As a child in the 1970s, I avidly read much Enid Blyton. My favourite was the mischievous trickster Brer Rabbit, always getting the better of Brer Fox and Brer Wolf and Brer Bear with his quick wit. It was only when I re-read a few of the stories about a decade ago that I realised, …
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Grange or Hill Of Grace?
I am a bit of a wine buff (which is a kind way of describing someone who probably should drink a lot less fine red wine than I do). Back in 1999 when I lived in Canberra for most of the year, I started reading about wine appreciation in order to relieve the boredom of …
Bipartisanship as an affront to Democracy
Several weeks ago I wrote a post in which I expressed my concerns about recent changes to federal electoral laws to make it harder for minor parties to operate. Since that time, two long established minor parties, who have enjoyed a small degree of electoral success over the years, have had their registrations challenged by …
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Modern Monetary Mayhem
For a few days there, after finishing reading Stephanie Kelton’s book on Modern Monetary Theory, The Deficit Myth, I was starting to doubt my sanity. She sounded really convincing. This is the problem with not have studied economics formally, but just having read a few textbooks to teach myself economics. There are always going to …
The Global Financial System Is Insane So Let’s Just Print Money
I recently read a book about Modern Monetary Theory. I want to have an understanding as to what the current fashion is in financial policy, given that it does affect our wallets and our lives. The author was at pains to emphasise that MMT is not money printing – it is creating money electronically by …
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Sainthood for Santamaria?
I was having a few beers the other day with a friend who is on speaking terms with various people associated with the remnant of B.A. ‘Bob’ Santamaria’s ‘Movement’ (although I am not sure that the NCC and the DLP are as unified as paranoiacs in the Labor Party would believe). He said that there …
Anti-Technocrat Protests and Faux Anti-Fascist Outrage
There were protests in Melbourne this week, principally motivated by opposition to the technocratic pandemic bill proposed by the Andrews government, a proposed law with significant overreach, no sunset clause, no effective oversight by the Parliament (indeed, it represents an abdication of the Parliament’s duties), and limited (if any) right of review to the courts. …
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Villainy in the novels of Alexander McCall Smith
I have been avidly reading the novels of Alexander McCall Smith for about twenty years, since I first discovered The Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency and avidly devoured the first four novels (all that was in the series at that time). McCall Smith is quite prolific, and has since then started two other major series, …
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Cleveland Browns Merchandise
I can be quite the contrarian sometimes, particularly in relation to sports. I have written a few times over the past couple of years about my decision to become a Cleveland Browns fan, specifically based on their lack of success, which reminds me of my beloved Footscray (aka Western Bulldogs), who, prior to the current …
Beer Gardens of Melbourne
There was no bar on campus when I was an undergrad at Monash, which was probably a good thing, on sober reflection. Aside from not having the disposable income or the ability to hold copious quantities of beer or wine that I do now, I would occasionally wander north to the Nottinghill Hotel, affectionately known …
Lost For Words! 