October, 2008

The editorial from the Crikey email today. Just coz I kind of liked this one. Had Kevin Rudd not had the good fortune to make an advantageous marriage, then we can probably assume that the considerable wealth of his would-be nemesis Malcolm Turnbull could be more of an issue in public discussion than it is. As [...]

In all, the two men whom officials describe as neo-Nazi skinheads planned to kill 88 people — 14 by beheading, according to documents unsealed in U.S. District Court in Jackson, Tenn. The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community. OK, I’ll bite … how exactly are these numbers significant? Who knew [...]

Thomas Jefferson’s library held 6,487 volumes. In 1814, the 3,000 volumes then held by the Library of Congress were burned by the British. Jefferson sold his 6,487 to the Congress as a replacement. They too were burned in 1851. Read Harper’s and you will know these things.

I heard Johnny Cash’s version of this for the first time last night, and it took a moment of two to place it. That’s such a funny sense, that nagging unresolved familiarity. Sort of an “I know that face” feeling. This fits into some general theory of music, how musicality is a notion that can [...]

Just watching treasury secretary Ken Henry copping the best that Helen Coonan has to offer in Senate Estimates …. it’s a clash of worlds, Coonan and Abetz grappling for points of pure politics, Henry struggling to keep his feet on a higher plane of policy and decisions. Coonan persists, Henry slaps down … ‘While I [...]

Am I missing something in the Britt Lapthorne story? Any child’s death is undoubtedly an appalling tragedy for the parents involved …. but candlelit vigils? Public memorial services? Weeks of breathless coverage in the Australian media? Why no state funeral? It’s absurd. It speaks of something grisly and voyeuristic I reckon. Some empty place in [...]

It has, all things considered, been quite the week. That should clear a few things up. It still seems difficult to comprehend whatever it is that might be happening in economy and politics. Bernard Keane wrote a superb little thing midweek (and I’m not just saying that coz I pay him), ridiculing this collective sense [...]

Did you read the Rolling Stone Sarah Palin yarn? Zounds! Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system, she’s a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove. But more than that, she is a [...]