Intellectual dishonesty is pure poison – A Crikey weblog

Category Archives: Uncategorized

Elsewhere – Terry McCrann gets it wrong, again

May 16, 2012 – 9:32 am

Terry McCrann gets it wrong, again So over the last year or two Terry McCrann has very confidently predicted four or five RBA decisions, immediately before the meeting (as opposed to months or weeks before), that did not come to pass. Terry also has a habit of always defending/rationalising RBA decisions after the event. It [...]

By Dave Gaukroger | Comments (10)

You can make meaningful assertions about 23 million Australians from 602 people in a phone survey, right?

May 14, 2012 – 12:16 pm

If you’re a Victorian, you might have seen this headline on the front page of Saturday’s Herald Sun. (If you’re in Sydney, I believe there was an equivalent on the front page of the Daily Telegraph): “Julia’s bribes backfire”. Apart from that being an interesting reveal into how News Ltd plans to deal with the [...]

By Jeremy Sear | Comments (21)

Australia punishing women who’d dare to flee domestic violence; not an important story, is it?

March 6, 2012 – 2:23 pm

A report in today’s Age about the plight of refugee women, victims of domestic violence, who forced by our law to choose between staying with their abuser or being deported to an even more dangerous situation from which they originally fled strikes me as enormously important. Anyone who’s opposed to amending the law so that’s [...]

By Jeremy Sear | Comments (9)

Cut and Paste Trophy – February 29

February 29, 2012 – 10:36 am

The arrival of the new Cut & Paste Trophy thread hints at something wonderful: that a new podcast has been recorded and it’s time to start collecting entries for the next one. PS – for those new to Pure Poison: What is the Cut & Paste Trophy?

By Dave Gaukroger | Also posted in Cut and Paste Trophy | Comments (8)

#LOLBolt quarantine zone – 1 February

February 1, 2012 – 10:04 am

There’s no doubting the incredible work ethic of the Southbank Jester, Andrew Bolt, which is why we’ve decided to dedicate a thread to him each week where you can discuss his unique contributions to public discussion. Dump your #LOLBolt observations in here so we can keep discussions in the open threads a little more sane, [...]

By Dave Gaukroger | Comments (32)

Elsewhere – Media inquiry day one: Chicken Little takes the floor

November 9, 2011 – 12:35 pm

Media inquiry day one: Chicken Little takes the floor As journalists and academics got ready to outline a new media order at the Finkelstein inquiry yesterday, anti-regulationists lined up to dismiss the process with bipartisan relish. On day one of the inquiry, editorials were calling it “unnecessary and ill-conceived” (Fairfax) and a potential “echo-chamber of [...]

By Dave Gaukroger | Comments (40)

Weekend talk thread November 4 – 6

November 4, 2011 – 10:24 am

I know there’s a fair bit of love for tractors in weekend threads, but have you ever wanted to build your own? Want to build some life size Meccano gear? Then take a look at the Global Village Construction Set, a modular, DIY, plan to help communities build and maintain their own industrial machinery. Something [...]

By Dave Gaukroger | Also posted in Open threads | Comments (94)

Elsewhere – Hitching Hitchens to the down under paywall …

November 3, 2011 – 11:35 am

Hitching Hitchens to the down under paywall … Oh noes, the paywall of doom has locked Christopher Hitchens behind its vast emphatic paywall. Hang on, hang on, what’s this at Slate, under the header The New Libya’s First Mistake, published on Friday October 21st 2011, and beginning: Surrendering to a feeling of deep impotence and [...]

By Dave Gaukroger | Comments (27)

Elite Watch 20 October 2011

October 20, 2011 – 2:00 pm

We all know that despite their power and/or wealth they’re the battlers, fighting against the “elites”… but sometimes there’s content published in their papers that makes the nation’s famed anti-elitist columnists seem a little bit like “elites” themselves. No, they don’t suddenly start advocating for better taxpayer-funded services for the poor – they’re not that [...]

By Jeremy Sear | Comments (9)

Couldn’t happen here

April 5, 2011 – 3:00 pm

For the how-lies-get-started file, this story from the US where the revelation that Obama has an iPad was magically – some would say shamelessly – turned into the lie that he had “cut in line” to get it. From: “I do have an iPad,” Obama replied To (on, surprise surprise, Fox): Obama Cuts in Line [...]

By Jeremy Sear | Comments (13)