Friday Morning Ramble: The Cup Hangover Edition

Three unfortunate New Zealand traits were in evidence after yesterday’s loss, almost outweighing the admirable New Zealand traits otherwise so much in evidence over the previous nineteen days in the teams of both boats (let’s not forget, NZers were everywhere): the ability to put together winning teams, the ability to put together winning technology, the passion to pursue excellence, and the ability to win. (Yes, plenty of NZers were on the winning team, in all of the sailing, technology and organisational fronts. Just enjoy that.)
    The first and worst reaction to losing was whinging. Something NZers are getting too good at when losing.
    The second was the tall poppy reaction to Larry Ellison winning, all the whinging about how he had more money to spend than “we” did, and all the conspiracy theories asserting that if their boat was so fast and he is so rich then ipso facto he and his team must have cheated.  Get your hand off it, people.
    And the third was the almost instant leap into print from rent-seekers keen to continue having Team NZ on permanent welfare. Bollocks to that, I say. if people with their own money want to enjoy having a team in the Cup,  then all power to them. Great. Put up your own dosh. If businessmen and women think a Team NZ in the America’s Cup will help their business, then all power to them too. Let them put up their own money to help their business out. And if politicians, like Trevor Mallard, want a place at the international sporting table, then let the bastards go out and get a real job and earn it.

But do not, do not, have the cheek, the temerity, to demand that other NZers put their hands in their pockets to help you out.
    Please. Let’s not go there again.

Ian Taylor says America's Cup is vital for NZ boat industry [AUDIO, 4’33] – RADIO NZ
Of Free Riders and Forced Riders: America's Cup edition – Eric Crampton, OFFSETTING BEHAVIOUR 
The good news from the America's Cup – Paul Walker, ANTI DISMAL

Right. I’ve got that off my chest. On with some other things going on out there while you were otherwise engaged…

“Asenati Lole-Taylor MP uses distortion while trying to foment moral panic against vulnerable South Auckland whakawahine, fa'afafine and cisgender street sex workers... and she's not alone.”
Sex Work, Moral Panic and the Manukau Bill – Craig Young, GAY NZ

You might never before have valued the Daily Mail’s accuracy. But their description of John Key might change your mind.
"Perhaps she is having second thoughts about letting this galloping colonial clot through the front door?" – DAILY MAIL

Go on, take a guess. How many years on average?
"Sole parents spend an average 15.8 years on benefit" – LINDSAY MITCHELL

So much for Reserve Bank independence, eh?
That’s it, I’m done: RBNZ takes the path of discretion – Matt Nolan, TVHE

I think he makes a god point about Cunliffe’s Shadow Cabinet.
A signal to the Greens? – NO RIGHT TURN

If society as a whole--a nonsensical construct of course--is concerned about the well-being of low-wage workers why should shareholders in McD's, KFC etc. be the ones footing the bill?
McDonalds and the minimum wage – John Cochrane, THE GRUMPY ECONOMIST

“To paraphrase Hayek, electing one's govt is not the same thing as controlling it.”
- Philip Schuyler

The local #SurveillanceState isn’t going away.
Next step in the fight against a surveillance state – the TICS bill – Steffan Browning, FROG BLOG

Simple advice for filling out the complicated STV voting for.
Don’t vote for people you don’t want – STEPHEN FRANKS

Okay, who has more economic power in the US -- rich business people or politicians?

Daniel Hannan speaks on Magna Carta: the secular miracle of the English-speaking peoples.

In his latest book, The Great Degeneration, historian Niall Ferguson argues that the west is stagnating because of broken "institutions."
'The Great Degeneration' - by Niall Ferguson – PRACTICE GOOD THEORY

Another story from the Law of Unintended Consequences. (This is your future under Bernard Hickey.)
Currency controls invite arbitrage – Eric Crampton, OFFSETTING BEHAVIOUR

Don’t trust models funded by taxpayers, either economic or climate models, or on anything else, that are in the perceived self-interest of the political class doling out the funding.
Model Meltdown: Govt Funds the Forecast It is Looking For – Richard Rahn, TO THE POINT NEWS
'Political advocacy by climate scientists has damaged trust in the science' – THE HOCKEY SCHTICK

Oh, and careful of that mathematics.
Mathematical Truths Do Not Make Untrue Assumptions in Economics True – ADAM SMITH’S LOST LEGACY

"If we used today's inflation measure in the 70s, there would've been no inflation."
- Peter Schiff

“The "foreign aid ends poverty" debate is over. Jeff Sachs omits aid from things ending poverty.”
The End of Poverty, Soon – Jeffrey Sachs, NEW YORK TIMES

Growth? Prosperity
Illusion of Prosperity: Deflating the American Dream; No Recovery in "Real" Income – MISH

Are we really any wiser than we were five years ago?
Six Lessons You Should Have Learned From the Financial Crisis – Brett Arends, WALL STREET JOURNAL

“The United States is caught in a stimulus trap from which there is no easy exit. How can the Fed wean the economy from stimulus when stimulus IS the economy?”
The Stimulus Trap – Peter Schiff, March, 2013
The Taper That Wasn't – Peter Schiff, Sept 18, 2013

“Human beings are suckers for a story. The story peddled by mainstream economic commentators goes that the US Federal Reserve and its international cousins have acted boldly to prevent a second Great Depression by stepping in to support the banks (and not coincidentally the government bond markets) by printing trillions of dollars of ex nihilo money which, through the mechanism of quantitative easing, will mysteriously reflate the economy. It’s a story alright, but more akin to a fairy story.”
Taper (where?) party – Tim Price, COBDEN CENTRE 
No tapering, no surprise – Alasdair Mcleod, COBDEN CENTRE

The simple reason Ben Bernanke can’t “taper” …

Yes, Dianne Feinstein, people have.
These 5 people used an AR-15 to defend themselves and it may have saved their lives – THE HUMBLE LIBERTARIAN

Yes, you can both dispense justice and save money.
An Amnesty for Prisoners of the War on Drugs – Ernest Drucker & Mike Trace, HUFFINGTON POST

No, fracking isn’t as dirty as you think.
Is hydraulic fracking for natural gas safe? – Leith Van Onselen, MACROBUSINESS
The new fracking study environmentalists don't want you to see – THE WEEK

Yes, there is good news this week.
HIV infection figures tumbling around the world – NEW SCIENTIST

Yes, Islamist attacks are universal.
Two Muslim Outrages – POWER LINE
All Muslims leave.. we only want non-Muslims – AFRICAN SPOTLIGHT

Yes, even a Marxist Muslim can make sense.

Germany demonstrates the world’s energy future.
Germany's green dream is becoming a nightmare – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, VANCOUVER SUN

Um, but what happens if do you lose the last decimal?
EU climate chief: “You don’t need to have the last decimal to see that the overall number isn’t  looking good” – Steve Milloy, JUNK SCIENCE

“UN IPCC Report Exposed By Its Own Members as ‘a pure political process”
Why the IPCC Meeting Isn’t Being Televised – NO FRAKKING CONSENSUS

“The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is set to release its Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the physical science of climate change at the conclusion on its editorial meeting in Stockholm scheduled from September 23-26th. A version of its Summary for Policymakers (SPM)—perhaps the most influential portion of the report as it is the widest read—has been “leaked” to generate media interest in the upcoming release. It certainly has, but perhaps not in the manner intended. The leaked SPM has revealed a document so flawed and removed from current science that it has been described as not only being  "obsolete on the day that it is released, but that it will be dead wrong as well."”
More IPCC Misdirection: Its Dodgy Sea Level-Rise Assessment – Patrick Michaels & Paul Knappenberger, CATO AT LIBERTY
Access: The “leaked” IPCC AR5 draft Summary for Policymakers – WATTS UP WITH THAT
EPIC FAIL: Financial Times graph shows IPCC projections fail against observations – JUNK SCIENCE 
Sure the warming is there if only they could find it – ANDREW BOLT

“IPCC Scientists “forced to concede that the models have been giving CO2 too much weight as a climate driver’”
Warming Gets Delayed Again…IPCC Scientist Mojib Latif: Pause “May Stubbornly Remain Until 2020 or 2025″! – P. Gosselin, NO TRICKS ZONE

“Arctic ice was the last remaining surface refuge for the perpetrators of the climate scam, and now they have retreated to the missing heat in the deep oceans – more classically known as climate science hell.”
Hell Freezes Over For Climate Alarmists – Stephen Goddard, REAL SCIENCE

“But there’s a CONSENSUS!” shrieked the bossy environmentalist with the messy blonde hair.  “That, Madame, is intellectual baby-talk,” I replied.
The illogic of climate hysteria – Christopher Monckton, WATTS UP WITH THAT

“If you had the opportunity to ask 5 critical questions for the IPCC, what would you ask?”
Five critical questions for the IPCC – CLIMATE ETC.

The IPCC responds to the five questions sceptics are asking:

Which do you prefer? (Yes, this is scientific research.)
The average women's faces in different countries –MY SCIENCE ACADEMY

Perhaps I should hang out more outside philosophy departments?
The hotness-IQ tradeoff in academia – THE HARDEST SCIENCE

Now, the results of  this I really would be interested in.
Tell Us: Which Way Does Your Desk Face? – APARTMENT THERAPY

“Our fascination with faces exists, to some extent, on the day we’re born.”
How we learn to see faces – 3 QUARKS DAILY

Cool!
The world's first inflatable concert hall arrives in Japan's disaster-hit north eastern coast – ARCHINECT NEWS

Bring on the Kickstarter!
Atlas Shrugged Movie Launches Kickstarter Campaign – Dale Halling, STATE OF INNOVATION

Then, they came for the chess players, and I said nothing …
Brickbat: Checkmate – HIT & RUN

Serial Thomas Jefferson liar won’t go away.
Debunking David Barton's Jefferson Lies – Chris Rodda, HISTORY NEWS NETWORK

 

"The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to
take the government off the backs of the people."
-Justice William Douglas

“Why don't apes have musical talent, while humans, parrots, small birds, elephants, whales, and bats do?”
Why Humans Are Musical – SCIENCE DAILY

Mies Van Der Rohe’s modernist icon--the world's largest single-room schoolhouse, the Crowne Hall—is being renovated. Not everyone’s happy.
The redesign of the interior of Mies van der Rohe's Crown Hall: Glass Boxes within the Ultimate Glass Box – ARCHITECTURE CHICAGO PLUS

“It's what architects call the useless, non-occupiable additional space in super-tall structures.  In fact, there's even an organization that measures and ranks buildings on the vanity height variable.”
Much of the height in Earth's tallest towers is useless space – io9.COM

The late-twentieth century’s favourite stylist—for a time he was interior design’s Jamie Oliver—lets photographers into his apertment.
A Visit To Terence Conran's Old Apartment – APARTMENT THERAPY

Yes,we have the technology.
Michael Green: Why we should build wooden skyscrapers – ARCHITECHNOPHILIA

Cool!!
10 Live Gems By Louis Armstrong - 1940-1947 – THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF LOUIS ARMSTRONG

Grammar jokes on a mug. What could be better?

And finally, tomorrow is the last Saturday in September. Time for the world’s most libertarian Grand Final!
Complete 2013 AFL grand final guide – THE ROAR
Grand Final preview: Hawks v Dockers – AFL.COM.AU
AFL grand final: five of the most memorable moments – ABC

Thanks for reading.
Have a great weekend!
PC

[Hat tips Anti Dismal, Keeping Stock, Geek Press, Division of Labour, Bishop Hill, Small Dead Animals, Climate Depot, On Liberty Street, Mark Thoma, Mark Thornton, Justin Templer, Peter Schiff, AECR, Virginia Murr, William Easterly, Eric Crampton, The Anti Al Gore, Julia Hartley-Brewer]