Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

There was another milestone this week – the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass,” so known because of the shattered glass from the windows of Jewish homes and businesses, when murderous riots were orchestrated in nearly every town and village in Germany where Jews could be found.

Out of the war came a lesson which transcended the horror and tragedy and the inexcusable folly. It was a lesson about ordinary people – and the lesson was that they were not ordinary. On all sides they were the heroes of that war; not the generals and the politicians but the soldiers and sailors and nurses – those who taught us to endure hardship, to show courage, to be bold as well as resilient, to believe in ourselves, to stick together. (Paul Keating)

"If Barrack Obama gets up in tomorrow's presidential election Halliburton is likely to come under pressure. The company and the administration have managed to kill a plethora of Federal probes.  Some relate to the well-documented success of Halliburton in winning contracts in Iraq which were not even put to public tender.  Others related to the myriad of corruption allegations. The war in Iraq has largely been outsourced, privatised if you like, and Halliburton and its subsidiary Kellogg Brown Root, have been the greatest beneficiaries in dollar terms."  -Michael West

While Australia generally does well in international rankings, those rankings can blind us to a larger truth: Australia will not succeed in the future if it aims to be just a bit better than average. I believe that we need to revive the sense of Australia as a frontier country, and to cultivate Australia as a great centre of excellence. ... Today the frontier that needs sorting is the wider world, and complacency is our chief enemy. (Rupert Murdoch)

I suggest he could do the country a greater service by taking the long view of history, from now just on a hundred years ago... Whether Kevin Rudd decides to give young Australians the appropriate lead or otherwise, they will work it out. But what they will most appreciate is some direction for their thinking based on substance and truth and mature reflection which, in this case, a century of hindsight provides. (Paul Keating)

Maybe the time has gone when national societies were go-it-alone concerns, and perhaps we now need to give constitutional recognition to global interdependence. I can think of no more effective way of doing this than an extension of the franchise to all payers of American taxes. (Desmond Ryan)

To step in and juggle the demands of an economic meltdown, two deadly wars and a deteriorating climate crisis would stretch [Governor Palin] beyond her range. Like picking Sen. McCain for president, putting her one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time.

As market confidence continues to plunge some of modern economics’ most popular ideas are now looking a little under-dressed. This paper deals with just one of those ideas - the myth that market participants are always rational decision-makers who act to maximise their own best interests. (Miriam Lyons and James Murray)

It is too soon yet to predict exactly how badly the poorest countries will fare in the financial crisis and resultant economic downturn. But it is clear that reduced demands for exports to developed countries and lower foreign investment will mean less growth and government revenue for already-fragile social protection and services. For millions of the world’s poorest citizens, it is literally a matter of life and death.

Commercial television - where most Australians used to get their news and information - has dropped the ball. Even more disturbing, I think it’s showing serious signs of pulling out of the main news game. I think what we need - desperately - is to find some new models of those ruthless, old privateers we used to sneeringly call media moguls. (Ray Martin)

As the foundations of our lives erode, we search for an anchor, and social politics very often provides it. When all else fails, we may still rally around old certainties: nation, culture, religion, race. We crave strong authority figures that can imbue us with certainty and articulate for us a sense of self. That often involves fabricating a scapegoat who becomes a mortal enemy. (Waleed Aly)

This week’s Rudd Government stimulus package is a good start, but more is needed now. It is imperative for the Federal and State Governments to stimulate business with tax cuts otherwise both unemployed and "underemployed" will jump ... . In addition the Reserve Bank must cut interest rates another 1% at each of its next two or three monthly meetings. (Gary Morgan)

A motion calling for a judicial inquiry into the Commonwealth Government's People Smuggling Strike Team's actions, including those concerning the boat known as SIEV X and its tragic loss of life, has been voted down by the Senate.

In Australia, there are three key arenas in which the limits of racial, cultural, ethnic and religious diversity are tested. The first is in the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. The second is at our borders as defined by our immigration policies. The third is in the policies directed at managing cultural and ethnic diversity in Australia. (Petro Georgiou MP)

The “greed-is-good” era brought the stock market crash of 1987, the savings and loans debacle in the United States and the global recession which gripped many countries in the early 1990s. It is perhaps time now to admit that we did not learn the full lessons of the greed-is-good ideology. And today we are still cleaning up the mess of the twenty-first century children of Gordon Gecko. (Kevin Rudd)

Ill-advised financial deregulation led to financial concentration and not to more efficient markets. Independent local banks, which focused on financing local businesses, and Saving and Loan Associations, which knew the local housing market, have been replaced with large institutions that package unanalyzed risks and sell them worldwide. Regulation over-reached. The pendulum swung. Deregulation became an ideology and a facilitator of greed.

"We should all feel empowered that this is our parliament where the individuals trusted to make decisions on behalf of society will do so in the best interest of the community rather than pandering to big business or corporations. What do I mean by community? I mean the people and the environment in which they live." -Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, in her maiden speech to the Australian Senate.

The games impacted other aspects of daily life too. I moved cities around the time that the games started and was interested to see the differences between the effects on the two cities. In my original city, around early July, almost all the street market stalls were suddenly shut down. This was done to ‘create a culture of hygiene’. It was literally as though someone came during the night and moved them all away, out of sight. Even the large and popular night markets were shut down.

Keep the passion burning amongst the young people and others who have been energized by your unexpected, unpredicted, against-all-odds candidacy that has ignited and inspired a nation. Make Caroline Kennedy your VP. (Michael Moore)

If you were kept in the dark, though, I would think you would want to raise holy hell—if not to hold accountable those of your former superiors and colleagues responsible for the carnage of the past five years, then at least to try to wipe the blot off your record.

He's a product of a Jesuit school, he's been involved in Aboriginal legal aid and as a convenor of an Amnesty lawyers' group. As if that's not enough of a pointer, don't forget his involvement this month in striking down the World Youth Day regulations designed to prevent pilgrims being "annoyed". Compared with the cactus-like, dry-as-dust figures of recent elevation, this fellow is a positive orchid. (Richard Ackland)

Remember, the brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.(Randy Pausch)

If modern technology had been used to promote the ideas of liberty, free markets, sound money and trade, it would have ushered in a new golden age – a globalism we could accept. Instead, the wealth and freedom we now enjoy are shrinking and rest upon a fragile philosophic infrastructure. (Ron Paul)

Climate change presents a new kind of challenge. It is uncertain in its form and extent, rather than drawn in clear lines. It is insidious, rather than directly confrontational. It is long term, rather than immediate in both its impacts and its remedies. Remedies will require global co-operation of unprecedented complexity and dimension. We have much to contribute and much to lose as we face the diabolical policy challenge of climate change. (Professor Ross Garnaut)

Wholesale constitutional reform in Australia is long overdue. The starting point should be true independence. It is past time for an Australian Republic. ... Surely we are sufficiently grown up to be masters of our own affairs. (Joel Fitzgibbon)

Most modern people have a sense that not much washing was done until the 20th century, and the question I was asked most often while writing this book always came with a look of barely contained disgust: “But didn't they smell?” (Katherine Ashenburg)

This of course blows a hole in another ancient Bush fallacy, the one in which former Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld said "the oil wells belong to the Iraqi people" and former secretary of State Colin Powell seconded him by saying Iraqi oil "will be held in trust for the Iraqi people."

"My people are at breaking point. World leaders' bold rhetoric must be backed with military force" - Morgan Tsvangirai in the Guardian

The principle effectively ... was that, in order to protect a person’s privacy if that person gave personal data to the collector, the collector could not use that data for any other purpose than what the person had given it for, except by specific authority of law or by the approval of the data subject. ... Then along came Google and Yahoo! (The Hon. Justice Michael Kirby)

Whilst there is now plenty of discussion about the responses that governments should be making to address the predicted consequences of climate change, the focus seems to have been largely on the economic, trade and security issues. The social and human rights implications rarely rate a mention. (The Hon. John von Doussa)