Jacks of all, masters of none?
In The Last Days of the Polymath, Edward Carr writes about a declining species of thinker and doer in this age of specialisation. In an age of specialists, does it matter that generalists no longer thrive? The world is hardly [...]
Copenhagen [world-saving][toothless compromise] agreement [negotiating text][horsetrading basis]
The negotiating text that is to be used as the basis for the Copenhagen climate change talks has been released. As this post’s title indicates, the document is very much a work in progress, with alternate text enclosed in little [...]
Left futures
As a conclusion to his series provoked by The Australian‘s “What’s Left” op/ed fest, Guy Rundle has proposed a positive vision of the future from the left. [For my previous LP posts on this theme, see here.] I’ll post the [...]
Which Angel of the Morning do you pray to?
For people over a certain age, the song “Angel of the Morning” will be most immediately associated with Merrilee Rush. For most people of my generation, Juice Newton’s version will most likely spring to mind first, although I retain childhood [...]
GFC: Usual suspects exonerated
[Via SocProf] Remember how all economic ills could be cured by cutting wages and trashing labour protections? How the US economy was a shining beacon of low unemployment and enterprise? The whole Washington Consensus package… Writing in Social Europe Journal, [...]
The media blackout
Amongst the many topics in the electoral reform green paper (mentioned in this earlier thread) was the question of the “media blackout”, in which electoral advertising on radio and television is prohibited in the last three days of the campaign. [...]
Send Scripture classes back to Sunday School!
In the last few days the Sydney Morning Herald has reported on, and hosted a fierce debate about, a proposal to introduce the teaching of ethics to school students who don’t attend Scripture classes. THE Government’s religious education advisory panel [...]
Quadrant piles on
Not to be outdone by The Australian, Quadrant has launched its own series on the left. This time with non-leftists writing it… And writing about the Australian‘s articles. Jason Soon, for instance, along the way to arguing that social justice [...]
Rundle on the recent history of the left
As a sequel to my post on The Australian‘s series on the left, where I highlighted Guy Rundle’s take, I’m reproducing from today’s Crikey (with permission) his longer sequel to his take beneath the fold. Meantime, the Oz series meanders [...]
350
In the leadup to Copenhagen, it seems that many of the leading environmental NGOs have adopted 350 as their campaign focus, with a day of action on October 24 to publicize the campaign. The “350″ in this context represents a [...]
German elections 2009
As I write the German Federal elections are underway. Much of the comment I’ve heard is that the contest has been boring. If journalists only knew how boring they are when they say elections are boring! I did hear one [...]
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