Can Someone Please Explain All These Stories on Anti-Indian Racism in Australia?

I don’t get it – I really don’t.

I will concede there might be some pockets of racism in Australia- but against Indians?!?!? And leading to violence?!?!?

What?!?!?

Can someone who currently lives in the country please explain to me what on earth is going on?

Keynes vs Hayek Epic Rap

I’ve generally cut down on posting youtube clips on this blog, preferring to share them via my Google Reader Feed instead, but this clip, produced by Russ Roberts from George Mason University, just has to be seen as widely as possible:

Obligatory Australia Day Post

No, I will not get into the debate over racism, over “invasion day”, or WHY THE F**K people still listen to Ray Martin and his pathetic and attention-seeking diatribes about a new Australian Flag.

Instead, I shall simply post Dorothea MacKeller’s 1908 poem, My Country.

The love of field and coppice

Of green and shaded lanes,

Of ordered woods and gardens

Is running in your veins.

Strong love of grey-blue distance,

Brown streams and soft, dim skies

I know, but cannot share it,

My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,

A land of sweeping plains,

Of ragged mountain ranges,

Of drought and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons,

I love her jewel-sea,

Her beauty and her terror

The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,

All tragic to the moon,

The sapphire-misted mountains,

The hot gold hush of noon,

Green tangle of the brushes

Where lithe lianas coil,

And orchids deck the tree-tops,

And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!

Her pitiless blue sky,

When, sick at heart, around us

We see the cattle die

But then the grey clouds gather,

And we can bless again

The drumming of an army,

The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!

Land of the rainbow gold,

For flood and fire and famine

She pays us back threefold.

Over the thirsty paddocks,

Watch, after many days,

The filmy veil of greenness

That thickens as we gaze…

An opal-hearted country,

A wilful, lavish land

All you who have not loved her,

You will not understand

though Earth holds many splendours,

Wherever I may die,

I know to what brown country

My homing thoughts will fly.

Lo! A Sonnet!

Simply so as none can accuse me of being a philistine, I thought I’d grace the pages of this blog with a Shakespearian love sonnet:

CXXX

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

There! Didn’t expect that now, did you now!

Menzies House: A Revolutionary Opportunity For Australia’s Centre-Right

By now, I’m sure most of you would have read about Menzies House, whether on Facebook/Twitter, or through the hit-piece written by Christian Cur in today’s Oz, and would be aware that I am part of the Editorial Board for said site.

Menzies House has been a project I’ve been working on for some time now, and is the culmination of thoughts I initially had with the never-launched Rebuild The Libs project. Set to launch on Jan 30, I believe it has the potential to significantly transform Australian politics.

At it’s core, Menzies house is to be a grassroots group blog for all conservative/libertarian/classical-liberal/generally centre-right thinkers and activists in Australia. It is an opportunity for differing voices to speak their mind, and become more engaged with the mainstream political process. It is not a partisan project, and many contributors we have lined up already are not members of the Liberal Party, and indeed, are active in other parties, such as the LDP &c (I should note at this point that while the site was initially started up and funded by the very-solid Senator Bernardi, he has no editorial control over the content of the site).

I firmly believe that Menzies House has the opportunity to radically influence Australian political debate, by giving voice to grassroots members of the centre right coalition outside of political parties. As such, we shall finally have a vibrant debate over the future of Australia, and have a credible alternative to leftist sights such as ABC’s unleashed (which remains, disgracefully, funded by taxpayer dollars).

I shall not drone on about why I think this is crucial to our success, nor on the spectacular results Conservative Home and other similar sites overseas have received – I am sure you would all be aware of this by now. However, I would like to strongly urge anyone even loosely identified with the right to send in a submission – you can do this by emailing me at tandrews followed by the at symbol and then menzieshouse.com.au. Also, I strongly urge you all to become a “fan” of Menzies House on Facebook , and to follow @MenziesHouse on Twitter!

Together, we shall create a revolution!

Dear Americas Future Foundation…

Dear Americas Future Foundation,

Had I a heart, you would have well and truly broken it by now. Having raised my hopes so high, you have dashed them cruelly against the rocks. My dreams of DC now lie in tattered ruins.

You had so much promise when we first became involved. I really thought this relationship would work. You promised to pit the best and the brightest libertarians and conservatives in a no holds barred ‘roundtable’ fight for the future of the movement. Challenging arguments & debates to the death. What was there not to love?

And yet, they were lies. All lies. Instead, what have you provided. A series of banal ‘panel discussions’, where the only disagreement between participants is what color tie they should wear. A love-in where all sit around, try to outdo each other on who can agree with the other panallists the most.  It would not surprise me if the participants  at one point will pull out a guitar, slap on a tie-dyed t-shirt, link arms and start singing Kumbaya, We Love The World, or something equally nauseating. When the only interesting thing that happens at AFF are the arguments in the smokers alley outside, you know you have a problem!

Now AFF, listen to me carefully: we are from the right. We care little for happy-clappy love-ins. If we wanted to be nice, we would join the latest incarnation of the liberal democratic care-bear caucus.

We want to see conflict. Bloodshed. Core. If we come to see a debate, we want to see a THROWDOWN!

Until a panel participants is crushed and humiliated , until they are impaled and destroyed, until they have their genatalia ripped out and handed to them on a silver platter (well, if they are male, and lets face it, all of yours seem to be) we shall not be satisfied (although, as an added bonus, let’s face it, who wouldn’t want to see a few chairs thrown). We do not want to hear ‘calm debate’. Rather, we want invective filled diatribes! Until the day that an AFF Panelist leaves the room a bloody almost-corpse, tears streaming from their face, and wondering if they shall go on living anymore, YOU HAVE FAILED!

And I mean, it’s not like you have any shortage of interesting topics. You can easily exploit the libertarian/conservative divide. We’re in a movement where everyone hates each other – you don’t even need to call on the ancappers for help! Heck  “We should abandon the GOP”, “Sarah Palin is a force for good” or “Huckabee: Nice guy who for the sake of the movement deserves to be taken into a back alley and shot” would all create vigorous debate  (actually, scrap that last one, I doubt you’ll get a decent speaker for the negative)

You wonder why so few people come these days? Well, this is the reason. So, if you want to change, and actually continue to exist 2 years from now, forget the Queensbury rules, and replace them with a fight to the death. Actually have proper debates. And until you change and embrace this, you won’t be seeing me again.

Pseudo-Libertarian Megan McArdle Calls For Largest Tax Hike In U.S. History

(I generally don’t like posting stuff I’ve written for work here, but in this case I couldn’t resist. Now, I certainly have no wish to start any sort of fight with Megan McArdle, I’m sure she’s a pleasant person, and certainly seems to be universally beloved by ‘the movement’. But in this post she’s just so very, very wrong! And you CAN NOT be a libertarian, and promote massive tax hikes! You just can’t!!!)

With the apparent defeat of Obamacare, believers in small government rejoiced today, for disaster, at least for now, seemed to have been averted.

But riding hard to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, self-proclaimed libertarian Megan McArdle today proposed an apparent “conservative” plan to dramatically hike taxes and increase the size of government. Because that’s exactly what we need to “reform the U.S. healthcare system”.

Ms. McArdle’s proposal may be summed up as follows:

“Raise the Medicare tax by half a percentage point, and eliminate the tax-deductibiity of health insurance benefits for people making more than $150K a year in household income, $100K for singles.  Then make the federal government the insurer of last resort.  Any medical expenses more than 15% or 20% of household income, get picked up by Uncle Sam.”

Ms. McArdle proceeds to state that this is “a pretty small tax”. Which makes it okay apparently. So let us break down her proposal.

Firstly, she wishes to increase the Medicare tax 17% (current rate is 2.9%, a half a percent increase to 3.4% would equate to a 17% tax hike). With the Medicare tax bringing in an (estimated) 191.5 billion in 2010, this would mean an additional $32.6 billion in taxes a year, or a staggering $391.2 billion over a 10 year period (adjusted economic growth).

Secondly, Ms. McArdle wishes to eliminate tax deductions for households making over $150K a year, or $100K for singles (why she wishes to create an additional marriage penalty is unknown to me – surely it would have been fairer to make it 100/200 or 75/150, but anyway).

Whilst it is difficult to work out the exact cost of this, it is possible to make a rough approximation as follows: the average price of an employer provided health plan for a family is $12,200. Using a blended federal marginal tax rate of 30%, this would mean a tax hike averaging $3,660 per household per year. With approximately 7 million households in this category, this would work out at 25.6 billion a year, or, $307.2 billion (adjusted) over ten years.

Combining the two parts of Ms. McArdle’s “small” tax hike, therefore, you get a total of a mind-blowing $700 billion tax hike over a ten year period: This is not only more than the Democrats proposed to increase taxes to pay for Obamacare: it is the largest tax increase in U.S. history.

And what would this money be used for? To turn the government into an ‘insurer of last resort’. Because althoughthe US government spends more per capita on health care than any other large economy in the world, apparently more government spending is what is needed.

Against Happiness

Some time ago now, when I was writing my blog post on the Fetish of Happiness & the Damning of the Different (a theme on which I really ought expound upon at some point): , I came across Eric Wilson’s Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy. Obviously I instantly ordered a copy, but got distracted by various things (as oft is the case!)

Anyway, I found it late yesterday, and rather eagerly devoured it (it is rather short and easy to read) But what a book!

Despite Mr. Wilson’s unfortunate propensity to confuse melancholia with “authenticity” (authenticity apparently been a good in its own right to him), his attacks on capitalism (which, I may have some sympathy for, but that’s still no excuse), and his propensity to attempt to justify melancholia as a means of understanding true joy &c (rather than appreciating it for its own sake), I found it a most worthwhile read.

More importantly, however, its writing was truly a delight to appreciate in many places. So much so, that I thought I’d share a few extracts, chosen, essentially, at random (emphasis mine):

“We can now add another threat, perhaps as dangerous as the most apocalyptic of concerns. We are possibly not far away from eradicating a major cultural force, a serious inspiration to invention, the muse behind much art and poetry and music. We are wantonly hankering to rid the world of numerous  ideas and visions, multitudinous innovations and mediation. We are right at this moment annihilating melancholia”

“This quest for happiness at the expense of sadness, this obsession with joy without tumult, is a dangerous, a deeply troubling loss of the real, of that interplay, rich and terrific, between antagonisms”

“Embracing our sighs and our languor’s, our solitudes and our meditations, we indeed gain painful insights otherwise hidden, novel knowledge of our selves and the world, original attitudes toward stale objects and ideas. We come to life and from that moment do not demonize melancholica. We no longer reduce sadness to weakness of will or sickness in need of a pill. We no more try to twist sadness into nothing but debilitating depression or manic hallucination. Instead, we dwell with those pensive moods that hope for something below the surface. We endure the incompleteness yearning for a vision of the whole .we seek the sorrowful joy.

“The greatest tragedy is to live without tragedy. To hug happiness is to hate life. To love peace is to loathe the self. The blues are clues to the sublime. The embrace of gloom stokes the heart”

My Blog: One Year On

It has now been exactly one year since I began this blog.

Since that fateful day, I have made 302 posts, have received 97,851 pages views (dammit, just missed out on breaking 100K) and received 1,642 comments (not to mention all the comments on FB by everyone who annoyingly reads it there, meaning it isn’t counted as ‘hits’ on WordPress *bastards*).

In the course of the year, I’ve received good publicity on talkback radio and in other blogs, and, of course, I have been roundly attacked in the Australian media, a joke of mine making national TV news and newspaper, and even had the Prime Minister of Australia questioned about it in a press conference. And, of course, become the most popular blog in Australia written by a Young Liberal (a feat of slightly less significance when you realise there actually aren’t any others, but still!)

All in all, a good year for my ego.

With that in mind, I thought it appropriate to recap on the year that was.

This was the post I launched my blog with :

After several weeks now of contemplating the matter, I have finally decided to start up a blog.

I do not hesitate to acknowledge my limitations as a writer – I’ve always felt my communication comparative advantage lies in public speaking – and certainly I’m realistic enough to know that my musings shall not become particularly widely-read. However, the thrill of the political atmosphere here in Washington has jolted me out of my intellectual rut, and I’m quite convinced that this is the way to go.

My point, by the way, in doing this is not so much as to spread my thoughts to the world, but rather is of a somewhat more internal (and selfish) nature.

Essentially I want to work on improving my writing, and I think the rigor – and outlet – of a blog shall force me to overcome my intellectual laziness somewhat and actually work. Secondly, I’ve become convinced that putting pen to paper (so to speak) forces you to analyze ideas at a far deeper level than simply internal thought (not to mention that by becoming engaged in the online ‘conversation’ you can be far more stimulated and interact at a far deeper level, learning off people you wouldn’t have the chance to in person.

So, in my trademark alcoholic style, I propose a toast to this new endevour; to stimulation and to intellectual growth!

Cheers!

So. Have I achieved my goals?

Yes and no. I think my writing has certainly improved, as has my mental discipline, and I think that my blog has succeeded in having an effect (however small) on the Australian political discourse. All of these are good things.

In the negative, my writing remains too political bomb-throwery. In the year ahead I’d like to expand past politics to other topics firstly, but also, attempt to write some more balanced analyses.  I’m assuming I’m able to do things other than scribe rabid attacks and calls to arms, so, let us see.

However, thank you to all of you masochistic enough to regularly read this blog, to comment, and berate me when I’m being silly. You have all been very, very much appreciated!

To conclude, though, I thought I’d link to my favourite posts of the last year. Why? Because I can!

(Note: I havn’t included in here things that were originally written for work. Because there’s a lot more awesome-tim stuff there!)

Politics

The Way Forward: A Lesson From Australia (my first major attack on Turnbull)

Tim’s Youtube Rant (dear God I was drunk. And get progressively more so. Part 2 gets pretty funny)

Conservatism, Libertarianism, and the Liberal Party

Intellectual Rot In The Centre-Right

Tim’s Secret Anti-War Article Released

An Open Letter to Barry O’Farrell

How To Achieve Free Market Success in Australia

How I plan to dedicate my life to reforming Australian politics

The Liberal Party Resignation Letter I never Sent

RIP Big Media: An In Depth Look At How Van Jones, Tea Parties & ACORN Destroyed Big Media Credibility (I was quite proud of the research for this one)

Why I feel sympathy for John Della Bosca

Why Turnbull MUST Be Deposed (I bury the hatchet into Turnbull)

EXCLUSIVE: Full Breakdown Of Joint Partyroom Meeting ETS Votes (another post I’m especially proud of collecting the information for)

How To Defeat Labor’s Internet Censorship: A Liberal Hack’s Perspective

Personal Thought/Introspective Tim

The Joy of Argument & The Tyranny of the Pastels

The Fetish Of Happiness & The Damning Of The Different: My Indictment On Modern Society

Running On Thin, Cracking Ice (or, another self-indulgent whine)

Addiction Is A Choice

Random

Glenn Moon Techno Remix (hehehe!)

My comments on “the scandal”

Monday Morning Music: A Tribute To Communism

An Ode To The Soft-Boiled Egg

What Films Should I Watch?

About a year and a half ago, as part of the Educating Tim project, I asked all my friends on facebook to recommend books for me to read. All in all, I found this project rather successful, and benefited greatly from it.

But now it is time to move to another part of Educating Tim: Film. Those of you who know me will know that I generally don’t watch movies much. And I’ve come to the conclusion that this is hardly a good thing, as there are quite a few good movies out there which are enjoyable to watch, well crafted, thought provoking, and so forth.

I’ve spent a large chunk of the Christmas break watching various films (would have gone through 20 or so, which is probably more than I’ve watched in the last 3 years combined!) all based on friends’ recommendations, and have enjoyed them all immensely.

So, now that I’ve received book and blog advice from the online hive mind, what films should I add to my Netflix queue?