Category Archives: Politics

So, what does ‘progressive fusionism’ look like?

May 8, 2008 – 4:33 am

This piece had its origins in a pair of posts written by Don Arthur over at Club Troppo, and followed up by Andrew Norton, Andrew Leigh, Will Wilkinson and Backroom Girl. The idea that libertarians and ‘progressives’ could hammer out some of their differences and reach a compromise far more workable than that between [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Economics, Law, Philosophy | Comments (14)

Cause and effect

April 27, 2008 – 10:35 pm

I haven’t been too impressed with ethanol fuels for a while. My concern back then was “that if governments make emotional knee-jerk reactions, the cure may be as bad as the disease it is designed to alleviate.”
In that context, the current food crisis is a salutory reminder of the nature of cause and effect.  Food riots [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Economics, Environment, Society | Comments (0)

Guest post by Sinclair Davidson - Kevin Rudd, 20/20 and Tony Blair

April 20, 2008 – 10:16 pm

Sinclair very kindly left this in the comments, and it’s so timely I thought it deserved a post of its own. I’m watching this process from Blairland utterly aghast, even though a week after Rudd was elected I could ‘detect the Blair’ and was warning accordingly. Blair’s nanny-statism is slowly collapsing in on him, but [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Public Policy | Comments (73)

God’s law and the law of the State

April 18, 2008 – 10:50 am

What happens when you have a particular group in society who are not minded to follow the law of the State, but prefer to follow God’s law as they interpret it?
Recently this question has come up in relation to Sharia law, particularly after the Archbishop of Canterbury said that some aspects of sharia law would [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Children, Feminism, Law, Marriage, Religion, Society | Comments (1)

Fitna

April 4, 2008 – 4:51 pm

The other day, I watched the film Fitna on YouTube, a film about Islam by Dutch right wing politician Geert Wilders.  I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I had read some interesting reviews by Skepticlawyer at Catallaxy, Pommygranate at Australian Libertarian Society Blog and Saint at Dogfight At Bankstown.
I must say [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Racism, Society, Terrorism | Comments (8)

Ideology, law and teaching

March 14, 2008 – 9:43 am

As I am a university lecturer, I was interested to read about the Young Liberals’ campaign to “out” left-wing lecturers. That seems to miss the point to me: it’s a bit unpleasantly reminiscent of a McCarthyist witch hunt.
I have to say that in law school I had a variety of lecturers, from open Marxists to known advisers [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Academia, Law, Society | Comments (5)

“You have to die, so that I can live.”

February 20, 2008 – 6:33 pm

Last night, I watched a rather depressing documentary on SBS called The Anatomy of Evil. It was about people who perpetrate genocide. I’ve been morbidly fascinated with this question for a while now, as I’ve explained in an earlier post. I’ve never quite been able to fathom how people could shoot/gas/blow up an innocent civilian.
This [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Middle east, Religion, Terrorism | Comments (19)

Who’d be a polly?

January 3, 2008 – 11:01 pm

Not me, for sure. I’m far too clumsy. In fact, I am known for the stories of my clumsy adventures, although I haven’t had one in a while (touchwood). Not since I dropped my office key down the lift shaft at work over a year ago.
Therefore I felt quite sorry for Julia Gillard today given [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Fark!, Media | Comments (0)

A mutual agenda

December 4, 2007 – 10:01 am

Well, this post is probably a bit late given the stunning victory by Labor in the Federal election. But maybe it’s good to have time to mull over things. I feel nervous dipping my toe into the political quagmire surrounding unions: but here goes nothing!
On the way home from work, I drove past a billboard [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Academia, Personal | Comments (6)

Kevin Rudd = Trendy Vicar (and some reflections on the ASBO)

November 25, 2007 – 12:03 pm

Now that Kevin Rudd is firmly ensconced as Australia’s Prime Minister elect, it’s worth looking at the social democratic party his ALP most resembles – Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s ‘New Labour’. Just as Blair was Thatcher-lite, Rudd is Howard-lite, with the crucial difference that Rudd appears – at least superficially – to be even [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Human/Civil rights, Law, Personal liberty | Comments (117)