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Australian Society

Submitted by Fiona Reynolds on July 17, 2008 - 12:18pm.
Those were the days, my friends ...
For the young at heart, and for those who can remember.
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Submitted by Richard Tonkin on July 9, 2008 - 11:40am.
Ask not for whom the Pell extolls, it's not for thee
The Australian figurehead of the Catholic Church, while demanding and enforcing what he considers to be appropriate behaviour from the secular community, has allowed one of his ministers to behave appallingly without taking action that those outside his church would be expected to take. 
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Submitted by Richard Tonkin on July 9, 2008 - 12:22am.
Community spirit
""Sort of. He's the Rimpoche" Jigme then explained that asking a Rimpoche for beer was like asking a Catholic Archbishop for a condom."- Lord Stompy
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Submitted by Guest Contributor on July 4, 2008 - 8:30pm.
Garnaut Climate Change Review Draft Report: A diabolical challenge
Climate change presents a new kind of challenge. It is uncertain in its form and extent, rather than drawn in clear lines. It is insidious, rather than directly confrontational. It is long term, rather than immediate in both its impacts and its remedies. Remedies will require global co-operation of unprecedented complexity and dimension. We have much to contribute and much to lose as we face the diabolical policy challenge of climate change. (Professor Ross Garnaut)
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Submitted by Guest Contributor on July 4, 2008 - 5:10pm.
Clean: An unsanitised history of washing
Most modern people have a sense that not much washing was done until the 20th century, and the question I was asked most often while writing this book always came with a look of barely contained disgust: “But didn't they smell?” (Katherine Ashenburg)
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Submitted by Fiona Reynolds on July 1, 2008 - 3:51pm.
The difficult task of damage control
Perhaps the principal conclusion to be drawn from today's policy challenges is that it would have been better to avoid the build-up of credit excesses in the first place. (Bank of International Settlements)
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Submitted by Guest Contributor on June 22, 2008 - 3:29pm.
Four parables and a reflection on regulating the Net
The principle effectively ... was that, in order to protect a person’s privacy if that person gave personal data to the collector, the collector could not use that data for any other purpose than what the person had given it for, except by specific authority of law or by the approval of the data subject. ... Then along came Google and Yahoo! (The Hon. Justice Michael Kirby)
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Submitted by Guest Contributor on June 22, 2008 - 2:21pm.
Human rights and climate change
Whilst there is now plenty of discussion about the responses that governments should be making to address the predicted consequences of climate change, the focus seems to have been largely on the economic, trade and security issues. The social and human rights implications rarely rate a mention. (The Hon. John von Doussa)
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Submitted by Fiona Reynolds on June 19, 2008 - 1:44pm.
The NT Intervention one year on: Brilliant idea or utter nightmare?
The document ..., entitled 'Northern Territory Emergency Response Situation Report as at 1500 hrs Wed 14th May 08', paints a picture of an incomplete roll out of the Northern Territory Intervention, an emergency response that Mal Brough recently admitted to ABC Darwin radio was put together in 48 hours. (Sophie Black, Crikey)
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Submitted by Basil J Smith on June 18, 2008 - 11:16am.
Moral influence and democracy
Politically, all democracies are bedevilled by the structures of political power which defeat democracy’s moral influence, killing its empathetic equality of power and political opportunity for all citizens.
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Submitted by Scott Dunmore on June 5, 2008 - 12:12pm.
Trying to understand
According to the DSM, pedophilia is a form of paraphilia in which a person either has acted on intense sexual urges towards children, or has sexual urges towards and fantasies about children that cause distress or interpersonal difficulty. In common usage, the term pedophile or paedophile refers to an adult who is sexually attracted to children, whether or not the adult acts upon that attraction by sexually abusing a child.
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Submitted by Fiona Reynolds on May 28, 2008 - 10:01pm.
Why banning human nature doesn't work
For much of my life I've been unable to understand why certain drugs were banned, why prostitution was banned, why certain forms of gambling were banned, why abortion was illegal, or why certain material was censored. The history of the consequences of banning these kinds of activity is well-known. First, they fail.
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Submitted by Richard Tonkin on May 27, 2008 - 5:42pm.
What song to sing?
The piece has got me thinking about what happens now to those who found their political voices while chanting in protest once their calls have been heeded  Do they consider the job done and go home to put the telly on, or do they take the skills that they've acquired and try to use them in ways that they think might "make a difference" ?
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Submitted by Paul Walter on May 24, 2008 - 6:10pm.
Perverts in the shrubbery
In this sort of fevered environment, where "morals" are defined in terms of sexual behaviour, the Mirandas become rails runners for opinion dominance. And faux outrage over dubious artworks is just another obvious mode for distraction from real world issues.
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Submitted by John Pratt on May 18, 2008 - 12:12pm.
How green was my Kevin
This budget lacked vision and did nothing to protect us from climate change or the rising cost of energy. It could have been a Howard/Costello budget. It is a shame on the Labor party and I am sure thousands of Labor supporters will, like me, be very disappointed.
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Submitted by Democratic Audit on May 15, 2008 - 4:54pm.
Democratic Audit Update - 15 May 2008
This month's update from Democratic Audit Australia has some interesting material on political donations, electoral changes, and the lobbyists' register.
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Submitted by Fiona Reynolds on May 12, 2008 - 9:27pm.
Beer, cigs up
A collection of comments, quotes and opinions on the budget.
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Submitted by Fiona Reynolds on May 12, 2008 - 1:01pm.
The bits in the middle
The one constant about democracy is that the job description for the national government never changes. Government is meant to provide security and public infrastructure, to correct for market failure, and to avoid telling people how to live their lives. (George Megalogenis)
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Submitted by Ian MacDougall on May 10, 2008 - 9:48pm.
A tale of two selloffs
The ostensible argument for power privatisation is that NSW needs the money for schools, hospitals and other expenditure. The reality is that sale of capital is touted as the way to finance ongoing expenditure, analogous to the classic case of the farmer who sells off a bit of the farm each year to keep the family clothed and food on the table.
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Submitted by Guest Contributor on April 29, 2008 - 6:18pm.
Love has no limits
Being a carer may not be the most recognised job in the world, but it is by far the most rewarding. Now when people ask me what I do, I am proud to say that I am a carer, knowing that by doing this job I am giving Warren the greatest gift of all - a life worth living. (Tania Hayes)
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Submitted by Malcolm B Duncan on April 28, 2008 - 2:30pm.
Chaser APEC case dropped
The case against members of ABC TV's The Chaser's War on Everything has been dropped. Here's why.
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Submitted by Richard Tonkin on April 28, 2008 - 12:28am.
The Making of Music
If you throw enough money at something, it will make money. With publicists you can create a mystique into which nature will introduce scandal. You can fill people's heads with information that they'd prefer not to possess. We could be doing so much more to turn more kinds of music into self-propagating entities, but we don't.
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Submitted by Ian MacDougall on April 26, 2008 - 10:14pm.
The Fourth Transition
Norman Mailer once wrote: “My long experience with human nature … suggests that it is possible that fascism, not democracy, is the natural state.” Mailer was a novelist, and his business was being provocative. I found his article … to be food for considerable worthwhile thought. After the thinking, I decided he was wrong.
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Submitted by Jenny Hume on April 24, 2008 - 5:44pm.
The Great War - voices from the past
Hope was the last casualty and it was not till 1921 that the family felt they had to let go, and held a memorial service. The file of these letters, some photos of a handsome lad, and a small envelope labeled pressed flowers from the service are all that remain, along with his name amongst the missing on the Menin Gate in the Belgian village of Ypres.
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Submitted by David Roffey on April 21, 2008 - 8:56am.
From Little Kev Big Hits GetUp?
link to getup song page
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Submitted by Melody Kemp on April 17, 2008 - 3:51pm.
Lest we forget
It seems our ex Prime Miniature is now a cult hero amongst born again Aryans. Readers of Webdiary may be interested to see some of the interchange. ADDED: It should be noted that there is no evidence that ex-Prime Minister Howard actually said any of these things attributed to him, and some are clearly extracted from other sources.
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Submitted by David Roffey on April 17, 2008 - 10:35am.
"Dear Mr Rudd" - nothing needed on Welfare or Education?
Robert Manne's collection Dear Mr Rudd: Ideas for a Better Australia covers some interesting ground, if relatively superficially (or "readable", according to the blurb). But what I find more interesting is what it doesn't cover.
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Submitted by Democratic Audit on April 16, 2008 - 12:49pm.
Democratic Audit Update - 16 April 2008
The latest update from the Democratic Audit program at Swinburne on how our democracy is working.
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Submitted by Stephen Smith on April 16, 2008 - 12:31pm.
The Choir of Hard Knocks – Parable for the 2020 Summit
To make the best of the Australia 2020 Summit, its participants would do well to put into practice some of the Choir of Hard Knocks's street level messages. Not only within the arts, but also by application to life. A ‘vision’ needs to be a popular one; but we can do without the same old spectacle of experts and celebrities that displaces that which it claims to represent.
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Submitted by Guest Contributor on April 12, 2008 - 5:28pm.
The Black Death of financial collapse
The financial and economic crisis now upon us is by far the most menacing of the past century - even more so than the Great Depression of the 1930s. It is not just a "subprime" crisis; it is systemic - affecting the entire financial system. (James Cumes)
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Recent Comments

David Roffey: {whimper} in Not with a bang ... 13 weeks 6 days ago
Jenny Hume: So long mate in Not with a bang ... 14 weeks 13 hours ago
Fiona Reynolds: Reds (under beds?) in Not with a bang ... 14 weeks 2 days ago
Justin Obodie: Why not, with a bang? in Not with a bang ... 14 weeks 2 days ago
Fiona Reynolds: Dear Albatross in Not with a bang ... 14 weeks 2 days ago
Michael Talbot-Wilson: Good luck in Not with a bang ... 14 weeks 2 days ago
Fiona Reynolds: Goodnight and good luck in Not with a bang ... 14 weeks 3 days ago
Margo Kingston: bye, babe in Not with a bang ... 15 weeks 14 hours ago