tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-225343692009-07-10T07:53:41.219+10:00Politically homeless"How many journalists ... have written a story recently that was original, exclusive, highly relevant and genuinely useful to your audience?"
- John HartiganAndrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.comBlogger313125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-19370400905681592402009-07-05T14:40:00.001+10:002009-07-05T14:44:26.355+10:00Sloppy research is unhealthyI remember when libertarians had initiative in questioning the basic assumptions of how we govern ourselves, and are governed. You still get small numbers of classical liberals, like Stephen Kirchner or Andrew Norton, who bother to do research to test their theories, but these tend to be the exception. Even Jason Soon will do this to some extent, and when he doesn't Andrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-3888974655003185662009-07-04T20:33:00.003+10:002009-07-05T00:03:21.022+10:00Safety in numbersIn the US Senate, the Democrats can claim sixty of that body's hundred members. In theory this enables them to votes as a bloc to introduce legislation, free of the threat of filibuster from the Republicans. In practice the conventional wisdom has it that this may be a bit more fraught, as this article demonstrates:Keeping occasional mavericks like Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Evan Andrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-23475123344902676692009-07-02T19:22:00.002+10:002009-07-02T23:43:31.265+10:00Night thoughts from John HartiganI read the John Hartigan transcript. Two things struck me:it was exactly like John B. Fairfax's back-to-the-future routine; andhow utterly clueless it is; talking about thinking outside the box while at the same time insisting that anyone outside the box is gone for all money.It started with contradictions: rousing words (if you read the transcript, which HartiganAndrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-1612329063979690922009-06-28T20:54:00.004+10:002009-06-28T21:45:09.178+10:00VactoriaSooner or later the Liberals will have to replace many of the MPs who survived the 2007 election with those who have something to contribute to the future. I have mentioned that there is plenty of dead wood there, but the great state of Victoria is, however unwittingly, doing its bit to show us what the future of the Liberal Party will look like: a reprise of the immediate past.The only Andrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-30437157808719875172009-06-27T17:20:00.006+10:002009-06-27T21:11:07.832+10:00Power failureHere is a post in favour of renewable energy that doesn't really address environmental issues, but rather the business and political impacts of the current non-policies of this country. (I believe that human pollution leads to a rise in global temperatures and that rising temperatures affect our environment dramatically, and for the worse. I take that as a given in what follows and Andrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-74505240129078416332009-06-26T20:34:00.005+10:002009-06-26T20:34:00.774+10:00What was the point of the Nationals?Apparently Australia has no clearly defined international reputation in terms of food. What, the, was the point of having the Nationals hogging the Trade portfolio in government for eleven years? As an urban-dweller who'd never vote National I was a bit miffed that the Coalition government turned determinedly away from future-oriented exports in hi-tech, the Andrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-4184262035535846672009-06-25T20:10:00.000+10:002009-06-25T20:10:01.888+10:00Speaking the same languageIt's my own fault, I suppose, but not entirely. First I read this article in The Australian about how Asian languages were all too hard and that there's quite enough cultural richness in French or German for anyone, thank you very much, which is pretty much the philosophy of language education when I was at school (back then it was Japanese that we were all supposed to Andrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-15778418889975554652009-06-24T17:35:00.002+10:002009-06-24T17:48:45.312+10:00Seven thoughts about IranA number of assumptions have been bandied about regarding the current predicament of Iran, and I don't find them convincing: That Mousavi wants a US-style democracy, and is prepared to enter into a Faustian bargain with the US to get into office. That there is much demand for Mousavi outside Tehran, i.e. the blood on the streets of Tehran is part of a national movement. Andrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-84931599673196896742009-06-23T21:09:00.004+10:002009-06-23T22:23:22.561+10:00Turnbull isn't finishedThe smartest guy in the class has been brought down a peg, though. The fact that Rudd is trying a little too hard in going after him, allowing his nerd act to slip and reveal the snarling beast beneath (does anyone still wonder why that hostie burst into tears?) was and is an error. If this had happened last week, Costello would have smirked and sneered, and still wouldn't Andrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-35414009248038212242009-06-21T21:11:00.002+10:002009-06-21T21:15:12.857+10:00Double-fault at KooyongThe Victorian Liberals apparently held "the largest preselection vote in the party's history ... under a new, more democratic system", and they botched the result.They elected notorious flim-flam man Josh Frydenberg, sucked in! ... Liberal Party sources said Mr Frydenberg wanted to re-establish Kooyong as a fund-raising powerhouse.Whose funds, Melissa? To what ends, MelissaAndrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-4083084537734049132009-06-20T13:53:00.004+10:002009-06-22T13:18:54.965+10:00I resemble that accusationChristian Kerr took time out this week to criticise blogs, or rather to put words to his unease, and that of his employer more broadly, toward this medium. His piece is here. Breaking the traditions of blogs, such as they are, I have left it a few days to consider the whole issue of blogs and the MSM as presented by Christian and bounced off a few others. And we have no Andrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-61557099164040552582009-06-16T19:39:00.003+10:002009-06-16T19:45:21.263+10:00The bubble and the babbleOver the past 36 hours two memes have died - Peter Costello and Des Moran. Two feared operators who have mellowed in recent years but whose enemies have increased, both in number and intensity as the very mellowness and predictability of these old warhorses made them easier marks. This is not to compare Costello with a petty criminal, but to explore the half-witted way Andrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-46966322719725922492009-06-15T20:18:00.000+10:002009-06-15T20:20:22.588+10:00Who is my neighbour?Just as Richard Nixon was the only American politician who could visit Communist China without being red-baited by Richard Nixon, so too Binyamin Netanyahu is the only Israeli politician who could even mention Palestine without being accused of caving in, treason or worse by Netanyahu.(Yes, the above link connects to a News Ltd report. Here at the Politically Homeless Andrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-9788739731599236372009-06-09T21:24:00.004+10:002009-06-09T23:29:27.754+10:00Shuffle in an echo chamberI assumed that Fitzgibbon would be big enough to a) hire a smart and experienced person to advise him on big-picture defence issues, and b) would overcome the smalltown mentality that affects many politicians, who see Canberra as just a bigger stage on which to play petty parish-pump politics. We at PoHo Institute were wrong on both counts. Now that he's been kicked in Andrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-26266023281071818922009-06-03T14:04:00.001+10:002009-06-03T14:09:27.455+10:00Piss off AlbyAlby Schultz was a NSW MP who made himself look good and did bugger-all for anyone else, undermining a NSW Premier of his own party without having the necessary guts, brains and character to step forward and show how it's done. Now he's a Federal MP, and no better. The old bludger has been siphoning the public purse for 21 years now and it's high time he left. I meant what I said Andrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-8252075441028937132009-05-30T20:59:00.004+10:002009-05-31T23:31:00.360+10:00Your guess is as good as mineNorth Korea has detonated a nuclear weapon, and even as they condemn people are looking for guidance as to what's going on, what this means and what might happen next. The traditional place to look is the media, yet for Australians there is simply nothing on offer that can give the information required to make sense of it all.First, Fairfax got the website guy from Andrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-87435232324233342712009-05-25T20:10:00.003+10:002009-05-25T20:18:28.828+10:00Tony Abbott is gutlessIn this piece, Phillip Coorey reckons Tony Abbott wants a debate - but he doesn't really. He wants to exert the same degree of control over a supplicant Parliamentary Liberal Party and a mendicant populace that John Howard had. The only debates Tony Abbott wants are those that don't change anything. Phillip Coorey has no right to take Abbott at his word.Abbott, however, doesAndrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-15920400391055811662009-05-17T19:30:00.003+10:002009-05-17T21:09:13.096+10:00The best ever debate on Australian televisionThis is the best debate ever on Australian television.It concerns a serious issue discussed seriously by knowledgeable people. None of them resort to platitudes or sarcasm. There will never be a debate in any Australian Parliament this good. No episode of Q&A, nothing ever said or written by Laurie Oakes or Michelle Grattan, no dialogue with Sister Andrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-44065991709998377962009-05-13T19:54:00.000+10:002009-05-13T18:58:04.950+10:00Feeling sorryYou'd be surprised how easy it is to avoid commentating on the hoo-ha at The Monthly, even when you're a subscriber. However, if I was a former Federal Treasurer on the day following a Budget delivered by my successor, I'd hope for a bit more decorum and gravitas than Peter Costello had shown here. The article starts with the perpendicular pronoun and plunges into a self-absorbed Andrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-16326149374667562992009-05-08T20:05:00.002+10:002009-05-08T20:12:24.606+10:00Calling shenanigans on Media WasteMedia Watch has always been a funny show, an attempt to demonstrate that a bunch of people similarly employed are actually a profession, rather than a trade, a craft or even a rabble. It is not designed for "the little people" (and stuff Littlemore and Jackson for even using that term), it is a show trial without any teeth. The only members of the public engaged Andrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-23477206231549060832009-05-06T20:22:00.006+10:002009-05-07T20:30:05.416+10:00Bonfire of the dead woodAnd I just hope that you can forgive usBut everything must goAnd if you need an explanationThen everything must go ...- Manic Street Preachers Everything must goThis article by Milney shows both of the tricks that his fans know and love: the anonymous source inflated to titanic proportions, and the absurd extrapolations. As Liberal preselections begin to open, you'd expectAndrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-763435150793699932009-05-03T11:26:00.003+10:002009-05-08T20:13:04.442+10:00White, paper and The Plastic GangsterWhen the government releases a White Paper on Defence, the Foreign Editor of a major newspaper should be expected to provide an intelligent and considered response. Not, however, if that editor is Greg Sheridan. He has had a go at the Defence White Paper, and frankly it's poor Greg who comes off second-best.THE defence white paper is an almost incoherent Andrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-39722986136507018702009-05-02T16:15:00.002+10:002009-05-02T20:58:17.114+10:00Journalist wakes up, rolls over, goes back to sleepThis article shows dangerous signs of understanding by a journalist as to what is really happening with her profession. Chuck her out of the MEAA at once! Off with her head!Sent to one of the British Prime Minister's most trusted advisers, the text message arrived with a chilling portent: "What is best in life? To crush your enemies, to see them Andrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-34815488679079858922009-04-30T20:48:00.008+10:002009-05-02T18:15:01.542+10:00White-collar UnderbellyThe evil that men do lives after them;The good is oft interred with their bones;So let it be with Caesar.- Shakespeare Julius Caesar Act III Scene IIThe sight of those two rogues, Vizard and Elliott, at Richard Pratt's funeral were reminiscent of the funeral scenes from Underbelly, where a different Carlton Crew were out in force.The fawning over Pratt has received a great Andrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-55500565283670259462009-04-22T19:56:00.004+10:002009-04-24T08:25:02.306+10:00The way to snarkThis is the way to do political incorrectness, snark, kulturkrieg, counterintuitive journalism, out-of-the-box thinking, wading against the lefty tide - call it what you will. It’s well-researched and well-written, and specific in its targets. Greg Sheridan could never write an article like this if his life depended on it (nor could John Pilger). The link to al-Qaeda is measured Andrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.com7