Friday 3 February 2012

Friday Morning Ramble: The ‘Waitangi/Rand’s Day’ edition

Yesterday was Rand’s Day: Ayn Rand’s birthday. Not everyone wants to celebrate that, but I do.
Not every country has a reason to celebrate its birth. We are one of those happy few, yet we don’t.
So how about more Rand and less Waitangi today. Deal?

“A new report says that Facebook has created over 450,000 jobs. Unfortunately
photos posted on Facebook have ended 550,000 jobs.”

- Fallon

  • This is the guy who says we have to live with less?
    Cameron buying 2,600 acres of land in NewZealand – A P
  • Ministerial briefings to new ministers are being censored. This incenses the political opposition. These briefings, says Eddie at The Standard, “give the public (via the media) an insight into on coming challenges in portfolios, elaborate on how election promises will be converted into real policies, and—most importantly—reveal things the government is planning. So, it's disturbing that the Nats are censoring them,” says Eddie.
    “Arrogant and unresponsive,” says Labour’s Clare Curran.
    “Cult of secrecy”! says Idiot/Savant. “We should not tolerate it.”!
    So down with censorship; and all power to transparency!
    On the other hand, information about school performance (or lack thereof) must be kept from prying eyes, says Trevor Mallard, who wants to make school level assessment information more secretive than security information held by the SIS.
    So down with transparency; and all power to censorship!
    Don’t bother to examine such a blatant contradiction. Ask yourself only what it achieves.
    For your eyes only – Eddie,  T H E   S T A N D A R D
    Is Amy Adams’ work programme a state secret? – Clare Curran,  R E D   A L E R T
    No right to know – Idiot/Savant,  N O   R I G H T   T U R N
    The hypocrisy of Robin Duff -  W H A L E   O I L
    More on Education and OIA-  K I W I B L O G
  • Eric Crampton finds much to celebrate in Treasury’s briefing paper.
    Treasury! O F F S E T T I N G  B E H A V I O U R

Good advice from Imperator Fish:
“With all these folk swearing off the booze for February, it is important
that the balance of the universe be maintained. Time to up my game.”

  • It’s a slam dunk. New Labour MP Raymond Huo takes aim at the Chicago School of Economics: it’s all their fault, he says, “that particular school of thought … is one of the main reasons the western world is in the doldrums.” From the financial crisis, to growing income inequality in Europe and the United States, to leaky buildings … it’s all their fault for promoting unfettered free market and deregulation!
    Naturally, since he’s writing on a blog, numerous more intelligent commentators leap to their keyboards to put him right—both politely and succinctly.
    It’s a slam dunk.
    Everybody loves Raymond – W H A L E   O I L
  • Auckland welcomed its 1.5millionth citizen this week. But how will the city accommodate its growing population with the grey ones so firmly in the way?
    Are we there yet? Auckland welcomes 1.5 millionth citizen –  Phil McDermott, C I T I E S  M A T T E R
  • “Once again I am shocked at how easily and automatically so many intellectuals are willing to use compulsion to solve problems.”
    Another anti-freedom conservative: David Brooks – S T E P H E N   H I C K S

"Achieving life is not the equivalent of avoiding death."
- Ayn Rand. Atlas Shrugged 

  • With the coming to these shores of Charter Schools, it’s time to take up the catchphrase “Separation of School and State!”
    Restore the Separation of State and School – T H E   U N D E R C U R R E N T
  • You’ve all heard the Keynesian litany from every alleged economist from Krugman to Hickey to Morgan: the world’s economies are collapsing and there’s a worldwide shortage of demand; governments are deeply in debt and can’t provide the necessary investment to make up the shortfall.
    What a shame they’re talking crap.
    Is government spending really "investment"? – K R U G M A N  I N  W O N D E R L A N D
  • Oh, for those of you wishing to gain some insight into our genius overlords' thinking, these four “classes” by Ben Bernanke (Central Planner in Chief) might be of interest.
    You could call them a “Master Class,” i.e., lessons the Class of your Overlords.
    Make sure you pack some difficult questions.
    Bernanke to teach class on Fed at GW in March – M A R K E T   W A T C H
  • Antarctica is melting! says Al Gore, Richard Branson, James Hansen and Kevin Trenberth.
    Um, no it’s not, points out Steven Milloy.
    Al Gore’s ‘melting’ Antarctic claims refuted by reality – J U N K   S C I E N C E
  • Some people buy gold. Others buy cheese. Here’s how to make your fancy cheeses last.
    How to make your expensive wedge of cheese last for weeks – F O R B E S
  • World-Wide Factory Activity, by Country.
    World-Wide Factory Activity, by Country. -  W A L L  S T R E E T   J O U R N A L
  • You know what’s holding us all back here? Don’t worry, the Ministry of Economic Development has all the answers.
    Most notably, they’ve determined that what ails us economically is not their fault. Got that? It’s not taxes, regulations, public sector idiots or bureaucracies getting in our way. No, says the Ministry, it’s not that at all.
    No, it’s all our fault.
    Arseholes.
    Ministry suggests poor management holding economy back -  R A D I O   N Z

"The man who lets a leader prescribe his course
is a wreck being towed to the scrap heap."

Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

"A creative man is motivated by the desire to
achieve, not by the desire to beat others."

- Ayn Rand

  • imageGuess what? Yesterday was Ayn Rand’s Birthday—and some folk had a great idea to make February 2nd, Rand’s Day,  a day worth celebrating!
    Randsday is Justice Day. Give YOURSELF a present.
    Rand'sDay -  A Y N   R A N D  M Y T H S
  • And why is a philosopher who died thirty years ago still have Tea Partiers, political commentators, and politicians still taking (and arguing) about her now?
     ppy Birthday, Ayn Rand -- Why are you still so misunderstood? 
    – Don Watkins,  F O X   N E W S
  • Ayn Rand: 10 more great quotes on her birthday
    Ayn Rand: 10 great quotes on her birthday 
    -  C . S.    M O N I T O R

"The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny
individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities."
- Ayn Rand

  • From our environmental page … there is hope for the weka, but only if the grey ones get out of the way.
    Hope for the weka? -  O F F S E T T I N G   B E H A V I O U R
  • And on Waitangi Weekend, it’s appropriate that environmentalists ask themselves: “Were Maori environmentalists?” Most NZ environmental law assumes they were.  So if they weren’t…
    Were Maori environmentalists? -  N O T   P C ,  2 0 0 6
  • Some environmentalists don’t like oil drilling because of oil spills. But what if you could fight oil spills with cool technology like this?
    Magnetic soap made for oil spills -  F U T U R E   O F   T E C H N O L O G Y

"Money demands that you sell, not your weakness
to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason."
- Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead  

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[Thanks to readers Shaun H, Julian D., Paul van D. and hat tips to Thrutch, Anne McElhinney, Stephen Hicks, Bosch Fawston, Noodle Food, Geek Press, ]

Keep watching.
More later.
PC

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the interesting round-up. Even the spambots seem to find it fascinating!

Here's wishing you and your readers a very happy Maori Moaning weekend.

Anonymous said...

That last comment was from Dave Mann. Sorry.... pressed the wrong 'identity' button. Geez this internet thingy is getting complicated; Sometimes I end up as Alan Bolard, sometimes Fatimah O'Leary and sometimes 33aceTangoM (which is my very successful hiphop performing persona).... but, I digress....

Falafulu Fisi said...

I reckon that Facebook is exactly the mal-investment that Austrian economists are talking about. I wouldn't be surprised if the Dotcom Bubble 2 will come sooner than expected.

Linkedin went IPO recently and it was way overpriced. And what's linkedin about? Yep, it is for the naive people & gullible to post their CVs online so they can feel good about it. Well, there's heaps of identities (& images) on Linkedin for the Nigerian scammers to use.

Sun Microsystem was sold to Oracle for ~ $ 6 billions and it created more than 150,000 real jobs prior to the Dotcom 1. Compared that to Facebook which creates nothing of real value except for those who want to waste their time on writing their daily banalities, is roughly estimated to be $ 20 billions worth or more.

I've been invited by someone last week via email to join his Google+ network of friends which is Google's Social networking equivalent of Facebook, but I declined.