We are going to have to get better at managing difference, people. I learn via Catallaxy that one of the anti-gay signatories to the ‘Doctors for the Family’ senate submission has resigned from his position on Victoria’s Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission. I carry no brief for ‘Doctors for the Family’; fellow Skeptic Chrys Stevenson [...]
The Eurozone, the US, Japan and the UK are all suffering prolonged economic stagnation. [You can see how serious it is in the US here.] It is sensible to suggest that they are doing something (or perhaps many things) wrong and need to change policy. What is not sensible is ignoring a developed world economy [...]
By Lorenzo
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Also posted in Britain, Economics, Public Policy
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Tagged australia, central banking, Debt, GFC, Great Moderation, Great Recession, money, national debt, public debt, RBA
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For those of you who read either the Age or Andrew Bolt, you will be aware of this article, which points out the following: More than a third of the winners of Australia’s most prestigious literary prize, the Miles Franklin Award, are now out of print. Of the 53 books that have been awarded the [...]
By skepticlawyer
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Also posted in Books, Bring Laws and Gods, England, Literature, science fiction
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Tagged Andrew Bolt, Antony Harwood, Michael Heyward, Miles Franklin Award, Text Publishing, The Hand that Signed the Paper, The Kindly Ones
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As readers may have noticed, once again we’ve been nominated for the Sydney Writers’ Centre ‘Best Blogs’ Award. I have no idea how we will go this year, as we were shortlisted last year and they may decide they’ve had enough of us. However, it was nice to be shortlisted and there was an informative [...]
I was really sad to read about the recent death of Greg Ham, the flautist from Australian band Men At Work. The cause of death has still not been determined. The worst of it is that right up until his death, Ham appears to have been very distressed about a copyright case, Larrikin Music Publishing [...]
By Legal Eagle
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Also posted in Intellectual property, Law, Media, Music, Popular culture, Society
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Tagged Colin Hay, copyright, copyright law, Down Under, Greg Ham, I come from a Land Down Under, Intellectual property, Kookaburra sits in the Old Gum Tree, Larrikin Music Publishing Pty Ltd v EMI Songs Australia Ltd, Men at Work, music, rent-seeking, spicks and specks
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A description of what confronted a Commonwealth officer in the Northern Territory during the Pacific War (1941-5), when thousands of service personnel passed through the Northern Territory: … once you introduced a European or Asian father any child of that liaison had any rights as an Aboriginal extinguished at birth. They were not classed as [...]
By Lorenzo
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Also posted in Children, Economics, History, Society, Welfare
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Tagged Australian Aborigines, crime, culture, hunter-gatherer, indigenous issues, noel pearson, policy, Stolen generations
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As many of you know, new Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has scrapped the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards. In response, the private and charitable sector (as one would expect) has swung into action. Now, there are all sorts of arguments both for and against state-sponsored literary awards, some of which I canvassed in my post on [...]
With the awful inevitability of a dog chasing deer into oncoming traffic in Richmond Park, I present to you Trenton Oldfield (Hell’s bells, the names even rhyme), Australia’s shame. Yesterday, Trenton Oldfield did this at the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race: First, Sir Matthew Pinsent, the former Olympic rower, thought he saw debris in the water. Then, [...]
By skepticlawyer
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Also posted in Academia, Britain, England, Events, Fark!, Funnies, Popular culture, Sport, The Left
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Tagged Cambridge, Contemporary Urbanism, Emily Davison, Fenton, London School of Economics, LSE, OUBC, Oxford, Sir Matthew Pinsent, The Offspring, This is Not a Gateway, Trenton Oldfield, University Boat Race, Will Zeng, Zoe de Toledo
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I’m blogging about Easter again, sorry. This time spurred by an online conversation between friends about the appropriateness or not of being wished “Happy Easter” on Good Friday. Classicists of the world, wrack off – yes I DO know the entire event was probably lifted from pre-existing pagan rites of spring, but for the purposes [...]
By DeusExMacintosh
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Also posted in Art, Blogging, Britain, Events, Fark!, General, History, Media, Personal, Philosophy, Politics, Popular culture, Religion, Skeptics, Society, Terrorism
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Tagged 9/11, christianity, Easter, ground zero, islam, Jesus, Jonathan Jones, Judaism, magnum, New York, photography, september 11th, the guardian, the meaning of 9/11's most controversial photo, The Passion, Thomas Hoepker, twin towers
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Instead of doing, you know, actual work last night (how do I hate thee HMRC, let me count the ways), I spent quite a bit of the evening reading articles and responding to the news that new Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has cancelled (I’m not sure if that’s the right word, but never mind) the [...]
By skepticlawyer
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Also posted in Academia, Books, Economics, Education, Law, Literature, Politics, Popular culture, The Left
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Tagged Campbell Newman, David Hicks, externalities, Guantanamo Bay, Jonathan Haidt, merit goods, Miles Franklin Award, milton friedman, Nick Earls, Queensland Premier, Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, Stella Prize, Tony Abbott, Unaipon Award
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