The thing that has been fascinating me about the last week in politics is the evidence of the herd mentality (psychologically speaking). The herd doesn’t move direction until one person breaks ranks, and then suddenly everyone is following the new direction. I’m talking, of course, of the sudden political demise and dethroning of KRudd. A [...]
By Legal Eagle
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Posted in Media, Politics, Society, The Left
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Tagged 7:30 Report, australia, Australian Labor Party, Australian politics, Australian Prime Minister, David Marr, Herd mentality, Julia Gillard, kevin rudd, leadership putsch, Media, Politics, prime minister, swearing
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Julia Gillard has been sworn in as Australia’s first female prime minister after a surprise leadership vote in the ruling Labor Party ousted Kevin Rudd. Mr Rudd chose not to take part in the ballot knowing he would suffer an embarrassing defeat to his deputy. Ms Gillard said she believed “a good government was losing [...]
By DeusExMacintosh
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Posted in Australian internet filter, Feminism, Funnies, Media, Politics, Wales
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Tagged Australian Labor Party, Australian politics, Julia Gillard, kevin rudd, Quentin Bryce, Tony Abbott
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Heath Gibson reminded me in a post this morning that we have a renewed opportunity to persuade the Labor party to drop its ridiculous bid to impose net censorship. As he notes, because of the change in leadership, the party can now back away from previous policies without losing so much face (as it has [...]
By Legal Eagle
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Posted in Australian internet filter, Internet, Law, Personal liberty, Public Policy, Society, Technology
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Tagged Australian internet filter, freedom of speech, internet filter, Julia Gillard, Law, policy, psychology, Technology
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I am watching all this unfold from afar, with a special kind of awe. My understanding — even though Kevin Rudd had tanked personally in the polls — was that he’d still win against the (equally unpopular) Tony Abbott on Green preferences. Clearly I was wrong. I can’t imagine Labor’s Sussex St Minions (insert BWAHAHAHA [...]
This is going to be a longer and much sharper post than I had originally intended. What first came to mind was an open letter to the new Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, pointing out a simple £50 million cost saving to the welfare bill, but then yesterday the new coalition government handed [...]
By DeusExMacintosh
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Posted in Britain, Economics, Law, Personal, Politics, Public Policy, Society, Taxation
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Tagged budget 2010, coalition, conservative party, deficit, disability, disability living allowance, DLA, employment support allowance, Iain Duncan Smith, incapacity benefit, welfare
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According to the Herald Sun yesterday: An artist has been paid $10,000 to float 10,000 paper planes in Victoria’s State Library. Ross Coulter wants to track “thought patterns” in the La Trobe (Domed) Reading Room by releasing the planes from balcony “stacks”, and will use a Georges Mora Foundation Fellowship to pay for the project. [...]
Did you ever play “chasey” as a child? If you ran around in the wild blue yonder, you were fair game for any roving pursuer, but usually, there was an area which was “safe” (in my school yard it was called “barlee“). If you were touching the “safe” tree, you couldn’t be caught. If someone [...]
A batch of about 70,000 mozzarella balls which turned blue upon opening has been confiscated by food authorities in Italy, officials say. The health ministry said it had activated the European “rapid alert” system to warn of possible contamination, and announced emergency control measures on the cheese. The cheese – made in Germany for an [...]
I read yesterday that Japanese law stipulates that the waistline must be below a certain diameter: In Japan, being thin isn’t just the price you pay for fashion or social acceptance. It’s the law. So before the fat police could throw her in pudgy purgatory, Miki Yabe, 39, a manager at a major transportation corporation, [...]
Many people don’t realise that going to war (or other, ancillary military activities) in Australia doesn’t require legislative approval; the executive — that is, the Prime Minister and Cabinet — can make the decision without involving all our elected representatives. This is relatively common around the world, although it is also common to find countries [...]
