Tree of Knowledge

I’m off to Lisbon for the weekend in search of some Northern Winter sun, so none of my witty banter and repartee for the next couple of days.

A quick memo to the more excitable elements of the OzBlogosphere (RTS and Blogocracy, I’m talking to you):

The document detailing the first 100 glorious days of the Rudd Government was paid for by the ALP – not taxpayers.

It’s fair enough to stick the boot in – but when you’re wrong, apologies are in order, […]

The Right Hon Paul Keating lines up Janet Albrechtsen:
On Wednesday, she was at it again, warning Kevin Rudd that Keating’s embrace of sophisticated elites is the road to electoral oblivion because the Keating agenda was anathema to the wider electorate.
Albrechtsen, for her own part, of course, was not part of any elite. The ear of […]

Continuing our countdown of the ten best positive campaign ads…..
5. I was born in a place called Hope (1992) Bill Clinton
The greatest communicator of emotion in modern politics lets it all hang out in this definitive campaign launch ad. The JFK imagery in this ad combined with Clinton’s uplifting story just screams “American Dream”.

4. The […]

Boing Boing reports:

Republican former South Dakota lieutenant governor and potential Senate candidate Steve Kirby made his fortune running a scandal-wracked business that harvested collagen from corpses donated for medical research and using it for cosmetic products and penis-enlargements:

Spin THAT.

A few weeks ago I ran a top ten for campaign attack ads, so it’s only fair that I give the aspirational campaign ads a run.
Beyond a very solid top five however, it’s actually difficult to pinpoint great aspirational campaign ads. They just don’t seem to stick in the collective consciousness in the same […]

Andrew Leigh has updated his excellent Tips for Opinion Piece Writers cheat sheet.

Give it a read and have a bash getting something up.

Suggested topic? The benefit of wall-to-wall Labor governments J

Crikey weighs in with a list of very worthy female nominees for the Australia 2020 Summit (though describing Eva Cox as a “social commentator and feminist” is a bit bashful – come on, she’s a spokesman for an interest group).

Some highlights:

1. AUSTRALIAN ECONOMY

Future directions for the Australian economy – including education, skills, training, science and […]

In the spirit of sharing the produce of my days of intellectual leisure I thought it might be interesting to blog some reviews of a selection of the myriad prescribed texts I’ve swum through at the LSE.
First up, Frank Luntz’s Words that Work: It’s not what you say, It’s what people hear.

Opposition Environment Spokesman, Nick Minchin reiterated his doubts about the existence of climate change today suggesting that the claims made by the international scientific community are “often very exaggerated”.

Minchin’s law and economics degrees give him the impeccable scientific credentials necessary to weigh in on the climate change issue against the overwhelming consensus of the international […]