Archive for May, 2005



Motorbikes

Published on May 23, 2005

Well, my motorbike has been stolen from outside my house. This makes me sad on a very profound level. I don’t hold out much hope for it being recovered considering it would be quite hard to steal so I assume it was done by professionals.
You were a wonderful thing to ride my dearest [...]


Peter Farris Blogs

Published on

On the front page of The Age today was an article about QC Peter Farris who has come out in favour of torture. This is following the debate that was sparked after it became known that Professor Mirko Bagaric, and fellow Deakin law lecturer Julie Clarke are to publish an article advocating torture in [...]


Published on May 21, 2005

I inadvertently joined a protest yesterday. I was getting on the freeway from the docklands in Melbourne on my motorbike. As it turns out I merged into a pack of a hundred odd motorbikes.
Now riding in a pack is always a lot of fun and has a real sense of solidarity so as [...]


Tariq Ali

Published on May 20, 2005

Last night I was fortunate enough to attend a lecture given by Tariq Ali – an activist and academic that I’ve admired for some time. I’ve read a couple of his books and have always admired his uncompromising position on so many issues – particularly related to the Middle East.
His talk covered the usual [...]


Australian Idyll

Published on May 19, 2005

I’ve stumbled upon Puck’s blog, Australian Idyll.
He’s an interesting fella so it should make for some good reading.


Don Burke

Published on May 18, 2005

I found myself captivated by Denton’s Enough Rope interview with Don Burke on Monday night.
Burke has always been someone that interested me in a funny, and not so home maintenance based way. He’s obviously got a massive intellect and can be a real task master. He made many insightful remarks, but the one [...]


Simpsons, South Park and the Right

Published on

I was reading on a blog somewhere (and I’m really frustrated that I can’t find it again) that there are those that argue that the Simpsons and South Park are right-wing. It’s not the first time I’ve heard this either and it always strikes me as bizarre. To me, both have always been [...]


Fair use

Published on May 16, 2005

Alex Malik has provided us with a really informative opinion piece in The Age today which I thought is was worthwhile drawing people’s attention to.
It confirmed a few things I’d been wondering about.
Update:Weatherall’s Law provides us with a noteworthy criticism.


Lesbians, singles win IVF therapy

Published on May 12, 2005

In my mind, the decision to allow Lesbians and single women IVF treatment is a great victory.
I remember when this became an issue a few years back a couple of my friends saying “Lesbians, maybe, but single women - children need to be brought up by a loving couple.”
I argued quite strongly against this. [...]


Costello’s caring budget

Published on May 11, 2005

When Costello says that they are going to impose tougher tests on disability support pensions I can help but think the episode of The Office where Gareth Keenan says something to the effect of, I just think people in wheel chairs should be tested to ensure that they are disabled. ‘Like what’ he’s asked, ‘I [...]