With libertarians stepping forward, the total raised in the Great Shave Appeal has now passed $4000. How about a similar effort from Howard fans? Despite the latest polls, there must be a fair number of you out there. Wouldn’t you like to read 500 words of crisp pro-Howard prose – $250 is all it takes.
Any ideas on more gimmicks gratefully received. Meanwhile you might like to discuss this piece by James Joyner asking why we go for gimmicks to raise money for charity.
Donate here
Apparently Channel Four in the UK has put out a program which, with admirable honesty entitles itself The Great Global Warming Swindle, and offers the same tired set of swindlers we’ve heard for fifteen years or more, although their site breathlessly proclaims
But just as the environmental lobby think they’ve got our attention, a group of naysayers have emerged to slay the whole premise of global warming.
Particularly amusing for those of us who follow these things is the linkup between the US right, represented by Fred Singer, Patrick Michaels and others, and the Revolutionary Communist Party/LM crew at Spiked who put the whole thing together.* George Marshall (no relation to the George C Marshall Institute, which in turn bears no relation to George C Marshall, the soldier and statesman whose name it shamelessly ripped off) details names, track records of and (an incomplete list of) cash payments received by the participants.
*For those who like to keep track of the links between various forms of delusionism, this is the same group that denied ethnic cleansing in Bosnia.
The World’s Greatest Shave appeal has reached $3,365.10. I’ve promised 500 words in praise of mathematics (this will be easy, as soon as I get a moment) and there’s still 500 words on offer if any libertarians or conservatives out there want to donate $250.
It’s now time for a new incentive and my son Daniel has bravely offered to help. He’s 17 and has just grown quite an impressive beard. He’s now offered to join me in the shave on Saturday. Before and after photos will be published if we can reach $4000.
To donate, just click here or send me a cheque at School of Economics, University of Queensland.
Update I had a nice phone call today from the chair of the Leukemia Foundation, congratulating us on our effort here. Also, the first libertarian contribution is in, with $100 from Jan Libich. Come on fans of voluntary initiative, put in another $150 and see what nice things I have to say about spontaneous order!
It’s time, once again for the Monday Message Board. As usual, civilised discussion and absolutely no coarse language, please.
It’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these, so I’ll just put down a list of books I’ve read in the past few months, and open it up to discussion. If there’s an interest in particular books, I might do a mini-review, so just ask and see. Here’s a list:
The Triumph of the Airheads by Shelley Gare
Gittinomics by Ross Gittins
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Lost by Larissa Behrendt
The Marketplace of Christianity by Ekeleund, Hébert and Tollison
Culture and Prosperity by John Kay
The Long Tail by Chris Anderson (reviewed in AFR)
What’s Liberal about the Liberal Arts by Michael Bérubé
Cosmonaut Keep by Ken MacLeod
Thanks to a very generous donation of $620 from occasional reader Swarup, we passed the $2000 mark with a couple of days to spare. With my matching donation, and a bit more coming in, the total is now $3055.10. I’ve got some new ideas planned to reach the $5000 target, and any others are gratefully welcome.
As was noted in commens, most of the contributions so far seem to have come from social democrats. So to spread the love around, I thought I’d invite self-identified adherents of other viewpoints to pitch in, and offer a more direct incentive. Give me and make a note in comments that you’re doing so, identifying your philosophical position or political affiliation (libertarian, Howard-lover, neoconservative, radical left or whatever). The first group to reach a total of $250 gets a 500 word post from me, commending some aspect of your position,
To donate, just click here, or send me a cheque at the School of Economics, University of Queensland
The Brisbane Bullets have just completed a 3-1 win over the Melbourne Tigers in the National Basketball League Grand Final series, for their first win in 20 years. As I promised at the beginning of the season, I’ll never say anything rude about betting markets again.
Weekend Reflections is on again. Please comment on any topic of interest (civilised discussion and no coarse language, please). Feel free to put in contributions more lengthy than for the Monday Message Board or standard comments.
Thanks to everyone who has donated so far. The total raised is now $1180. Donations have been flagging over the last couple of days, so the pace needs to increase if people want to extract my matching contribution. Suggestions for further incentives/ gimmicks gratefully accepted.
To donate, just click here
Condolences to those who have lost family members and friends in the air crash in Indonesia yesterday. Of those killed or missing the only one whose name is known to me was Morgan Mellish, Jakarta correspondent for the Australian Financial Review, but others who died were serving our country, and of course any loss of life is a tragedy for the family concerned.
This is also a good time to think about the routine and preventable loss of life and limb on our roads, and about the far larger loss of life caused by poverty and disease around the world. As well as sharing the grief surrounding this tragic event we should act to ensure that such things become less common.
John Quiggin 