Day 26: The Conventional Wisdom Turns

Aug 12, 2010

“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong,” wrote H.L. Mencken. He might well have said something similar about interpreting Australian elections.

This week the conventional wisdom has turned. Whereas Julia Gillard was losing this time last week, now she is seen as “back on track”, “playing to Labor’s strengths” and “out-performing Tony Abbott”. Add your own cliché. Take your pick and pontificate.

The wisdom is supported by an assortment of events.

Tony Abbott admitted to Kerry O’Brien on Tuesday night that he’s not a “tech head” and doesn’t really understand the technicalities of broadband. [Read more…]

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Political Quotations – Set 7

Apr 09, 2009
  1. We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them. – Livy, Roman historian (64 or 59 B.C.-A.D. 17)
  2. Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are. – Bertholt Brecht, German poet and dramatist (1898-1956)
  3. We must not waste life in devising means. It is better to plan less and do more. – William Ellery Channing, American clergyman (1780-1842)
  4. The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves. – Plato, philosopher (427-347 BCE)
  5. The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do. – Samuel P. Huntington

    6. [Read more…]

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Political Quotations – Set 1

Oct 10, 2008
  1. Intellect alone is a dry and rattling thing. – Ilka Chase, American author, actress, humorist (1905-1978)

  2. During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. – George Orwell, writer (1903-1950)

  3. Whenever ‘A’ attempts by law to impose his moral standards upon ‘B’, ‘A’ is most likely a scoundrel. – H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

  4. History is the record of an encounter between character and circumstances. – Donald Creighton, Canadian historian (1902-1979)

  5. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – The Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776

    6. [Read more…]

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