Friday Morning Ramble: The “It’s not a war if the President says it’s not a war” edition

Gareth Morgan, the man who calls the prisoners of the North Korean state  "wonderfully engaged, well-dressed, fully employed and well informed” calls Liberty Scott ignorant for challenging the idiocy. True story. Scott responds. [UPDATE 1: Gareth responds further, and talks libel. Pillock. And then deletes most of Scott’s comments. UPDATE 2:  Whale Oil manages to harvest Scott’s main comment before Captain Morgan’s deletion.  UPDATE, ROUND 3: Liberty Scott responds to the libel threat and deletions.]
Gareth Morgan thinks I am ignorant about the DPRK – LIBERTY SCOTT 
Gareth Morgan v Liberty Scott – WHALE OIL 
ROUND 3: Gareth Morgan threatens me with libel.... and insults me – LIBERTY SCOTT

David Cunliffe’s true slogan: “New taxes and spending. New taxes and spending. New taxes and spending.” So, same old, same old, same old.
David Cunliffe and the End of the Free World, Again. – Mark Hubbard, LIFE BEHIND THE IRON DRAPE

Same practices everywhere, same problems. A single Housing Accord won’t change that.
It’s time we ended the pretence that planning rules come without a price. – Rory Meakin, CITY A.M.

Gerry Brownshirt doesn’t understand the nature of, nor the need for, a free press.
Gerry Brownlee; IRD Raids; Freedom of the Press - 100% Pure Surveillance State. – Mark Hubbard, LIFE BEHIND THE IRON DRAPE

“Oh the irony - the 'sustainability' of recycling: Ratepayers are going to be charged more to keep producing a 'good' that nobody apparently wants or needs! Now that's certainly a 'sustainable' policy…”
Reader mailbag: Dunedin plastic mountains edition – Eric Crampton, OFFSETTING BEHAVIOUR

Yesterday, President Obama said that “Congress’s credibility is on the line.” But, what about his?
Experts Answer: What Do You Want to Know About Syria? – THE FOUNDRY

“Red lines work only when they are red.”
Obama’s Goals in Syria Remain Unclear – Brian Slattery, THE FOUNDRY

“Wow! America taking military action against a Middle East regime? It’s like I never left,” the host said.”
Jon Stewart jumps smack into Syria satire on 'Daily Show' return – ENTERTAINMENT TODAY

So what does a widow do once her husband has self-immolated in an act of jihad?
Al Qaeda urges fighters’ widows to show support through ‘sexual jiihad’ – WASHINGTON TIMES

So all that SurveilanceState bullshit is about combatting terrorism? Like hell it is.
Drug War Using American Phone Records More Than Terror War – OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY

Meanwhile, back in New Zealand…
Tax dodgers to be hunted by passports – Andrea Vance, STUFF

                                    Irony:
                                   Pro-intervention: Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, France.
                                   Anti-intervention: John Bolton
                                              - Andrew Stiles

“The ordeal of David Miranda – the partner of Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald detained at London’s Heathrow Airport, interrogated for nine hours, and forced to surrender his electronic devices (some of which allegedly contained documents leaked to Greenwald by the former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden)– is a shocking demonstration of the changed climate surrounding the press. So is the fact that state officials threatened Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger with criminal charges and forced Guardian employees to destroy computer equipment at the newspaper’s offices. But what is most shocking is that all of this happened in the United Kingdom.”
Britain’s Retreat from Free Speech – Naomi Wolf, PRJECT SYNDICATE

“For The Guardian to complain of a war on journalism [however] is extraordinary; it helped to start this war that it’s now falling victim to.
The amazing double standards of the Miranda affair – Brendan O’Neill, SPIKED

They’re calling it CameronPorn. Ahead of David Cameron’s promised UK Government ban on online porn, this new free online porn site promises porn that’s totally safe for work (TSFW)—all the porn you want, except you get to see are the story and plot elements that sit between the usual… action.
New Free Porn Site Promises “100 Per Cent Drama” and no XXX – GIZMODO

And in related news…
This Is How Much Time America Spends On Porn (INFOGRAPHIC) – HUFFINGTON POST

The importance of a Freedom Party. (Public Health Warning: Fast forward past the Neil Diamond introduction!)

“The battle for Kevin Rudd’s Brisbane seat of Griffith took an ominous turn for the prime minister three weeks ago. But he only has himself to blame.”  Kevin joins Kermit and Miss Piggie.
Kevin looks like a bit of a Muppet – Miranda Devine, SMH

Apparently there’s an election over the ditch this weekend. Here’s a pollster. I think.

“Reports of a so-called ‘patent litigation explosion’ today are just wrong.  The percentage of patent lawsuits today are not only consistent with historical patent litigation rates in the nineteenth century, there is actually less litigation today than during some decades in the early nineteenth century.”
The Myth of the “Patent Troll” Litigation Explosion – Adam Mossoff, CENTER FOR THE PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

““We learn from unemployment the true significance of work.”  And that is…
The meaning of work – Don Watkins, LAISSEZ FAIRE 

Remind yourself again about Obama’s and Hillary’s nihilistic mentor’s guide to activism.
Alinsky and his rules for radicals – Steve Kates, CATALLAXY FILES

Why I still love Larson.

This is your future on “renewable energy.”
Germany's Energy Poverty: How Electricity Became a Luxury Good – SPIEGEL

Oops.
Observed Rate of Global Warming Half of What the Models Predict – Ronald Bailey, THE HOCKEY SCHTICK

“The timing couldn’t be worse.  On 23-26 September, scores of representatives of the world’s Environment Ministries are scheduled to meet in Stockholm to wordsmith the final draft of the Summary for Policymakers of the key portion of the Fifth Assessment Report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC)… But the Summary for Policymakers has been sidelined by momentous climate change events that occurred after its March cut-off date – and even after the date the draft was circulated.”
Can The IPCC Do Revolutionary Science? – Barry Brill, WATTS UP WITH THAT

“The full-court press is on. Alarmist scientists, politicians, pressure groups, newspapers, ministers, rabbis and bureaucrats want to ‘stop stalling’ on climate change … before it’s ‘too late’ to prevent ‘catastrophic’ global warming, ‘monster’ storms and rising seas that will ‘inundate our coastal cities.’
    “Anyone dissenting from this ‘call to action’ is a climate change ‘denier’ – a pejorative devised to vilify and silence anyone who rejects this agenda, by linking our views to Holocaust denial. What nonsense.”
Stop Denying Climate Science and ACT! (before people realize it’s a scam) – Paul Dreisser, SOMEWHAT REASONABLE

“Carbon dioxide performs as many miracles for our planet as antibiotics and immunizations have for mankind. That is an amazing feat for a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that represents just 0.04 percent of our atmosphere: the equivalent of just 40 cents out of $1,000 or 1.4 inches on a football field!”
Carbon Dioxide: The Gas of Life - CFACT

What if I could show you that it’s 50 times more expensive to try and STOP climate change than it is to ADAPT to climate change? Well I can, in less than 10 minutes, right here in this video.

“A genius boy whose IQ is higher than Albert Einstein is on his way to possibly winning a Nobel Prize” after struggling through one-size-fits-all state curriculum, and being set free, by home schooling, of public schools’ “special” education programmes...”
Schools put genius child in special ed, tell mom he can't learn. Now he's free, and he's on track to win a Nobel Prize – LIBERTARIAN REPUBLIC

“"What if a poor person gets sick, doesn't have insurance, and can't get friends, family, or charity to pay for treatment?" … If you're a libertarian, you face what-ifs like this all the time.  The point, normally, is to make you say, "Tough luck" and look like a monster.  What puzzles me, though, is why libertarians rarely ask analogous questions.  Like …
Tough Luck – Bryan Caplan, ECON LOG

Are you a “creative, right-brain type”? Do you “learn best visually”? Do you believe every bleeding neuromyth that comes down the pike?
Separating neuromyths from science in education – Tom Bennett, NEW SCIENTIST

“How elite economic professors deal with Bohm-Bawerk: "Well, assume you can turn tractors into bananas one-for-one …"
My Thoughts on Formalism in Economics – Bob Murphy, FREE ADVICE

Interest rates are rising. Who’s losing out?
Rising Interest Rates – KEITH WEINER ECONOMICS

“Never mind price indexes based on the cost of a Big Mac and other such foolishness. There’s reason to think the bedrock economic constant is what it costs an impatient male to get laid.”
Corrected for inflation, have prostitution prices been essentially the same for thousands of years? – THE STRAIGHT DOPE

The economist the Nazis deemed an enemy of the state.
The Economic Philosopher's Outcast: Mises – Steve Marriott, HUFFINGTON POST

“We know how powerful Hitler's propaganda and imagery machine was, seeing it in on the ground in full color in this stunning Life photo series is like a punch in the gut.”
These Color Photos of the Third Reich Are Absolutely Chilling – MOTHERBOARD

Just in time for the America’s Cup.  “The much anticipated—and wildly criticized—San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge finally opened to the public earlier this week. See 42,000 hours of bridge construction compressed to a compact 4-minute time-lapse video below.”

You won’t even need to wear lycra.
Plenty to gain with just seven minutes of pain – THE AGE
HIGH-INTENSITY CIRCUIT TRAINING USING BODY WEIGHT: Maximum Results With Minimal Investment – ACSM’S HEALTH & FITNESS JOURNAL

Contrary to popular belief, sleep is not for the dead, it’s actually a really productive way to spend your time.
What Actually Happens To Your Body When You Fall Asleep – BLISSTREE

The romance of sport: the day an abusive fan was pulled out of the crowd to play a half of professional sport.
The day Harry Redknapp brought a fan on to play for West Ham – GUARDIAN

The key to understanding what makes a person “tick”—yourself, or another—is motivation.
Motivation is Everything – Dr Michael Hurd, DR HURD.COM

No, this is not the place to look for financial advice in the meaning of the Act.
Worst money advice in songs – MONEY.MSN

“Coffee has become recognized as a human necessity. It is no longer a luxury
or an indulgence; it is a corollary of human energy and human efficiency.”
- William H. Ukers, All About Coffee (1922)

The science of what makes coffee great.
How to Make Perfect Coffee – THE ATLANTIC

“Robots will neither be common nor very good in 2014, but they will be in existence….” The great Isaac Asimov predicted what life would be like in 2014 in this 1964 New York Times essay.
Visit to the World's Fair of 2014 – Isaac Asimov, NEW YORK TIMES, 1964

Amanda Palmer, in town tonight (yay!) answers a NZ teen’s question about Miley Cyrus.
Amanda Palmer responds to the Miley Cyrus VMA controversy on Palmerston North station Radio Control – YOUTUBE

A philosopher has fallen.
Allan Gotthelf, Obituary – NEW YORK TIMES

Not every city is a Barcelona, Miami, or Rio.
Sand & The City: The Top 8 Urban Beaches - ARCHITIZER

Philosopher Stephen Hicks, still doing the important work.
Brazilian swimming ethics, then and now

Captain Kirk discovers Miley Cyrus’s video awards performance. Destruction ensues.

It’s AFL finals weekend!*  Watch all four games on Sommet Sports. And take a sneak peek at the 1966, 1980 and 1989 versions of the AFL’s documentary series, The Final Story.

[Hat tips Michael Earley, Neil Miller, Michael Myles Murphy, Capitalism, Rupert Atkinson, Noodle Food, Geek Press, Archinect, Catallaxy Files, Climate Depot, RevSean, TakingHayekSeriously, HuffPost Weird News, Bill Brown, Doug Mataconis, Zac, Geoff Dunbar, The Washington Times, FreeSpeechCoalition, Claire Robbins, Hugo Hackenbush, P Gosselin]

Enjoy your weekend,
and may your best teams win!
PC

PS: Roger Protz says thin lager in New Zealand is under attack - he could not be happier.

PPS: My picks for the first week of finals: Hawthorn over Sydney, Geelong over Fremantle (Go Cats!), Collingwood over Port Adelaide (that was hard to write), and Carlton over Richmond (that was even harder).

PPS: Go Counties!