(10Sept 06) “…It is a decade since the US began an experiment in welfare reform. In 1996 Bill Clinton hesitantly signed into law the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families bill, to the dismay of fellow Democrats and the Left-liberal intelligentsia at large. Their Australian counterparts in the Labor Party and the welfare lobby could save themselves a great deal of needless embarrassment by taking on board the main lessons from that experiment…. In 1994, the number of people on the old program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, had peaked at 5.1 million. Once the new program began, the numbers went into free fall and by 2004 the total had plunged to two million. It was a 60 per cent drop, an outcome the reformers hadn't envisaged in their wildest dreams and which the opponents of reform found utterly inconceivable…” Welfare to work, Wedlock by Christopher Pearson, The Australian “…Kay Hymowitz is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal, which published her overview, How Welfare Reform Worked, in its spring edition. Hymowitz offers a lucid and detailed account of the gap between what the US welfare lobby expected and what happened…. American critics of welfare reform argued in the mid-'90s, as their opposite numbers in Australia do to this day, that even if single mothers found jobs they'd probably be underemployed or in entry-level jobs that would leave them not much better off in real terms and perhaps worse off than they were on the dole. In the event, they were proved mostly wrong…I wonder how long it will take for the debate on poverty in Australia to catch up with the lessons to be drawn from the American experience. The local welfare lobby is still busily accusing the Howard Government of meanness whenever it moves to encourage single mothers to take some part-time work and subverting its attempts to enforce breaching provisions on the non-compliant. For all of Noel Pearson's eloquent denunciations of welfare dependency as "poisoned flour", far too few of the social welfare salariat seem to realise that's really what they're doling out. As for a social engineering project to encourage single mothers to marry, that is likely to remain a bridge too far in Australia for the foreseeable future…”
America 's infrastructure fire sale
(27Aug06) Sound familiar??? “…. The devil, of course, is in the details. Each deal is governed by a contract between appointed government officials and corporate big wheels. There is little or no oversight by elected officials. Each contract determines such things as maintenance, minimum services, prices charged for services, concessions offered along the tollway and every other aspect of the venture. America 's infrastructure fire sale by Henry Lamb “…If the public that depends upon the infrastructure facility doesn't like the performance of the contractor, to whom do they turn for recourse? Elected officials are out of the picture; appointed officials are bound by contract… Are we empowering these public/private partnerships to make and enforce public policy? Are we removing elected officials from responsibility and accountability for infrastructure? Are we building a trap that will ultimately subject American citizens to the whims of the global elite? Are we making a big mistake, selling American infrastructure to the highest international bidder?...”
Start a Revolution--Eat Dinner With Your Family
(13Sept05) "...What if I told you that there was a magic bullet--something that would improve the quality of your daily life, your children's chances of success in the world, your family's health, our values as a society? Something that is inexpensive, simple to produce and within the reach of pretty much anyone?" Start a Revolution--Eat Dinner With Your Family “… the research indicates that a shared family meal leads to the strengthening of family bonds, the deepening of relationships, and higher levels of satisfaction and effectiveness among family members… In reality, families did not merely decide to stop eating together. The rhythms, complexities, and chaos of today's lifestyles simply produced a reality that made shared family meals almost impossible…”
People have Eyes By Peggy Noonan from the Wall Street Journal 22nd April 04- Americans dislike Bush's enemies more than they dislike Bush. The article could well apply to Australians and John Howard.
Problems here and those abroad from
(1/3/02) This is all about the denigration of excellence that has infested all aspects of society over the last 30 years. You need a UAI of 99.7 to get into
'... yes, Virginia , learning is hard work...' '...there is no consensus even on what education should accomplish. Business wants it to produce docile workers and mindless consumers. Various fanatics want it to produce cannon fodder for their respective ideological wars. Many parents just want public schools to baby-sit their brats so they can enjoy their soap operas in peace. In the meantime, colleges of education, better called institutions of no learning, are spreading the poison that education should be effortless and under no circumstances should any child have to earn self-esteem." but 'Contributing to the unlikelihood of serious reform is the disunity in a country that is being destroyed by immigration and by a moronic native population conditioned to despise its own heritage.' Public schools are beyond reform and redemption by Charley Reese (Published July 10, 2001). Once again, what is happening in America applies to Australia.
On Columbus day we celebrate Western Civilization not Multiculturalism.
By Dr Berliner read On Columbus day we celebrate Western Civilization not Multiculturalism. Whenever it refers to
( 22/3/02 ) This is a must read Theodore Dalrymple piece from The Spectator Magazine of 16 March 2002 . Essentially Going to the Dogs is about how British Society (law and order, civility and decency) has been deliberately driven into the ditch by (supposed) liberal intellectuals.
Read " Australia " into it anywhere you like.
Although the entire piece is a fine read, pages 7 through 9 clearly demonstrate how our publicly funded facilities, in this case the BBC, have been complicit in bringing this downfall about or at least doing their best to see that it goes ignored and unreported. WHY???
(Theodore Dalrymple is a psychiatrist and writer who works at the pointy end of society and deals with the problems it throws up at an inner-city prison in Britain )
The Long March …How the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s changed America . (Encounter Books) By Roger Kimball. In The Sixties Brought to Book a review of the book in Quandrant Magazine by Giles Auty which explains how the “anything goes”, “let it all hang out” attitudes of the 60's are still reverberating in the 21 st Century. As is often the case where ever America is cited you can safely insert Australia . Broadcast purposes necessitated my truncating the original review, hopefully without loosing the underlying essence. The parts used on air are those in bold.
Is the Media Biased?? Check out the Media Research Centre. Although this is a
People who stand on their rights are seldom much concerned with the rights of others. There is no logical reason why this should be so, but it is a fact of human psychology. ‘It's my right!' is a call not of freedom, but of egotism. Wronged by our rights by Theodore Dalrymple