It’s time again for weekend reflections, which makes space for longer than usual comments on any topic. As always, civilised discussion and no coarse language.
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John Quiggin 
What do we think of this? http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25996853-601,00.html
I’ve followed the link you gave to a Holocaust denial site. You’re permanently banned with immediate effect – JQ
As I understand it, the “cheaper books” are remaindered by the original bookseller and returned to the publisher who writes them off, presumably accepting a tax loss and paying no royalty to the author.
If we accept them to be sold in Australia, are we not accessories to fraud?
Peters, I can’t say for certain but normally resellers have to pay a restocking fee if items are returned.
‘high rices for books’? what utter rubbish. Just look at two of the names amongst that list – woolworths and coles – that should tell you it’s a coalition of shonks and both care not a whit if Australian money goes overseas as long as they are making fatter profits.
And 12% cheaper? Whoopee, that’s gonna make me squeal the tyres all the way to woolies to get me a whole stack of $35 books for $31. You can bet that they will pocket most of the difference in price between imported and locally made books.
I do wonder though why they can’t protect many more other sectors from cheap imports.
Remember, folks, that the argument is about books first published overseas – in most cases not by Australian authors – and that local publishers are claiming a monopoly right to reprint here (if it’s B&W) or in Singapore (if it’s colour). Those local publishers are usually the local subsidiaries of overseas publishers (owned by Rupert Murdoch and the like).
Somehow, they have convinced Australian writers that local books are cross-subsidized from the monopoly profits they get from the overseas material.
If Murdoch told you this would you believe him?
Maintenance of the monopoly will drive more business to Amazon and the other overseas online retailers. I am a heavy buyer of books. I’d rather buy from Gleebooks but go to Amazon if there is a significant price difference.
Like you Ken, I’ve been a heavy buyer of books (and still am):
My book buying practices depend in detail upon which mob can supply the title and quickly. When it comes to technical stuff like dynamical systems, differential geometry, singularity theory etc, the choice is Amazon – most of the good stuff is not available locally and in any case, the big book stores generally say “I’m afraid it is not available” which really means “go away.”
For titles that are more in the realm of philosophy, ethics, general layperson science and astronomy, etc I’ve usually gone to the small bookshops in preference to Borders and the like. In Sydney my favourites were Gleebooks, Abbeys, and then the Unibooks. Dymocks, Borders, A&R were down the list a bit.
Personally I think authors should gain more for their efforts, but I’m utterly perplexed how that might come about.
@Donald Oats
Don – I love Dial a book – second hand bookshop at Narrabeen. You need ladders and all the place is so stuffed to the rafters with books…and I love the little old lady who runs it. She knows so much about books and if they dont have a title you suggest even beyond 50 years old – she searches the internet for you…and can give you a price if she finds it..she is a national treasure.
John, today Glenn Milne reports that the big swinging dick Minchin should be rewarded for going into bat on Turnbull’s side. But I’m not sure rewarding Minchin is a good thing even if he was able to settle the flapping chooks.
Little piece at Lavartus Prodeo caught my eye this week:
http://larvatusprodeo.net/2009/08/24/hotting-up/
Looking at the sea level rise graph I was reminded of graphs for stability in aerodynamic design. The graphs read another way therefore, indicated to me periods of disturbance, the wiggly lines showing positive dynamic stability (tendency to return to a stable state after the disturbance or displacement) but the shifts upwards over time are accompanied by a change to a new state of equilibrium followed by further wobbles (more displacement forces). Since about 1998 the lines diverge from the last or previous equilibrium and appear linear with increasing amplitude, they now appear remarkably like the graphs for dynamic instability, that is to say the divergence is now increasing and may not return to a new equilibrium. Translated – what ever was controlling or preventing instability is no longer applicable, I think this may be then evidence of the so called hypothetical ‘tipping point’. In other words a state of being out of control. When aircraft do this they crash. Most frightening graphs of the state of our planet I have ever seen.
@Alice
Wish I’d come across that bookshop while still in Sydney – sounds interesting! We have a secondhand bookshop here in Murray Bridge, but it’s not in the same league as the bookshops in Sydney.
I mentioned it in another post somewhere, but I’ll do so here as well. More supporting evidence that global warming may be contributing to SE Australia’s drought. Meanwhile, Carter, Plimer, and several other Nationals affiliated clowns keep having roadshows throughout rural Australia, at which they claim to know the Earth better than anyone else, and spout the usual denialist claptrap.
Just writing to alert readers to the two most recent entries for the ‘Left Focus’ blog.
The most recent entry is an analysis of the health care debate in the US by American writer Wes Bishop…
The immediately prior entry is a consideration of arguments surrounding reform of the pension system in Australia…
For this material – and more – you’re all welcome to drop into Left Focus, browse our archive – and comment..
see: http://leftfocus.blogspot.com/
Kind and sincere regards,
Tristan
John, today accusations have been made against John Della Bosca having an extramarital affair with a 26-year-old woman. No nose tells me it’s a beat up story. But then I could be wrong.
John, it seems like Tim Andrews is of the same opinion that it is nobodies business as to where John Della Bosca parks his car so long as he does his job.
MoSH,
Looks like Della-Bosca disagrees with you as he has resigned.
Andrew Reynolds, it is hard to keep something like this under wraps for such a long time without becoming public knowledge. As for what is fact and/or fiction I have no idea but like Time Andrews, what happens between two consenting adults is their own affair. However, I do believe there is much more to the whole affair than the beat up stories making the rounds today and in the meantime I’ll eat humble pie.
MoSH,
I would agree that as long as it does not affect his job performance it is no-one’s business but his, his partner and the third (or any other) parties’.
I think it was just that this was after a few other incidents, not this one in isolation.
I think personal behaviour reflects character. It is from personal behaviour that we derive or infer character.
The idea that one can be a complete creep or deceptive or saintly or whatever in some major component of one’s life and that in no way impacts upon, or is indicative of, one’s behaviour in general flies in the face of reason and experience.
Well – what does everyone think about Della Bosca???
I say good riddance but I cant help admiring the “sting” and Im sure it was a sting….maybe a liberal party sting. It ahs all the hallmarks. 26 year old entices ageing Della!
Im convivced….and the reason I am convinced is because an old school friend married (very well) an executive from a media company that did a lot work for the liberal party…well, the story I heard at my school reunion involved a very well paid well dressed young *** attractive woma who managed to convince state Labor ministerial moguls that after some wining and dining that she was a) wealthy b) interested in investing in the cross city tunnel project but c) needed to see the documents…..
from there the docs went to the media of course!!
If they fall for it, they are morally compromised and have no ethics anyway but Im utterly convinced it was a sting!!. Good riddance to Della Bosca and his vestige of arrogance that made him part of the “mates state.” Hasnt he already given up work to visit his new friend? Didnt he already have a drink driving charge (and a drink shouting charge at Iguana’s??)
4 down – two to go (Obeid and Tripodi) and the rest are finished anyway.
Perhaps, nanks – and I think that in Della-Bosca’s case it is the repeated errors that did it, rather than any one issue. Marital infidelity, though, can stem from many issues most of which are, and should be, private.
Nanks, until all the facts are known it is hard to pass judgement on anyone especially as to what is going on in the top paddock or their personal behaviour given we all have different traits.
@Andrew Reynolds
Andy and Moshie – you are both so sweet but both so naive…..(this should remain private between two persons etc)…it was never paid for to remain private is my take on this!
@Michael of Summer Hill
exactly Michael – some people have a greater than normal tendency to be deceptive as one of their traits. Recognising that in no way precludes compassion. I am of course not referring to any one individual.
You know…its interesting watching this party implode but I cant help thinking they have brought it all on themselves. Sartor is finished now as well over his planning deals with developers and how long has the community suspected that????? (quite rightly too – developers have been in State Labors back pocket for years). Keneally thought she could just follow in his (Sartor’s) footsteps of doing deals with developers, and their donations, but she cant and its about time.
Nah – good riddance to self interested rubbish.
Alice, that is exactly what I have been arguing that it is no-bodies business as to what two consenting adults get up to.
Id kill to be a fly on the wall and find out how the Daily Telgraph got the scoop!
There is a lesson in here somwhere for politicians…if they want to play the dirty game of politics they need to make sure they are super clean and thats how it should be.
Nanks, I don’t quite agree with deception for it implies people have an ulterior motive, continuosly tell fibs and make up things. In the Della Bosca sexgate already there are conficting statements as to the truth and it is the unknown which is unknown.
On Della Bosca I think his private life is his own business. So long as it does not interfere with his day job he can, as far as I’m concerned, have sleeping arrangements with 15 mistresses and a goat so long at they all consent and clean up afterwards.
In terms of books I think import restrictions are just silly. The doom arguments being made against the lifting of parallel import restrictions are all much the same as the ones made before the last government removed parallel import restrictions on CDs. The subsequent reality after those restrictions were removed demonstrated that the doom and gloom wasn’t realistic. At the end of the day I don’t know why anybody would support laws that profits private companies by excluding competition and making consumers pay more.
Previous discussion on the book imports topic was had here:-
http://www.catallaxyfiles.com/blog/?p=5560
@TerjeP (say tay-a)
eww Terje. 15 mistresses and a goat? I dont anyone like that running the country!!
Alice, maybe Della Bosca was naive but not a goat for if Nanks is correct then it was a setup.
Alice – would the “eww” factor lead you to impeach a president that likes inserting cigars into interns?
Yes – he can go too Terje – but still it wasnt as bad as launching Iraq on taxpayers funds a premise of shonky lies and presiding over massive deregulation of banks and giving war contracts to mates like Halliburton was it now? They both can go!!!
I still just want to know how the Daily Telegraph got the scoop…follow the paper (money) trail….
@TerjeP (say tay-a)
Terje…….double the ewwwww. At least Kennedy had mistresses but such is the intrusive nature of the media these days, we now get to hear about the stains and all!!
Alice, if Nanks is correct about the setup then it is not too hard to work out where the money is coming from given the continuous rhetoric, innuendos and propaganda being propagated against NSW Labor.
@Michael of Summer Hill
Michael – I think you may have misunderstood me – I didn’t mean to imply any setup.
Nanks, I apologise but it does look like John Della Bosca has been setup.
Alice – yes the media is intrusive. You seem to be saying that you’re happy for people who participate in weird sexual activities to run the country so long as you don’t know about those weird sexual activities. This seems to be a triumph of symbolism. Essentially leaders don’t need to be nice decent reliable family type people so long as they look like nice decent family type people. I find this attitude a bit repugnant. In my book a given sexual activity is either relevant and should be scrutinised or else it is irrelevant and should generally be ignored. When it comes to sexual affairs such as the one that Della Bosca apparently engaged in I think it ought to be regarded as a personal matter. Of course I know that for many it won’t be but I’d hope they are not so shallow as to judge him unacceptable for office simply because he couldn’t avoid getting caught.
@TerjeP (say tay-a)
Terje …you said this about me “You seem to be saying that you’re happy for people who participate in weird sexual activities to run the country so long as you don’t know about those weird sexual activities.”
That is such a long call. Id rather they behaved themselves to be honest!!
nah – Della’s affair is no longer personal and I suspect it was a set up anyway, but I still think Della is on old fool and as they say… there is no fool like an old fool….extrapolating on that… no old fool should be running the country in government….
Now Terje…I couldnt be plainer could I??? Pack your bags Della and move on..!!
Anyway Terje…quite seriously could anyone imagine Fatty OBarrell getting up to this nonsense…really? I cant.
Its just another (yet another) indicator of exactly how low the individuals in this State Govt have sunk and exactly how long they think they have been smart, pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes…there is one face for the media and they have probably been laughing over their long lunches, trysts, development deals done with mates, kickbacks, and all sorts of “what can I get out of being a NSW politician.” Really , we know who they are (just in case the Della Boscas ask the question again)…its a workshop for every crooked crim pollie that seeks advancement by belonging to State Labor. Its not about government and its not about the people of NSW. Its about bulldozers, Bull…. donations and deals for the party and individuals on the inside.
If Rees had any morals (because most of the party clearly dont) he would call an election AND NOW. I want my vote to say good riddance to them (and they can take their developer mates and shonky PPS deals and spin with them).
I don’t really care who Della Bosca is on with, but he surely knows the rules of the game and knew that if this came out in this context it would be curtains for his ambitions. That does seem to suggest that he likes putting it about a lot more than being in government, or is at best most unwise. Either way, it doesn’t recommend him. And why was he bragging about it? Pretty tacky if you ask me.
The repulsive thing is that the choices seem to be limited to the vacuous and reactionary O’Farrell or the utterly toxic ALP. We have a government that seems bent on making it impossible for anyone but for the most tribal of the party faithful to vote for it, and an opposition that guesses, probably correctly, that most people (or at any rate plenty enough) that it can get votes on nothing more than that they aren’t the clowns in power. As people know I feel strongly that my policy of not voting at all is entirely justified and once again it is affirmed with knobs on here. I live in greg Smith’s electorate so even if I didn’t it would make not a scrap of difference. If O’Farrell can’t get Epping in this climate, my vote won’t make any difference. And if he does, then the same applies.
For the life of me I can’t understand why when Rees got the job he didn’t simply rule a line throught the scoresheet and declare that the Carr/Iemma/Costa days were a horrible mistake which he planned to rectify so as to position himself as a make or break reformer of the culture and a return to core labour concerns and enthusiastic environmentalism. It’s hard to believe that if he’d followed this strategy that he’d have wound up in a worse position than he is now. A lot of people would have hoped for such a thing. At worst he’d have had some enthusiastic footsoldiers who could have put up a defence that the government’s program was worth fighting for. And if he had gone down swinging at least he could have blamed somebody else and declared he’d fought the good fight.
But no … his cabinet was stacked with egregious reactionaries like Della Bosca and Roozendale and Tripodi and Sartor and dimwits like that chap dancing in hs undies. It beggars belief.
@Fran Barlow
Fran asks why didnt Rees rule a line through the scoresheet??/ Because its obvious Rees is a puppet but the puppet masters of “lets look after the mates” are still there pulling his strings…same old same old. Im voting to destabilise the bastards. Roozendahl is still there. Obeid is still there. Tripodi is still there. Keneally is a puppet who knows the words “yes masters”. Tebbutt has been silenced, long ago and doesnt stand for a thing except the word “yes masters”.
Horrible – the lot of them. NSW State Labor embeds a system of corruption that long ago needed cleaning out (either that or grow a brain…pretty damn hard for that sorry lot).
Is there really much point in discussing the fine points of public policy when mega-immigration levels are more or less sticking the country in permanent grid-lock for all basic public services?
I know why Howard was keen on ramping up immigration. He didnt give much more than a toss about global warming. And he knew the best way to reward the Big End of Town is to pack them to the rafters. Drives down wages in sweat-shops, ramp up rents for slum-lords and keep the degree-mills churning.
But why do self-styled “social-democrats” calmly accept and even applaud crushing the living standards of the native-born working class? Not to mention the rampant despoilation of the dwindling green and pleasant parts of our urban fringe.
Evans is still determined to overload the boat to capsizing levels. In the midst of a recession, global warming and a housing crisis he aims to keep permanent migration running at about 250,000 pa. Thats more than one percent of total population, more than twice the post-war average rate. At least the Hun bothers to notice:
But thats only half the picture, as the issue of special visas (student and work) are running at about the same level, around 300,000 pa all up. Add in Kiwis, overstaying back-packers and illegal immigrants and we have about 600,000 new bodies pa to accommodate. Minus annual emigration of about 100,000. Still leaves about 500,000 net additions to the population pa, by my reckoning. Sheehan does the math:
500,000 extra mouths to feed, bodies to shelter and minds to educate pa, beyond the more or less stabilised native born population. Year-in year-out as far as the eye can see. Pity the poor public transport user or long-range commuter. And this kind of rampant growth is going pummelling our dwindling stocks or water, un-carbonised air, top-soil and green space.
Its also turning into a political time bomb. Immigration was on the nose with the populus under the regime of the Theophanoid Left. Howard managed to restore sanity over the nineties. But now the Business Council Right is calling the shots, and once again the public is getting antsy:
Mark my words, we are building a powder-key here, especially given the evident signs that social fabric is wearing. I predict some kind of nativist xenophobic reaction over the next few years.
Jack Strocchi, immigration is not the problem it is greater equality.
Jack Strocchi, the above should read greater inequality and not greater equality for it is the growing disparity between those who are well off & those on the bread line which Federal Labor has failed to address so far.
@Michael of Summer Hill
Michael and Jack on immigration.
Jack has a point re immigration but I suggest its immigration without any investment by government in accommodating infrastructure that is also the problem. If you look at teh 1800s waves of immigration after the goldrush the government was busy building rail networks, telegraph, ports, water facilities and public buildings across the country. Whats insidious about modern infrastructure is exactly that – a distinct lack of public accommodating investment. Immigrants cant go to State Rail or the Sydney water to get jobs. There is nothing that is guaranteed by way of government employment and yes, without that it does ramp down wages (as Jack suggested John Howard would have most liked for his big business friends and I agree).
Instead we have Joe Hockey now wanting to slam the long term investment implied in the budget deficit for all he is worth BUT which the business lobby groups say is overdue and sorely needed. There is no point packing people here to the rafters if you have no government planning and invfrastructure to deal adequately with the new immigration effect on population numbers. That is not a recipe to get any “boost” from immigration but only a recipe to burden existing systems to breakdown point.
Its not the immigration Jack – its the lack of expansion of the social infrastructure needed to cope with that immigration.
I cant help laughing at one letter to the editor today that reads
“now, if only we could find someone to sleep with Joe Tripodi…”
The solution is to replace immigration quotas with an immigration tariff. Instead of setting a number of immigrants that we will accept each year we should set a price for immigrating to Australia. The tariff would moderate the flow in similar ways to a quota but it would also raise revenue for public infrastructure and elliminate waiting periods for immigrants. It would also allow humanitarian groups to provide residency in Australia to those that it thinks really need it by buying passage. Obviously some basic conditionality on immigrants such as health and criminal background checks should remain in place.