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Archive - 2005Submitted by Wayne Sanderson on November 30, 2005 - 11:29pm.
|| Louis Menand on false predictions and the experts who make them || Seymour Hersh on Bush's religious fervour and Iraq || Richard Cohen on the mistake of saying Iraq was a mistake || Mats Engström on Europe's secret anti-terror debate || John Aglionby on Indonesia and West Papua || Nicholas Kristof on how to stop the Darfur genocide || Suzanna Andrews profiles Arianna Huffington || Michel Gelobter on civil rights and environmentalism || Judith Warner on obnoxious kids and their parents || MUSIC: The origins of Led Zeppelin || Report on Kazakhstan's NYTimes response to Borat || Report on adding sound to the air guitar || [ category: ]
Submitted by Irfan Yusuf on November 30, 2005 - 1:52pm.
"Indeed, the almost exclusively middle-aged male migrant leaders have virtually no understanding of what it is like to grow up in a not-so-Muslim environment and then take on a whole new faith and identity. Michelle has adopted the faith. Well, she tells us she has. And I have no reason to disbelieve her. Whether she continues to model g-strings for the next few years doesn’t change my assessment of her religious beliefs." Irfan Yusuf [ category: ]
Submitted by Margo Kingston on November 30, 2005 - 8:10am.
"Why did the Treasurer still appoint this man to the Reserve Bank board? It is crystal clear—Mr Gerard had bought it, and the going price was more than a million dollars. Mr Gerard had bought it. This government is so arrogant, so conceited and so disregarding of the ordinary standards of public life that, if you front up to the Liberal Party with $1 million-odd, you can get yourself anything. Despite a track record of dishonesty, you can get yourself anything. What this man got himself was a position on the Reserve Bank board. That is the allegation the Treasurer should have answered in the 10 minutes he had to speak on this matter in this parliament. That is the allegation he refused to answer, and he will not answer it because it is true." Julia Gillard [ category: ]
Submitted by Guest Contributor on November 30, 2005 - 6:58am.
"With the Federal Governments IR Bill currently being debated in Parliament, one must look at the implications of this bill on party political donations. Part of these so called reforms is to deny union donations to the Australian Labor Party, yet these same reforms do not stop big business and employer organisations from donating to the conservative arm of politics, one must wonder why?" John Herring [ category: ]
Submitted by Margo Kingston on November 30, 2005 - 1:23am.
UPDATE 1.15PM by Margo: The Coalition will have a special joint partyroom meeting later this week to discuss the terror laws and IR. Despite this, Howard will force a House of Representatives vote on terror tonight at about 8pm. Labor will move an amendment removing sedition from the package as recommended by the Senate Committee, putting Liberal MPs who oppose sedition like Petro Georgiou and Malcolm Turnbull in an awful bind. More contempt for Parliamentary process by Howard. And for "his" MPs. "In a report which I would describe as a consensus report—that is to say that the elected members of the committee are agreed on the substance of the report, although some have made additional comments—the committee has made 52 recommendations which we believe go a long way towards enhancing the operation of the bill. The report sets out those key findings and recommendations and I would like to speak briefly to some of those." Marise Payne on the terror laws report by the Senate Committee she chairs [ category: ]
Submitted by Phil Uebergang on November 30, 2005 - 1:00am.
"It is a chaotic nation in which everything seems to be happening at once. The immense building projects underway, the masses of factories and power stations pumping out unbelievable smog, the huge coal fields and endless villages - you can't help but wonder, constantly, where China is going with all this." Phil Uebergang [ category: ]
Submitted by Wayne Sanderson on November 30, 2005 - 12:53am.
|| Emily Bell on the end of the Murdoch era || William Rees-Mogg on Google and book publishing || Report on climate change plan from rainforest nations || Interview with Jacqueline Rose: psychoanalysing Israel || Paul Krugman on Drucker and the age of anxiety || Report on increasing violence in Afghanistan || Ellen Willis on Russell Jacoby and utopia || Paul Boutin reviews a book debunking string theory || Report on entries for bad s*x writing award || Beyond Chutzpah || [ category: ]
Submitted by David Roffey on November 29, 2005 - 4:00pm.
Webdiary will soon (13 December) be moving to our permanent home, and bidding farewell to Typepad. When we do, the design of the site will allow for a small number of adverts, in the sidebars and above the heading - but not within the articles or comments. Details of ad sizes and costs set out here ... David Roffey, GM Webdiary [ category: ]
Submitted by Guest Contributor on November 29, 2005 - 10:42am.
Anti-terrorism Bill (no 2) 2005 Senate Report: chapter 5 - Sedition and advocacy. The findings. [ category: ]
Submitted by Margo Kingston on November 29, 2005 - 8:30am.
G'day. The Senate Inquiry report into the Anti-Terrorism bill was released today at 4.30 pm. Labor and Liberal have come together with a bipartisan report that gives maximum power to small 'l' Liberals in their dealings with Howard. Here are the recommendations and the chapter two overview. [ category: ]
Submitted by tony kevin on November 29, 2005 - 3:04am.
G'day. I'm at Parliament House and it's delivery day for the Senate Inquiry into the proposed Anti-Terrorism Bill (No 2) 2005. The Senate Report will be published this afternoon and will recommend the removal of the sedition provisions in the terror laws. This finding was unanimous, and sets the scene for a showdown with Howard by small l Liberals, just as occurred with his terror laws in 2002. [ category: ]
Submitted by Guest Contributor on November 29, 2005 - 1:14am.
"The exceptional needs of combating terrorism used to justify the provisions of the The Anti-Terrorism Bill (No 2) 2005 have at the same time enabled their extension to include measures that would not otherwise be readily accepted within the criminal justice system. These political and legal innovations have drastically affected the capacity for citizens to engage in the full and open political communication essential to democratic participation, ‘an informed and engaged public realises the promise of liberal democracy and fulfils its ideal of citizenship’. Good public policy thrives on debate, encourages difference and welcomes dissent. Insulating the security sector from open debate, critique and alternative approaches, cannot lead to the best policy outcomes." Jenny Hocking [ category: ]
Submitted by Wayne Sanderson on November 28, 2005 - 11:31pm.
|| Simon Jenkins on Aljazeera and Iraq leaks || Frank Rich on the lies behind the Iraq invasion || Column calls for action on violence against women in India || Nicholas Kristof on the genocide in Darfur || Martin Kettle on making the US sane again || Report on how the nuclear war was to be fought || Jenni Russell on skewed child-adult relationships || Germaine Greer on the George Best she knew || Report on blogger accepting the corporate dollar || Belle de Jour on the good s*x writing award || THE REST: Simon Hoggart on messages from abroad || [ category: ]
Submitted by Guest Contributor on November 28, 2005 - 4:17am.
"When people talk of an "obesity epidemic" in Australia and throughout the Western world (and by god, they do, don't they, because, hey, why just have a mere garden variety increase in prevalence, when you can scream Edvard Munch-style about an epidemic?) they are desperate for someone to blame for all the fatsos, lard arses, tubbies, blubber boys, chubb-meisters and all the other ample, chunky, plump, podgy, portly, pudgy, roly-poly, rotund, stout, pleasingly plump and rather elephantine kids out there. So their knee-jerk response is to throw the cuffs on the usual suspect - Ronald McDonald. And come on, don't we all just feel in our bones that this clown is peddling high-fat high-sugar food to our kids? He's there, supersizing them against their better judgement till their belts burst open." Duncan Fine [ category: ]
Submitted by Guest Contributor on November 28, 2005 - 3:05am.
G'day. In the course of email correspondence this week, Webdiary reader Olga Ohanessian wrote: "I sent a submission to the Senate Committee on anti terror laws today, inspired by the fact that so many ordinary people have made submissions." Good on you Olga. Olga later gave me gave her permission to publish: "I believe in exercising free speech while we have it. It is a very precious, fragile creature and we must preserve it by exercising it. Mine is a very ordinary person's voice which I am happy to add to the flood of erudite voices which I read on your link to the Senate Committee." [ category: ]
Submitted by Wayne Sanderson on November 27, 2005 - 7:57am.
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Submitted by Russell Darroch on November 27, 2005 - 5:02am.
"Polls are, it might be said, what's left of American democracy. Privately run, often for profit or advantage, they nonetheless are as close as we come these days -- actual elections being what they are -- to the expression of democratic opinion, serially, week after week. Everyone who matters in and out of Washington and in the media reads them as if life itself were at stake. They drive behavior and politics. Fear, too, is a poll-driven phenomenon. Not surprisingly then, it was the moment late last spring when presidential approval ratings fell decisively below the 50% mark and looked to be heading for 40%, that the White House took anxious note and so, no less important, did a previously cowed media. Somewhere in that period, the fear factor, right in the administration's hands, was transformed into a feeling fearful factor." Tom Engelhardt [ category: ]
Submitted by Ross Chippendale on November 26, 2005 - 3:15pm.
"The world of depression is full of clichés and regrettably some of them are accurate. Clichéd and overused expressions like Denial, Avoidance and so many more. These clichés are reality during the process known as depression. Denial is what we all do when we first feel the symptoms of it. Avoidance is what we do to try and evade a deepening or reoccurrence of our low moods. We avoid people, places, songs, aromas, crowds, empty spaces. You name it and it will be a trigger for someone's depression..." Ross Chippendale [ category: ]
Submitted by Guest Contributor on November 26, 2005 - 11:58am.
G'day. I got an email from a long-time Webdiarist today 'gobsmacked' by documents dragged out of the NSW Government which show its proposed desalination plant is, quite simply, not in the public interest. ... Scully has let the cat out of the bag, hasn't he? It's a classic case of the mess that results when the interests of government become merged with the interests of businesses.
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Submitted by Russell Darroch on November 26, 2005 - 9:24am.
Polls are, it might be said, what's left of American democracy. Privately run, often for profit or advantage, they nonetheless are as close as we come these days -- actual elections being what they are -- to the expression of democratic opinion, serially, week after week. [ category: ]
Submitted by Wayne Sanderson on November 26, 2005 - 8:33am.
|| Peter Botsman on Labor, party democracy and Whitlam || Report on US forces in Europe || Boris Johnson on Bush and Aljazeera/Daily Telegraph || Rob Reiner says neoliberalism causes crime || Report on the clash of cultures within the EU || Mark Steyn in support of Conrad Black || Sean Carroll reviews books on space and hidden dimensions || AC Grayling on humanism and religion || Report on Buy Nothing Day ||
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Submitted by Guest Contributor on November 26, 2005 - 7:28am.
"Thirty-eight boxes of Government files on the desalination plant were released this week and the Greens, the Opposition, journalists and environment groups have found a wealth of evidence to confirm that a desalination plant is the wrong option to meet Sydney's water needs.... What the documents don't reveal is why the former Carr - and now Iemma - Government are pursuing the increasingly unpopular desalination option. In fact unpublished community surveys buried in the 38 boxes show that the people of Sydney want to do more to conserve water. In fact a clear majority want tougher water restrictions." Ben Oquist [ category: ]
Submitted by PF Journey on November 26, 2005 - 6:27am.
"In the last few years, the Singapore Government has been very active in promoting to their own people that they should not forget their own Asian and Chinese values. They should not become too 'westernised'. In particular, they should appreciate, respect and 'look after' their own parents. If this is so, Singapore should spare Van's life for the sake of his mother and her suffering. Not for Van, not for Australia, or the Law, or human rights, international conventions etc etc. She has suffered enough." PF Journey [ category: ]
Submitted by Margo Kingston on November 26, 2005 - 3:18am.
I got an email from a long-time Webdiarist today 'gobsmacked' by documents dragged out of the NSW Government which show its proposed desalination plant is, quite simply, not in the public interest.Scully has let the cat out of the bag, hasn't he? It's a classic case of the mess that results when the interests of government become merged with the interests of business. [ category: ]
Submitted by Robert Bosler on November 26, 2005 - 12:39am.
"The notion that a politician could wrap up his time in public office in a book without amendment for how they might be regarded was inconceivable, before this one. Mark Latham has not only (to use one of his own terms) pole-axed the Labor Party in The Latham Diaries, he has pole-axed along with the last of his public reputation that notion as well, at least for some time to come. But that seemed to be his intention. So why did he do it? The answer might be found in the great unspoken truth (by a serving politician) of the Australian political system - that it has been horribly reduced to falsity, treachery and showmanship - and that the media interface between that system and the Australian people, supposed to serve each of those, is even worse. Since his public regard was tied up in that mess, perhaps he considered it best to scuttle the lot of it." Robert Bosler [ category: ]
Submitted by Wayne Sanderson on November 25, 2005 - 11:19pm.
|| Peter Botsman on Labor, party democracy and Whitlam || Report on US forces in Europe || Boris Johnson on Bush and Aljazeera/Daily Telegraph || Rob Reiner says neoliberalism causes crime || Report on the clash of cultures within the EU || Mark Steyn in support of Conrad Black || Sean Carroll reviews books on space and hidden dimensions || AC Grayling on humanism and religion || Report on Buy Nothing Day || [ category: ]
Submitted by Guest Contributor on November 25, 2005 - 6:29am.
"A progressively increasing share of Australia’s aid effort has been devoted to supporting improved governance over recent years, not only promoting democratic government and combating fraud and corruption, but more fundamentally building professional public administration and ensuring an independent legal system. Yet I sometimes feel we in Australia are not as conscious as we should be about what makes our institutional arrangements as good as they are. At times, we seem to be promoting in other countries governance arrangements we are not protecting carefully enough at home." Andrew Podger [ category: ]
Submitted by Irfan Yusuf on November 25, 2005 - 5:27am.
"The MBS is the closest thing you get to Franklins spirituality. Except at this supermarket, you’ll find everything priced at David Jones prices. Almost everything pricelessly spiritual and other-worldly was available – at a price. I have never seen so many cheap Indian wall hangings on sale for so much. I discovered this year that at MBS, it pays to know how to speak Hindi. That way, I could understand the mantras and even chant a few of my own. Here's a sample of an exchange of mantras between me and one of the MBS resident gurus. Now I must warn you that your soul might get blown away by the subtle spiritual truths emanating from this sacred discourse …" Irfan Yusuf [ category: ]
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