QUAD COUNTERQUAD

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The coal shills of ‘Quadrant Online’ can work themselves up into a lather all they like about the deficiencies they see in modern education. (https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/education/2021/03/making-notes-as-the-rot-began/) But it reminds me of the story told by Eric Earlie, who took a job as a headmaster in Papua-New Guinea some years ago to further their life experience and his own as well. When he arrived at the village he had been posted to, he was met by the Headman. After greetings and formalities he enquired about the school, and was taken to an empty site. “This is where the school will be,” he was told. “Your first job will be to build it.” Being a very practical man, Eric soon got down to clearing the site, organising materials, and designing an then building the school; with all the kids and their parents joining in. A major part of the village’s income came from copra trading, but the local copra growers were sick of being ripped off by the local cartel of...

  This is a brand new blog, making its debut to the blogosphere at large. I join this announcement with another: that of my original (till proven otherwise) brand-new theory of blog dynamics. A blogger is in much the same position as the preacher of a fundamentalist Calathumpian church. He or she needs a faithful congregation, and one which expresses and agrees with the ideology being put up for all and sundry to consider and adopt, or otherwise. Commenters are generally encouraged on blogs, but only if they give support to the vendor's ideology. This is only reasonable, otherwise the blogger finds theirself in the position of a preacher of the said Calathumpian fundamentalist church whose regular attendees include a Catholic, the preacher of a rival non-Calathumpian fundamentalism, an atheist, and just for good measure, a Hindu. Sometimes they sit apart; sometimes all together on the same pew. Sometimes, they remain respectfully silent, but more often they incline to interject...

  FROM Alistair Pope at QUADRANT ONLINE : "Is it really likely that any review will conclude the French submarines represent the worst possible option, starting with spending billions of dollars on an as-yet-unfinished redesign. This stage alone, the French say, will cost us another $6,000,000,000 to complete. When $6 billion is written out with all the zeroes it really looks impressive, doesn’t it?  Think of it as $240 for every man, woman, child (and the 55 other genders) in Australia.  And at the end of this ‘process’ what we expect to have is — drum roll, please — ‘The Design Plan’. Then we get to spend countless further billions actually building the useless things." "Alistair Pope is a former Australian Army officer and a regular contributor to Quadrant....." who has given us a detailed and believable account as to what is wrong with the French submarines and what a waste of money they will be if they ever get beyond the design stage. Aside from all the ...

Dear Roger, It is a while since I was unceremoniously kicked off your esteemed website Quadrant Online. Though I have no ambition whatsoever to renew my subscription there (or even to apply for continuation of what I  paid for but never got to use) I do visit the site every so often, just out of curiosity. I always enjoy reading Peter Smith, even if I do not always agree with him. And so I came to read his The Anxious Arithmetic of COVID Alarmism at  https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2021/02/the-anxious-arithmetic-of-covid-alarmism/ .  After reviewing some material, he states in conclusion:  "To wit, Worldometer reports, as at February 25, 21,875,800 active COVID cases worldwide with only 91,841 or 0.4 per cent serious or critical. "Put together the very low risk of getting seriously sick with the evidence that those at risk can be fairly well identified. Now that just has to be a clue, even for those who credulously believe in the wisdom of government, as to why l...