FRIDAY MORNING RAMBLE: The ‘can’t the David Bain trial be made to go away’ edition

It should have been over years ago, and if police hadn’t buggered it up so badly it’s impossible to know whodunnit, it could have been.
It should have been over this year and, but for Judith Collins’s decision to promote competing reports, it would have been.
Welcome to another year of discussing a case that started in 1994.

You want the idiot’s summary of the idiotic extra-judicial stoush about the Bain reports? Here it is.
Fisher Binnie Idiot’s Summary (I am the idiot) – DIM POST

Collins’s real problem with the Binnie report? Here’s a clue: “anger and simple upset over the conduct of the police force. [Jurors] had always considered the police above reproach. They found they were wrong.
David Fisher: Bain report shines spotlight on police mistakes – NZ HERALD

Word of the Year? Word of the Decade?
Public Address Word of the Year and Word of the Decade - the Vote! – HARD NEWS

“If the two parties fail to come to a deal by Jan. 1, taxes on the average middle-income family would rise about $2,000 over the next year. That would follow a 12-year period in which median inflation-adjusted income dropped 8.9 percent, from $54,932 in 1999 to $50,054 in 2011.”
And that’s if you don’t believe official inflation figures understate how much value dollars lost over those 12 years.
U.S. politics in two sentences – MARGINAL REVOLUTION

Fresh from his eponymous inquiry, Lord Leveson visits Australia to talk about cracking down on blogs and tweets. “Lawlessness in one area may infect other areas,” says Leveson.  “The bottom line is this: Leveson is an enemy of free speech as these clips makes clear” …
Leveson is in Australia – Sinclair Davidson, CATALAXY FILES

Seems the loony Lord just copies and pastes from Wikipedia.
Lord Leveson copies out Wikipedia – LISTENER

The global warming game has changed, admits the UN’s IPCC in their next alarmist report on global warming—leaked this week one year ahead of its scheduled release. Leaked, because it admits that the sun’s activity in recent decades has had more effect on warming that previously allowed, or understood—and the leaker thought you should know taht. “The admission of strong evidence for enhanced solar forcing changes everything [says the leaker]. The climate alarmists can’t continue to claim that warming was almost entirely due to human activity over a period when solar warming effects, now acknowledged to be important, were at a maximum. The final draft of AR5 WG1 is not scheduled to be released for another year but the public needs to know now how the main premises and conclusions of the IPCC story line have been undercut by the IPCC itself.”
IPCC AR5 draft leaked, contains game-changing admission of enhanced solar forcing – WATTS UP WITH THAT

The big profits of Australian banks is not all good. “Australia has an oversized banking sector for its economy and the banks remain over-leveraged and heavily invested in residential and commercial real estate.”
The Australian Banking Behemoth – Dan Denning, DAILY RECKONING

“Politics has become a big game for the amusement of those involved, which considering the scale of the challenges facing this country it really shouldn’t be.” All too true.
Unwittingly, Maria Miller's Spad has done her country a favour – Iain Martin, TELEGRAPH

More evidence "Don't be evil" means "Be capitalist": Google chairman says "We are proudly capitalistic. I'm not confused about this."
Google's tax avoidance is called capitalism, says chairman Eric Schmidt – TELEGRAPH

How anti-vaxxers see the world:

“We now have the announcement that Ben Bernanke’s US Federal Reserve will buy $45 billion a month in treasuries, QE4, until unemployment reaches 6.5% or his version of inflation exceeds 2.5%… The next announcement may well remove the $45 billion monthly limit. Then he will be able to finance the government with as much fairy dust money as he likes.”
There He Goes Again – Hunter Lewis, CIRCLE BASTIAT

“Counterfeiting is a crime. There is an act of Congress that allows the Fed to get away with it. Still, a banker from an earlier era would have only done it in the dark of night. In the time of Edward II, a banker who clipped his coins would have his balls cut off…
    “The gist of the Fed's new plan is to print up US$85bn per month and use it to buy mortgage-backed securities and US government debt. This is supposed to increase 'demand', and thereby get the economy moving faster. The important thing is that the Fed has no money with which to buy these things. It has to create it out of thin air. A lot of it.
    “At that rate, the Fed will be adding to the nation's monetary base - the Fed's assets - three times faster than the US economy creates new goods and services…”
The Outrageous Behaviour of the US Fed – Bill Bonner, DAILY RECKONING

This throws the US dollar over the currency cliff, says Peter Schiff:

“So between this and QE 3 which was announced just two and a half months ago, the Fed will be printing $85 billion per month,” just as Treasuries look like they’re starting to crumble. “If Treasuries begin to collapse at a time when the Fed is buying up over 70% of debt issuance, then the Great Treasury Bubble is finally about to burst… Take out Fed support … and interest rates will be soaring.”  And no government anywhere can afford that, not to mention every over-extended borrower. “We’ll have to wait to see how this plays out, but we’re getting dangerously close to a US debt crisis that will make 2008 look small in comparison.”
And That's Checkmate Bernanke – Graham Summers, ZERO HEDGE

The reaction of Treasury bond buyers “demonstrates that although the Fed may be capable of managing inflation expectations, its ability do so is no longer to be reckoned in months or weeks, but in minutes.”
Fed Losing Its Grip on Our Expectations – Rick Ackerman, ZERO HEDGE

Even central bankers were concerned, Reserve Bank of Australia head Glenn Stevens describing quantitative easing as potentially harmful and Bernanke’s approach as "ultimately inimical to financial stability and hence macroeconomic stability."
The Central Bank Backlash: First Hong Kong, Now Australia Gets Ugly Case Of Truthiness – Tyler Durden, ZERO HEDGE

Meanwhile, back in Japan…
Japan in recession – MACROBUSINESS.COM.AU

Fortunately, making money from central-bank money printing has become increasingly difficult. “The fact is the world has been turned on its head for the past four years. People and investors have forgotten the real driver of prosperity and wealth. It’s not central bankers or governments that create wealth, it’s entrepreneurs, business people, and individuals…each acting in their own selfish interest.” Which is why each round of money printing has received an increasingly cold shoulder.
Central Bank Prints More Money — No One Cares – Kris Sayce, MONEY MORNING AUSTRALIA

"The Fed is now forthright that it is targeting the unemployment
rate. The problem is that it doesn't control the unemployment rate."
- Gerard O’Driscoll

So, what’s the difference between altruism and benevolence?

Attractive little nooks for reading and sleeping. (Because ‘“reading" often means falling asleep, and drooling heavily, after the first five pages. A bright shade of paint can keep you awake for at least the first chapter.’)
Create Lovely Little Nooks for Reading & Sleeping – APARTMENT THERAPY

Ravi Shankar, who died this week, called hippy fans of his sitar playing at Woodstock and elsewhere “strange young weirdos… shrieking, shouting, smoking, masturbating and copulating – all in a drug-crazed state…” He was right, you know.  Interesting that he and Ayn Rand would agree on that.
In truth, Ravi Shankar couldn’t stand the hippies – TELEGRAPH
ARC’s Yaron Brook revisits “Apollo and Dionysus” – ARC

Help is at hand for Apple Users who want to know where the f**k they are.
Google Maps Returns To iOS, Now With Voice Guided Turn-by-Turn Navigation – FORBES

Alleged architect Frank Gehry can’t handle a real artist.
What Happened with Frank Gehry on the Eisenhower Memorial – SABIN HOWARD SCULPTURE

I’m pretty sure this news of “an Objectivist XXX Porn Parody” is satire, but you never can tell. After all, Alan Greenspan might well have said, “This is the first porn parody that celebrates Rand’s ideals of objectivism and rational egoism.”
Aynal Architecture: “This Ain’t The Fountainhead” – GRAM PONANTE [Very NSFW]

Joe Maurone is right. Dedicate 2013 to the best within you:

Here’s Charles Mingus…

…and Mario Lanza …

…and Freddy Kempf, who I’ll wager you foolishly missed at the Town Hall last week:

[Hat tips Pharyngula, Marginal Revolution, Whale Oil, Daniel Wahl, TakingHayekSeriously, Eric Crampton]

Have a great weekend!
PC

PS: Make mine an Epic Message in a Bottle please: