A late addition, thanks to Peter Patton, a nice piece by Peter Craven on being proud of our cultural achievements. It just shows how smart we can be in some areas while we have blind spots in other areas. Hence the importance of civil dialogue across party lines.
That commentary reminds me of a beautiful paper written years ago bythe late Len Hume about the so-called cultural cringe. It first appeared in an academic journal, was reprinted as a pamphlet by CIS and I put it on line by arrangement with Hume’s widow.
Pete Craven mentioned Barry Humphries as one of our cultural treasures, there is a section about him in one of the Rathouse Revivalist issues with a picture by Kilmeny Niland and a report on the little-noticed encounter when Karl Popper met Barry Mackenzie.
Dumb research on “Australian racism“. Sorted out by Lorenzo Warby.
In what is wrong with this “research” effort, the only question is where to begin. First, 102 people is a tiny sample. Second, agreeing that the White Australia Policy “saved Australia from many problems experienced by other countries” does not demonstrate racism. One can agree that monoculturalism has advantages without being racist. Moreover, a majority of flag-fliers did not agree with the statement. So, tagging an activity which a majority of those engaged in where found not to be racist as associated with racism is slander by correlation. (As is typical, the media reporting is worse than the actual study.)
Keith Windschuttle defends the Constitution from charges of racism.
Far from being a racist document, the Australian Constitution … puts all Australians on an equal footing, no matter when they or their ancestors arrived here. Indeed, it would be not only racially discriminatory but also socially divisive to endorse this report and give some Australians status and privileges not available to others simply because of their ancestry.
At the review of the Fair Work Act. Just don’t mention the war productivity. And don’t involve the Productivity Commisssion!
What a crook start to the new year. It turns out, 2011 was the worst year for job creation since 1992.[i] And productivity has fallen to a level last seen in the mid 1990s.[ii]
Is it just the Crows or does the reference [regarding the brief of the review] to “economic issues” sound like an after-thought?
If it was, Bill Shorten appears anxious to assist in ensuring their irrelevance to the review. As the Employment minister said in announcing the FWA Review by John Edwards, Ron McCallum and Michael Moore, “Real economic prosperity and growth requires fairness and security in the workplace. This review reaffirms the Gillard Government’s fundamental commitment to these aims.” [v]
But it would be good if we all knew the cost of a kinder, gentler IR system, which coincidentally just happens to generate work for union officials. The way to do this is to examine FWA’s impact on productivity to date and project what will happen on the basis of existing evidence. Given its resources and terms of reference this will be impossible for the review in the five months it has.
Gosh is there nobody who can help, an organisation that could have started on the necessary groundwork before Dr John Edwards et al got cracking?
Well what about, and it’s just a stab in the dark you understand, the Productivity Commission?
Oddly enough, the Commission was ignored when the review was established and, entirely understandably, knows when it is not wanted. Minister Shorten’s officials say they have not asked for a submission from the Commission and the PC says it will accordingly get on with its work.
A warning for Craig Thomson? Too much sex on the sideline!
Steve Horwitz responds to some misrepresentations of his claims about gender gap in pay in the US.
JamesK on the Open forum posted the Larry Summers memo on US economic policy. “8. Greg Mankiw, economic adviser to Mitt Romney, was dubious about the stimulus. Greg Mankiw is the only economist we have consulted with who refused to name a number and was generally skeptical about stimulus.”
Pete Klein on O&M posted a list of all the economists who were consulted.
(For the record, the economists consulted — supposedly representing the full spectrum of legitimate opinion — were Robert Reich (recommended stimulus: $1.2 trillion over 2 years), Joe Siglitz ($1 trillion over two years), Paul Krugman ($600 billion in one year), Jamie Galbraith ($900 billion in one year), Dean Baker and colleagues ($900 billion), Marty Feldstein ($400 billion in one year), Larry Lindsey ($800 billion to $1 trillion), Ken Rogoff ($1 trillion over two years), Mark Zandi ($600 billion in one year), an unnamed group of Fed officials (over $600 billion), Adam Posen ($500-700 billion in one year), and an unnamed group at Goldman Sachs(!) ($600 billion). So, we’ve got left-wing Keynesians, right-wing Keynesians, moderate Keynesians, Robert Reich who wouldn’t know a Keynesian from a Kenyan, and Goldman Sachs. How’s that for diversity of opinion?)
Peter Klein again on apes imitating humans, will it work if they don’t have insight? In the comments I suggest that the answer is NO.
In “A Bend in the River” by V S Naipaul the store at the bend in the river in a third world country is “nationalized” by revolutionaries. In addition to selling things in the front of the shop, they knew that some stuff had to be done in the back office as well. That was where the owner used to drink whiskey while he did the books, prepared orders for stock etc. So every evening the new owners sat in the office drinking whiskey and shufflilng pieces of paper.
On a grander scale you have the whole Melanesian “cargo cult” phenomenon where the natives observed the US forces coming in during WW2, and building airstrips where planes arrived to deliver cargo. The natives did their best to imitate the strips, in the expectation that more cargo would arrive.
Then there is the phenomenon of scientism where people imitate what they think are the inductive methods of the natural sciences.
“A Conservative Teacher” in the US reports how the Cold War is taught by liberal teachers.
The lecture notes that I am looking at that were delivered by the liberal teacher in my school are one-sided liberal spin. They begin by pointing out that the Cold War wasn’t really a war- that the United States was just scared of losing its position of power in the world and so reacted to an emerging Soviet Union by pretending that there was some sort of Cold War we were engaged in. The definition of ‘Red Scare’ according to this liberal teacher was ‘the unjustified fear of communism in the United States’. The teacher then goes on to attack McCarthy- “known as a lazy and corrupt politician,” “played up imaginary fears of communists to gullible public,” and “made up evidence of spies to get re-elected.”
He also has some detailed notes on Obama’s State of the Nation Speech. He sounds like JC!
Misleading climate models. Climate change policy is driven by models, but what about the actual data? Waiting for the Warming - Helpful pictures on the same topic from BoltA.
In fact, of course, Senator McCarthy was right and this is now irrefutable historical fact.
C.L.
26 Jan 12 at 1:59 am
“2011 was the worst year for job creation since 1992″
By occupation, the % changes were:
Managers 1.92%
Professionals 1.13%
Technicians and Trades Workers 0.18%
Community and Personal Service Workers 0.60%
Clerical and Administrative Workers 2.39%
Sales Workers -6.88%
Machinery Operators And Drivers 10.01%
Labourers -4.74%
The mining boom is showing up in the machinery operators.
Big loser is retail – IR laws are starting to bite there.
2dogs
26 Jan 12 at 2:15 am
Prostitutes?
Infidel Tiger
26 Jan 12 at 2:33 am
Of course the Constitution was racist in certain parts, by contemporary understanding. How could it be otherwise, when the society of the time was racist?
However, the racist parts were changed by the 1967 referendum, so on that front there’s nothing more to be done to the Constitution. It’s fixing everything else that will eventually need doing.
Jarrah
26 Jan 12 at 3:05 am
1956?
Abu Chowdah
26 Jan 12 at 4:33 am
CL- one feature that is increasingly part of liberalism is a willful disregard to the facts. As I pointed out in my post, I’m okay with the liberal slant being introduced- it’s just that there was never any facts presented, no discussion of recently revealed documents that prove much of McCarthy’s accusations were based on real Soviet spy projects, and no mention of Alger Hiss- I mean, how can you teach students about McCarthyism without ever mentioning Alger Hiss!
This one-sided slant is being thrown at students in grade after grade, class after class, with only an occasional conservative teacher like me thrown in there- and as a conservative I find it unethical to slant my material and so play both sides!
Thanks for linking.
A Conservative Teacher
26 Jan 12 at 5:07 am
CT, I know a few teachers, you must be lonely in that profession. Although I know one or two conservative teachers who shut up to get along. Finally I know a couple of teachers who have become much more conservative after years of exposure to teaching in Sydney’s south west. Good luck in your work.
John Comnenus
26 Jan 12 at 8:18 am
Jarrah
Actually, the Constitution became MORE racist following the 1967 Referendum than it was in 1901. Under s. 51(xxvi) Our current Constitution empowers the Commonwealth to
In 1901, the Commonwealth was not allowed to include Aborigines whenever it chose to single out “any race” for “special laws”.
Ergo the 1967 Referendum EXPANDED the Commonwealth’s racist powers.
Peter Patton
26 Jan 12 at 9:32 am
Jeez, even Fairfax is calling for the sacking of Irish magistrate, Pat O’Shane.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/for-the-sake-of-her-honour-and-ours-no-more-double-standard-20120125-1qhl3.html
Peter Patton
26 Jan 12 at 9:45 am
Is it safe to talk about race in Australia?
jjohn malpas
26 Jan 12 at 9:49 am
jjohn, for the leftists that’s ALL there is to talk about.
Peter Patton
26 Jan 12 at 9:55 am
Nice Roundup but don’t forget it is inconsistent for Libertarians NOT to believe in AGW:
http://metaclimate.org/2012/01/08/the-top-ten-signs-that-youre-a-denier/
cohenite
26 Jan 12 at 10:27 am
Every “Buy Australian Made” campaign is simply the White Australia Policy modified in the light of the invention of the shipping container, cheap air travel and the internet.
Ooh Honey Honey
26 Jan 12 at 10:32 am
Well given that a substantial proportion of Australian producers and workers are non-white you are not quite right.
Peter Patton
26 Jan 12 at 10:36 am
Peter, the whole race power needed deleting, it’s true, but I can’t see how taking away one of the exceptions for Aborigines in the Constitution makes it MORE racist. Besides, the intent of the subsection was quite clear. Barton said it was to “regulate the affairs of the people of coloured or inferior races”. It was meant to give constitutional protection to discriminatory Commonwealth laws with regard to race.
Jarrah
26 Jan 12 at 10:57 am
[...] been smeared as racists simply for expressing pride in their country. Lorenzo Warby highlights the problems with this – ahem – research: In what is wrong with this “research” effort, the only question is where to begin. First, 102 [...]
Celebrate Australia Day | Climate Nonconformist
26 Jan 12 at 11:06 am
Bearing in mind that that name was coined by its critics rather than its framers, deleting reference to skin colour was just one of the modifications. Yes coloured folk can join the club of protected labour now, I’m sure you can recall when that became politically expedient.
It is still and has always been this issue alone
Ooh Honey Honey
26 Jan 12 at 11:08 am
Barton said it was to “regulate the affairs of the people of coloured or inferior races”. It was meant to give constitutional protection to discriminatory Commonwealth laws with regard to race.
It sounds as if you’re reading this wrongly. Why would have Barton or anyone needed to constitutional protect discriminatory Cwlth laws in regards to race (or gender) in the early 20th C? It seems to me that the ‘race power’ is nothing more than what he said, a “power to regulate the affairs of people of coloured or inferior races”. This needed no more constitutional protection than the various Cwlth laws that regulated the affairs of women prior to the Cwlth Sex Discrimination Act.
Now, I don’t mean to brag but I’m off to Bedford Ave for dinner. Happy Australia Day, all!
dover_beach
26 Jan 12 at 11:30 am
Indeed it did. But the Aborigines were exempt from that racist Constitutional protection until 1967.
Peter Patton
26 Jan 12 at 11:31 am
Australia Day award:
C.L.
26 Jan 12 at 11:44 am
So he was cleaning up the mess with “remediation programs”?
Rafe
26 Jan 12 at 11:50 am
We need more people like Martie Bowles in the APS. It’s brave men like that make the APS great.
JC
26 Jan 12 at 12:12 pm
Proposal for a citizenship test:
If you don’t wave the flag and love this, you’re un-Australian, a communist and probably gay.
Happy Australia Day.
C.L.
26 Jan 12 at 1:48 pm
http://www.immi.gov.au/about/department/senior-staff/_pdf/biography-martin-bowles.pdf
Mred
26 Jan 12 at 1:51 pm
Thank Christ for that, CL. My proletarian, running dog fascist lackey freckle was becoming worried until I clicked the link.
Better now…
Winston Smith
26 Jan 12 at 2:01 pm
That sucks. My old man worked his butt off for a PSM.
.
26 Jan 12 at 2:04 pm
Best Wishes from a ‘nice playing’ Trot:
http://larvatusprodeo.net/2012/01/25/invasion-dayaustralia-day-unitydisunity/#comment-356489
Peter Patton
26 Jan 12 at 2:06 pm
I’m for a Captain Arthur Philip day.
“Australia Day” FFS. Could you imagine the rolling eyes at an “America Day”?
.
26 Jan 12 at 2:08 pm
That’s interesting. Comment number 356489 on LP, 391526 on the Cat.
How long have the two sites been going for?
Winston Smith
26 Jan 12 at 2:14 pm
Thanks for the link Mred, I would not be boasting about a cv that included senior positions in the NSW health and education departments!
Rafe
26 Jan 12 at 2:14 pm
dot, I’ve recently been reading the diaries of Phillip, Tench, and David Collins, and I agree with you wholeheartedly, I can’t believe I went through the whole education system ignorant of truly how great Philip was, and how important he was to how he unfolded as a nation.
Peter Patton
26 Jan 12 at 2:15 pm
Surprising to see more comments on the Cat than the Larvae, from my memory of years ago they had long threads that consisted of a small number of people agreeing with each other at great length. It made for a lot of comments but not a lot of content.
Yes to an Arthur Philip day. Macquarie is remembered as the great builder but Philip gave him something to build on. Ruth Park has a lot of good stuff on Philip in “Ruth Park’s Sydney”.
http://www.bookworm.com.au/Book/Ruth-Parks-Sydney-9781876631765.aspx
Don’t take any notice of my name attached to it, I just did a little bit of research for the revised edition – the 1974 edition was put out of date in some ways by the spectacular developments that took off in the 1970s. The book is organised around walking tours of the early established parts of Sydney filling in the history of developments and the amazing characters of the times, based on massive and meticulous research in the archives.
Rafe
26 Jan 12 at 2:24 pm
Philip’s quip about no slavery in a free land has some legal weight to it considering he had the vice regal position, and was the sole legislator, executive and high judicial magistrate for the colony.
.
26 Jan 12 at 2:34 pm
I’m content to stick with Australia Day. It’s a day to be grateful that we live in this glorious land in relative peace and abundance.
Gab
26 Jan 12 at 2:35 pm
dot
Indeed, the very first civil court case in Australia was brought by a convict – Henry Kable – which would have been illegal in England, where he was “civilly dead”. Kable won his case against the captain of the convict ship Henry was on. It is a complete and utter myth that “the laws of England [let alone the common law] came to Australia on the First Fleet”
Peter Patton
26 Jan 12 at 2:40 pm
Australia day is fine, just remember Captain Philip.
Geoffrey Rush makes a strong bid for a leftoid of the week award.
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/rush_wants_propaganda_not_art/
Maybe we could have one every week and vote for an Annual Award to be announced on May 1. Or April 1?
Rafe
26 Jan 12 at 2:40 pm
In other Australia Day award news, Shane Warne has been named un-Australian of the Year by lad’s mag, ZOO:
Tough but fair.
C.L.
26 Jan 12 at 4:27 pm
Oh well, there goes any chance of that Indigenous Peoples’s Knowledges constitutional referendum being passed.
Time to nuke the Indegenous Peoples’s embassy.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-26/riot-police-escort-gillard-abbott-from-protest/3795036
Peter Patton
26 Jan 12 at 5:27 pm
The response from Airheads R US? Guess who.
http://larvatusprodeo.net/2012/01/25/invasion-dayaustralia-day-unitydisunity/#comment-356511
Peter Patton
26 Jan 12 at 5:56 pm
Yes, well, a lot of the urban aborigines agitating away look like ghosts too.
Gab
26 Jan 12 at 5:59 pm
Err, how exactly?
Could it be that you’re wrong and most Aboriginals don’t even think this way, only ones indoctrinated by commie white filth?
I’m sorry and I will never call up my black mates after sunset. Perish the thought of visiting them in sunny QLD and getting a snack in the middle of the night after a boozy BBQ. I might scare the poor little, noble savages.
.
26 Jan 12 at 6:00 pm
It’s a travesty that a lot of the LP crowd are paid the same and have the same titles as people who try to find cures for cancer and AIDS.
Under my regime, sociology lecturers will be the first to suffer mass sackings.
.
26 Jan 12 at 6:02 pm
Jesus, Gillard looks like she’s scared for her life!
Peter Patton
26 Jan 12 at 6:09 pm
Ahahahahahaha.
C.L.
26 Jan 12 at 6:09 pm
come the revolution…
sean
26 Jan 12 at 6:10 pm
Good point, Peter.
Say goodbye to that referendum, a-holes.
————————————–
I regard an attack on Gillard’s person as an attack on me and my family and my way of life. I expect her close personal protection and the police to crack their heads open.
Questions also need to be asked about her security. She seemed to have two CPP officers today with no planned exit strategy. Not good enough.
C.L.
26 Jan 12 at 6:12 pm
I have to agree 100%. I don’t care who the individual person is, but she is the Prime Minister, handing out awards on Australia Day, FFS!
Peter Patton
26 Jan 12 at 6:16 pm
I’d be more interested if they had some sort of a reasonable idea as to what remedy they would propose. It’s mearly a chance to be cultural elites each year as they don’t give a shit about disposession, or propose robbing peter to pay paul ad infinitum. A liberal solution is the way to close the gap, not a big government guilt trip.
sean
26 Jan 12 at 6:21 pm
Clearly it is the ‘Ambassadors’ of the ‘Tent Embassy’ who should be required to take a two semester course in “Cultural Competencies”.
Peter Patton
26 Jan 12 at 6:44 pm
The sight of a female Prime Minister of Australia having to be literally dragged away from a howling mob of Leftist thugs on Australia Day makes me absolutely sick and ashamed to share a passport with these vermin. Good to see the filth at LP making light of the PM being physically humiliated.
Fisky
26 Jan 12 at 6:51 pm
You can’t do that, Peter.
It’s next to the Parliament House.
Oh.
Carry on as you were, old chap…
Winston Smith
26 Jan 12 at 6:57 pm
Odds on Shoeless Jules will get on the box and make sure everyone knows she totally understands the anger displayed at Mr Rabbit’s intemperate, divisive and probably raaaaaacist comments.
lotocoti
26 Jan 12 at 6:59 pm
I want to know if the ABC will auction off her shoe for charity.
Gab
26 Jan 12 at 7:05 pm
Psssssttttt…if you want Sovereignty, build a civilization and defend it. ‘Sovereignty’ is not something Centrelink hands out.
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1621621/protesters-trap-gillard-and-abbott
Peter Patton
26 Jan 12 at 7:11 pm
It is a consolation that the idiots who assaulted our leaders have made it impossible for the black-arm band view of history to be included into the constitution via a referendum.
But seriously folks, here we have our 2 leaders chased by a rabble which hasn’t the mental power to fry an egg and our security was stretched; where does that leave the average punter: prostrate on the ground. Islamist terrorists please take note.
cohenite
26 Jan 12 at 7:11 pm
Ha ha ha! Brilliant title at Bolt
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/scenes_from_the_reconciliation_movement/
And there’s a picture of a White Aboriginal Elder holding Gillard’s shoe.
Fisky
26 Jan 12 at 7:18 pm
Don’t laugh Fisky; the women holding the shoes is Eatock, one of the successful litigants against Bolt in the non-defamation case against him.
cohenite
26 Jan 12 at 7:28 pm
Pity you weren’t there Gab. You could have vapourised the protesters with those bazookas you are holding!
Biota
26 Jan 12 at 7:37 pm
Eyre wrote that the Aborigines generally believed that the English were the ghosts of their ancestors resuscitated and returned to their lands. I’m happy to go along with that, your ancestors say… give her back her damn shoe for starters!
Andreas
26 Jan 12 at 7:39 pm
Good god that Eatock women looks a ghost. Is she ill? She needs some sun.
Peter Patton
26 Jan 12 at 7:45 pm
March 2011:
As always, the violence has come from the left – just as it did in America and the UK.
C.L.
26 Jan 12 at 8:31 pm
Ha! suck it labour scum…
This is what happens when you legitimize a group of grievance mongers for decades… Instead of saying “you blokes are just as good as us, we treated you crap sometimes, and you were living like dogs so lets call it even”…
They went the full “we are to blame …wail, cry…feel your pain”…
This hasn’t built respect either way, nor has it led to “greater understanding”, its led to a whole race being told it should have a chip on its shoulder.
Ive seen Julia run from a bunch of refugees at Port hedland years ago, same thing, labour telling them they have a right to feel angry/bad, then bugger me if that doesn’t lead to resentment and violence..
thefrollickingmole
26 Jan 12 at 9:05 pm
Julia will sort the embassy out.
Garrett has been ordered to be down there in the morning with a truckload of insulation.
Gillard would have my total support if she ordered the mob to be machine gunned and the survivors bayoneted. Bloody disgrace for the PM to have to undergo that sort of thing.
Boy on a bike
26 Jan 12 at 9:21 pm
Ease up BOAB, just a pepper spray raffle where everyone’s a winner would do, 3 times a day.
jumpnmcar
26 Jan 12 at 9:38 pm
Reminds me of a young bloke who got dragged up to the Wilcannia Hospital one fine Sunday afternoon. After playing the Turpsichord and the Lagerphone all day, and probably inhaling a bit of meth, was in no mood to take no to his romantic advances to a young lady. She, of course, wanted at least dinner and vertical dancing before the horizontal bop.
The inevitable happened and the coppers brought him up to get his eyes washed after judicious use of the capsicum gun.
“It hurts” were the screams from the young bloke.
“Stop hitting me, you stupid bastard and I’ll stop spraying you with the shit!”
Totally unable to see the link between action and consequence.
Even I got a dose of the stuff. Brought back memories of army gas mask training.
Winston Smith
26 Jan 12 at 9:50 pm
The disgusting thing about the Eatock mob is that Tony Abbott is by far the most pro-Aboriginal – by both words and deeds – in the Australian Parliament.
Peter Patton
26 Jan 12 at 10:37 pm
Katter is on that podium too Pete.
And he gets called a racist more than most.
jumpnmcar
26 Jan 12 at 11:00 pm
Heh. Strangely enough, Biota, as much as I detest that woman and her lack of integrity, I would defend her against a physical assault. Call me a softie.
Gab
26 Jan 12 at 11:07 pm
Hear, hear, Gab.
The sight of PM Gillard’s terrified face and that howling mob is something I never thought I would see in this country.
Pedro the Ignorant
26 Jan 12 at 11:17 pm
It is not soft Gab, it is common decency. I am sure that we would all help to put out a fire in THR’s house if we happened to be in the vicinity. Of course we might be accused of setting it on fire in the first place:)
You could say that racism is alive and well, and the politically correct are the main offenders.
Rafe
26 Jan 12 at 11:23 pm
I’d ring 000. But wouldn’t risk my life to save THR or his house.
I’d save his cat though.
Gab
26 Jan 12 at 11:25 pm
Probably public housing, so technically it’s your house too.
jumpnmcar
26 Jan 12 at 11:44 pm
Im afraid Im the exception, Im glad Gillard was terrified.
Im gald she was humiliated
Im even gald eatcock got her shoe.
Beacuse she and her party have spent decades telling Aboriginal people they arent responsible for poor life choices.
That doesnt mean the practical side, offering extra education/work benefits.
Its the “I am poor because im kept down (by someone)” pandering for so long.
I only wish it was a bunch of cattlemen taught her this first.
thefrollickingmole
27 Jan 12 at 12:24 am
The Left don’t seem to have learned that appeasement means the demands never cease.
If she’d had kids, she’d know this instinctively.
Winston SMITH
27 Jan 12 at 8:05 am
These silly bastards should be charged with riot and affray.
Do they realise how close they came to committing treason?
.
27 Jan 12 at 9:47 am
Somebody should have read the Riot Act!
Rafe
27 Jan 12 at 7:47 pm
rafe, on riots:
CRIMES ACT 1900 – SECT 93B Riot
(1) Where 12 or more persons who are present together use or threaten unlawful violence for a common purpose and the conduct of them (taken together) is such as would cause a person of reasonable firmness present at the scene to fear for his or her personal safety, each of the persons using unlawful violence for the common purpose is guilty of riot and liable to imprisonment for 15 years.
(2) It is immaterial whether or not the 12 or more persons use or threaten unlawful violence simultaneously.
(3) The common purpose may be inferred from conduct.
(4) No person of reasonable firmness need actually be, or be likely to be, present at the scene.
(5) Riot may be committed in private as well as in public places.
Jim Rose
29 Jan 12 at 8:16 pm