Not PC: Friday Afternoon Ramble: The State of Disunion Edition

Friday, 31 January 2014

Friday Afternoon Ramble: The State of Disunion Edition

America, and half of what was once the free world, shut down last night to listen to a bloke talk nonsense.

“… I used to fume and fume about our latter-day Speech from the Throne, but lately I’m no longer sure it’s worth the bother. For the speech to be worth getting worked up about, somebody would have to be listening.”
The State of the Union Is…Irrelevant – Gene Healy, CATO AT LIBERTY

“President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday wasn’t what I wanted to hear. This is what the president should have said.”
Re-state of the Union: What Obama Should Have Said – John Stossel, CAPITALISM MAGAZINE

“President Obama's State of the Union speech tonight is said to be focused on "income inequality” …
Today's State of the Union—The Fulfillment of Obama's Promise to "Fundamentally Transform America": The Legitimization of Freeloading – PRINCIPLED PERSPECTIVE

“’And when our children’s children look us in the eye,’ said President Obama in his State of the Union address, ‘and ask if we did all we could to leave them a safer, more stable world, with new sources of energy, I want us to be able to say yes, we did.’
“I do, too. But the way to do this is the exact opposite of Obama’s prescribed policies…”
The State of Obama's Energy Thinking – Alex Epstein, FORBES

At least Obama’s supporters know their real enemy, even if Obama’s enemies don’t.
Pick up those Ayn Rand books – VOICE OF REASON

“We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the
stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while
the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the
darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.”
- Ayn Rand

See. Cameron Slater can think when he wants to.
About Fiji's new constitution, and the new era that is dawning – Cameron Slater, WHALE OIL
Just scratching a living in paradise – NOT PC, 2008

So the so-called “living wage” trumpeted by NZ’s so-called “social justice” campaigners is based on, what exactly? Looks like the ability to have Sky TV, computers, overseas travel…
Waldegrave on living wage – David Farrar, KIWIBLOG

This is absolutely true, Sam. But you don’t find it odd coming from a politician?
Pacific people need to bring back entrepreneurial spirit – Sam Lotu-Iiga, NZ HERALD

Swanson Primary School is world-famous, for all the right reasons.
Bring back “british bulldog” and reduce bullying – CATALLAXY FILES

Gulags? What gulags?

The one concept you need to grasp to understand the failure of asset sales, the failure to recover, the lack of inflation, the failure of bank lending …
Adam Smith and Robert Higgs: Essentials for Understanding Today’s Retarded Recovery – CIRCLE BASTIAT

Malinvestment alert: An example of America’s future, said Obama when he opened it. And so it is. “Intel has confirmed it is leaving vacant a massive new multibillion-dollar computer-chip factory in Chandler that President Barack Obama once touted as a symbol of the future of U.S. manufacturing.”
Intel says factory to stay shut for now – AZ CENTRAL

“Free our markets!” says John Stossel in this 40-minute special.

“The only thing that makes Bitcoins temporarily valuable is the belief that someone else will accept them in exchange. In essence, Bitcoin is a like an even crappier fiat currency.”
Why Bitcoins Will Go To Zero, but Gold Will Not – Doug Reich, RATIONAL CAPITALIST

“..the best single-volume introduction to Hayek’s thought, if you are going to buy or read only one.”
F.A. Hayek, *The Market and Other Orders* – Tyler Cowen, MARGINAL REVOLUTION

He’s stepping down. Read it and weep.
Bernanke's Highlight Reel – ECONOMIC POLICY JOURNAL

“A first-class summary of the rise and fall of Michael Mann's bogus Hockey Stick graph, and the Mann-made global warming alarm along with it..”
The rise and fall of the Hockey Stick and Mann-made global warming alarm – THE HOCKEY SCHTICK

True story. (Someone tell the media.)
Shock news : Australia Has Always Had Heatwaves - CACA

Morality always trumps practicality: The Heilbroner Edition. “Socialism is widely recognized to have been a practical failure, but we still have a huge number of socialist-friendly individuals. Free-market capitalism, by contrast, is widely recognized to have been a practical success, but we still have a huge number of hostile-to-capitalism individuals. That indicates to me that beliefs about morality are driving the debate more than are beliefs about practicality.”
Robert Heilbroner on socialism’s mandatory labour – STEPHEN HICKS

The People’s Hero?
4 Things You Didn't (Want To) Know About Fidel Castro – THE BACKBENCHER

“’By almost any measure, the world is a better than it has ever been,’ begins the 2014 annual letter of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, written by Bill Gates…
Bill Gates Explains How World Is Getting More Awesome and Less Poor – HIT & RUN

“Intellectuals’ obsession with income statistics — calling envy ‘social justice’ — ignores vast differences in productivity that are far more fundamental to everyone’s well-being.”
The Inequality Bogeyman – Thomas Sowell, CAPITALISM MAGAZINE

“Contrary to popular opinion, it’s time to spare a kind word and thought for the blessings that patent trolls bring to our nation and to our prosperity. No, this is not Jonathan Swift’s ‘A Modest Proposal.’”
Thank Heavens For Those Patent Trolls – FORBES

How to succeed?
Be a Cocky Little Nobody – Ricky Gervais, TIME

“Here's how the drug war inflicts far more harm than drug abuse.”
Drugs vs. the drug war: A response to Michael Gerson – WASHINGTON POST

Why Isaac Newton is not Neils Bohr…
Newton Is Not “Bohr”-ing – David Harriman, THE LOGICAL LEAP

“MYTH No. 3: Poverty, not teacher quality, is the root of America’s educational woes… “
The Myths of School Vouchers, Then and Now – Casey Given, THE FREEMAN

Hal Gregerson studies innovators. Guess what he discovered: “… in about one-third of the cases they [grew up] at Montessori or Montessori-like schools.”
The Innovator’s DNA — and Montessori education – STEPHEN HICKS

“A reader asks, ‘What happens if a client you see for therapy doesn’t agree with you on politics?’ Psychotherapy isn’t about politics. So there’s no need to ever discuss it, not in therapy.” However…
Politics and Psychotherapy – Dr Michael Hurd, DR HURD.COM

Another true story.
How Scientists Recorded the Music Inside One Woman's Head – SMITHSONIAN

“There is an old view of Robert Frost as a talented simpleton—but his letters reveal the deep intelligence behind his poetry.”
The sound of sense: Clive James on Robert Frost – PROSPECT

It’s not just the spelling, you know.
The Difference Between American and British Humour – Ricky Gervais, TIME

And Australian?
23 Uniquely Australian Status Updates – JEOBOX

Yep, that young Horowitz could play, all right.

‘Recycled’ music, from the Landfill Harmonic Orchestra.

Claudio Abbado, one of history’s finest conductors ever, has died, aged 80. Here he was in 2004, with the loveliest piece of Mahler you will ever hear.