Friday Morning Ramble: The sandwich-making edition

Tweet of the week:

Runner up:

Nanny’s sense-of-humour bypass continues.
Concern 'end of school year' pranks have gone too far – NEWSTALK ZB

The Wall Street Journal likes NZ’s privatisations, failing however to spot that we haven’t had any.
Privatization Raises Billions in Australia, New Zealand – Gillian Tan, WALL STREET JOURNAL

Great idea!
NZ Taxpayers' Union offers prize to Aucklander with the largest percentage rates increase – TAXPAYERS UNION

Price-fixing,  infrastructure failure, monopolistic clusterfuck--thank goodness government can step in to sort it out. Oh, wait…
Broadband blow-up: Chorus talks 'default event' – NZ HERALD

“Not much of one it would appear.”
What is the case for paid maternity leave? – Paul Walker, ANTI DISMAL

“There have been many ponderous academic writings and dour editorials in the mainstream media lamenting that most people born poor cannot rise in … society anymore. Meanwhile, many poor immigrants arrive here from various parts of Asia, and rise on up the ladder anyway.
The race-hustlers among us – Thomas Sowell, WASHINGTON TIMES

A present from a whistleblower.
My Christmas Present to Christchurch: Twelve Days of Leaks – EQC TRUTHS

The living wage is now being touted as “the level of income necessary to participate in society.” This has more than trivial implications.
Implications of living wage – LINDSAY MITCHELL

“Personal liberty is the purpose of government
--to protect liberty, not to run your personal life.”
- Ron Paul

British website campaign against 50mg drinking limit address all the arguments.
Why 50mg is wrong – 80MG UK

“The market is fine for some things, people will say, but other activities are too important to be left to the market. Or too complicated.”
Privatize Everything – John Stossel, REASON

Not even six months in, and Tony Abbott’s Government already has a budget deficit for this financial year of about $45 billion, a 50 per cent increase on the official estimate during the election. Yes, they’re blaming Labor. Yes, they propose cuts to window-dressing quangoes. “Of course, much of this could be just theatre. There is still no economic narrative coming from the new Government beyond ‘open for business’ and ‘blame Labor’.”
Joe’s huge Budget black hole – MACROBUSINESS

“Government policies are preventing Europe from enjoying the social and economic benefits of immigration.”
How Government Intervention Stifles Immigrants in Europe – Matthew Feeney, REASON

Leonard Peikoff & Yaron Brook, always ahead of the curve. “Topics in this week's @Peikoff podcast include: age-of-consent laws, entrepreneurship, and more…”
Episode 294 – LEONARD PEIKOFF SHOW

Journalists treat politics as a sport, but it’s really a conflict of ideologies with real impact on people.
The Political Debate We Need to Have – Bruce Thornton, DEFINING IDEAS

Q: Why does the NSA listen in to Americans, world leaders and the Pope?
A: Because, in secret, they can.
End runs around the Constitution: The NSA destroys more liberty than it preserves – Andrew Napolitano, FOX NEWS

“Why not just make the MI5 chief the automatic editor-in-chief of all newspapers?” asks Glenn Greenwald.
Spy agency chiefs defend surveillance – GUARDIAN

“The White House says the intelligence community kept them in the dark on the wiretapping of foreign leaders. That's ridiculous.”
Obama's Lame Eavesdropping Excuse – John Prados, HISTORY NEWS NETWORK

Something to think about: “Probably the best news from the Virginia election,” says Robert Tracinski, “is that the Libertarians didn't get the 10 percent of the vote that they needed to ensure automatic inclusion on the ballot. My suggestion is that the Libertarians need to follow Ron Paul's lead and become a faction within the Republican Party—or for those who liked McAuliffe better than Cuccinelli, a faction within the Democratic Party.”
The Real Election Contest – Robert Tracinski, REAL CLEAR POLITICS

Why don’t Marxists care about those millions of dead?
The Left is trying to rehabilitate Karl Marx. Let’s remind them of the millions who died in his name. – Glenn Reynolds, INSTAPUNDIT

“The data doesn’t matter. We’re not basing our recommendations
on the data. We’re basing them on the climate models.”
- Prof. Chris Folland,
Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research

“Climate model projections falsified at 90-95% confidence levels over past 35 years…”
Observations Now Inconsistent with Climate Model Predictions for 25-35 Years; 'Basically, the models don't work' – Patrick Michaels & Chip Knappenberger,  THE HOCKEY SCHTICK

What’s “the one key difference between real scientists and science abusers. Science abusers treat science as an infallible authority to be blindly obeyed by the public. Real scientists treat science as a method to be carefully explained to the public.”
The Church Of Climate Scientology: How Climate Science Became A Religion – Alex Epstein, FORBES

Here’s what evil human’s 12 parts per million CO² contribution to the atmosphere is doing to the climate…
State Of The Climate Report – CACA

Al Bore is now stranded on an Arctic ice floe of shrinking credibility.
Al Gore Still Stranded – Charles Battig, AMERICAN THINKER

“Data released from one of the largest green energy companies, RWE npower renewables, shows that some large scale industrial wind farms are producing enough electricity only to make a few cups of tea at a time.”
A Token Gesture To The Folly Of Green Madness - CACA

“Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the
industrialised civilizations collapse?
Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?”
- Maurice Strong,
founder of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)

A lot of people have been saying that the failed launch of ObamaCare provides lessons about the failure of big government. Let’s get more specific about what those lessons are.
Ten Lessons of ObamaCare – Robert Tracinski, REAL CLEAR MARKETS

American's are schizophrenic about the lessons of ObamaCare failure
Uh, Duh ... and the Shocking Truth about Obamacare - GEORGE REISMAN’S BLOG
Are Americans Looney Tunes? – OBJECTIVIST INDIVIDUALIST

Obama’s Healthcare.Gov guru has all the material necessary for another challenging press conference:

From the Check-Your-Premises Department” “Economics doesn’t justify greed--it fosters & encourages the cultivation of cooperation.”
That Cold-Hearted Discipline: Good economics teaches cooperation and the limits of politics, not greed – F.E.E.

The central bankers’ central bank is 1o0. Economists debate why it still exists.
The Fed at 100 – Gerald O’Driscoll, Lawrence White, Scott Sumner, Jerry Jordan, CATO UNBOUND

“You could even say they are on the way to assuming the role of a ‘Politburo.’”
Central Banks: The True Centers of Political Power – Thorstein Polleit, MISES DAILY

“The incoming Fed Chair is all central planner
Janet Yellen's Fed Has The Makings Of A Potential Disaster – Keith Weiner, FORBES

Well, no one noticed his hand in the air at the time…
Fed's Bullard: Bubbles Are "Blindingly Obvious" – ZERO HEDGE

“We’re at the fourth bubble inflated by the Fed in this century…Now, I think, we have the greatest, mother of all bubbles. There’s no one in the stock market today except drugged up day-traders and robots…This is utterly irrational.”
Stockman: Brace for the mother of all bubbles – MARKET SANITY

This will assuredly end badly.
Prime Minister Abe Calls for Wage-Price Spiral to Create "Virtuous Circle"; Shame Shame – MISH’S TREND ANALYSIS

Want to keep companies honest, make the markets work more efficiently and encourage investors to diversify? Let insiders buy and sell.
Learning to Love Insider Trading – Don Boudreaux, WALL STREET JOURNAL

"I'm buying coz everyone is talking about it..."
Before The Break: Twitter vs FaceBook vs LinkedIn In One Chart – ZERO HEDGE

Surprise, surprise. Another one for the Broken Windows file.
Cash for Clunkers a near-total failure – Steve Eggleston, HOT AIR

“Krugman said in 1997 that Internet would not contribute to employment.
In 2002 he said we needed a housing bubble. In 2012 he argued for an
alien invasion to boost the economy. He also won a Nobel prize.”
- paraphrased from @ScrewedbyState

The basic problem with a centrally dictated education curriculum: when the bureaucrats  make a big mistake, they make it for everybody.
Federal Bureaucrats Declare 'Hunger Games' More Complex Than 'The Grapes of Wrath': The Common Core's absurd new reading guidelines – Elaine Greteman, NEW REPUBLIC

Turns out Descartes was wrong. “A guy with schizophrenia describes how he discriminates between hallucinations and true perceptions." [Hat tip Paul Hsieh]
Schizophrenia, Understanding Delusion, and Buddhist Philosophy – REDDIT

Surprise! Yet another of the founders of 'deconstruction' turns out to have been a truly horrible, immoral human being.
Paul de Man's Many Secrets – Tom Bartlett, THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

“We all know the rhetorical question, ‘Isn’t everyone selfish?’”
Investment and Prudence – Tibor Machan, TIBOR’S SPACE

There are certain burning questions that need answering.
Are people more moral in the morning than in the afternoon? – IMPROBABLE RESEARCH

“Spending money on food, only to throw it away, may be a waste of money. But it is also an indication of something good…”
Now the good news: we waste food – Rob Lyons, SPIKED

Can you correlate the human environment and a lack of freedom? 10 more data points.
The World's 10 Most Polluted Places – SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

Transatlantic weirdness.
30 Non-Americans On The American Norms They Find Weird – THOUGHT CATALOG
Non-British people...What is the weirdest thing about the UK that British people don't realise is weird? – REDDIT

From back when Brits still had a stiff upper lip.

Meanwhile, a Bucharest newspaper's new campaign to encourage today’s Brit tourists out to Romania…

“We in the petrolhead community who also believe in free markets find ourselves in something of a bind… If Australians want locally-built cars, let them be bought voluntarily rather than be paid for through our taxes… Ideological purity [however] is sometimes overruled by sentimental attachment.”
Capitalism Compromised – TIM BLAIR

"The alternative to mutual plunder is the mutual recognition of and respect for individual rights."
America Descends into Mutual Plunder (but Doesn’t Have To) – Ari Armstrong, OBJECTIVE STANDARD

Some people still insist that hunter-gatherers of the Stone Age had much better, more comfortable lives than do people in the industrialised world today.  This is bollocks.
Yes, Even if a Hunter-Gatherer Survived Beyond Age 5, It was Unlikely for Him to Reach Age 60 – Stuart Hayashi, FACEBOOK

This week is the 100th anniversary of the death of Alfred Russel Wallace-co-discoverer with Charles Darwin of natural selection, and a remarkable polymath.
Remembering Alfred Russel Wallace – Craig Leisher, THE NATURE CONSERVANCY

It’s not rocket science.
Early Childhood Educators Hold Key to Children's Communication Skills – SCIENCE DAILY

No, I don’t know what that means either. But I’m not an urban progressive.
How to turn an urban progressive into a libertarian: Regulate the kohlrabi from his CSA – WASHINGTON EXAMINER

“This isn't a question on whether or not you eat unhealthy food, it's a
question of whether we own the government or the government owns us.”
- John Yowan

And just in time for the uni summer holidays!
Enjoy free multimedia courses on many topics within Objectivism at ARI Campus! – AYN RAND CAMPUS

Ayn Rand Myth #217: Ayn Rand was a materialist.
Ayn Rand the Materialist: Resurrecting An Old Smear – Don Watkins, LAISSEZ FAIRE

The fatal conceit of urban planning.
Randal O’Toole on Urban Planning – Randal O’Toole, LIBERTARIANISM.ORG

This is on time you can’t blame the architects. Well, not completely.
This Brutalist Apartment Building Encapsulates the Story of Apartheid – THE ATLANTIC

Remember those fantasy golf courses from a few years back? Somebody built them.
12 Unusually Placed Sports Venues – WORLD GEOGRAPHY

Maybe just for tennis.
Sports Decision Review System: Hawk-Eye or Human Eye? – SCIENCE DAILY

A Nanjing family is about to unveil the $164 million Sifang Art Museum and architecture park, a design fantasyland featuring buildings by world-renowned architects including David Adjaye, Steven Holl and Wang Shu. Form definitely not following function.
For Architecture's Sake – WALL STREET JOURNAL

There’s no insulter like a classical music insulter.
21 of the best insults in classical music – CLASSIC FM (UK)

With or without a cocktail.
Why You Should Always Have Sex On A First Date – ELITE DAILY

Let me leave you with two of Dave Mcartney’s last few unrecorded songs, still stuck in my head after last Saturday night’s tribute show.

[Hat tips Tom Newton Dunn, Andrew Bolt, Garett Jones, TakingHayekSeriously, Tom Nelson, Fiona Hanley, Patrick Moore, Gillian Tan, JWSpry , Ban Collectivism, Jordan Williams, Screwed by State, Glenn Greenwald, Timothy P Carney, Tamela Lewis, Michael Shermer, Catotheyounger, David Buik, John Yowan, ☷♔☰, The IHS, TheObjectiveStandard, I Love Fossil Fuels, F Bastiat, Ayn Rand Center, On Liberty Street]

Thanks for reading,
and have a great weekend.
PC