Tgk1946's Blog

From The Shortest History of Germany (James Hawes, 2018) p110-123 (more…)

From Identity (Francis Fukuyama, 2018) p163-183

From If This is a Man; The Truce (Primo Levi, 1979) p377 (more…)

From Falling Towards England (Clive James, 1985) pp102-7 (more…)

From Australian Short Stories (Murdoch & Drake-Brockman, 1951) pp130-3 (more…)

From Weimar Culture (Peter Gay, 2001) pp80-96 (more…)

From The Great Extermination (A.J. Marshall, 1966) pp26-9 (more…)

From Snakecharmers in Texas (Clive James, 1988) ‘On the library coffee-table’ pp91-110 (more…)

From The Shortest History of Germany (James Hawes, 2017) pp172-3 (more…)

From Hitching rides with Buddha (Will Ferguson, 1998) pp347-9 (more…)

From The Shortest History of Germany (James Hawes, 2017) pp117-20 (more…)

From Factfulness (Hans Rosling, 2018) pp232-4 (more…)

From Speeches and Essays of Geoffrey Blainey (1991) pp229-35 (more…)

From Three Cups of Tea (Mortenson & Relin, 2006) p274 (more…)

From The Demon-haunted World (Carl Sagan, 1996) pp379-81 (more…)

From Krakatoa (Simon Winchester, 2003) pp184-98 (more…)

From The Post-American World (Fareed Zakaria, 2008) pp250-1

America has transformed the world with its power but also with its ideals. When China’s pro-democracy protesters gathered in Tiananmen Square, they built a makeshift figure that suggested the Statue of Liberty, not an F-16. America’s image may not he as benign as Americans think, but it is, in the end, better than the alternatives. That is what has made its immense power tolerable to the world for so long.
Before it can implement any of these specific strategies, however, the United States must make a much broader adjustment. It needs to stop cowering in fear. It is fear that has created a climate of paranoia and panic in the United States and fear that has enabled our strategic missteps. Having spooked ourselves into believing that we have no option but to act fast and alone, preemptively and unilaterally, we have managed to destroy decades of international goodwill, alienate allies, and embolden enemies, while solving few of the major international problems we face. To recover its place in the world, America first has to recover its confidence.
By almost all objective measures, the United States is in a blessed position today. It faces problems, crises, and resistance, but compared with any of the massive threats of the past — Nazi Germany, Stalin’s aggression, nuclear war – the circumstances are favorable, and the world is moving our way. In 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt diagnosed the real danger for the United States. ”The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” he said. “Nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror.” And he was arguing against fear when America’s economic and political system was near collapse, when a quarter of the workforce was unemployed, and when fascism was on the march around the world. Somehow we have managed to spook ourselves in a time of worldwide peace and prosperity. Keeping that front and center in our minds is crucial to ensure that we do not miscalculate, misjudge, and misunderstand. America has become a nation consumed by anxiety, worried about terrorists and rogue nations, Muslims and Mexicans, foreign companies and free trade, immigrants and international organizations. The strongest nation in the history of the world now sees itself as besieged by forces beyond its control. While the Bush administration has contributed mightily to this state of affairs, it is a phenomenon that goes beyond one president. Too many Americans have been taken in by a rhetoric of fear. The 2008 presidential campaign could have provided the opportunity for a national discussion of the new world we live in. On the Republican side, it has been largely an exercise in chest-thumping hysteria. The contenders may have left the scene but their words both reflect and shape the national consciousness. “They hate you!” Rudy Giuliani repeatedly shouted on the campaign trail, relentlessly reminding audiences of the nasty people out there.

From The Post-American World (Fareed Zakaria, 2008) pp236-8 (more…)

From The Post-American World (Fareed Zakaria, 2008) pp210-4 (more…)

From Korea (Simon Winchester, 1988, 2004) pp181-4 (more…)

From The Post-American World (Fareed Zakaria, 2008) pp73-7 (more…)

From Korea (Simon Winchester, 1988, 2004) pp4-9 (more…)

From Can It Happen Here? (Cass Sunstein, Ed, 2018) pp358-60 (more…)

From Death Sentence (Don Watson 2003) pp108-110 (more…)

From Can It Happen Here? (Cass Sunstein, Ed, 2018) pp215-7 (more…)

From Underground (Haruki Murakami, 2003) pp296-301 (more…)

From The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William Shirer, 1960 [2011]) pp232-4 (more…)

From Factfulness (Hans Rosling, 2018) pp38-9 (more…)

From The Long Shadow (David Reynolds, 2013) pp424-5 (more…)

From The Long Shadow (David Reynolds, 2013) pp274-8 (more…)

From Death Sentence: the decay of public language (Don Watson, 2003) pp58-60 (more…)

From The River at the Centre of the World (Simon Winchester, 1996) pp400-1 (more…)

From The Long Shadow (David Reynolds, 2013) pp120-2 (more…)

From The Righteous Mind (Jonathan Haidt, 2012 ) pp288-94 (more…)

From The River at the Centre of the World (Simon Winchester, 1996) pp309-10 (more…)

From Jessica (Bryce Courtenay, 1998) pp64-70
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From March of Folly (Barbara Tuchman, 1984) pp284-91
(more…)

From The March of Folly (Barbara Tuchman, 1984) pp276
(more…)

From The March of Folly (Barbara Tuchman, 1984) pp264-5
(more…)

From Silent Invasion (Clive Hamilton, 2018) pp277-8 (more…)

From Silent Invasion (Clive Hamilton, 2018) pp258-9 (more…)

From Silent Invasion (Clive Hamilton, 2018) pp253-4 (more…)

From Silent Invasion (Clive Hamilton, 2018) pp235-7 (more…)

From Dismantling the Empire (Chalmers Johnson, 2010) pp191-4 (more…)

From The Life and Death of Democracy (John Keane, 2009) pp832-4 (more…)

From The River at the Centre of the World (Simon Winchester, 1996) pp248-52 (more…)

From Silent Invasion (Clive Hamilton, 2018) (more…)

From The River at the Centre of the World (Simon Winchester, 1996) pp188-91 (more…)

From Without America (QE68, Hugh White 2017) pp76-9 (more…)

From Without America (QE68, Hugh White 2017) pp52-3, 56-7 (more…)

From Masters and Commanders (Andrew Roberts, 2008) pp 513,525 (more…)

From The Demon-haunted World (Carl Sagan, 1996) pp314-7 (more…)

From The River at the Centre of the World (Simon Winchester, 1996) pp175-9 (more…)

From Weimar Culture (Peter Gay, 2001) pp130-2 (more…)

From Weimar Culture (Peter Gay, 2001) pp80-4 (more…)

From The River at the Centre of the World (Simon Winchester, 1996) pp 136-9 (more…)

From The River at the Centre of the World (Simon Winchester, 1996) pp128-35 (more…)

From Dismantling the Empire (Chalmers Johnson, 2010) p148, The Military-Industrial Man (more…)

From On Identity (Amin Maalouf, 2000) pp58-9 (more…)

On Identity (Amin Maalouf, 2000) pp26-31 (more…)

From Final Cut (Steven Bach, 1985) p285-6
(more…)

From Masters and Commanders (Andrew Roberts, 2008) p398
(more…)

From Breach of Trust (Andrew Bacevich 2013) pp56-8 (more…)

From Pacific the ocean of the future (Simon Winchester, 2015) pp348-50 (more…)

From Reith Lectures, 1998. (more…)

From Annie Proulx’ speech for National Book Award, by Boris Kachka @ Vulture

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Explaining Hitler (Ron Rosenbaum, 1998), The Poison Kitchen pp51-2 (more…)

From Pacific, the Ocean of the Future (Simon Winchester, 2015) p264-5 (more…)

Binned (more…)

On Tyranny (Timothy Snyder) p72-80

11. Investigate (more…)

From Breaking News (Paul Barry) p125 (more…)

Finest Hour (Martin Gilbert) p910-1 (more…)

Civil disobedience (more…)

Re Editorial, The Age 18/8/17 (more…)

Nicholas Stuart writes (‘Government needs to act on our information security’, 2/8) (more…)

Iron Curtain (Anne Applebaum) xxiii-xxiv  (more…)

One that got away 170511 (more…)

I haven’t detected any upswing in the current pushing citizens to MyHR. There are subtle indicators that tides (for integrated records) may be swinging in another direction. (more…)

Have absorbed tgk21277, added Archives, Tweets

to do – default text, change colors

In his Latest Readings he has another look at John Howard & his writing. (more…)

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William L. Shirer) p215-6 (more…)

Latest Readings (Clive James) p2-3 (more…)

Dereliction of Duty (H.R. McMaster) p211 (more…)

From Healthscope taps ex-Telstra executive to nurse it back to health

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From Why do outrage management when you can coerce or deceive people instead?  (more…)

Dereliction of Duty (H.R. McMaster) pp50-1 (more…)

Crises of the Republic (Hannah Arendt) p3-13 (more…)

Mistakes were made (Carol Tavris & Elliot Aronson) p108-9 (more…)

Mistakes were made (Tavris & Aronson) p61 (more…)

Fragile Nation (Tanveer Ahmed) p23-4 (more…)

Snakecharmers in Texas (Clive James) p101-2 (more…)

Being Wrong (Kathryn Schulz) p145 (more…)

The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt) p13 (more…)

Terror and Consent (Philip Bobbitt) pp416-23 (more…)

Hello Trevor, (more…)

The ending from Arendt’s final version of The Origins of Totalitarianism. (p616)

The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt) pp429-30 (more…)

The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt) p419 (more…)

The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt) pp414-7 (more…)

The first footnote in Arendt’s 1967 Preface (pp387-405) to Section III Totalitarianism. (more…)

The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt) pp382-3 (more…)

The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt) pp378-9 (more…)

The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt) pp372-7 (more…)

From her Introduction to 2004 edition of The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt) pp xxi-xxiv (more…)

The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt) pp341-2 (more…)

Rainbow Pie (Joe Bageant) pp122-6 (more…)

The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt) p301-3 (more…)

The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt) p279-80 (more…)

The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt) p232-3 (more…)

The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt) p465-71 (more…)

Rainbow Pie (Joe Bageant) pp83-92 (more…)

IBM and the Holocaust (Edwin Black) pp196-7 (more…)

From Listen, Liberal (Thomas Frank) (more…)

Letters Editor, The Saturday Paper (more…)

Listen, Liberal (Thomas Frank) pp188-91 (more…)

Rainbow Pie (Joe Bageant) p84 (more…)

IBM and the Holocaust (Edwin Black) pp69-74 (more…)

Hillbilly Elegy (J.D. Vance) pp140-9 (more…)

If This Is A Man (Primo Levi)  pp101-6

The March of Folly (Barbara Tuchman) p374-7 (more…)

The March of Folly (Barbara Tuchman) p340-1 (more…)

The March of Folly (Barbara Tuchman) p338-9 (more…)

Head in the Cloud (William Poundstone) p232-3 (more…)

The March of Folly (Barbara Tuchman) p303 (more…)

Barbara Tuchman The March of Folly pp292-3 (more…)

From Terror and Consent: The Wars for the Twenty-first Century (more…)

From Man Bites Murdoch (Bruce Guthrie, 2010) (more…)

In my wild dream, PM Turnbull has been elevated to King of the World on the strength of his great judgment and subtle exercise of power. He sits on his throne, sceptre in hand, to execute the finality of Justice according to his his own moral code. A case is before him now, a Yemeni man holding the remnants of his shattered child. The man’s advocate is pleading that armaments supplied to Saudi Arabia by the US have had components made in Australia, through globalisation of military industries. Then, an adviser steps to the King’s ear, to whisper that a Mogul has arrived to “discuss” Australian Govt’s moves to reform media ownership laws. The Mogul expects to jump the queue of miserable supplicants and have a private audience. I’ll let you know what the King does next.

The Greens policy for radical reorganisation of management chronic diseases has an absolute requirement in common with the Government initiative for a cancer registry. Real-time prescription monitoring is another dream that has the same basic need, that is, methods of identification of individuals that are 100% correct and secure from corruption and criminal intrusion.

Data management is key to all health services, as is the complex matter of ownership of the data.

The Productivity Commission will be running a broad-based inquiry into human services, including health, with an explicit view to privatise services for greater efficiency. Without a robust review of identity management, that Inquiry cannot be useful.

p83-94 (more…)

From John Keane’s The Life and Death of Democracy, p638-43 (more…)

Gideon Haigh and Tony Jones mourned the death of Phillip Hughes and then went straight into the concept of “lethal bowling”,

… we all cheered as Mitchell Johnson, the world’s fastest and arguably most dangerous bowler, steamed in to terrorise the English batsmen, literally terrorise them with the short-pitched bowling and many of them were so terrorised, they couldn’t continue.

(more…)

From Philip Bobbit’s Terror and Consent (2008) pp80-4 (more…)

.. Fueling a New Order? The New Geopolitical and Security Consequences of Energy (Brookings) see map – Malacca

.. see Maps of Europe 30, 33 ..

.. US DoD contracts – the complex is alive & well

.. Assault rifles, gas masks, helmets, tactical knives – the Urban Shield trade show in pictures …

.. A girl and an Uzi …

…

.. Why Gun Control Groups Have Moved Away from an Assault Weapons Ban ..

.. Chief of Army’s Reading List ..

.. Another Long War Begins? ..

From The Irony of Manifest Destiny (William Pfaff) p 168-9

In the Second World War, General of the Army George C. Marshall, army chief of staff and later Harry S. Truman’s secretary of state, never wore on his uniform the decorations and service ribbons to which his First World War service entitled him. He said that it would be unseemly for him, working in a Washington office, to wear honors deserved by the young men he was responsible for sending into battle. (Compare U.S. general officers today, who even when wearing combat camouflage are decorated like operetta supernumeraries.) Following the war, Marshall was offered a million (1945) dollars for his memoirs, but he refused, saying that it would not be correct for him to profit from his public duties. This ethic was reflected in public behavior until, I suppose, the time of Vietnam – implicated in so much that has gone bad in the United States.

..

From Holocaust Journey (Martin Gilbert, 1997) p281-2, at Majdanek.

DAY 10 LUBLIN-WARSAW 281 (more…)

From Martin Gilbert’s Holocaust Journey (1997). (more…)

From William Pfaff’s The Irony of Manifest Destiny, page 197.

Luigi Barzini, an author and famous journalist who knew Mussolini, wrote: “He was perhaps the best popular journalist of his day in Italy, addressing himself not to the sober cultured minority but to the practically illiterate masses … Those very qualities that made him an excellent rabble-rousing editor made him a disastrous statesman: his intuitive and superficial intelligence; his capacity to over-simplify and dramatize; a day-to-day interest only in the most striking events; a strictly partisan point of view; the disregard for truth, accuracy, objectivity and consistency when they interfered with his aims; … an instinctive ability … to know what people wanted to be told … [Of course he] used deceit as a tool to govern with … All great statesmen have recourse to occasional distortions, misinterpretations and outright lies. Mussolini merely lied more than all other past statesmen, a little more than some of his contemporary competitors, less than Hitler anyway … He, too, believed his own slogans. He, too, was amazed by the fake statistics, thrilled by empty boasts, stirred to tears by his own oratory. He, too, confused appearances for reality …

..Why Islamic State has no sympathy for Hamas..

Bernard Rougier’s ‘Everyday Jihad (The Rise of Militant Islam Among Palestinians in Lebanon)’ published 2007 concluded

At a time when Arab satellite channels are showing images of Palestinian suffering, the United States’ enemies in the region understand the importance of a conflict that American neo-conservatives have systematically refused to see as anything other than a pretext for Arab dictators trying to make up a legitimacy deficit. American and European responsibility is certainly stronger for this question than for any other, since a peace process that anchored Palestinian identity around a territory and a viable state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, would have given the Palestinian side and the Arab regimes the means of fighting the jihadist forces with their own societies – by the sheer force of conviction.

Electronic comms

Ref Kilcullen on Mumbai

Bigger surprises to come.

In Communities polarised by influx of unaccompanied child migrants can be seen parallels with Australian Govt’s stance. It may be intuitive to believe that unaccompanied minors would be given refuge, the benefit of doubt, by an nation that likes to define itself as “compassionate”. So, why is it so easy to tool them as fodder for populist clap-trap and as meat for Morrison’s grinder? (more…)

(Oppressors, Victims and Fighters) (more…)

At 538 Reports of a Drop in Childhood Obesity Are Overblown 

From Poor Victorian IT system affecting child safety  

The Victorian Department of Human Services has been warned, repeatedly over a half-decade period, that its client information systems are not functioning correctly and are contributing to putting children at risk through inefficient reporting practices (including the use of tedious faxed reports and manual data entry).

Anything to do with child safety is linked to child health. National IT systems have been brought closer together, in Human Services. It makes sense that Centrelink should talk to Health and Justice. The same convergence has been pushed in the UK.

John Ward reflects on ATOS exiting from a contract.

Canberra may be wishing to ‘economise’ by merging IT systems, and doing that by privatising core functions.

How People Make Decisions (Gary Klein, 1998) (more…)

After June 6th, the 70th commemorations of D-Day over, there may be an announcement from QE2. Will she hand over before the next auspicious remembrance? (more…)

On preventative health, p117-9 (more…)

.. (more…)

..TREES REDUCED TO TWIGS: A HAIYAN PORTFOLIO

..Australia’s record temps

(map of NAm cold snap)

..The Technology Behind the NYTimes.com Redesign

How Fox News’ climate coverage is affected by cold spells and heat waves

Sarah Kliff Maryland’s plan to upend health care spending (more…)

On use of psychoactive substances by US military p348-9 (more…)

At Amazon. Excellent Notes & Bibliography. (more…)

In The rhetoric and reality of e-health: a critical assessment of the benefits of e-health in primary health care a couple or three questions arise re expectations of consumers and the reality of the NEHR interface. (more…)

Suggestion for next meeting of hospital executives.

Make it a teleconference. Each participant, anonymous, shows hands first. Others judge compliance with guidance on finger-nails.

Overcoming Governance and Cost Challenges for Australian Public Hospitals: The Foundation Trust Alternative (pdf) by Peter Phelan and Jeremy Sammut (Centre for Independent Studies)

(p6) State-wide industrial agreements that mandate staffing levels is poor management and inherently inefficient, but are much loved by nursing unions as they allow the unions to determine the size of the nursing workforce (and expand union membership).

…

(p8) The authors concluded that two factors explain why a competitive environment drove higher management scores. CEOs are more likely to try harder when faced with competition as the rewards are higher, as are the risks associated with failing to improve productivity and financial performance. Poorly managed hospitals are likely to fail and either close down or be taken over. Hospitals with clinically qualified CEOs were better managed, and those that acquired clinically qualified CEOs during the course of the study improved their management performance. Clinically trained managers were found to better understand clinical challenges, could communicate with clinical staff in a common language, and enjoyed greater credibility than non-clinical managers.
Higher performing hospitals had CEOs with higher levels of autonomy—meaning  full operational authority and financial responsibility, combined with appropriate accountabilities. The better hospitals devolved decision-making wherever possible to middle managers with direct responsibility for patient care.

More autonomy for CEOs?

Why Are Hospital CEOs Paid So Well?

So why do so many U.S. hospitals have a helicopter? Again, the answer lies not in medical evidence but in the imperative to compare well with competitors.

..

From Why US government IT fails so hard, so often (more…)

From Australia Limited p80 (more…)

John Watson (Opinion, 23/9) refers to “the strange gloom revealed by an Essential Report survey last week.”  (more…)

(1) China – The Other China Boom is driven by demand for illicit stimulants. Poor people pay for drugs of unknown content. (more…)

My question to Ockham’s Razor episode Innovation Policy  (more…)

From More Than Meets The Ear, Terry Lane 1987 (more…)

An Earnest Proposal (in The Wonderful Mistake) (more…)

In Hunting Health Care-Associated Infections from the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory: Passive, Active, and Virtual Surveillance (2002) (more…)

From The Patriarch (The rise and fall of the Bingham dynasty), Susan E. Tifft & Alex S. Jones (more…)

Pathology lab confirmed legionnaires’ disease a week before Queensland Health was notified (more…)

Michael Douglas: oral sex caused my cancer (more…)

Noticed at What future for the minimum wage? (more…)

From Weimar Culture (Peter Gay) p140-145 (more…)

Philip Clarke and Nicholas Graves want to know Who gets a piece of the pie? Spending the health budget fairly. I ask (more…)

From The Power To Harm (John Cornwell).  (more…)

(more…)

Nine Parts of Desire p128-9, on mongering hate.  (more…)

Gore Vidal (Inventing A Nation) p44-47 (more…)

When we take the next step toward a Republic, we will know we are, at last, taking the trouble to state how we want to define ourselves. (more…)

The Net Delusion, p256 (more…)

.. (more…)

.. (more…)

PP28-9, fear & loathing in Chicago 1908 (more…)

To Save Everything Click Here (Evgeny Morozov), p6,7  (more…)

Netflix ($8pm) installed on the Apple TV. (more…)

From The Net Delusion (pp74, 75) (more…)

Stuart Levy, quoted for ‘When bugs bite back’ in Good Weekend (The Age) Nov 21 1998.  (more…)

Latham, AFR 130328  (more…)

Google Keep is ace.  (more…)

At Germ warfare opens a new front   (more…)

… Anatomy of a Pogrom (Edward H. Judge, NYUP 1992, 0-18147-4193-2)  (more…)

Series of cards by Darebin Ethnic Community Council http://www.decc.org.au  (more…)

  (..)    (more…)

Kristina Keneally on The New Pope: What Australians Want said, re sexual abuse crisis (24min),   (more…)

From Why I’m Not Worried About Dying From a Superbug, and You Shouldn’t Be, Either  (more…)

Taking over an unused PC. (more…)

Who make up the swarms that gather round, (more…)

.. Swan calls for new republic debate  (more…)

From Dave Birch (more…)

From First Impression: HTC Has A Winner With The One (more…)

Cult of the hero (more…)

Gerald Scarfe, drawing blood, p285. (more…)

From Extreme January heat (download pdf) (more…)

As submitted to Senate Inquiry into the gathering and use of criminal intelligence. (more…)

A revealing discussion at the Chez today, perfectly complemented by Clive Hamilton in ‘Requiem for a species’. (more…)

More sites are flagging “This site uses cookies. (more…)

… and free flow of information? (more…)

Geraldine Brooks ‘The Idea of Home’ (more…)

in Bending Spines (Bytwerk) p106. (more…)

Bending Spines (Bytwerk) (more…)

The Origins of Totalitarianism (Arendt) p548-9 (more…)

Can people be trained to view (some) others with disgust? (more…)

This (more…)

.. (more…)

See Ross Gittins on Jeffrey Sachs’ book. (more…)

Squandering the benefits of the resources boom ignores –

1) When the price of ore increases, again (by 20%) how will Govt respond?
2) What about the FF? Not a SWF?
3) What was outcome of recent eco conference at UniMelb, led by KellyP?
4) How will Govt recruit the best talent to carry out the financial reforms & structures to map out infrastructure builds? (Hawker, AICD).

Call it Costello’s legacy & expect nothing will come of next ore boom, but another round of Fed-State squabbling & blame-shifting.

Hard to see Labor turning round in Qld this year. If they came up with a formula to turn resources income into public infrastructure, that would more likely be a case of giving Qlders what they need, not what they want, eg, better health care & schools. Even “jobs for Qlders” likely to suffer perverse spin, ‘cos “jobs” would have to attract the hated non-Qlders.

Try What I Learned in the Poverty War for Qlders:

But once we dismantle cash welfare and other forms of aid and offer paying jobs in their place, what about the children of those few people who simply refuse to work? I think that we should seriously contemplate removing these unfortunate children from their irresponsible parents. Under current child-welfare laws, social-services agencies can already take kids away from their parents if their home environment is unsafe. Is it so extreme to extend that policy to homes ruined by willful poverty and neglect? I concede that the alternatives here are not pretty; government-regulated foster care, in particular, has its own risks of abuse. Adoption, however, works fairly well in most of the country. Another solution would be the establishment of government-funded institutions, operated by voluntary and religious nonprofits, to care for the children.

—
sent 28/12
Letters editor, The Australian
The editorial ‘Squandering the benefits of the resources boom’ (28/12) is all the more interesting for what it leaves out.
It refers to the need for a sovereign wealth fund, but omits any reference to the Future Fund.
It fails to build on the Economic and Social Outlook Conference, held less than two months ago.
The gravest omission, though, is the news about the coming boom in ore prices being reported in the financial sector. Will anything improve our ability to convert profits from iron ore into solid infrastructure? Or, will 2013 see a continuation of the bickering that passes for Federal-State cooperation?
Perhaps all governments could look at public transport as a single entity contributing to productivity. The latest admission about Myki, the all-purpose ticket for Melbourne, is that “it is a little bit clunky”. Well, long-suffering commuters may say, “Fix it!”, before trying to improve anything else.
—

Am confined to the iPad for a few hours, now wondering which tool makes it easier to write something in the “social media” space. PC with proper keyboard, or tablet with add-on keypad? Easy answer, for one without typing skills or voice-to-text software. (more…)

Rupert Murdoch’s recent tweet on the Newtown murders, “Nice words from POTUS on shooting tragedy, but how about some bold leadership action?“,
will serve to brand him forever as a mealy-mouthed hypocrite, unless he and his rich & powerful cronies set up a front of decisive action within a day or two.
It’s a dictum that wealth without power is despised. Murdoch’s great wealth has been acquired within a complex relationship to political power.
Wealth without power can exist, but not in the public space. Also, some rich & powerful may choose not to influence the settings on gun ownership. For example, someone on the board of Lockheed would not be able to act on an opinion like Murdoch’s because that may be against the interests of shareholders. Neither of the above seem to apply to Murdoch. He has taken a seat with the barrackers who have nothing to lose.
Murdoch may be able to redeem himself, though, by being party to a foundation of private individuals set up to deliberately alter the course & nature of American society. Let’s see what comes out this week. Tomorrow’s headlines in The Australian may well give a hint. Or not. I call bullshit.
—
121222

NRA’s LaPierre is copping some stick for proposing armed guards in every school. It’s an entirely rational response when the ducks are lined up.
(1) NRA initial ambit was their usual “get guns away from maddies”, but a few moments reflection shows this can’t be done.
(2) As lobbyist for shooters & gun-makers, NRA’s only logical step is what they say today, ie., that’s what they get paid to do.
It makes sense, though I reckon they’ve jumped the gun.
I mean it may have been better to stick with (1) and let others say why it wouldn’t work, the main one being that US society produces a fair range of people who could be put on a “watch” list. Then, of course, that would be “unconstitutional”. So, what next? Oh, it’s the responsibility of families to keep watch on their home-grown nutters? How about identifying the social factors, like violent males, that lay the groundwork for nascent shooters?
None of that would do the NRA any harm at all, and after a week or two of national navel-gazing, Joe Biden would be left with a seriously wounded duck to pluck in his kitchen.
This early bid by NRA may have done Obama a favour, though. Any school, now, can pay to put an armed guard in a corridor. Most will not, because the local sheriff & police chief will have something to say about that. Obama, then, can get with the NRA to take some weapons & magazines off the shelf.

[This people] wants a leadership in which it can believe, nothing more.

More on leadership.

Long reading list.

Should the Green, with the aid of his Marxist creed, triumph over the people of this world, (more…)

From The Power of Speech (25 Years Of The National Press Club)
Edited by Tony Maniaty   Bantam 1989  IBSN 0 947189 28 9

(more…)

At nesting site (more…)

Could go with Curled Hatband.
Where’s the Save button on Preview?
Wonder if Ian Frazer will pick up at his https://theconversation.edu.au/catch-cancer-no-thanks-id-rather-have-a-shot-7568 ?

In transition, picking up stuff from WP & Posterous. Maybe try linking to a dynamic Twitter backups? How good is Search in each of them?

At Box Hill Cemetery. (more…)

From Samsung Nexus, Brother iPrint&Scan installed, to wireless MFC J430w. (more…)

How to display formatted, not in html?

Is there one for Posterous? (more…)

See GavriloP comment.

Steve Parker blog article

John Halamka writes about his New Year pledges, in his journal Life as a Healthcare CIO. (more…)

test

In Montreal Gazette, reported by Alain Poirier

Sir Gus Nossal recently re-stated the need for Australia to direct more effort to extend vaccination programs to reach the world’s poorest children. (more…)

From Georgia-Pacific Health Smart. Excellent on fingernails. Why can’t others do better? (more…)

Ask the pathology industry. (more…)