FRIDAY MORNING RAMBLE: The “don’t mention the war” edition

There will be no mention here of the war over a certain Breakfast TV host. With that curt introduction out of the way, on with this week’s guided tour around the net.

• Well, one mention. (See if you can resist.)
  Paul Henry: number one in the UK - NBR
• Several readers emailed about news that an American fire department stood and watched as a home-owner’s house burned down because he hadn’t paid his $75 fee. “See, there’s your free market for you!” was the tenor of most of the comments. But, gentle readers, the fire department was not a private company, it was a government department …
  An example of the dangers of the “free market”? – BASTIAT SOCIETY
• Whale Oil is famous!
  Name Suppression, 60 Minutes etc – WHALE OIL
• Two questions.
  1) Who’s the biggest liar, Pete Bethune or Paul Watson?
  2) How come people only worked it out now?
  "Dishonest and Morally Bankrupt": 'Whale Wars' Captain Alleges Lies and Cover-Up – THE BLAZE
  War on whales, turns to war of words – TV3
  Sea Shepherd under fire from former patron – RADIO NZ
• Three Musketeers take on the incredibly shrinking state-worshipper formerly known as Bernard Hickey. Hickey illustrates, says The Visible Hand  “that the desire for ‘benevolent philosopher kings did not die with Plato – or with the totalitarians of the early 20th century for that matter.”
  ”Because he personally has lost faith in modern portfolio theory,” says Eric Crampton, “he wants to force all of us to invest locally. Yeah, things have been rough for the last few years. But the proposal here seems pretty worrying.”
  Says Cactus, “For him to say he has lost faith in markets is a bit like saying I have lost faith in Liverpool winning the Premiership this year… Hickey's place in the business media is like the ‘Paul Henry’ of the genre.”
  Hick-ups a Plenty – CACTUS KATE
  A step too far: The case against pursuing direct capital/trade/currency controls – THE VISIBLE HAND
  Trendy economics – ERIC CRAMPTON
• Course, there is another remedy. ‎"What to do? The world needs to regain its fiscal and monetary sanity. Stop printing money. Cut taxes and spending. Pursue free trade. That's the formula for success — not fiscal and monetary gimmicks that seem to be digging our hole deeper."
  As Fed Prints Money, Gold, Oil Soar – INVESTOR’S DAILY

‎"To say that we can solve the problem of too much borrowing
and spending with more borrowing and spending, is like
saying that Tiger Woods can solve his problems
by getting another girlfriend."
- Jim Rogers

• OMG! When did we start speaking in capital letters, LOL? Are you as frigging sick of acronyms as I am?  CCMAU. CHE. OIA. ERO. KASS. NCEA. WTF!!!
  Turns out the rise and rise of the acronymisation of English is something else we can blame that bladdered dictator Franklin Roosevelt for. [Hat tip Geek Press]
  OMG, ETC. – MORE INTELLIGENT LIFE
• There was a time when it was said that sport and politics didn’t mix. That was a time long ago and far away.
  Totalitarian rugby – FUNDY POST
• Speed cameras don't improve road safety, but they sure as hell do bring in money. Here’s the latest evidence …
  Speed cameras: only for the money – ANTI DISMAL
• Wall Street Journal notices NZ company iPredict’s odds on the winner of the Economics Nobel Prize. NBR doesn’t.
  Pregaming the Economics Nobel: Don’t Bet On It – WALL STREET JOURNAL
  [ UPDATE: Comment at Marginal Revolution: “I think the funniest outcome would be if this market predicts someone besides Fama to win and then Fama wins based on his ideas of efficient markets.” A little economists’ humour there. :-)  ]
• The headline tells the story:
  Mario Vargas Llosa gets the Nobel, at long last! – VENEZUELA NEWS & VIEWS
• Another headline that tells the story:
  Osama Bin Laden in agreement with Australian and New Zealand Govts on need for action on climate change – WARWICK HUGHES

“As a method of economic analysis econometrics is a
childish play with figures that does not contribute
anything to the elucidation of the problems of
economic reality."
                                      - Ludwig Von Mises The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science

• Draw Mohammad, risk your life—and be ignored by almost the entire world media.
  Draw Mohammad, risk your life? – AYN RAND CENTER
• John Bolton is taking a look at 2012. Bosch Fawstin has the perfect poster for him – and a pretty hot Ayn Rand T-shirt to boot!
  John Bolton 2012 – BOSCH FAWSTIN

                     

• Gun Neurologist Oliver Sacks (author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat) is excited about some stunning possibilities using the brain. “This sort of thing would have been inconceivable 40 years ago, when we had no idea of the plasticity of the brain. We thought that every part of the brain was predetermined genetically, and that was that. Now we know that enormous changes of function are possible. The miracle of plasticity and redeployment of the nervous system excites me very much.”
   We Are Learning to Exploit the Amazing Plasticity of the Brain – DISCOVER MAGAZINE
• Should New Zealand, with a population of 4.5 million people, adopt open immigration? Would it be obligated to accept all immigrants, even if that resulted in its becoming Muslim and having Sharia imposed? The philosopher answers your question.
  Featured Question – LEONARD PEIKOFF
• The first reports are starting to emerge assessing the performance of NZ’s timber-framed houses in the Christchurch earthquake(s).
  Residential Houses - Performance in the Darfield earthquake (M7.1) 4th September 2010  – NZ WOOD
• Spot the incongruity.  While drug growers continue to evade police and rake in profits (Yay the War on Drugs!), nanny staters come out for starting a permanent ban on tobacco.  After all, the War on Drugs is going so well…? [Thanks to reader Scott P]
   Drug growers evade police  - STUFF
  Researchers say New Zealand could be smoke free [sic] in ten years [AUDIO] – RADIO NZ
• As usual, Nevil Gibson gives good editorial—on everything from the New Protectionism to what the Commonwealth Games means for India, and more. [Hat tip reader Free Mack.]
  On the currency carousel – NBR
• Oh yeah, those Commonwealth Games athletes have been busy.
   Used condoms block drains at Delhi Commonwealth Games – HERALD SUN
• Or maybe not.
  Condoms have not clogged athletes' toilets, say officials – INDEPENDENT

“There is a real possibility that in our lifetime we will
live through a depression worse than the 1930s and...the
world as we know it ending. I think that is a real
possibility. And the debt...is the financial cause of that, unless
something is done."
        --Yaron Brook,
Director of the Ayn Rand Institute
(Ford Hall Forum - May 20, 2010)

• Yes, Virginia. America is on the brink of financial disaster.  Even Ben Bernanke gets that much.
  Bernanke Tells the Truth: The United States is on the Brink of Financial Disaster – ECONOMIC POLICY JOURNAL
• Yes, Virginia. America really is on the brink of financial disaster.  Doug Casey explains why.
  No Way Out – CASEY RESEARCH
  Thoughts on the Greater Depression – Doug Casey, interviewed by the DAILY RECKONING

• Oh yeah, it’s not just America.  Not that you’d know from NZ’s official stats. “Reality is beginning to show through the cracks in our current way of life. Standard statistical economic information is becoming more akin to propaganda.
      Unemployment figures do not include two sets of ‘jobless’ categories. The CPI figures are worked out on a continually shifting base which produces lower answers. This CPI is called ‘inflation,’ but the REAL inflation is in the money supply which has been expanding at 8% compounded for 20 years. Now it is declining at a rate of around 3.8% and we are starting to experience deflation even while the economists are still forecasting 2% or 3% growth. We are now pursuing GDP growth like it was REAL Wealth.
      We are lost in a sea of misinformation.”
  Thought for the Day  - NZ FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH [check out their latest newsletter. It’s a goody!]

• “Don’t be confused by the claim that ‘the Kiwi dollar has increased in value, because it hasn’t. What has happened is that New Zealand’s currency is losing (or winning, depending on how you look at it) in the global race towards currency debasement.”
  Stop talking about the desirability for a weak Kiwi dollar. I am sick of hearing it.  - THE HUMAN ELEMENT

• Read and compare…  [hat tip Scott Powell]
  Inflation and the Fall of the Roman Empire – Joseph Peden, MISES DAILY

• Another timely blast from the past.
  The Twofold Roots of the Great Depression: Inflationism and Intervention – Lionel Robbins, MISES DAILY

• David Gergen and Niall Ferguson discuss 'The Financial Crisis: Will It Lead to America's Decline?' [hat tip Scott Powell]

• The weird victory of Ed Miliband reveals that there’s no rhyme or reason to the inner workings of the British Labour Party today.
  A make-believe leader for a make-believe party- Brendan O’Neill, SPIKED
  ‘Red Ed’ can’t disguise the fact that Labour is dead – Frank Furedi, SPIKED
• This is not the sort of sort of hockey stick 10:10 wanted
  Not the sort of sort of hockey stick they wanted – WATTS UP WITH THAT
• “I can understand why the 10:10 campaign was surprised by the reaction to their video.  After all, as Marc Morano has pointed out, killing children is not new to the Global Warming community.”
  How Splattergate broke environmentalist's golden rule - NOT EVIL JUST WRONG
• More on the soul of the environmentalist movement... [hat tip Objective Standard]
  ‘Green Supremacists’ – Ed Driscoll, PAJAMAS MEDIA
• “Why the convergence between environmentalism and religion will lead to more authoritarianism in public policy.” [Hat tip Paul Hsieh]
  Environmentalism as Religion – THE ATLANTIC
• How do you out-snob Virginia Woolf, out-raunch DH Lawrence and out-rant Germaine Greer? Craig Brown explains the parodist's art. [Hat tip Emily Perkins]
  Craig Brown: The Lost Diaries - GUARDIAN
• Don’t tell Paul Henry. But they sell great food in Asia. Get yer Jew’s Ears here … [hat tip reader Terry V]
  

• Just heard the news that Ian Morris, founder member of Th’ Dudes,  has just died.  They did have one good song, you know. Pretty good for a B-side.
  

• Here’s Jimmy Lunceford. Rhythm is his business.
  

• Beautiful music in Dresden’s gloriously Baroque Frauenkirche. [Shamelessly stolen from Olivia]
  

• And finally … Sex on Breakfast television. What would the Governor General say!
   

Thanks for reading,
and have a great weekend!
PC