Showing posts with label retroblogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label retroblogging. Show all posts

09 June, 2012

Looking for Leadership

Last month’s tussle for the leadership of the ALP didn’t just reveal a lot about the simmering resentment on both sides, it also tells us a lot about how Labor and Australia in general relate to the notion of leadership.  Some of the charges against Rudd were that he was (and remains) controlling, demeaning, egotistical and narcissistic.  Really?  Sounds exactly like Paul Keating.  Bugger me, an egotistical leader?  Whoever heard of such a thing?  Never mind the fact that standing for national leader is just about the most egotistical thing you can do.  Like they say in the classics, ego is not a dirty word.  If you want humility, visit a soup kitchen.  If you want a leader, they’re going to come with an ego.


...and if you'd like to read the rest of this piece, you can find it here:

In fact, if you subscribe to The King's Tribune, you could have read it two months ago.


The Tribune is a great monthly magazine on politics, media and culture, taking a stand for the printed word in a digital age.  If you're reading this at all, you probably do most of your news and commentary reading online but even now, there's something for-the-ages about ink and paper.  Another thing about an actual, physical magazine is that you get a lot of articles that you didn't necessarily buy it for, and this can expose you to things you wouldn't otherwise have found through carefully targeted feeds or online peer groups.

There's no official editorial slant, they just publish good writing from interesting people.  If that's your bag, then their subscription rate is very reasonable.  Support independent media in a format that is compatible with all platforms, doesn't have to be turned off on aircraft and never runs out of battery.  Also, if you've ever read some of the nonsense that gets published in the inkies and thought, "I could do better than that," then let them know.


29 December, 2010

Thinking of Linking


As much for my own reference as anyone else's, this is the second annual list of links I have bookmarked, shared or had shared with me. Posting these links does not necessarily constitute agreement with or endorsement of the contents. May contain traces of Harry Shearer, John Birmingham and NASA.

If you're looking for some more summer/winter reading, but sure to click those links down on the sidebar to your right there. I wouldn't link to them if they weren't magnificent. Welcome to the 'blogiverse Andy – it's about time!

News and Politics – Australia:
Since when did dumb-arsed nationalism become compulsory?
LNP's teen candidate hits back at critics ("I went overseas and went around Europe, as most people do," No way is Wyatt Roy out of touch!)
Julia Gillard: a political dill
Political logic points to double dissolution
Deveny learns the Anzac art of futile attack
Preferential Voting in Australia
What is a Liberal?
Rudd Faces Revolt: O Rly?
Thank you Kevin
Price, Arndt wrong in irrelevant family feud
The facts and furphies about Australia's most unwanted
Clarke and Dawe on asylum seekers
Rudd hoses down cabinet leak speculation
Fired up Gillard defends Cabinet questions
Internet filter blacklist leaked on web
The Real Benefits For Asylum Seekers In Australia
$37m sex case could set 'remarkable precedent'
Stimulus 'served Australia well' despite waste
Latham full of bile, Oakes says
We Get It, None of You Are Bill Gates
Election Leaflets
There are worse things than losing
For Those Who've Come Across Seas
Fake Green How to Vote Cards in Bennelong
Abbott apologises to Wilkie
Kiss Me Like You Mean It: Negotiating in the New Paradigm
When did Pride Become Pity?
Does Australia Have a Government Yet?
In conversation: Mungo MacCallum and Shane Maloney
The NBN may crush Turnbull
Does Australia Have a Grand Final Winner Yet?
Collection of Grog-gate 'blogs
More on the Ethics of Outing Grog's Gamut
An Open Letter to Bronwyn Pike, Victorian Education Minister
What secrets are worth keeping?
Quality sets The Australian apart
Coalition launch sullied by party boy candidate
A tragic reminder our long, bloody battle with the sea
US slams political games on refugees
To Andrew Bolt. With contempt.
Showboat – Jack Marx
Victorian Liberals Swing Music Funding Axe    
Hinch on dickileaks

News and Politics – US:
Tea partiers attack convention (you could not make this up!)
Obama urges Republican "soul-searching" on healthcare (I think I see the problem with that strategy)
Attention, Dick Cheney: Don't the Germans Know We're At War?
New Orleans: The Joy and the Dread
The Rand Paul Quote Everybody's Ignoring
Memo to Rand Paul: Free Enterprise Isn't Free
Visualising the slick – If it were my home
Gulf Oil Leak Happened Before – here's how they fixed it
Pilots Bristle As American Airline Tells Them To Fly With Less Fuel
It's getting to be embarrassing to be a conservative
Ground Zero "Hallowed Ground"
The Katrina Bookshelf
Infographic: MLK Glenn Beck Flow Chart
Building a Nation of Know-Nothings
A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Microwave
Experts: Terrorism threat to U.S. now more homegrown
Criminals In The Bush Administration
Commentary: They've squandered lives, fortunes and our sacred honour
Harry Shearer vs. the Army Corps of Engineers
Harry Shearer and NPR: The Big Uneasy
Pentagon Destroys Copies of Controversial Memoir Written by Army Officer
Does Sarah Palin desecrate the American flag?
Our election ads are scaring the Martians
Jon Stewart on Larry King
Does fame bring forth madness?
Probably the best sign from the Rally for Sanity
Extremes rule both parties, as centrists lose their seats
Live Tweeting Murder
Were the Bush Tax Cuts Good for Growth?
Tweet of the day
KUHNER: Assassinate Assange?
You let the bully kick your ass and then get your big brother to convince everybody you won?
An Irishman abroad tells it like it is
Sarah Palin is wrong about John F. Kennedy, religion and politics
Halliburton Offers Nigeria $250 Million in Exchange for Dropping Charges Against Cheney, Company
Accused soldier offered plea bargain if he names WikiLeaks founder

News and Politics – World:
Cleric issues anti-terror fatwa (Didn't see that reported in the fair-and-balanced networks, did you?)
What Isn't News: NATO's Coverup of Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan
Ninth worker death at Taiwan iPhone firm Foxconn
Echoes of Raid on 'Exodus' Ship in 1947
Replace Ryanair boss with flight attendant: pilot
Nobel Peace Prize winner's wife has 'disappeared,' lawyer says
Ninety years on, First World War is finally over for Germany
UN Space expert denies being alien ambassador (They had to ask that question?)
Britons want William, not Charles as next king - Poll (methinks they might be misunderstanding one of the fundamental aspects of a monarchy)
Fifa's demand to be exempt of UK money-laundering legislation
Sodomy charges were a set-up (Just in from the obvious desk. The hotel where the offences were alleged to have taken place wasn't even built at the time they said they happened)
David Cameron asked about liking The Smiths (Prime Minister's Questions, 8.12.10) (Best. Question. Ever!)
The rights and wrongs of hacktivism
Six days of war, 40 years of secrecy

Media Bias Files:
The 119 Words You Can't Say On The Radio
You wouldn't read about it: climate scientists right
Journalism Warning Labels
Fox sends out ambush squad to talk to NYC mosque investors -- but doesn't mention key Fox investor
How Google Unwittingly Helped Propagate the Misleading "Ground Zero Mosque" Label
The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party
Agendas and bias on the media trail
Gruen's gift to the advertisers
Editor said policeman's death would boost sales
Nudge nudge, don't mention Denton
Lindsay Lohan: Mental Illness as Entertainment
Newspapers Retract 'Climategate' Claims, but Damage Still Done
A Twitter idea for Q&A (The Aus moans about unattributed comment. The comment is unattributed!)
If Olbermann's Donations Are Bad, What About GE's?
The $200million myth
Jewish outrage grows, but Beck digs deeper by approvingly citing flaming anti-Semite Mahatir
The Beatles 'are from Manchester', claims Fox News
The 'torture' of writing about climate change at The Oz
Both ends of it benefit the ultimate News Corp agenda
Look you can have a headline a day or a bucket of shit every day. What's it to be?
Nice work, Drudge!
Fox's news editor who tells reporters all global temperature trends are "notions," never facts.

Science and Technology:
Claims of wind farm illness
Neil deGrasse Tyson at UB: What NASA Means to America's Future
Dry as a dingo: no water for three weeks
Google to stop capturing wi-fi data (How do you "mistakenly" collect data?)
Manhattanhenge
Go For Launch!
Apple issues advice to avoid iPhone flaw (That's right! Apple products don't have design flaws. It's your fault for holding it wrong.)
First optical photograph of a planet outside our solar system
Massive fish kill reported in Louisiana
Love Makes You Increasingly Ignorant of Your Partner
Making things hard to read 'can boost learning'
Ig Nobel for 'whale breathalyser'
Ultrafast laser pulse makes desktop black hole glow
Benoît B. Mandelbrot (1924-2010), Father of Fractal Geometry
The McDonald's burger won't destruct. Here's why
Russian Software Firm Breaks Canon's Authenticity Verification, Big Time
NASA-Funded Research Discovers Life Built With Toxic Chemical (*Since called into question, but still fascinating)
Message from Buzz re: NASA CCDev-2 Program
NASA's LRO Creating Unprecedented Topographic Map of Moon 
Lunar Eclipse Photos


Music and the Arts:
J.D. Salinger: The Man in the Glass House
Ken Loach streams entire back catalogue on YouTube
Ozzy Osbourne wanted to be a Beatle
Paul McCartney's Inner Rhymes (A Tale of Love Unrequited)
Mini Beatles reunion caught on a thousand shakycams
John Irving's personal thoughts on Simon Birch
Lost tapes of classic British television found in the US
David Bowie: Fantastic Voyages From Beyond The Hits
This made Prince go up about 10 notches in my estimation
Triple J Hottest 100 Mashup - Vol 1-15
The Smiths: Johnny Marr looks back
Lay off Linda, the ultimate rock chick
Paper Training
Fighting a poet's corner – An Appointment with Mr Yeats
Slam Rally
John Lennon - Not only ... but also
Superhero minimalism - 70s-inspired, minimalist book covers
Neil Finn & Johnny Marr - There is a light that never goes out - Jazz Cafe
100 Best Australian Albums Revealed (The Vines but no Whitlams? Kylie but no Bridie? I call bullshit!)
When the man comes around: a case of cash for rock
Jane Austen's famous prose may not be hers after all
Capt Beefheart's 10 Commandments of Guitar Playing
10 Mind-Blowing Easter Eggs Hidden in Famous Albums

Animals:
Bull and burgers: mincing their words
Live sheep export: It's bad for our economy too
Catalonia bans bullfighting
Oscar's Law – abolish puppy factories
Politicians, Industry and Welfare Groups Unite In Call For End To Live Animal Export
Goodies Reissue Funky Gibbon

Faith:
Crusade against the pope: an Inquisition-in-Reverse
Atheist zealots a heavy cross to bear
Monday Morning Hate-mail and the Brilliant Dr Pamela Gay

Humour and Satire:
Bunch Of Phonies Mourn J.D. Salinger
If real life were more like the internet
Libertarian Paradise
BP Spills Coffee
The Spill in lolcats
Steve Martin Concert Contract Rider
Don't use a blue background next time, Tony
Fiona Katauskas: Game on
Lego Election
Best e-reader on the market
They denied reality
Lyric sheets for nerds
Palin 2012
The tea and crumpets party
Best accidental ad placement
The tree that knows stuff
I see what you did there
Clarke and Dawe - A Very Firm Grasp of Matters
New Twitter feature
Nobel Prize
But I Twitter
SNL's Julian Assange To The U.S.: You Got Me, Where's Osama?
Most Damning Wikileaks cable
Dogbert on message boards (Admit it – you've done this)
Swedish Chef does Popcorn
How Follow Friday is supposed to work

Egotism:
Eray Photography
Hi-Fi Weddings
Both
Classic Fender Pick
Real UFO caught on video causing terror in Melbourne
UFO = Unidentified Floating Object
Dogs on Boxes...The Weeks Best from Australia's Twittocracy #102
@PeterJBlack's top five #ausvotes (and #QandA) tweets of Monday 2nd
The Notion Factory
Legitimate Questions for Sarah Palin - Small Government News
Legitimate Questions for Sarah Palin | The Fifth Column
Tuesday Night Buzz - Ground Zero Mosque - Part 2
Blog-This profile

Other interesting stuff:
How Tweet It Is!: Library Acquires Entire Twitter Archive
Bart's Blackboard
Google Pacman
Hello Kitty Engine Oil (Well, if it means emo girls will take an interest in engine protection....)
Spicks and Specks: Barry Morgan Medley - Ep 24, 2010
The Beer Reviews: Great Aussie pubs
On My Shelves — On the art of arranging bookshelves
Captured: America in Colour from 1939-1943 (58 is just perfect)
Give Our Streets the Green Light
Russia in colour, a century ago
Boobies!
RUOK Day
The best sentence ever
Dead Plagiarists Society
Bad light mars play as Aussies make silly point
Instant statistics
National Geographic's Photography Contest 2010
How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming
Sister Cyril

25 July, 2010

Election tweets

For those who have been expecting a whole lot of election commentary.  I've been too busy with personal things to write anything of substance, although I do have at least three posts planned.  In the meantime, for those who don't partake, here are some of my Twitter comments from the last week, expanded where appropriate, plus credited re-tweets.

Okay, so @abcnews broke the spill and the announcement of election, do you think they can give us the result next week? 

  Hashtag_Police #ausvotes refers to the upcoming Australian election. #ozvotes refers to choosing a new Wizard.

   emmygrrl Why can't the media just wait untilt the actual election is called? Just because you said it was on before it was doesn't make you good. 

If Kroger & Richo still speak for their respective parties, how can we believe that either has progressed in the last 20 years? 

  latikambourke Tabbott: 'An incoming Coalition government will not seek to change the Fair Work Act for the three years of the next term of parliament.' Translation: WorkChoices back in 2nd term, just like GST.
Translation: WorkChoices back in 2nd term, just like GST. 

If I had a drink for ever "move/moving forward" I'd be pissed already.


Oh Julia, did you get this speech from dial-a-cliche? 




  It's official: "moving forward" is more annoying than "ease the squeeze"

That speech was either a gift to satirists, or just made them redundant.  


What the hell is a "green army" anyway?  

  angryaussie The Age says the election campaign will confirm or sweep out of office nation’s first woman PM. So she'll either win or lose. Fucking genius


Famous people vote too. But seriously, don't let that stop you. It's still important.



Surely Julia Gillard is the ultimate example of what boat people can achieve? 



Didn't both Labor and Liberals ditch leaders because those leaders wanted to move forward?


  Paris_David Ladies and gentlemen we've commenced our descent. Please ensure your principles and compassion are stowed in the overhead lockers.



via @jeremysear Nat-Sec of AWU says Greens are left-wing socialists http://bit.ly/9usRnu does he object because that used to be unions' gig?



RT @latikambourke TAbbott on Mitchell. He says he'll always try to tell the truth. 
>Yeah, and I always “try” to lose weight.


Memo to political journos: None of the punters care who reports something first. They care about who covers it best.



Ok Liberals, yes "moving forward" is a lame slogan. Saying so doesn't make you a better option. No extra points for the bloody obvious 

BridgetOFlynn TA "It's all about debt". That debt helped me stay in business, helped my staff feed their kids, helped my clients sleep at night. Stupid man.


So let me get this straight: @JuliaGillard and @TonyAbbottMHR have agreed that between them, they're less important than masterchef? 
 
So both leaders and networks have accepted that more people would rather watch Masterchef than debate? We're stuffed.


I love the way both parties are campaigning against their own previous terms in government.



I'm a political animal, but if anyone thinks I'm going to give up Spicks and Specks to see how cringeworthy Abbott is on Hey Hey It's Saturday, forget it!



Abbott on Hey Hey is an embarrassment. In other news, rain is wet, sky is blue and gravity sucks  #tweetthebleedingobvious



Mark Latham says Kevin Rudd is an "unguided missile" and could cause "no end of strife" for the ALP campaign. Pot & kettle, Mark?



An honest question to @Greens and @AusDemocrats - What's the difference between your parties? Do you compete with or compliment each other?


  AusDemocrats @Billablog We have very different ways of thinking about and approaching things,. Read the 5 core beliefs http://bit.ly/81T9iI
(no reply from Greens)


If only we had a citizens' assembly that would represent the people's views on all important issues.



  Wil_Anderson Doc says skin cancer on my shoulder needs removing. Should I trust "experts" or form Citizens Assembly of the other people in waiting room?



Remember at your next rally, it's not an unlawful gathering, it's a citizens' assembly.



  iBleeter @JuliaGillard Aren't we already voting for a citizen's assembly? How about leading from in front?


RT @TurnbullMalcolm a "citizens assembly" to discuss climate? Isnt that what parliament is meant to do?
>Yes, but your party decided otherwise


Abbott is right - Gillard's climate policy lacks leadership. But it rings hollow coming from the party that wants to wait and see.



Gillard still in front on "Who is less like Tony Abbott" index.



Libs have to understand that aversion to Labor won't automatically translate into support for Liberals. http://ow.ly/2frUC via @Paris_David



As a champion procrastinator, I know avoidance behaviour when I see it, and that's what both parties are doing on climate change.



squeiss If you think a vote for the @greens is a vote for Labor, please ask someone to explain to you how preferences work. Thx.


  ben_hr RT @mfarnsworth: Gillard and Abbott are both political pygmies, hollow and cowardly says @LaurieOakes: http://auspol.info/bu3XYx 

>@GrogsGamut Can't stand Oakes, but he's nailed it there.




  iBleeter Please number your ballot paper randomly for the sake of democracy http://bit.ly/d2ybJB (via @JonKudelka)

 

Can't believe I'm about to say this, but if @TurnbullMalcolm were still leader, I'd consider voting Liberal.


latikambourke My interview with Don Randall where he says Christians are unhappy with a 'Godless PM.' #ausvotes http://twaud.io/l91

@latikambourke I'm Christian & I don't care if they believe in God. I care more about policies that reflect Christian values. Libs' policies certainly doesn't


I love democracy. I love science. Science is not democracy, Democracy not science. If 150 people agree that the Earth is flat, it's still round.



Nails it again! RT @Gibbot5000 My absolute fury at the impending election fail. http://is.gd/dEsvI





More can be found HERE, along with other pointless crap.
I hope to have some well thought out posts on the topic later in the week.