Via avo: Cameron Reilly is an Australian tech entrepreneur who started the
Pod Cast Network. Not only do we share the same name (I am Cameron Riley not Cameron Reilly) we are also the same age and know the same people, one of who publishes on SSR. A small world.
Cameron Reilly has a podcast exploring the issue of whether Australia should have a Bill of Rights and if it will give Australia its moral compass back. He interviews Julian Burnside.
Burnside argues that a Bill of Rights is necessary now because the government has passed laws which contravene basic liberties and rights. Burnside commented that he did not think Australia needed a Bill of Rights in the past because he believed Australia would respect basic rights and liberties.
Through his experiences in the last six years Burnside is concerned that without a Bill of Rights an innocent individual can be detained or imprisoned for life through the Migration Act.
Burnside's view on rights is based in liberalism as he notes that the constitution doesn't differentiate on liberty by citizenship or accidents of birth. Rights are fundamental; liberties universal and consequently inalienable.
He also argues that most of the legislative discrimination was for electoral purposes. He considers it unethical and immoral to pass such legislation and to use it for electoral advantage. Burnside says that the government did their polling and new they could run on border security, which after the September 11th attacks on the US became anti-terrorism.
However he castigates the opposition for agreeing to the pacific solution and the anti-terror laws which place many fundamental liberties under threat. The opposition party is one seeking majority so they will not act to isolate a significant component of the electorate. That is generally known as small-target campaigning or avoiding a wedge.
Burnside sees opposition parties as providing a moral wall to immoral governance, but if the government is discriminating against individuals for electoral gain - no matter how immoral - we would expect the other major party to do so too. Parties exist to obtain government first and foremost.
Republicanism has the answer for this. Republicanism is predicated on the minority accepting the majority's will through representative government but with the knowledge that the minority's rights are secured and inalienable through the constitution. This is where Australia has failed in its government structure and why it is not a republican government. Republican government with entrenched rights protects against the majority parties using tyranny as an electoral tool.
There are other issues with a Bill of Rights too as it is pivotal
to constitutional and judicial doctrine that has direct effects on governance. Burnside's concerns are mainly pragmatic from his direct experiences in defending those that have been placed in limbo by discriminative Australian law.
It is a good interview. Well worth a listen.
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
