A formidable interview with Tony Jones days before Hitchens’ death. A tribute from his brother. A brief tribute from Christian debating opponent Tony Blair.
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A formidable interview with Tony Jones days before Hitchens’ death. A tribute from his brother. A brief tribute from Christian debating opponent Tony Blair. A disgusting piece of scandal-mongering by the disgusting Andrew Bolt. Bolt is asserting that in the wake of Peter Roebuck’s suicide that he is being assessed unfairly by the media because he is not being treated comparably to a suspect pedophile priest. Bolt admits there is almost no evidence on the issue but that Roebuck [...] I always liked Shane Warne and thought he would have made a great captain of the Australian cricket team – he had a strong understanding of cricket strategy and had considerable skill at handling the media – at least in interviews. I liked his intensity in relation to cricket and his joy-seeking attitude to life. [...] I’ve known Bob since around 1966 or 1967. A great character of the left and a shrewd entrepreneur. Bob held strong Marxist views and sometimes said and did strange things. I remember him up in a tree outside the Soviet Embassy around 1968 when we were protesting the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia. His bookstore itself was [...] The ferocity of the mass media’s trial and conviction of Dominique Strauss Kahn on sexual assault charges makes me wonder whether the “presumption of innocence” principle is finally dead. Anything related to sexual crime these days seems to provoke an orgy of self-righteous indignation. Strauss Kahn seems to have been a worthwhile IMF leader. Here [...] Ivanhoe Girls Grammar School is a very good girl’s school in the north of Melbourne. Both my daughters went to the school and I have a great deal of affection for it and its excellent teachers and Head. This interested me. 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 [...] 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 [...] 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 [...] 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.’ [...] 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 [...]
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 [...] 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 [...] My mother passed away last Saturday. The eulogy I delivered at her funeral today is over the fold. [...] 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. [...] 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 [...] 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. [...] Republican Clive Hamilton gets Queen’s birthday gong. 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 she expect? |
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