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The treatment of David Cambell by the media and his own party is repugnant. Our society is becoming more American by the day with sexual images and innuendo thrown at us constantly but with, at the same time, a strengthening moral puritanism. It is an understatement to note that David Campbell does not seem to have been a [...] Inspirational stuff – youngest person (short of 17 years old) to sail solo, unassisted around the world. We have heroes! Jessica has her own blogsite, is releasing a book and will sell her story to Newscorp for a packet. I hope she makes a fortune. The deadheads who say her behaviour is masochistic and reckless should go to [...] I have been listening to Leo Kottke for decades – the first time in Chicago around 1983 – he has been performing for 40 years. He is an astonishing guitarist and has a warped personality that really appeals – “When Shrimps Learn to Whistle” (no I can’t steal a copy) is a favourite as is Pamela Brown - “I guess [...] Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in his address to the Australian Parliament said of the relations between Indonesia and Australia: ‘The most persistent problem in our relations is the persistence of age-old stereotypes, misleading simplistic mental caricatures which depict the other side in a bad light.’ Continue reading SBY I didn’t get far yesterday with my claim to a postgraduate student that climate change delusionism is analogous to irrational belief in biblical creationism – both involved a rejection of mainstream science and reliance on emotional instincts. The student responded that he believed in the latter – that Adam’s dalliance with Eve created the human race – and that the issue was not one of evidence (of the type he supposed I might advance) but simply of belief. My response was that ‘belief’ in this sense amounted to ‘faith’ which in turn involved nothing more than blind acceptance and a rejection of reason based on, in this specific case, evolutionary history. It is a standard story I have accepted all my adult life – the words I used hatched in my throat like they were already written there (thanks WB) – I knew this dialogue would go nowhere. Continue reading Compartmentalized thinking – god & universities
One of the posts lost in the recent hack attack concerned Lord Monkton’s visit to Australia. Conservatives around Australia (Albrechtsen and even Barnaby Joyce)* are seeking to distance themselves from this silly toff. I liked the following summary of the great Lord Monkton from DeSmogBlog. The mad Lord Monkton repeats the usual delusionist nonsense at [...] I have admiration for Tiger Woods the sportsman and really couldn’t care less if his sexual drives lead him to have partners other than his wife. But something is lost in my admiration for the guy because of a stench of hypocrisy. Woods’ configured public image as the ‘perfect family guy’ turns out to be just that – public relations. [...] My mother passed away last Saturday. The eulogy I delivered at her funeral today is over the fold. Continue reading Vale Alison Clarke 1917-2009 Having studied and taught economics for just over 40 years I have no doubts as to who in my mind was the most influential and the greatest economist of the twentieth century and that was Paul Samuelson. I learnt this morning that Paul Samuelson has just died at age 94. Continue reading Vale Paul Samuelson RFK said this in 1968. In a speech I heard today it was quoted and it stirred me. “We will find neither national purpose nor personal satisfaction in a mere continuation of economic progress, in an endless amassing of worldly goods. We cannot measure national spirit by the Dow Jones Average, nor national achievement by the Gross [...] I was not surprised that Oliver Williamson won the Nobel Gong in economics though I had never heard about the other prize winner Elinor Ostrom. Continue reading Nobel gongs in economics Republican Clive Hamilton gets Queen’s [...] Alexander Downer sorts them out. Yes, and the evidence was that Annice Smoel was drunk, did steal an expensive beermat, did make a run for it and did abuse arresting officers. What did [...] The story of the country-based GP who drilled a hole in the side of a young boy’s head using a household drill moved me. The boy had a head injury accident that led to internal bleeding that put pressure on the boy’s brain. The boy faced a near certain short-term death if the pressure was not removed. Continue reading Heroic, smart GP I have been watching the 2009 Masters Tournament at Augusta the last couple of nights on Foxtel. Augusta is an challenging golf course of great length, complexity and with lightning-fast bent grass greens. The player who impressed me most so far in the tournament is the youthful Anthony Kim a 23-year [...] I found this NYT video moving. After this less so. After this story I found it even [...] I heard this remarkable man – ex president of Iran 1997-2005 – speak at La Trobe University this evening. Mr Khatami is a Muslim cleric whose main interest is political philosophy. I found his prepared speech, which ran for half an hour, academic and rather dry. For another 2 hours however he took good-natured, though often [...] Former head of Human Rights Commission and perennial liar Marcus Einfeld has gone to jail for at least two years. The left loved him as a personality judge. But he lied about a $77 fine (he had lied about traffic convictions several times before), lied about his academic qualifications (he bought degrees) and his past directorships and plagiarised past [...] The famous Harvard-based economist Professor Martin Feldstein is on the board of the American insurer AIG that received $200 billion in handouts from the US government and which has just paid over $160 million in bonuses mainly to those managers responsible for its massive financial failure. The bonuses were ‘justified’ by AIG as retention bonuses designed to [...] |
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