http://www.sauer-thompson.com/ respected as well as despised" G.W.F. Hegel, 'Philosophy of Right']]> en-us thoughtfactory@internode.on.net Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:20:08 +0930 http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/opinion/2012/02/big-energy.php Ellen Fanning has an interesting and informative article on Australia's surging power bills in The Global Mail. It is entitled The Hidden Cost of Infinite Energy and in part one she argues that the increasing costs come primarily from cost of upgrading the network to meet growing peak demand, for... http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/opinion/2012/02/reshaping-capit.php The overarching theme of the 2012 World Economic Forum in Davos, which has just ended was The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models. Last week, in the run-up to the World Economic Forum Martin Wolf of the Financial Times launched an essay on “Seven ways to fix our system’s flaws”. Wolf... http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/opinion/2012/02/means-testing-p.php The government’s bill to means test private health insurance rebates for high-income earners is scheduled for debate on Thursday in the House of Representatives. Currently, anyone who takes out private health insurance receives a 30% government refund on their premiums, courtesy of the Howard Government. The Liberals finally came to... http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/opinion/2012/02/why-south-austr.php Greg Craven opens his recent Keep the constitutional change simple in the AFR with this witty rhetoric: There used to be only three certainties in life: death, taxes and the irrelevance of South Australia. Now we have two more. The first is that the current initiative to recognise indigenous people... http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/opinion/2012/02/australia-gener.php The Grattan Institutes recent report on renewable energy--No easy choices: which way to Australia’s energy future? --- makes a familiar argument about how our energy is produced in a world climate change and the need for an energy transition. The age of cheap oil and cheap coal is over and... http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/opinion/2012/02/canberra-gaze-s.php I quickly glanced through The Australian this morning whilst having coffee before doing the shopping at the Central Market. It was full of commentary about the leadership tensions in federal Labor. The message was pretty simple. ALP is in turmoil. The knives are out. Gillard is toast. The Canberra media... http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/opinion/2012/02/its-more-than-l.php Wilcox's cartoon leaves out an important player in her representation of the tent embassy protest event in Canberra. Where is the media? More specifically, what is not represented in the cartoon is the Canberra media gallery and the way their political journalism constructs and distorts the political event. It's yet... http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/opinion/2012/02/the-new-abbott.php Moir's cartoon depicts the highly successful negative strategy adopted by Tony Abbott to remove the minority Gillard Govt from power. One consequence, though, is that Abbott is commonly seen as a boofhead and headkicker who opposes everything the Gillard Government does. He just pounds away. In his "My Plan for... http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/opinion/2012/01/sacrifice.php Giovanni Tiso, who runs the Bat Bean Beam weblog, has an interesting article in Overland entitled Europe’s perfect ruins. In it he addresses the neo-liberal narrative of the Euro sovereign debt crisis. Tiso says that this narrative pits: the profligate south versus the hard-working, virtuous, nose-to-the-grindstone north...the brutal austerity measures... http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/opinion/2012/01/storm-in-a-teac.php Ho hum. Another media beatup by the Canberra Media Gallery with the headlines of "Australia's day of disgrace" or commentary about a blight on our national day. This beatup amplifies the Coalition's attack about a former staff member's (Tony Hodges) role in informing the tent embassy protesters via the intermediary... http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/opinion/2012/01/australia-day-n.php At the street level at Victor Harbor the flag waving celebration of Australia Day is pretty close to being one big barbie and drinks with friends and family. The flags flying on Australia Day were more noticeable this year than last year. They were on cars, on flagpoles, draped over... http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/opinion/2012/01/energy-politics-1.php In Will the next GFC turn out Vic lights? Andrew Herington at Climate Spectator highlights the risk of stranded assets amongst the coal-fired power generator companies in Victoria: In 2010 it was reported that the Latrobe Valley generators had a combined $9 billion in debt to be rolled over by... http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/opinion/2012/01/war-on-the-inte.php The War on the Internet event, which was co-hosted by EFA and the Australian Greens, was held at Trades Hall in Melbourne on 21st January 2012. It featured: Jacob Applebaum - leading computer security researcher and hacker Bernard Keane - 'Crikey' journalist and author Scott Ludlam - Senator for Western... http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/opinion/2012/01/backsliding-on.php Pokies reform has ground to a slow grind. Andrew Wilkie did not have the numbers in the House of Representatives and the NSW backbench of the Labor Party was scared off by the campaign run by Clubs Australia against mandatory pre-commitment. It's another indication of the lack of political courage... http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/opinion/2012/01/republicans-div.php Three different candidates have won the opening three contests in the Republican presidential primaries highlighting the fractured nature of the Republican party in 2012. With Santorum winning Iowa, Romney New Hampshire and Gingrich South Carolina, the battle now moves to Florida. Although Romney has a double-digit poll lead in Florida,...