Actually, the solution to the conflict in the Middle East is obvious, but it's one that neither side wants - a non-religious, democratic state which is neither Jewish nor Islamic. It's not Hamas' crazy idea of a muslim religious state in which sharia law is imposed on all who live within its borders. Nor is it Israel's offensive notion of a Jewish religious state in which those who don't share that faith or ethnicity are second-class citizens. Read more »
It has been a while since North Coast Voices ran a post on Monsanto, the US-based biotech giant which dominates around 95 per ce Read more »
An expert panel made up of George Walker Bush has decided that John Winston Howard should be recognised for his “efforts to promote democracy, human rights and peace abroad.” Apparently, engaging in a military invasion counts as promoting peace abroad, and supporting another country’s use of torture enhanced interrogation techniques and long-term detention without charge, trial or right of habeas corpus is promoting human rights. Read more »
The “Great Moderation” is a phrase coined by Ben Bernanke in 2004 to describe one particular interpretation of evidence showing that the volatility of output has declined over time in the US and other developed countries (though not, by then, Japan). Bernanke starts by citing the work of Blanchard and Simon, who offer both a different view of the evidence and a different explanation. Read more »
In affluent societies, consumption is about creating identity rather than meeting human needs, argues Clive Hamilton. And to reinforce the point, he invites us to "consider the semiotics of the potato today". According to Hamilton, today’s shoppers can choose from 15 varieties of organic potato with shapes and colours "carefully selected to appeal to different market segments." While it was once just a starchy staple, the food has now become a lifestyle accessory — a way of telling other people who you are. Read more »
A column in The Australian actually takes an objective look at climate science and rebuts some of the common denialist memes - many of which have been put forward in recent columns in The Australian. Read more »
I am astonished at the The Australian newspaper for suggesting that cool temperatures in 2008 might provide a ‘serious blow to global warming alarmists’. It is my bolding on the word ‘alarmists’ – an unusual turn of phrase since it includes almost all figures in climate science and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Read more »
Each year Ross Gittins writes an article that is never published in any of the newspapers for which he writes.
He calls it Australia's Outlook for Politics and Government. I call it "Looking forward, looking back".
It is when the Sydney Morning Herald's economics editor takes off his economics cap (although not entirely) and shares his perspective on politics in the year that's been and the year that's ahead.
He presents it at the annual Australian Business Economists forecasting conference, and then emails it to his friends.
Last year's was good, and prescient. Here's this years:
Read more »Who is to blame for the current global financial mess? Joseph Stiglitz in this Vanity Fair classic identifies 5 key mistakes made by 3 US Presidents. Read more »
In the days before the Americans turned him into a cuddly economic stimulus package, Santa led a much more exciting life. Today he lets even the naughtiest children sit on his lap and demand Nintendos, ipods and mobile phones. He listens politely and promises to do what he can. But even he can’t escape the global financial crisis. Read more »
When this was written for ABC Unleashed in June] the ALP ruled in Canberra and in all the states and territories, not necessarily wisely and well, but in some cases by wide margins. The situation in mid 1965 was very different. Menzies had been the PM for as long as many people could remember and Liberals or allies under various names held power in the states from coast to coast with the relatively minor exceptions of Tasmania and South Australia. Read more »
Janet Albrechtsen, concern troll - apparently, appointing women to the High Court is a threat to gender equity because it creates an impression of “jobs for the girls”. Read more »
Senator Cory Bernardi clearly didn't pay a lot of attention in biology class.
"Don't get me wrong - I remain unconvinced about the need for an ETS given that carbon dioxide is vital for life on earth, the earth hasn't warmed since 1998 and many of the predictions made by climate change alarmists (including Al Gore and Tim Flannery) have been demonstrably false." Read more »
Let's be up-front and frank about the whole climate change issue. Read more »
I don't mind the environment. It's got some things going for it - trees, water, air, the part of the ship the front fell off, all the matter in the universe, and so on. I don't actively try to destroy it, anyway. It can do its thing, I can do mine - I'm happy to live and let live. I think that's a fair approach. Read more »
The publication by Keith Windschuttle of a hoax article on science has been all over the papers and the blogs. I agree with Tim Lambert (who gives lots of links) that the article sounds reasonable by comparison with the nonsense commonly published on scientific topics by Quadrant. Read more »
As foreshadowed in my previous post on Integral Fast Reactor nuclear power, I recently ordered Prescription for the Planet, by Tom Blees (subtitle: The Painless Remedy for Our Energy & Environmental Crises). Well, it’s now arrived, and I’ve set about reading through it with a careful eye for detail. After 3 chapters, I can already [...]
The Australian Intercultural Society newsletter hit my intray today. The AIS does things like organize inter-religious celebrations (like open days at mosques, churches and synagogues), and though an atheist, I certainly support the objectives of the AIS.
Those putting the letter together must be tearing their hair out over the current conflict in the Middle East, so I’ll quote some of it supportively over the fold (even though I’m atheist). Read more »
The current attack on Palestinians in Gaza is a display of brutal military might, but ought not to be construed as evidence of Israeli strength, because the War for Greater Israel really has been lost. Despite the delays, the outcome must be a viable Palestinian State in the short term future. The killing continues, not because Israeli leaders believe that they have any chance of preventing that short term outcome, but because the racism inherent in Zionism means that the lives of Palestinians are still expendable in the lead-up to the Israeli elections. Read more »
This is the second in a planned series of posts assessing the implications of the global financial crisis for the economic ideas and policies that have been dominant for the past few decades. The large-scale privatisation of publicly-owned enterprises both in capitalist countries like the UK and Australia and in formerly communist countries after 1989 played a big role in promoting the kind of triumphalism that characterised much commentary about free-market capitalism in the 1990s and (to a somewhat lesser extent) in the years leading up to the crisis. Read more »
The Australian has fallen well behind in the race for the 2009 ward for most consistently wrong media outlet. They've published a piece by Mike Steketee that debunks common denialist arguments. He points out the difference between long and short term trends, that the Oregon petition is very light on climatologists and that climate models have got it right: Read more »
While criticising GetUp! at every opportunity, Jennifer Marohasy (Chair, Australian Environment Foundation) is requesting donations to oppose the Rudd Government's emmissions trading scheme: Read more »
Although people endlessly ask for predictions, they rarely really want the answers. It was only late – too late – in life that I realised that when people said, “We really want you to challenge our ideas,” they mostly did not. They wanted instead to be congratulated on their wisdom. Similarly, when they ask, “What is going to happen?” they seek reaffirmation and reassurance rather than insight into the future.
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Dennis Shanahan, playing with a fairly straight bat for once, pre-reports on the unreleased findings from John Clarke QC’s report into the charging and deportation of Dr. Mohammad Haneef. According to the report: Read more »
If there has been one key development driving the federal Liberals over 2008, it has been the faltering grip of the old leadership. Imploding in the run up to the loss last November, the last minute withdrawal of Abbott’s candidacy and the fumbled attempt to reassert itself under Nelson in the winter this year, the Liberals are left at the end of 2008 in a vacuum with a leader that has no real base of support in the party but with the old guard yet unable to get rid of him.
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Republished from Crikey with permission. Read more »
The general media assessment of Rudd’s 5% emission target is that if it places him in the middle between unhappy Greens and climate sceptics, it is the right place to be.
It is not. First of all, the government is not in the ‘middle’ of such sentiment. Every poll shows that far more think the government is not doing enough than too much. Stepping up climate change action keeps being discussed as a ‘brave’ decision but is actually very much in line with what the mainstream electorate thinks.
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The one thing most people now agree on is that this global financial crisis is exactly that, that it is a crisis. It is very serious, historically significant in its size, global in its reach and at a time when countries are more vulnerable to global problems than ever before, and with huge potential downside risks. Read more »
The Rudd Government has released its CPRS White Paper which will form the basis of its emissions trading policy until 2020. The headline figure is the setting of an emissions reduction target of 5% (on 2000 levels) rising to an 'absolute maximum' of 15% if an international agreement is put in place. Read more »
My paper criticising what I saw as the foolish climate change 'denialist' views that had been repeatedly put forward recently in Quadrant magazine was rejected by its editor Keith Windschuttle on the grounds that Read more »
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