China plays hardball (Updated)

Well, there is one thing you cannot say about the Chinese Government and that is they are not intimately involved in their nation’s economy.
On the back of a surprise rejection of Chinalco’s offer to buy a significant chunk of Rio Tinto, China has Australian Rio Tinto executives into “criminal custody” (i.e. they are not yet [...]

A Midweek Winter Warming Healthy Meal!!

Most westerners would be familiar with the idea of the mid-Winter heart-warming dish of porridge made from oats.
The Chinese have their own version, made from rice, it’s dead easy to make, is delicious, healthy and nutritious. Called “congee” or rice porridge, it can be eaten at any time of the day as a mid-Winter, comfort [...]

Monday by The Magazine Rack

Hello
And welcome to the shop. Open a bit late today due to new employment conditions.
I read a recent editorial piece lately, sorry I don’t have a link (but if anyone does, send it in, I’ll update the post), about how making positive affirmation statements like “I am a worthwhile person” and “I am worthy [...]

The Resurrection of Tony Abbott

Hot on the heels of the spectacular implosion of Malcolm Turnbull in the polls, there is a growing concern inside the Liberal party that Malcolm’s dramatic fall from grace is beyond redemption.
If these reports are anything to go by, Malcolm has until Christmas to redeem himself, or face a leadership standoff that could see Tony [...]

Remembering Michael

Today, after another highly successful day at the office, I thought I’d saunter across the road to JB Hifi at lunchtime to see whether the rumour was true that stocks of Michael Jackson CDs were selling like hot cakes and (according to news reports) there might not be any left at all due to unprecedented [...]

The Population Bombs

This is guest post from Tony..
In 1968 Paul Erlich, an American biologist, wrote a book entitled The Population Bomb, in which he predicted large-scale human catastrophe as a consequence of overpopulation. Echoing his ideological predecessor Thomas Malthus, Erlich wrote:
The battle to feed humanity is over. In the 1970s, the world will undergo famines. Hundreds of [...]

Midweek Mayhem!

Looks like reb & joni forgot about our midweek thread of madness, so I thought I’d better put one up for those of us missing the general randomness of the discussion that follows…
I can’t rant like reb can, nor do I have anything really newsworthy to pass on. So I decided to post an interesting [...]

Happy Birthday TB!

Many of youse will know that today is a very special day for a very special Blogocrat.
Despite the fact that he’s from Queensland and is dressed exclusively by Lowes, TB Queensland has been a long standing member of “the crats” and Tim Dunlop’s site Blogocracy.
We have all come to know TB as someone who has [...]

Utegate & the Polls

Well, for those who think that Turnbull had a good week last week (say, Tony Abbott & friends) – it would appear that the public disagree. There were several polls released this morning and all of them agree on it being bad news for the Opposition, for Turnbull in particular.
What interested me the most was [...]

Censorship & the politics of distraction

Given that I am a self-confessed “leftie” and this is often (on this blog at least) confused with the idea that I will defend a Labor government regardless of merit – I thought I’d throw up an article on something I think the government should be hammered on; both for what they are doing and [...]