Journalism and other writing
NOW we are nearly all safely home after the holidays, it is a good time to look at what might be done to make next holidays safer.
I wrote “nearly all” because 2000 people did not get back home safely – they were seriously injured in traffic crashes, or did not arrive home at all. Continue reading “A new attitude to speeding needed”
DID you notice the autocue? Well, never mind you were not supposed to. The autocues at Barack Obama’s inauguration were the two A3 size smoked-glass panels to his front left and right at 45 degrees to the horizontal.
The words of Obama’s flawlessly delivered speech rolled on each smoked panel reflected to the only the speaker’s eyes. It was smoke and mirrors. The two million members of the crowd and vast television audience were oblivious. Continue reading “Obama right on autocue”
ON Tuesday Barack Obama will take over the White House in similar (if somewhat worse) conditions as the previous time a Democrat took over the White House after a long time of Republican rule.
Sure, then the war in Iraq had been only partially botched and the economy, national debt and the Budget were in poor condition rather than desperate. And terrorism and the weakness of public infrastructure exposed by Hurricane Katrina were less manifest. Nonetheless the similarities are there. The Middle East seemed as intractable then as now. Continue reading “Obama’s big test is health”
An interesting divergence has emerged in the submissions to the Inquiry into Australia’s Future Tax Scheme headed by Treasury Secretary Ken Henry.
As of this week approximately 470 submissions have been made, about half from individuals and half from organisations. Continue reading “Politics hindering tax reform”
I have just had the misfortune to drive the Pacific Highway north of Sydney to Ballina. It is the most dangerous road in NSW, according to the NRMA.
At the time of driving double demerit points were in place. Hitherto, I have always been on the “don’t speed” side of the argument about speed cameras being revenue raisers. But there are some wider questions. Continue reading “Road toll lesson on Pacific Highway”
THE prophetical US political scientist Samuel Huntington died just before yet another flare-up of violence in the Middle East.
Huntington was a proponent of a theory of the clash of civilisations well before the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon by Islamic extremists on 11 September 2001. The event certainly made his theory more popular. In the week or so since his death, quite a few commentators have pointed to the Gaza violence as another example of the accuracy of this part of his theory. Some of the other parts have been given less notice, but more of them anon. Continue reading “Economics not culture main cause of conflict”