragged by security like that before. It is reasonable to infer that there was a serious risk […]
Continue Reading...So this is what desperation looks like
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012Anna Bligh has called the state election for March 24, one week before the council elections were due to be held. As a result the government (she) is going to reschedule the council elections until late April early May. This is not just a cynical political ploy, but it is desperate too as well as […]
Continue Reading...Slippery slopes of Church and State
Tuesday, November 29th, 2011One of the most frequent objections I heard to Peter Hollingworth’s appointment as Governor-General was that it was a breach of the doctrine of separation of powers. This was a nonsense argument as he was appointed in his secular persona, not as a priest, but many intelligent people made it. It was also a self-serving […]
Continue Reading...Occupy – a vacant lot
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011If a field full of Irishmen is called a Paddy field, what do you call a field full of Australians? A vacant lot. Boom boom. It’s an old joke and it’s what comes to mind when I see reporting of Occupy Melbourne, or Occupy Sydney, or Occupy Wherever. They’ve had over a week to work […]
Continue Reading...Freedom of speech, freedom of expression and the Bolt decision
Friday, September 30th, 2011Those in doubt that the Andrew Bolt case is about free speech need only think about the contortions of logic necessary to dismissing the proposition that it is about free speech. On his blog, my friend Mark Bahnisch says that “free speech is not at issue here” before observing that “[f]ree speech, as the judgment […]
Continue Reading...Refugee policy will never be Labor’s issue
Tuesday, September 6th, 2011I very much doubt that Julia Gillard is deeply, internally committed to off-shore processing of asylum-seekers. She is a left-winger by origin. In any event, it is hard to find evidence of deep commitment to anything in the Prime Minister or her team. That leads me to ask “What the hell is she doing?” The […]
Continue Reading...New media, new world order?
Thursday, August 4th, 2011Did you know that in the first 6 months of this year, 536 people in the US had died in tornadoes? Or that this was more than the entire previous decade? Don’t bother checking News Corp for that factoid. Rupert Murdoch has been found wanting, his imperial power over pollies now mocked amid calls for […]
Continue Reading...Yes, yes, please tax us on carbon
Monday, July 11th, 2011It takes big news for Australia to rate a mention in Europe, but the carbon tax was all over CNN in Italy. A big tick to Julia for having the guts to put together a plan that covers most of the issues, isn’t too hard on business and doesn’t over-compensate richer households. At last we […]
Continue Reading...An answer to Alistair
Tuesday, June 21st, 2011Dear Alistair, I thank you for your comments to my letter, G’day Australia.You are obviously also passionate, as am I, on this issue. While I do not wish to end up in a personal slanging match with you, you have also raised some very relevant points that I may or may not agree with, but […]
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