Category Archives: Entres

Scotty’s Road to Damascus? — Counting Down

He may not see the light, but no doubt he’ll feel the heat at COP26 in Glasgow next month. Incoherent yabbering about plans and pathways, vague thoughts on targets. “Technology not taxes”, or is it “Technology not targets”? Hard to pin him down on a revised concrete emissions reduction target, much less a date. Australia’s […]Continue reading “Scotty’s Road to Damascus? — Counting Down”

Inputs to Selfhood

What constitutes today’s iteration of the well-informed individual? No aspiration to be a polymath genius, just an intelligent and worldly aware thinker. Do we expose ourselves to an adequate variety of information sources? This self-examination is a personal quest for the making and maintenance of a reasonable mind. This quest should be conducted without prejudice,Continue reading “Inputs to Selfhood”

Having Lost the Plot, Infrastructure Australia is Doomed

The Commonwealth Infrastructure Priority List is due for de-listing, according to John Austen (“Time to call time on Infrastructure Australia”, Pearls and Irritations, October 8, 2021). With Intergenerational and Auditor-General reports it shares the fate of public administration ignored by the public. We ought to be interested in what projects the government wants to spendContinue reading “Having Lost the Plot, Infrastructure Australia is Doomed”

Scott-the-Announcer

Scott-the-Announcer A moniker not as frightening as those of your lineage like Vlad-the-Impaler or even Attila-the-Hun, but Scott-the-Announcer fits you Sco-Mo. You’re fond of making announcements, not so good at action. I recall that, as a child, I formed the view that, with their apparent readiness to leave the field of play during test matchesContinue reading “Scott-the-Announcer”

Features of Political Discourse

The conventions of political debate are annoying, frustrating, pervasive, and militate against truth-telling. Citizens know they will be fed the party line and that the truth will be wrapped in obscure language designed to avoid commitment or embarrassment. In alphabetical order, I offer the following characteristics of political dialogue designed to avoid or evade theContinue reading “Features of Political Discourse”