FRIDAY MORNING RAMBLE: The BBC edition

It’s Friday!

Who’s rolling David Shearer? The answer:  No-one.
Guess who is rolling David Shearer? – Monique Angel, YEA OR NAY

As per usual the discussion about the death of J J Lawrence features arguments about child abuse  being a Maori problem. Well, it isn't solely…
Family violence deaths and ethnicity – LINDSAY MITCHELL

There should have been no better “shovel ready” project than a destroyed city, yet employment in construction continues to decline. “It's almost as though some kind of regulatory impediments are preventing people from rebuilding and getting on with things.”
Shovel ready – Eric Crampton, OFFSETTING BEHAVIOUR

More news demonstrating how the government is “fixing” Christchurch: Richard Middleton, the owner of The Bicycle Thief, the makers  of the best martinis in Christchurch, has been told the building he leases will be confiscated and pulled down.
Quake-hit Bicycle Thief to be demolished – THE PRESS

This is the transcript of events on July 16th as written by the late Stephen McIntyre in his own words right after the two Police officers had visited him and threatened him...
Did NZ Police tactics kill Stephen McIntyre ? PART 3 – TUMEKE!

The Rugby Union has given "owners" of NZ Super Rugby franchises a hospital pass.
Control rights and super rugby – Paul Walker, ANTI DISMAL

“Bill English says there is “market failure” in low-priced housing. It’s somewhat ironic to call it a market failure when there isn’t really a free market in housing anyway.
“How so?
“Well, interest rates are manipulated and currently set artificially low by the Reserve Bank for a start. So the price of money is not freely decided but rather driven by bureaucrats’ guesses as to what is the right price. Then councils and the RMA determine exactly what people are allowed to build and where they can build it.
The nature of a free market is that it is free! So it’s a bit rich to call it a market failure. To us, it seems it is non-free market factors that seem to be the main drivers of the unaffordability problem.
“The world over, high house prices have been driven by an ever expanding bubble of debt. The government can do all it likes to tinker here and there but ever greater amounts of money being created mean people will look for real assets in which to place their wealth. It should be no surprise that since the final link to the gold anchor was severed in 1971 that household debt has grown and housing has become more unaffordable.”
Housing Un-affordability: It’s the Debt, Stupid! – GOLD SURVIVAL GUIDE NZ

Taken seriously, the Kyoto Protocol would have almost shut us down. Thank goodness we’re no longer in it.
Kyoto: Australia “IN” New Zealand “Out” – JO NOVA
Kyoto second commitment period – KIWIBLOG

It’s said “active intervention” is needed to address “gender pay gaps.”
“Why?! Gender pay gaps arise for a number of reasons and only some may be worrying. Unless we know the reasons for a pay gap, we can’t conclude anything about its desirability… It honestly frightens me when people draw angry conclusions from raw numbers. Spokesman of the Pay Equity Challenge Coalition Angela MacLeod admitted the Coalition was not sure of reasons for the pay gap change but said “a higher proportion of women in part-time work had not helped.” Helped whom? Helped what? Help us someone! Help us write better commentaries on such issues.”
More pay gaps  - Andrea Menclova & Eric Crampton, OFFSETTING BEHAVIOUR

“Women ought not to be regarded as members of a sex who also just happen to be individuals. They should be regarded as individuals who also just happen to be women.”
Binders Full of Women: The Philosophy Breaking the Business Ladder – Connor Jeffers, THE UNDERCURRENT

What the anti-abortion movement is actually in favour of: killing mothers who miscarry.
Appalling and barbaric – Idiot/Savant, NO RIGHT TURN

In a manifesto too ridiculous to spoof, Mark Boyle argues that we should all live without money to help save the planet. No thanks.
The poverty of environmentalism – Rob Lyons, SP!KED

Guess what…those things you feel guilty about not doing, or that you give in and do, even though they make you miserable, can actually be harming the planet.
Going Green is Bad for the Environment – BUT NOW YOU KNOW

In his first press conference since his re-election, Obama laid out his stance on global warming more clearly than he ever has before. It amounts to this:
1. Global warming is real.
2. We have an obligation to future generations to do something about it.
3. Doing something about it will require tough political choices.
4. I'm not willing to push for those tough political choices.
Obama Makes It Clear He Isn't Willing To Fight for Action on Climate Change – SLATE

Astonishingly, the former chairman of Australia’s ABC is a climate skeptic. And an astute one: “Regrettably for the global warming religion,” he says, “its predictions have started to appear shaky, and the converts, many of whom have lost their jobs and much of their wealth, are losing faith. Worse, heretic scientists have been giving the lie to many of the prophecies described in the IPCC bible. They could not be silenced.
Losing their Religion as Evidence Cools Off – Maurice Newman, THE AUSTRALIAN

The BBC decided to abandon balance in its own coverage of climate after a high-level seminar with some of the “best scientific experts” in the field, said the BBC. Only it now turns out those “experts” consisted of just four scientists and twenty-four climate activists, including the campaign director of Greenpeace.  “This shows that the ‘shoddy journalism’ of Newsnight's recent smear was no ‘lapse’ of standards at all. BBC news programs have for years been poorly checked recitations of the work of activists.”
How The Green Lobby Changed BBC Policy – Benny Peiser, GLOBAL WARMING POLICY FOUNDATION
BBC secret exposed: Greenpeace, activists, BP decide what “science” Brits see — Hello TwentyEightGate – JO NOVA

The BBC Newsnight/paedophile fiasco has utterly exploded the idea that modern British journalism can be divided into Good and Bad camps.
‘Serious journalists’ are the most tabloidesque of all – Brendan O’Neill, SP!KED

“The honest truth is that it is contradictory to the core for a state owned broadcaster, funded through a specific tax on TV owners to not have an institutional bias… There needs to be a fundamental look at what the BBC exists for.”
BBC has failed to meet the moral standards it demands from others – LIBERTY SCOTT

Guido Hülsmann on Mises’s invaluable legacy:

“The growth of government intervention over the last century was built on the back of a handful of myths. A generation ago, the dominant myth was that free markets had caused the Great Depression, a falsehood ultimately debunked by economists like Milton Friedman. Today, the key myth is that financial deregulation caused the 2008 financial crisis.
”What deregulation?”
Why The Glass-Steagall Myth Persists – Yaron Brook & Don Watkins, FORBES

By the way, keen students might like jump into this Mises Academy online class, starting tomorrow with Bob Murphy. “As we will see, the raw facts line up with common sense: massive deficits and monetary inflation, let alone a world war, are not the paths to economic recovery. The lessons from the Great Depression are needed today, but only the Austrians know the right lessons.”
 Learn the Austrian Take on the Great Depression – MISES DAILY

America’s “Fiscal Cliff” is irrelevant. The automatic cuts that are going to take place don't even begin to address the actual problem… The US economy is a speeding train heading towards a ravine at 200 mph, and the conductors are arguing about whether they should slow down to 150 or 175… Bottom line—the “Fiscal Cliff” doesn't matter. The US passed the point of no return a long time ago.
Guess what they're NOT cutting in the Fiscal Cliff... – Simon Black, SOVEREIGN MAN

“The amount of worry over something that needs to happen is staggering. I actually hope the fiscal cliff triggers. Better now than what is 100% certain to hit in a more severe way later.”
Misdiagnosing the Fiscal Cliff; Shrill Voices and Economic Nonsense; 'Tyranny' of Balanced Budgets – MISH’S GLOBAL ECONOMIC TREND ANALYSIS

It took the US government over 200 years to accumulate its first one trillion dollars of debt. It took just 286 days to rack up it's most recent trillion. And it gets worse.
Interesting Factoid on US Debt - The Big Crunch – Mark Hubbard, LIFE BEHIND THE IRON DRAPE

‘Austerity’ quickly became the new black in European political fashion. Austerity in Europe is based on the idea that accumulated sovereign debts are now dangerously large and need to be reduced by some combination of temporary (so they claim) tax increases and spending cuts. Once the debt is reduced to a more manageable level, so the thinking goes, taxes can be cut and spending restored to the previous level.
Sounds oh-so reasonable now, doesn’t it? The problem is, however, it isn’t working…  One key reason is that, concerned about the dire state of the economies in question, the financial markets have dramatically driven up their governments’ borrowing costs. They’ve driven up borrowing costs because private investors are not convinced austerity is going to work.
But if austerity were credible, they would. What is it about austerity as implemented that is failing to win over bond investors? One reason among many: in no major European country is government spending lower than when the crises started in 2007.
The Keynesians’ new clothes – John Butler, COBDEN CENTRE

Still, even when you’re neck-dep in debt and drowning, there’s always enough left over to support a rapidly Islamizing state pursuing an increasingly belligerent path toward Israel.
Amid economic crisis, European Union approves $6.3 billion in aid for Muslim Brotherhood Egypt – JIHAD WATCH

The idea of a modern central bank that controls the money supply, sets interest rates separate from market forces, and is allowed to create money to buy government bonds, is relatively new. A failed experiment.
Understanding the Coming Financial Collapse: Central Banking, Fraction Reserve Banking, and Legal Tender Laws – Dale Halling, STATE OF INNOVATION

Yep, the Central Banks done it: The Ireland and Iceland editions.
Central bank policies and the Ireland and Iceland 2008-12 financial crises – Frank Shostak , COBDEN CENTRE

“’But there is no inflation!’ – This is a statement I hear quite often. So, do present inflation statistics not provide comfort to those who believe in the practicability and even superiority of central-bank-managed fiat money?
“The short answer is, no.
”The long answer I will provide below.”
“But there is no inflation!” – Misconceptions about the debasement of money – Detlev Schlicter, PAPER MONEY COLLAPSE

Discredited economists, much like disgraced politicians, never remain out of favour for long, especially after they have passed from the earthly scene. So it is that John Kenneth Galbraith is increasingly perceived as a misunderstood thinker whose insights were ahead of their time and whose work was too hastily dismissed. Whereas, in fact, he was a nut.
Gaga Over Galbraith – Joseph Salerno, MISES DAILY

“If your main goal is to show that your heart is in the
right place, then your heart is not in the right place.”
- David Schmidtz (quoted in Brennan's Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know)

Michael Hagan explains the manly etiquette of buying a round.
Drinks Are on Me! How to Buy a Round at the Bar – THE ART OF MANLINESS

This is what cyberspace looks like.
Finally, We Can See What Google's Brain Looks Like – BUSINESS INSIDER

Now that’s impressive. New research has found Britain has invaded all but 22 countries in the world.
British have invaded nine out of ten countries - so look out Luxembourg – TELEGRAPH

A new book by a Nobel Prize winner! “How China Became Capitalist details the extraordinary, and often accidental, journey that China has taken over the past thirty years in transforming itself from a closed agrarian socialist economy to an indomitable force in the international arena.”
How China Became Capitalist – Ronald Coase, AMAZON

It can be risky teaching Ayn Rand in China.
Teaching Anthem in China – Robert Garmong, NOODLE FOOD

“Here’s a radical thought. Instead of liberals dismissing Rand’s appeal to the American spirit of individualism and independence, as President Obama recently did in his Rolling Stone interview, why don’t liberals make Rand part of a new canon? Why let conservatives monopolize her?”

If you haven’t been to ‘Brel’ yet, then go. GO! There’s still time.
http://silotheatre.co.nz/brel

Scott Walker sings Jacque Brel…

[Hat tips Geek Press, Laissez Faire, Whale Oil, Cobden Centre, Erosophia]

Thanks for reading.
Have a great weekend!
PC