I’m glad that you like some of my links. Hope you find the Clive Hamilton link useful, whatever you use it for.

Some shrewd punter (maybe Crikey) picked up on something fishy a few weeks back; ie why was Howard bothering to spend time in non-marginal Lib WA seats?

Lib polling has probably been telling them worrying things about WA for a few weeks.

Again: Rodent rooted.

FEDERAL Labor stands to win at least three Liberal seats in Western Australia, the latest opinion poll shows, dashing coalition hopes of gaining ground in the west.

The Labor surge in the Westpoll taken this week as interest rates rose shows West Australian voters are turning their backs on Prime Minister John Howard and his Government.

The poll, to be published in The West Australian tomorrow, shows a huge eight percentage point swing to the ALP, delivering it 54 per cent of the two-party preferred vote.

An election result of 54-46 to the Labor Party would not only ensure it retained the marginal seats of Swan and Cowan, but it would sweep up the Liberal seats of Hasluck, Stirling, and Kalgoorlie.

The Government has been hoping to hang on to Hasluck and Stirling, and believed taking either Cowan or Swan would give it enough of a buffer to offset expected Labor gains in Queensland, NSW, Tasmania and South Australia.

But this poll suggests West Australian voters, like their east coast counterparts, are rapidly ditching Mr Howard and the Coalition.

Labor’s primary vote has soared back to 43 per cent, where it was earlier this year soon after Kevin Rudd took over as opposition leader, according to the poll.

The Coalition’s primary vote is down eight points from the July Westpoll at 38 per cent.

In the 2004 election, Mr Howard hammered the ALP with a two-party preferred vote of 55.4 versus 44.6.

Kev might be “having it both ways” but it seems to be working for him. Having strong opinions only upsets the electorate, they are best avoided.

Having said that, it’s still early doors and I’m sure Howard will win in the end – maybe the QLD Council amalgamations will scare folks of putting the ALP all governemnts.

Megan, think Kev might be onto something with the “me too” stuff. It is depressing and I blame the media. This occured to me yesterday:

That’s Kevin07’s weakness, but is not of his own making. He is figuring he can finesse it. Rudd’s strength is his personal lust to be in power for Labor, whatever it takes, which matches Howard’s political and personal credo. This is what makes Kevin Rudd Howard’s most formidable opponent/threat since ‘96.

Don’t get sniffy at affluenza

Do Albrechtson and Howard realise that when they have a go at Tall Poppy Syndrome, be it obnoxious articles or new preambles, they’re undermining a supremely democratic social reflex-mechanism?

We’ve had the launch of the Kevin07 website as well as the Prime Minister’s announcement on YouTube of the Armed Forces Gap Year program.

Now we’ve just witnessed the new media use of the Internet by the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) for the key event in their election year calender – an address by both John Howard and Kevin Rudd to the National Press Club, an event then streamed live over the internet to an estimated nationwide Christian audience of 100,000 people.

You can hear a preview of the event by listening to the final minutes of this week’s ACL “political spot” podcast and read a summary.

I’m too short of time myself just now to critique the issues surrounding the interaction between religion and politics, but would like to quickly say four things that provide you with an indication of my concerns related to this subject :

ONE
Ian ‘Dicko’ Dickson of Australian Idol judging fame, who has previously completed a degree in politics, was precise in telling Charles Wooley on his morning radio program this morning that religion is the “bureaucracy of faith” (not something Mr. Dicko is enthusiastic about as he expressed concern about all forms of fundamentalism). For this reason, I think it is helpful to make a distinction between church as an institution and church as a source of ideas.

TWO
As a gay man in a relationship, it’s not uncommon for me to find evidence across the internet of others that regard gay marriage as nothing less than the next biggest threat to humanity besides terrorism. Thinking that is challenged by at least one man of faith as an attempt to inflame tensions with reckless comparisons.

Of course, this not only misrepresents the cause of affirming gay relationships (however which way you advocate change on this issue), but also creates noise that obstructs diversity of opinion about relationships within the gay community itself.

This report from The Age which contemplates the concept of Gay Conservatives gets me thinking about the distinctions between a debate over gay marriage versus a debate over so-called civil unions.

To quote Townsville Liberal MP Peter Lindsay from the article:

“Parliament is sympathetic to the concept of civil unions. You would be surprised if you knew the level of support in the ministry for civil unions. It’s just that they don’t “come out” and say so, preferring to opt for safety and to keep their views to themselves.”

Because some Conservative Christians who oppose gay marriage also oppose the concept of civil unions, I think this debate needs a paradox concept much like Joseph Schumpeter’s “Creative Destruction” to help all interested parties better comprehend changes in relationship, whether opinion is pushing for transformational change, change in increments or maintaining the status quo.

A concept which might help people feel more comfortable with raising issues.

To quote a Vicar called Eric Woods about the concept of Buried Treasure:

“This metaphor of the search for treasure underlines the truth that the Christian enterprise of exploration into God is a radical enterprise. ‘Radical’, from radix, meaning ‘root’: a radical is properly someone who lives from his or her roots, who is not content to live on the surface of things, but always probes and questions, searching for the truth and reality behind and beyond the humdrum and the mundane. Both as Christians and as the Church we have great need of that radical dimension, that dimension of depth.”

THREE
In addition to these resources, I encourage you to at least scan through this transcript from ABC Radio National’s Religion Report, one of which is an interview with Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd.

Having recently listened to Charles Wooley interview Mr. Rudd from Launceston on his morning radio program, I’m rather impressed by Mr. Rudd’s ability to value “knowledge for knowledge’s sake”, something University study seems to demand of me, regardless of the practical value I also need to gain from learning.

The opening of Rudd’s conversation with Wooley indicated to me that even if he is a small target opposition leader, he’s able to display a peripheral vision of a situation (I recall he was talking about Tasmania’s environment in general), rather than just be keeping his words and movements carefully chosen and directed in order to achieve an outcome.

By comparison, John Howard’s problem is that I only ever recall the green and gold jogging tracksuit and sometimes one-sentence answers in Question Time. Perhaps that’s just my limited perception , yet consistent with this concern about Mr. Howard is this point raised by Denis Shanahan today:

“The perception can become reality by putting pressure on the government leadership, creating anxiety and uncertainty among MPs and candidates, giving voters a sense of inevitability and forming a group assumption within the media that accentuates criticism of the government and eases criticism of the Opposition.”

FOUR
Also related to the topic I raise today is another important transcript from the ABC: an interview with social observer and thinker Clive Hamilton from The Australia Institute

I would caution left-wingers from making the opinions of Mr. Hamilton too central to their thinking.

As a Marketing student (combined with the study of Communication), I really have an issue with Mr. Hamilton’s critique of Marketing and I’m likely to take a relatively conservative position to counter his views.

In contrast with the problems of affluence identified by Clive Hamilton, consider the words of Brink Lindsey, who speaks about a prevailing libertarian synthesis:

“The ideologies on the left tend to be upset about the economic state of affairs and therefore are always preaching economic decline and economic pessimism, and likewise the people on the right don’t like the cultural changes so they’re always preaching cultural and moral decline.”

What’s important about using the study of Marketing to discipline thinking is that, unlike Economics or Sociology, it is a synthetic discipline which integrates economics, sociology and psychology (the study of the human individual in isolation) into one.

I’m not suggesting that Mr. Hamilton’s research is of no value. Far from it (I couldn’t develop my own insight without his), but he needs a critique of his critique, probably from a “libertarian synthesis” perspective rather than leave all the work up to Janet’s rich-hating myth critique in The Australian

After all, while I’m likely to give my House vote to Mr. Rudd (my entire family is Labor), I’m not willing to be branded Leftist as easily. I did give my Senate Vote in 2004 to the Democrats (based on their targeted campaigning of Melbourne’s Joy FM radio station) and I do firmly believe Joe Hockey is a great pollie to keep in Parliament, whatever the overall election outcome.

You can eventually follow more detail about this topic on my personal blog.

…From Justin

Ah that explains your flirtations with Strauss!

History has ended, and the last man has died. We’re all animals now.

Like an evolutionary examiner passing out grades; so we’ll be sent back to being amoebas, if we get the frigging answers wrong, or muck up in class?……devolution IS the new hell.

We’re all animals now.

Like when were we ever not?

Everything else might be contestable. But the fact we lumber around inside these giant evolving meat carcasses needing to breathe x times a day, fill gobs & stomachs x times a week, urinating, defecating, possibly reproducing, dying and turning to dust – isn’t.

Oops, gotta go vacuum and hang out a few loads, before school pick up, now there’s lack of evolutionary progress, for yer.

the twenty first century is shaped by (or predicted by) Strauss, Kojeve and Schmitt. . The Straussian moment is over, but still haunting us, and the Schmittian moment describes our politics, but our culture is nonhuman in Kojeve’s terms – Fukuyama was right. History has ended, and the last man has died. We’re all animals now.

Oh come on….

I’m sorry I missed the original MySpace, now removed. It made a reference among his achievements to the ‘extension of his driveway’. This is a local joke based on Stuart getting the deadend road leading only to his property sealed with fed funding.

So is the elevation Of St Kevin part of the big picture ?

You are twenty years behind the times dear boy. Alan Bloom said all this is Closing of the American Mind.