A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Jen McCulloch and Stephen Hill
Politics
Australian
Apathetic Sarah takes Julie Bishop’s latest pronouncement to its logical conclusion |
Apparantly, out of the blue everyone has come to the conclusion - via the Petrol Kommisionar - that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Niall Cook and Joshua Gans have their say.
Pommygranate criticises the critics of the most recent marijuana decriminalisation scheme.
International
Avi Shlaim makes some tough calls about Israel on the 60th anniversay of its foundation:
In 1923, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the founder of revisionist Zionism, published an article entitled On the Iron Wall. He argued that Arab nationalists were bound to oppose the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. Consequently, a voluntary agreement between the two sides was unattainable. The only way to realise the Zionist project was behind an “iron wall” of Jewish military strength. In other words, the Zionist project could only be implemented unilaterally and by military force.
Norman Geras keeps the focus on ever worsening Mugabe thuggery in Zimbabwe.
Aung Zaw argues that post-cyclone events in Burma show that the junta is incapable of running the country, let alone helping the victims. (Trouble is, like Mugabe they’re entirely capable of brutally suppressing opponents which is all that counts from their own viewpoints and in the short term renders all other observations marginally relevant at best).
Turcopolier is deeply suspicious about what Dick Cheney is up to in the Middle East at the moment.
Mark Edward Manning is ecstatic about the election of Boris Johnson as London Mayor (well, more about the demise of Red Ken really), while Brian Micklethwait ponders why Boris’s blog was such a non-event. 11. KP: rather like all the oz politicans’ blogs except Andrew Bartlett, and look what happened to him [?]
Economics
Nicholas Gruen’s quick quide to What Is A Public Good? 22. gilmae: I seem to remember that it is the behavious of player character paladins. Publically good, bastards when no-one is watching. [?]
Joshua Gans continues his series analysing the policy rationales for parental support payments, while Harry Clarke continues a running rant on the “impending wages explosion“.
Law
Andrew Koppelman maintains the rage on Bush v Gore, Justice Scalia and conservative academic lawyers in general, while conservative academic lawyer David Bernstein suggests he’s full of s**t.
If you were looking forward to using IceTV’s online program to drive your digital video recorder, Kim Weatherall has some bad news for you from the Federal Court.
Peter Timmins is cautiously optimistic about the Rudd government’s sincerity on FOI and general transparency reform.33. KP: Personally I won’t be holding my breath waiting for the bullshit rhetoric to be translated into action [?]
At her new SL-colonised digs, Legal Eagle explores the fascinating question of when a lawyer can dob in a client.
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Issues analysis
Helen Dale joins battle on the long-running blogosphere debate (kicked off by Troppo’s Don Arthur) about the prospects of progressive fusionism (alliance between libertarians and “progressives”).
John Quiggin bravely strives to redeem the reputations of the eco-doomsayers of the old Club of Rome.
Jonathan Pearce looks at an anti-greenie dystopian satire and laments that most people miss the point of such efforts.44. KP: I never cease to be amazed by “libertarians” whose ire always focuses on greenie/leftie “anti-Enlightenment” authoritarianism but seldom mention the more extreme and influential - at least in the US - version thereof peddled by the Religious Right and neocons in general. It’s one reason why I don’t think either the term or the concept ”progressive fusionism” makes any sense; it erroneously assumes that most libertarians are “progressive” in any meaningful sense, rather than just hypocritical Tories who seek to exempt their own selfish interests from the right wing authoritarianism they otherwise happily endorse by their silence. [?]
Arts
The Happy Antipodean considers the colourful life of poet Robert Adamson, exploring his 2004 autobiography Inside Out
“Out of gaol, Robert grew wings among the inhabitants of the counter-culture. Glue was Rimbaud and drugs. Girls became women. In addition - and it’s strangely something the author doesn’t spell out - his habits of social structures learned inside were very useful in taking control of publishing ventures.
His relentless truth-telling stumbles, at this point, amid obstacles he creates by making visible, to the reader, stories half-told and feelings unexpressed. There’s so much we’re simply not told about entry into the ‘alternative’ mainstream (don’t laugh).”
Perry Middlemiss has a high opinion of Susan Midalia’s A History of the Beanbag and Other Stories, suggesting from this collection of stories there are possibilities of a writer with a big future.
Bardassa reviews Bruce Norris’s class satire The Pain and the Itch (directed by Görkem Acaroglu), a “bitch epic” that in this solid production keeps the “dysfunction afloat at all times.”
Bardassa also reviews Opera Australia’s production of Richard Strauss’s Arabella
Currency Lad appreciated Underbelly but feels insufficient attention was paid to the victims of the Melbourne underworld.
Chris Boyd at Morning After reviews Michael Dalley’s one man show Death in White Linen, applauds the riches of theatre in Melbourne so far this year and mentions his own Hun review (not online) of Bruce Norris’s play The Pain and the Itch.
Sport
Shaun Cronin is feeling the pressures of pronostication but prodigiously produces his NRL Round 9 predictions just the same.
Tony the Teacher is distinctly underwhelmed by ICC proposals to let umpires utilise some but not all available high tech aids in test matches.
Snark, strangeness and charm
Kathy G posts a long hateful piece about the hateful veteran American pundit Phyllis Schafly.
