FRIDAY MORNING RAMBLE: The “Dunne Nothing” Edition

If measured by what appears in MSM political commentaries, this ramble should be full of references to Mr Dunne Nothing. 
But it won’t be.
Instead, I’ll just point you to Graeme Edgeler, who likes this sort of thing.  And bring to mind Cromwell’s exhortation to the Rump Parliament: “You have sat too long for any good you have been doing … Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!”).
And now, here’s one of the most stunningly beautiful photos of Auckland you will see. (Yes, it enlarges. No, I can’t find out who took it. Yes, it’s much better looking than a photo of Peter Dung.)

“How have we descended to this situation where so many citizens feel no moral qualms in living off their fellow citizens' toil? Our welfare society's excesses are morally bankrupt and we all know it.”
Too many people have sense of entitlement – Bob Jones, NZ HERALD

“If you saw a heavyweight prize fighter pummeling a small child, would your main concern be that the kid’s pocket change was spilling onto the ground? That’s how I feel about the debate over entitlements. It takes place almost purely on a narrow, economic level. How much does welfare cost? How much of that cost is funded? Is there a trust fund or a pile of worthless IOUs waiting for us down the road?
Those are all fair questions, but they aren’t the most important questions. The entitlement state is at odds with something even more profound than our paychecks. It’s at odds with a whole decent way of life.”
The Death Of The American Way Of Life – Don Watkins, LAISSEZ FAIRE

“A conspicuous absence in the Constitutional Advisory Panel’s “conversation” is debate about the role of the Waitangi Tribunal, a body that exerts disproportionate influence over public life. The Waitangi Tribunal is the “elephant in the room” – and its absence in the terms of reference that define the constitutional review implies that the Maori Party thinks it is doing a good job advocating for tribalist interests. This article gives seven reasons why the Waitangi Tribunal should be abolished.”
Seven reasons why the Waitangi Tribunal must go – Mike Butler, BREAKING VIEWS

It took the Greatest Generation 1,366 days to fight and win World War II. EQC has 536 days left to either meet their deadlines, or move more goalposts.
EQC Quietly Moves More Goalposts – STUFF

“’School choice’ between one government school
and another government school is no choice at all.”
- Rob Abiera

In a speech delivered to the Fabian Society last week, Elizabeth Rata, the Director of the Knowledge and Education Research Unit of Auckland University and a member of the Independent Constitutional Review Panel, explains the foundations of biculturalism and how, by being elevated into a belief system, it has become a race-based political movement that evades scrutiny: “Biculturalism is a religious retreat for the secularised ex-socialist and the newly conservative 'liberal' alike. By understanding biculturalism as a belief system one can explain why it doesn’t need to be logical and why it has become so pervasive despite meaning different things to different people.”
Democracy and diversity [pdf]– Elizabeth Rata, FACULTY OF EDUCATION, AUCKLAND UNI

“Dr Elizabeth Rata’s recent article “Democracy and Diversity” (above) makes some excellent points about why equality in citizenship and one law for all must always trump identity politics in the public square. However, she seems to have skated somewhat lightly over how it is that “liberals of both the Left and the Right embraced biculturalism with such religious-like commitment.” …
The ideological underpinnings of the Maori Sovereignty/bicultural movement trace back to the early 20th Century writings of Communist revolutionaries Lenin and Stalin on a topic they called “The National Question.”
All ideas have a pedigree – Reuben Chapple, BREAKING VIEWS

“A new grassroots political party launches aimed at ending racial separatism in New Zealand.
One Law for All has a sole objective - that all New Zealanders are treated equally in law, regardless of race. The party’s policies include abolishing the Waitangi Tribunal, abolishing race-based seats and positions in central and local government and stripping all references to the Treaty of Waitangi from legislation.
    “With the party yet to select a leader, 74-year-old Napier man Tom Johnson is temporarily fronting the party and says racial inequality is the most important issue facing New Zealanders.
    “’I have felt that for some time. I love my country and I am not prepared to see myself become a second class citizen here, and I don’t want to see my nine grandkids grow up in a country that becomes an apartheid state, in whatever form.’” …
    “Tom says the response so far has been overwhelmingly positive – from a variety of ethnicities.  The party’s website received about 4000 hits across two days last weekend. “My phone has been red hot, and I don’t think I have had a derogatory comment yet, no doubt they will come.’”
New party wants one law for all – SUN LINE

Richard Milhous Obama…

You wish it were exaggeration.
Obama White House spying on half of America – Judge Andrew Napolitano, FOX NEWS

Meanwhile, back in the MSM…
"Mainstream Media Fail to Break Even One of Four Obama Scandals" – BREITBART

The Turkish prime minister may have miscalculated with both his increasing Islamism in the world’s only secularly Islamic country,and his brutal crackdown at those protesting it.
What’s eating Turkey – Norman Stone, SPECTATOR
Erdoğan Over the Edge – Claire Berlinski, CITY JOURNAL

The always stonking Pat Condell has updated his website with better access to the videos.
Godless Comedy – PAT CONDELL

So…

Could it be the reason there aren’t more libertarians is simply due to the fact we haven't valued our beliefs enough? Here’s what I mean…
The Failure of the Libertarian Movement – FREE-MAN’S PERPECTIVE

“His arguments are so persuasive, so sensible, that the reader is left wondering what in Hades is wrong with our society that we almost never hear anyone say these things.”
Why Fossil Fuels Improve the Planet – NO FRAKKING CONSENSUS

Oh, really?
'The Question Libertarians Just Can’t Answer' – TOM WOODS

So why aren’t we talking about it more?
Take a bow, capitalism - nearly 1 billion people have been taken out of extreme poverty in 20 years, thanks to markets. – AEI

“‘All of them should have been very happy,’ Robert A. Heinlein begins his 1942 novel Beyond This Horizon. The material problem has been solved on this future earth, poverty and disease have been eradicated, work is optional. And yet parts of the citizenry are not enthusiastic. Some are bored, others are preparing a revolt. Why should that be, in such a utopian world? A similar puzzlement has been the dominant reaction from commentators after riots broke out and cars and buildings were burned in heavily immigrant-populated suburbs of Stockholm in late May. Sweden?
Why Sweden Has Riots – John Norberg, CATO INSTITUTE

So we haven’t had warming on earth for at least seventeen years. But the models predict catastrophic warming all the way into the future, and they’re accurate, right? Oh, maybe not. (See above.)
EPIC FAIL: 73 Climate Models vs. Observations for Tropical Tropospheric Temperature – Roy Spencer, WATTS UP WITH THAT 
Climate modeling EPIC FAIL – Spencer: ‘the day of reckoning has arrived’ – Roy Spencer, WATTS UP WITH THAT

They’re making stuff up again. A recent “study” showing a 97 percent consensus among scientists that humans are causing a global warming crisis was faked, fudged and fraudulent.
Global Warming Alarmists Caught Doctoring '97-Percent Consensus' Claims – HEARTLAND

The next time an environmentalist warns us of a pending disaster or that we are running out of something, we ought to ask: When was the last time a prediction of yours was right?
Environmental Wackosim: We Are the Idiots – Walter Williams, CAPITALISM MAGAZINE

It all makes you wonder whether Simon Tunhill’s 8-step plan of the modified Scientific Method followed by alleged climate scientists might not be true.
How Australian scientists Cook ‘n’ Lew do science – AUSTRALIAN CLIMATE MADNESS

“Perhaps understandably, in the absence of any public choice perception, Keynes
made no reference … to the special interests that would dictate the pattern of
government intervention once the political market was unleashed from its 
laissez-faire constraints.  But, he had no excuse whatsoever, other than 
[Oxbridge] elitism, for ignoring the warnings of Hume, Smith and Mill
concerning the self-seeking corruption endemic in an extended polity.”
- Charles Rowley, “John Maynard Keynes and the Attack on Classical Political Economy,”

"As for your claim that Ben Bernanke’s expansion of the fiat money supply has not caused inflation: That is ridiculous on its face. . . The expansion of fiat money is inflation. The two are the same thing. How, where, and when inflation manifests in market prices—including commodity prices and long-term interest rates—is a complex issue. But the printing of money unmoored to any actual value in the marketplace, or the extension of credit unsupported by so much as the reputation of a private bank, is the devaluation of real money and real credit. Ask any nine-year-old about the value of a dollar bill when the marketplace is flooded with them as compared to the value of a dollar bill when there are relatively few in circulation, and he will further clarify this for you."
Open Letter to Paul Krugman re Intellectual Impotence, Inflation, and Ayn Rand – Craig Biddle, OBJECTIVE STANDARD

With Spanish youth unemployment reaching record high rates of over 50 percent, the governor of the Bank of Spain is (finally) recommending suspension of the country's destructive minimum wage law that has helped cause the misery.
Minimum wage update: The Spanish version - ON LIBERTY STREET

The world bailout agency, aka the IMF, has a problem highlighted by that chart above (one of man similarly flawed): it hasn’t got a fucking clue. And it knows it.
The Most Disturbing Chart From Today's IMF Outlook Revision – ZERO HEDGE 
IMF Admits It Is An Idiot And A Liar – ZERO HEDGE 
IMF Demands $18 For Hard Copy Admission That It Is An Idiot – ZERO HEDGE

The world’s largest bond buyer outside the Federal Reserve has taken straight aim at the Fed and its Chairman Ben Bernanke, charging its ultra-loose monetary policies are holding back economic recovery.
Pimco's Bill Gross Skewers Bernanke: You're Part of the Problem – CNBC

“The last couple of weeks have been very interesting… Are markets beginning to realize that all these bubbles have to pop sometime and that sometime may as well be now? Are markets beginning to refuse to dance to the tune of the central bankers and their printing presses?”
Are central bankers losing control? – DETLEV SCHLICTER

A criminal indictment filed in New York against Liberty Reserve has shaken the burgeoning world of digital currencies.
Taking a liberty – ECONOMIST

Direct from the we’ll-believe-it-when-we-see-it file: China Plans to Reduce the State's Role in the Economy ...
Elite Retreat: Now Chinese Leaders Plot a Freedom Reformation! – DAILY BELL

In which a child of two and a child of 2 explain Keynes and Hayek to their 34-year-old economist dad. Questions?
Keynes v. Hayek: A Dialogue With Two of My Children – Art Carden, ECON LOG

Hayek characterised the fundamental economic problem not as some “allocation” of scarce resources among  omniscient agents (which is what most alleged economists still think of as economic activity), but rather as the coordination of actions and plans among dispersed agents with diffuse private knowledge.
Happy birthday Hayek! – Lyn Kiesling, KNOWLEDGE PROBLEM

Capital accumulation creates prosperity. So why tax it.
In Defense of the Capital-Gains Loophole – BLOOMBERG

Yes, it’s an hour long. Yes, it’s called “capital-based macroeconomics.” But if you want to hear a fellow cogently explain why capital creates prosperity, how the world economy crashed, and why Keynes (and Friedman) helped cause it, all you need is a very basic grasp of economics (and its graphs), and one hour.

Yep, the Marginal Revolution really was cool.

"[T]he more experienced professors tend to 'broaden the curriculum and produce students with a deeper understanding of the material.' (p. 430) That is, because they don't teach directly to the test, they do worse in the short run but better in the long run.
"To summarize the findings: because they didn't teach to the test, the professors who instilled the deepest learning in their students came out looking the worst in terms of student evaluations and initial exam performance."
Do the Best Professors Get the Worst Ratings? – PSYCHOLOGY TODAY

“Researchers have been able to teleport information from light to light at a quantum level for several years. In 2006, researchers succeeded in teleporting between light and gas atoms. Now the research group has succeeded in teleporting information between two clouds of gas atoms and to carry out the teleportation -- not just one or a few times, but successfully every single time.”
Quantum Teleportation Between Atomic Systems Over Long Distances – SCIENCE DAILY

“Don’t believe the anti-biotech hype… No reputable studies find a danger with Genetically Engineered crops and dozens find it safe. If the fears about hormones, chemicals, and pesticides in food are true, then why do we use more of them, and live longer?
    “Also, the free market provides options – Harvest Whole Foods for example says all their organic products are GMO-free. If consumers demand GMO-free, they can get it.”
The Top 5 Lies About Biotech Crops – Ronald Bailey, REASON

Well, this is awkward. Katherine Flegal of the US National Center for Health Statistics reported that people whom the government deems "overweight" appear to be healthier than people who stay within their “recommended” weight range.
Obesity Researchers Outraged by Inconvenient Truth About Weight and Mortality – Jacob Sullum, HIT & RUN

See, the UN can do something useful.
Making data meaningful – STATS CHAT

East and West Berlin are still viseble from space…
East/West Berlin divide – Earth Porn, TWITTER

“The Brazilian health ministry has had to drop a sexual-health awareness campaign with the tagline 'I'm happy being a prostitute'. But it's hardly the first STD awareness campaign to stray into the realm of the daft. We take a look at some of the silliest sexual health warnings from the second world war".”
VD is not victory: the second world war guide to sexual health - in pictures – GUARDIAN

“New Zealand's geologic hazards agency reported this week an ongoing, "silent" earthquake that began in January is still going strong. Though it is releasing the energy equivalent of a 7.0 earthquake, New Zealanders can't feel it because its energy is being released over a long period of time, therefore slow, rather than a few short seconds. These so-called "slow slip events" are common at subduction zone faults..”
New Explanation for Slow Earthquakes On San Andreas – SCIENCE DAILY

Richard Branson visited Portugal as a Global Drug Commissioner to congratulate them on the success of their drug policies over the last 10 years.  Ten years ago the Portuguese Government responded to widespread public concern over drugs by rejecting the “war on drugs.”  “Now with a decade of experience Portugal provides a valuable case study of how decriminalization coupled with evidence-based strategies can reduce drug consumption, dependence, recidivism and HIV infection and create safer communities for all. I will set out clearly what I learned from my visit to Portugal and would urge other countries to study this…”
Time to end the war on drugs – Richard Branson, VIRGIN

Since we were talking about this last night at the pub…
Stalin’s Bank Robbery of 1907: A Tale of Blood and Murder. – Giles Milton, SURVIVING HISTORY

To read the news, or note read the news. That is the question for those wishing to stay psychologically healthy.
Is reading the news helpful or harmful? – Burgess Laughlin, MAKING PROGRESS

Who are your culture’s heroes, warriors or merchants? It makes a difference that makes the difference, to war, peace and much more.
Werner Sombart on heroes versus merchants – STEPHEN HICKS

You’re kidding, right?
Does This Ad Make Me Look Racist? (Chapter 3) – POWERLINE

3d printers are hitting the consumer market and they’re not cheap. But then, neither were PCs when they first hit the consumer market…
You May Get Your Own 3D Printer Sooner Than You Think – Scott Shackford, HIT AND RUN

“Joseph Schumpeter, the originator of the phrase “creative destruction,” authored a less well-known corollary at some point in the 1930s. “Profit,” he wrote, “is temporary by nature: It will vanish in the subsequent process of competition and adaptation.” And so it has…”
Wounded Heart – Bill Gross, PIMCO

So…
Anti-capitalists complain Ayn Rand Collected Social Security… – DOLLARS AND CROSSES

“It is not really news that Victor Davis Hanson has written another outstanding and eye-opening book. He has done that before and repeatedly, on a variety of subjects. The subject of his latest book, The Savior Generals, could not be more timely. It is about how seemingly hopeless situations can be– and have been– rescued from the brink of disaster.”
Historic Rescuers – Thomas Sowell, CAPITALISM MAGAZINE

And just like that, Positive Discipline Objectivists--for Objectivist parents, teachers, coaches, aunts, uncles, etc. who use or are interested in learning about non-punitive discipline tools--has 100 members! Pretty cool.
Positive Discipline Objectivists – FACEBOOK

Like Brutalism? Then why not buy the wallpaper.
Brutalism Lite: Concrete Comes Inside to Play – ARCHITIZER

See, I try to tell guests this every time they wash up at our place…
35 Ways to Love Your Cast Iron Skillet – THE KITCHN

PS: You can watch all AFL Games LIVE this weekend, on your telly, on Sommet Sports. That’s all the games, live and free! (Tune in on Channel 114.) My tips to win in bold:

• Friday 7th June:
  Essendon vs. Carlton- 9.30pm
• Saturday 8th June:
  GWS Giants vs. Geelong Cats – 3.40pm 9 (Go the Cats!)
  Adelaide Crows vs. Sydney Swans - 6.40pm
  Gold Coast Suns vs. North Melbourne – 940pm
• Sunday 9th June
  St Kilda vs. West Coast Eagles – 6.40pm
• Monday 10th June
  Melbourne vs. Collingwood – 3.20pm
• Wednesday 12th June: Highlights – 8pm

[Hat tip Amanda BillyRock, Peter Klein, The Stateless Man, Campaign for Liberty, Frederick Gibson, EQC Truths, Small Dead Animals, Joshua Hitchcock, On Liberty Street, Cafe Hayek, 1 Law 4 All, Cathy, Alex Needham, Pat Condell, Shaun Coffey, Energy and Commerce ‏, TakingHayekSeriously, Libertarianz, Russell Brown, Watts Up With That ]

Thanks for reading,
Have a great weekend!
PC

PS: My beer recommendation for the weekend, a Liberty “Roggenator” Winter Rye Ale. Hits you like a sack of ryed-up hops. Delicious.