By Robert Merkel on January 12, 2009
It’s hard to think of genuine foreign policy successes of the Bush administration – apparently the right-wing blogosphere in the US is touting “improved relations with Australia” as an achievement… The deals with Libya and North Korea were perhaps success, [...]
Posted in International, Iran, Nuclear, USA, War | Tagged bush, enrichment, Iran, Israel, Nuclear, uranium, white house |
By Mark Bahnisch on January 12, 2009
With George W. Bush having a little over a week in office left to go of what has been a very long eight years, it’s timely to turn to the question of the long term implications for the political strength [...]
Posted in Climate change, Environment, Ethics, International, Markets, Science, Sociology, USA | Tagged ALP, anti-science, Australian politics, Climate change, cprs, epistemology, George W. Bush, ideas, John Quiggin, Kevin Rudd, Labor, neoliberalism, political culture, right wing, Rudd government, Science, science studies, short term thinking, Sociology, white paper |
By Mark Bahnisch on January 12, 2009
Maybe it’s still the silly season in Australian politics. Or maybe any development involving both John Howard and the Queensland Nationals is by definition surreal. Barnaby Joyce has apparently been chatting to John Howard, and has indicated a willingness to [...]
Posted in Howardia, Politics | Tagged Barnaby Joyce, Coalition, House of Reps, John Howard, leadership, Malcolm Turnbull, Nationals, Queensland Nationals, seat |
By Kim on January 11, 2009
One of the ironies of the Windschuttle kerfuffle is that Alan Sokal has a new book out. Perhaps all those Sokal analogies will help his sales. At any rate, blogger and UPenn cultural studies prof Michael Bérubé has some very [...]
Posted in Activism, Blogging, Books, Writers & Writing, Culture, Media, Philosophy, Science, Sociology | Tagged Alan Sokal, Beyond the Hoax: Science, cultural studies, epistemology, hoax, Katherine Wilson, keith windschuttle, Michael Bérubé, Philosophy and Culture, postmodernism, Quadrant, relativism, science studies, sharon gould, sociology of science |
By Kim on January 11, 2009
A couple of items which provide some food for thought: Firstly – Barack Obama does represent change from the era of the Bush administration. He is the limited change that’s possible within the logic of the current system. <img src="http://larvatusprodeo.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/spectrum.jpg" [...]
Posted in Economics, Media, Politics, USA | Tagged Arianna Huffington, barack obama, Blago, conservatism, global financial crisis, inauguration, left and right, liberalism, political scandal, TARP bailout, US political parties, US politics |
By Mark Bahnisch on January 11, 2009
Years ago, I used to read Quadrant – incidentally before Robert Manne became editor, if I recall correctly. Back in the day, there was a sense that there was some sort of contest of ideas, and thus there was some [...]
Posted in Blogging, Books, Writers & Writing, Culture, History, Howardia, Media, Politics | Tagged blogosphere, conservativism, cultural politics, Culture Wars, History wars, hoax, Indigenous history, John Howard, John Quiggin, Katherine Wilson, keith windschuttle, left, little magazines, Pavlov's Cat, Quadrant, right, robert manne, sharon gould, wingnuts, writing |
By Mark Bahnisch on January 11, 2009
Since we don’t live by politix alone (I sincerely hope), what did people get up to this weekend? Join in, share some tales, regulars and lurkers all!
Posted in Life |
By Guest Poster on January 10, 2009
A while back, I wrote a series of posts on speculative fiction – Distant Suns. Commenter patrickg liked the posts and wanted to try his own hand at one. So I’m happy to host the first of his continuation of [...]
Posted in Books, Writers & Writing, Culture, Film, TV, Video etc | Tagged blogs, Book review, Books, Writers & Writing, cultural studies, fantasy, online games, popular culture, Robert E. Howard, speculative fiction, sword and sorcery, The Complete Chronicles of Conan, Writers & Writing, writing |
By Mark Bahnisch on January 10, 2009
An open thread, where at your weekend leisure, you can discuss anything you like.
Posted in Miscellaneous |
By Mark Bahnisch on January 9, 2009
The Guardian reports that the Israeli Foreign Ministry is encouraging people to reproduce their spin on news websites and blogs, and providing talking points for “volunteers”. Elsewhere: Lyn Calcutt at Public Opinion. Update: Thread continues here.
Posted in Blogging, Ethics, Imperialism, International, Media, Middle East, Palestine, Terrorism, War | Tagged attacks, Blogging, blogosphere, conflict resolution, Ethics, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Media, Middle East, political sociology, propaganda, Sociology, spin, The Guardian, War, web 2.0 |
By Robert Merkel on January 9, 2009
While navigating the CPRS – sludge of a policy that it is – through the Senate will undoubtedly provide much of the political theatre this year, there are a number of other government reviews that will start to report back [...]
Posted in Policy, Politics | Tagged bradley review, defence white paper, Henry review, policy reviews, tax review |
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