FRIDAY MORNING RAMBLE: ‘Warner’s Shrugged’

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
A week of belief, ad a week of incredulity.
A week when Phil Goff nailed his new colours to the mast—new colours first painted more convincingly by Winston Peters.
It was a week in which unions in New Zealand chose to flex their muscles in an orchestrated way, and at the same time New Zealanders began to see (perhaps for the first time) how little unionists really care about those they claim to protect—and just how naked their hatred is for NZ’s tall poppies.
A week in which protestors in France, who in 1789 protested for the Right to Work, took to the streets in 2010 for the right to be paid not to.
In which German Chancellor Angela Merkel stood athwart the multicultural train yelling “Halt!”
In which more than a million US homes were threatened with foreclosure.
In which Te Reo was declared (not for the first time) dead.
A week in which it was confirmed that prices in New Zealand are taking off, and the economy isn’t.
In which the New Zealand govt was revealed as being better at fudging figures than fixing them.
It’s another week, and here’s another Ramble around it.

• Warners Shrugged? “US film studio Warner Bros has confirmed it is still considering locations countries other than New Zealand in which to film The Hobbit movies.
      “In a statement issued on Friday morning, the studio said the actions of unions has caused it substantial disruption and damage and forced it to for the first time to consider other filming locations.
      “The statement says that reports that the boycott of The Hobbit was lifted by unions a number of days ago and that Warner Brothers asked to delay this announcement are false.”
   Warners confirms considering alternative Hobbit locations – RADIO NZ
• Watch the walk of shame on Thursday night by Robyn Malcolm and Helen Kelly, with silent Australian Simon Whipp, behind whose campaign to destroy the NZ film industry they unaccountably united. (A video that, almost incidentally, gives the lie to Helen Kelly’s talk of  “lynch mobs” and “ugliness” outside the Equity meeting.)
   Lynch mob o’ the day – DIM POST
• Filibustering by Labour MPs was all that stopped the freeing of students  from the shackles of their compulsory unions this week. But it only delayed it for another fortnight…
  f s – v erbv ae
• Thank goodness it isn’t any of these entities who run the country. Fact is, it’s people like this who do.
  Meet our 2010 Entrepreneur of the Year Category Winners – ERNST & YOUNG
    NZI Business: Entrepreneur of the Year finalists – TVNZ [VIDEO]
  Xxx Xxxx named Entrepreneur of the Year – STUFF
• The value of invention: 60% of Apple sales from products that did not even exist three years ago.  See:
  60% of Apple sales from products that did not exist three years ago – NBR
• They don’t just run the country. They move the world.
  Apple and Standard Oil: Paragons of productive virtue – Tom Bowden, VOICES OF REASON
• Should govts encourage entrepreneurship? Or just keep the hell out of the way.
  Entrepreneurship, individualism, and collectivism – STEPHEN HICKS
• The world’s first billion-dollar home has just been completed, and greens “couldn’t be more appalled.” It’s said that the height of the building was determined by the client going up in one of his helicopters until he saw a view he liked. :-)
  World’s Largest and Most Expensive Family Home Completed - INHABIT
• You don’t need to build a billion-dollar home to piss off an environmentalist. If you’re careful, you can do it with every email.
  Please consider the environment before printing – MOTELLA
• Banning lightbulbs? A pair of German entrepreneurs has figured out a way to get around these dumb regulations.
  That’s not a lightbulb, it’s a heatball – THE VOLUNTEER
• "With the news that the Afghanistan Government is in secret talks with the Taliban to end almost 10 years of war it seems like it is time to find out what went wrong."
  Let's Forget – UNCOMMON SENSE
• It was a war to bring “democracy” to Iraq? One which empowered real enemies.
  Iraq’s Awakening re-awakens pro-jihadist. Shocking. – Elan Journo, VOICES OF REASON
• “Let’s Roll!” was once a motto of resistance to Islamist attackers. Now, however …
  Let’s Not Roll: The Islamic Memorial in Pennsylvania – Ed Cline, RULE OF REASON
• While over the border they’re rampaging for the right to be paid not to work, in Germany Chancellor  Angela Merkel is calling a halt to the multicultural project.  But does she really understand what she upholds as an alternative?  Doesn’t she see the false dichotomy between the "secular humanism" and the adoption of "Judeo-Christian values" she espouses?
  Multiculturalism, Judeo-Christian Values, and the Broken Clock – PAUL McKEEVER
• “Somebody eventually had to say it,” says Thomas Sowell, “and German chancellor Angela Merkel deserves credit for being the one who had the courage to say it out loud. Multiculturalism has utterly failed.”
  Breaking the 'multiculturalism cult' – Thomas Sowell, DALLAS NEWS
• Multiculturalism is bad, but immigration is not, says Sowell. “There was a reason why employers in the middle of the 19th century had signs that said, ‘No Irish need apply’ — and why employers in the middle of the 20th century no longer had such signs. It was not that employers had changed. The Irish had.”
  The Multicultural Cult – Thomas Sowell
• From the archives…
   ...Multiculturalism and the Self-Liquidation of Europe – Robert Tracinski , CAPITALISM MAGAZINE (2005)

Found on Twitter:
“It's pretty lucky we didn't put up that Wellywood sign...”
     - montereynewtown, HT yeastieboys

• Czech president Vaclav Klaus wants the International Monetary Fund (IMF) 'dismantled or restructured': "I am convinced the IMF should be dismantled or radically restructured as soon as possible," he said at a conference in Prague, calling the fund "a barbaric relic from the Keynesian and fixed-exchange rate era" and "yet another manifestation of a mistaken and dangerous global governance mindset which, to my great regret, has been getting more and more support in the intellectual and political circles these days.” [HT Objective Standard]
  Czech president wants IMF 'dismantled or restructured' – NEWS.MSN.COM
• “In the land of his birth, John Maynard Keynes’s view that deficit spending is crucial to avoiding a long recession has lately been willfully ignored.” Hat tip to Capitalism, who comments, “Keynes: on the ash heap of history, where he belongs!!!”
  Cuts in Britain Ignore Views of Keynes – NY TIMES
• The above article from The New York Times on the end of Keynesian economics in Europe is quite worth the read, says Australian Steven Kates.  “There is a major shift in the world of macroeconomics before us. The practice of macroeconomic policy has changed before our eyes. Our textbooks are complete junk to the extent that they continue to peddle this Keynesian idiocy.
      “The article itself, obviously written by someone raised on this dying orthodoxy, merely notes what can no longer be doubted. Public spending as a cure for recession does not work. These deficits have made things only worse. Getting our fiscal house in order as the necessary condition for recovery is finally being embraced.
      “As a totally related matter, the front page story in the AFR is headlined, “China rate rise rattles markets.” Even in China, with all of its financial resources, there is now a clear need to reverse the spending programs that have been indulged in since the end of 2008…”
  The Dying World of Keynesian Economics – CATALLAXY FILES
• “In the financial markets, a lot rides on the word of a company's top executives. If a CEO tells a lie, a lot of shareholders can get hurt. Two researchers have studied earnings calls and think they know how to gauge senior executives' truthfulness.” [HT Stephen Hicks]
  How Can You Tell When A CEO Is Lying? - NPR
• "There tends to be lots of excitement when gold costs more made-up dollars. But a broader perspective suggests that gold is much more undervalued that the current price level and its advance might indicate."
  Gold is Undervalued – KRAZY ECONOMY
• Nothing like switching around the "inflation” index when price inflation is taking off.
  Statisticians attack UK Treasury plan to switch inflation measure – GUARDIAN
• It’s not like they don’t know what’s a’coming…
  Art Cashin On The Coming Hyperinflation – COBDEN CENTRE

"All limitations are self-imposed”
Art and inspiration from Inspirationz (Read more here)

• Will the Tea Parties or a reformed GOP be able to champion limited government and fiscal responsibility, without also importing the religious right’s so-called “social values”?  In other words, is faith necessary for defending natural rights, or is reason sufficient?
  Values and the Defense of Freedom  - Amit Ghate, PAJAMAZ MEDIA
• “In a recent Christian Science Monitor editorial, Vladimir Shlapentokh suggests that the popularity of Ayn Rand among Tea Partiers should ‘concern all Americans’ and recommends that Tea Partiers distance themselves from the 20th-century philosopher and novelist. Why?”
  Should Tea Partiers Abandon or Embrace Ayn Rand? - OBJECTIVE STANDARD
• “What if a president took a different direction and sought popularity by expanding rather than reducing liberty? There is a model here they could follow, but it is not one you have thought of. It is Franklin D. Roosevelt. He repealed Prohibition!”
  The Real Reason for FDR’s Popularity – Mark Thornton, MISES DAILY
• Now this is cool. Subscribe to Oliver Sacks’ YouTube Channel, and you can hear insights on how the brain works from one of the best neurophysiologists on the speaking circuit.  Learn, for example, how music can help Alzheimers…
  Oliver Sacks MD's Channel – YOU TUBE
• How to make the most of your time on screen, if you do get a chance to be an extra. Here’s Hollywood film extra Hrundi V. Bakshi, played by Peter Sellers, making the absolute most of his limited screen time with some freestyle improvised trumpeting. [HT Small Dead Animals]
  

• Ele Ludemann reckons you have to go see Miranda Harcourt’s new play, finishing this week in Christchurch. Harcourt is part of one of NZ’s few acting dynasties, and it sounds like this was one not to have missed.  Bugger. [Warning: Contains spoilers]
  Biography of My Skin – HOME PADDOCK
• Pregnant? Take a drink. It's good for both of you.
  "Bottoms Up" Pregnant Women- HOW STUFF WORKS
• The steep decline of Deborah Coddington continues with this confused piece of slop.
  Would it be OK if God was a Capitalist, then? - PUNDIT
• “Never underestimate the Power of a great story,” says Stephen Fry …

• Here’s something some New Atheists need to read.
  “The Mystical Ethics of the New Atheists” - by Alan Germani, OBJECTIVE STANDARD
• Sam Harris? He’s good, but …
  Not a Revolutionary – GUS VAN HORN
• What to you do one of your children lies?  Rational Jenn reckons it’s important not to let even little lies go by without comment.
  Handling Lying – RATIONAL JENN
• "How much do genes matter when it comes to making a family?"
  Family – Amy Mossoff, THE LITTLE THINGS
• Did Ayn Rand have something against children? Well, did she?
  Did Ayn Rand have something against children? – AYN RAND QUESTIONS
• Speak up. Pass the word. Become an activist by letting friends know about the Atlas Shrugged Video Contest. Share all the details by sending them to http://www.AtlasShrugged.com/contest. They could win up to $5,000 in prizes or an Apple iPad pre-loaded with the writings of Ayn Rand.  Cool. :-)
  Atlas Shrugged Video Contest

Things are bad? Save what you can…

Here’s Howling Wolf

It’s Dizzy Gillespie’s Birthday! So turn this one up to eleven!  Ow!!

And finally, here’s a rare (and strange) duet with Diz and Louis Armstrong. [HT Jazz on the Tube]

More to come later,
Check back soon…