The Americans are a funny bunch.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/18/AR2006051800242.html?referrer=email&referrer=email

What were the alternatives? Although I'm not entirely sure what comes out of their mouths is English...

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Or, as the world's second leading newspaper puts it:

http://www. ( Read more... )

"Marsden, the duplicitous fraud, let down his profession... History's assessment of Marsden's life should depend on his actions -- which were appalling -- and not his public utterances. Words are cheap" writes Chris Merritt in today's The Australian (not online, oddly).

Has there ever been a clearer case of Ad Hominem argument? How utterly ( Read more... )

There's an excellent opinion piece by Wesley Aird in The Australian today that I think everyone should read:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19169915-7583,00.html

It really is a pity when there's only one newspaper that will ( Read more... )

This budget is just getting more and more depressing. Of course, every year sees weeks worth of complains about how wholesome cause X got no money and greedy group Y got too many tax cuts. But this time round, I can't find anything good at all on the spending side (granted, the superannuation changes were good, but that's just fiddling with taxes, ( Read more... )

Louis Nowra’s article last Friday ('A bushranger, a racehorse and a lost battle are all so yesterday,' 12 May, SMH) was insightful and thought-provoking. Nationalism tends to cloud historical reflection, and history has a tendency to simplify and romanticise. This is perhaps why John Howard’s talk of ‘Australian values’ is reassuring to many people ( Read more... )

This item appeared in Yesterday's Crikey email:

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5. Time to topple the top tax rates

Ray Evans, president of the HR Nicholls Society, writes:

All taxes inhibit economic growth and human progress generally. Some taxes, of course, are necessary. We have to pay for defence forces, law courts and the maintenance of law ( Read more... )

omg weightloss on 7.30 report. the world must be ending... how inconvenient

"When you put in, you get back." Nice one Kim Beazely - for a Liberal party slogan. Isn't this the very esscence of economic conservatism ( Read more... )

Sydney is not facing backwards as it stumbles into the future, as Saturday's SMH leader claims. This would imply we might have learnt something from our history and seen why past decisions have gone wrong. Rather, we are stumbling around, blindfolded by the state government. We're being dragged into the 21st century with 20th century infrastructure ( Read more... )

(Republished from my comments in http://community.livejournal.com/sydney_uni/77376.html - the rant below is about the University of Sydney Union, by the way. Lozi - please don't read ( Read more... )