Blogotariat

Has Australia ever elected a Prime Minister so devoid of character? So lacking in the qualities of leadership? So deficient in empathy of social conscience? So ignorant of technology and science? So oblivious of the needs of women and same gender people? So out of touch with a modern pluralist society? And worst of all an unmitigated liar.

You meet someone quite nice at an office party. Over the next couple of days the two of you exchange a few emails. Your current partner gets hold of the metatdata that clearly show who you were sending the emails to and the titles. Your partner does not know who the person is, but a quick search of Facebook reveals an extremely attractive looking person.

Christopher Pyne has been humiliated over his Gonski backflip, with Tony Abbott coming in for damage control. Is this the turning point for Abbott's young government, asks Ben Eltham

If GrainCorp's infrastructure is so vital that it can't be sold to foreigners, why was it privatised in the first place? The botched sale sits in a long history of agricultural sell-offs, writes Patrick O'Keeffe

Last week's nuclear deal is a watershed moment in US-Iran relations. Iranians see it as a 'peace deal' and a victory for the new moderate government, writes Mani Fardad from Tehran

How many different ways does the Labor/Green Alliance work to undermine this country. There cannot be two principles to rub together in refusing temporary protection visas. What is the fundamental reason for this, other than a desire to see more boats arrive? This, however, is what they say:

Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young told the chamber the government’s cruelty should not harm the hearts of people who have suffered so much already.

So, the whole #teamelan vs #teamdianne thing that's been keeping a large segment of the twitterverse, bookface and the blogosphere hatertained this weekend?
Related posts:
George Tierney Jr of Greenville SC aka @geotie2323 can’t get taken...

[This content summary is customised for content-aggregator sites. Click through to http://hoydenabouttown.com to read the full post.]

Dr Deborah Gleeson describes her struggle to put health issues on the agenda of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement negotiations. Deb will be in Singapore representing the PHAA during the meeting – follow her progress via Twitter...

Read more on the blog...

Flaws in the Ice: In Search of Douglas Mawson
By David Day
Scribe | $32.95

Image courtesy of theaustralian.com.au

Yesterday, a reporter on Sky News was reporting that the Opposition was wrong-footed in Question Time and that they just kept trying to hammer the point about whether any school would be worse off.

Investor housing is leading the pack in credit aggregates. Business credit growth sluggish in comparison. The smaller personal credit category also sluggish.

This piece is inspired by Paul Frijters’ post titled The Benefits of Being Dumb in Politics.  I don’t actually think it is possible meaningfully/reliably to distinguish between politicians who are “really smart and great actors as well, who thus have no problems with telling outright lies and with backstabbing” and those autistic egomaniacs who “are sincere because they truly do not see the inconsistencies and selfishness in their own actions and those of others”.

Well, that's one way to go about it. Over the past few weeks, Australian scientists have collected billions of sperm from spawning coral in the Great Barrier Reef, ABC News reports. The sperm are to be cryogenically frozen, in case scientists want to rebuild parts of the reef in the future.