FRIDAY MORNING RAMBLE: The “July 4” Morning-After Edition

Cartoon by Tom White

"On the Fourth of July, celebrate not the rights-violating, welfare state that America has become,
but what America once was and could be again. Celebrate man’s 'unalienable Rights.' Celebrate
the principle that the proper purpose of government is 'to secure these rights.' Celebrate the
principle that 'whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the
Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.' And, most of all, celebrate the Founders, who
recognised and codified these principles, thus making possible the degree of freedom we still
enjoy and the moral ideal to which we should return.”
     - Craig Biddle, “What to Celebrate on Independence Day,” THE OBJECTIVE STANDARD

Nice for the Labour Party to confirm that women are so inferior they need quotas to make it in the party.
Labour Party pushes for 'man ban' - TV3
About that 'Man Ban' – Josie Pagani, PUNDIT

Funny how, when councils screw up their sums, it never ends up costing you less.
Living wage more costly than expected – WAIKATO TIMES

Yep, a local blogger has published a novel. And it’s good.
Unspeakable Secrets of the Aro Valley – LUMIERE READER
A series of riddles, each more fiendish and difficult than the last, except for the very last which is easy – DIM POST

Expensive non-financially viable public transport projects serving relatively few people? (Which one of hundreds could we mean?) “They are 20th century solutions to perceived transport problems, but another is on its way, and it could transform land transport between and within cities.”
Self-driving cars could transform land transport – LIBERTY SCOTT

I’m just going out to order a burger>> It’s my way of saying “fuck you” to miserablist Gareth Morgan, who’s still getting over his male menopause by wanting to boss you and me around.
Gareth Morgan & Geoff Simmons: Takeaways tax will force sensible eating [sic] – NZ HERALD

Q: Profesor Hayek, other than monetary reform, what sort of limits or constraints do you think
it is feasible to put on government in a Western democratic society?
Hayek: I think it requires a change in the constitutional arrangement. We have really to redo
in a different manner what the world tried to do in the 18th century when they hoped that the
principle of the separation of powers was intended as a restriction on democracy. It hasn’t
done so. I think we have to invent a new way.
- An Interview With F.A. Hayek, THE LIBERTARIAN LIBRARY

PS: The latest paper from Swedish sea-level expert, Dr. Nils Axel Morner: “For the last 40-50 years strong observational facts indicate virtually stable sea level conditions… Best estimates for future sea level changes up to "the year 2100 are in the range of +5 cm ±15 cm.”
Sea Level Changes: Past Records & Future Expectations – INTERESTED PARTICIPANTS

Britain has discovered renewable energy is more truthfully a euphemism for the energy you have when you don’t really have any energy.
Risk of UK energy blackout has trebled in past year – THE WEEK

Meanwhile, Britons are beginning to realise global warming might actually be worthwhile.  This, from The Times, for example…
See, global warming has a bright side  - SUNDAY TIMES
Climate change 'will boost British farmers’ – TELEGRAPH

Well, he did say he’d change America’s standing in the world…
Is There Nothing That Obama Can't Do? – SMALL DEAD ANIMALS

Let’s hope so.
Morsi’s ouster spells trouble for region’s other Islamist movements – WASHINGTON POST

Britain’s socialised National Health Service is 65 this week. To celebrate, lets hold a minutes silence for all those that have suffered neglect, abuse and death and the hands of NHS staff. Such as …
Nearly 1,200 people have starved to death in NHS hospitals in the last 4 years – DAILY MAIL

So, Hobbit author J.R.R. Tolkien was asked just before the war to confirm that he was Jewish.
What J.R.R. Tolkien said to the Nazis when they asked if he was Jewish. – ELEPHANT JOURNAL

Gasland was Josh Fox’s documentary dismissal of fracking. Too dangerous said Josh’s film. Too dishonest, said many film watchers. Gasland Part II premieres in the U.S. this week. Instead of going honest, JOsh Fox has doubled down on the dishonesty."Unfortunately, the second installment is just as devoid of facts, context, and attention to detail as the original – except this time, the show runs even longer.”
Debunking Gasland, Part II – ENERGY IN DEPTH
Gasland Part II? They Made a Sequel? – ENERGY IN DEPTH

“An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot."
-Thomas Paine, Common Sense

So what does it mean to be “too sensitive”? That their thoughts are “too intense,” or that they’re “thinking too much?” So why dismiss thinking?
How Sensitive Are You? (DE Wave) – Dr Michael Hurd, LIFE’S A BEACH

So…
What the Heck is "Emotional Intelligence"? - Dr Michael Hurd, DAILY DOSE OF REASON

Is it just me finding this hard to take seriously? Lou Reed reckons Kanye West’s new album Yeezus “made him cry.” "There are moments of supreme beauty and greatness on this record."
Lou Reed >< Kanye West – TALKHOUSE

And the answer is, division of labour.
Why Has 99 Percent of the Technological Progress by Modern Humans Come in the Last 10,000 Years? – SLATE

Here you go…
22 Things Journalists Know To Be True – BUZZFEED

“Our legislators are not sufficiently apprised of the rightful limits of their power; that
their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties, and to
take none of them from us. No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the
equal rights of another; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him.”
- Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Francis W. Gilmer, 1816

To help commemorate July 4, Robert Tracinski re-posted a piece he compiled for Independence Day in 2010 drawing from Jefferson's actual statements to project what he might have thought about today's situation and the Tea Party movement.
Thomas Jefferson's Tea Party Speech – TRACINSKI LETTER

And now, a quote from each of America’s founders…

• "The means of defence against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."
  - James Madison
• “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
  - John Adams.
  
• "Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
  - George Washington
  
• "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
  - Benjamin Franklin
  
• "Those who stand for nothing fall for anything." - Alexander Hamilton
  
• "To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."
  -  Thomas Jefferson

Golly gee, now this is a fishing show I’d definitely watch.

This is the tune, years ago, that got me into jazz. (And if you’re quick, you can buy a box set with 59 other similar beauties, all cleaned up and digitised, for just 1p + postage!)

Yep. Still works.  Can’t say that about everything they’ve done since. But this still works.

Who says Wagner can’t do sensitive.  This (conducted here by Donald Runnicles) was written for his wife’s birthday, on the morning of which a fifteen-piece orchestra crept onto the stairs of the Wagner house to play it for her.

[Hat tip Liberty Brewing, Steve Everley, Keith Weiner]

Thanks for reading,
Cheers
PC

PS: Will Gordon ranks 36 cheap and nasty American beers, so you don’t have to. Because not all America’s shitbrews are the same.
36 Cheap American Beers, Ranked – DEADSPIN

PPS: My beer of the week is the ParrotDog Bitter Bitch. Damn, it’s good.