Friday Afternoon Ramble: A Late Edition

Yeah, it’s a bit late today. So shoot me.

Labour and the Greens don't understand why their Capital Gains tax doesn’t  do overseas what they claim it will do here. But they'd implement it anyway.
Capital gains tax not 'panacea' for housing crisis, Labour admits – ROYAL NZ HERALD

“"Ms Devoy may not know that the process of removing race from the laws of a country is actively underway in other countries [including Fiji]. These countries are concerned by the divisions and injustice caused by laws based on race."
Actually, most NZ journalists don’t know it either, going by their reporting of Bainimarama’s visit.
Act's Whyte suggests Fiji as model for ending NZ race laws – ROYAL NZ HERALD
Fiji: Just scratching a living in paradise – NOT PC (2008)

“…the corporate tax rate is the most damaging tax in terms of its negative impact on economic growth and wages.”
Tipping the Scales – Don Brash, FACEBOOK

“Russel Norman could just have been too quick to use the wrong language here but look at this…”
Russel Norman could just have been too quick to use the wrong language here but look at this:
Does Russel Norman want Israel to disappear? – LIBERTY SCOTT

“For once, the word ‘tragedy’ is exactly apt, for tragedies ensue from their protagonists’ choices. The United Kingdom did not need to go to war in 1914. The statesmen of the time weighed the nation’s interests and obligations having no idea of what abominations would follow.”
The real tragedy of the First World War is that we had a choice about whether to fight it – Daniel Hannan, TELEGRAPH

Murderers in the name of Egalitarianism finally given justice.  “It is sad,” says Yaron Brook, “that their Western apologists, like Noam Chomsky, are still well regarded intellectuals in the West, rather than the evil they really are. And people listen to them when they criticise Israel and the US...”
2 Khmer Rouge Leaders Are Convicted in Cambodia – NEW YORK TIMES

Not here it hasn’t.
New York Times Magazine: “Has the ‘Libertarian Moment’ Finally Arrived?” – HIT & RUN
Libertarianism vs. Radical Capitalism – OBJECTIVE STANDARD

“Who will build the roads?” Whoever needs to.
Guess Who Built the Roads? – Matt McAffrey, CIRCLE BASTIAT

Temporary peace. Ask yourself what’s needed for permanence. Ask yourself whom war benefits most?
Will the ceasefire hold? -

A map might help. And some geographical context.
The situation in Gaza explained with a map – PROCHE – ORIENT

“Hamas fires its rockets from densely populated Gaza City, although there is plenty of sparsely populated land on the Gaza strip. (But you already knew this ...)”
Former Professor Highlights a Little-Reported Fact About Gaza and 3 Moral Questions It Raises – IJ REVIEW

"Well over 900 terrorists were killed in Gaza, according to the sources, and the civilian-to-combatant casualty ratio was one of the lowest in recent wars fought by Western armies against guerrilla foes."
Analysis: Hamas - A cruel and cynical enemy – JERUSALEM POST

The strategy.
Captured Hamas Combat Manual Explains Benefits of Human Shields – IDF BLOG
The UN Prevents Peace – Mona Charen, REAL CLEAR POLITICS

The application.
Women and Children First? – Edward Cline, RULE OF REASON
UNRWA School Bombing Was Staged – VODKA PUNDIT

The reactions.
Anti-Semitism Lies Beneath Anti-Israel Bias - KIWIWIT
Hamas and The Left’s Pretense about the Deaths of Innocents in Gaza – Craig Biddle, OBJECTIVE STANDARD

 

 

So, it’s all about land, right?

So, the Jews stole Arab land, right?
"In most cases the lands were acquired." 
- Evidence of Haj Amin al-Husseini, before the Royal Commission, January 12, 1937

So, the Jews took the most fertile land, right?
"I was astonished at what I saw of the Jewish settlements. They have colonised the sand dunes, drawn water from them, and transformed them into a paradise.” 
- King Abdullah, 1946

So, the Jews were always aggressors, right?
The Hope: A Novel, by Herman Wouk – AMAZON
The Glory: A Novel, by Herman Wouk – AMAZON

Radical Muslim, Kazim Hafeez, becomes pro-Israel:

The bottom hasn’t been reached in the Middle East yet.
Iraqi Yazidis stranded on isolated mountaintop begin to die of thirst – WASHINGTON POST
Iraq’s Religious Minorities are Being Slaughtered and ISIS Just Captured the Last Town Giving Them Shelter – DAILY BEAST
10,000 Bodies: Inside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's Crackdown – WALL STREET JOURNAL

Cartels and their farmers complain that marijuana legalisation is hurting their business.
Legal Pot in the US Is Crippling Mexican Cartels – VICE NEWS

“World War II got us out of the Great Depression.” Bullshit it did.
Which Strategy Really Ended the Great Depression? – Burton Folsom, F.E.E.

“Monetary central planning is failing to achieve Keynesian “escape velocity” because it has deeply impaired the engines of capitalist enterprise.”
The Financialization Of American Business: How Cheap Debt Fuels The Bubble, Not Growth – David Stockman, ZERO HEDGE

“Low interest rates combined with high-risk fractional reserve banking creates a powder keg on which we’re sitting today. It’s a government- and central bank-created problem, but capitalism gets the blame.”
Confusing Capitalism with Fractional Reserve Banking – MISES DAILY

“"...So the one major success story among developed countries has achieved its success by doing essentially the exact opposite of what progressives want. Germany has no minimum wage, reduced its incentives to live off welfare, and has a level of wage inequality that is increasing even faster than in the US.”
German success is surprisingly recent – Scott Sumner ECON LOG

Armen Alchian explores “the many unanticipated consequences of self-seeking individual behaviour.”

“He lived over 2,300 years ago giving us the rules of logic, reason and definition yet this knowledge is being taught hardly anywhere today.”
Aristotle for the Twenty-First Century – Michael Hurd, DR HURD.COM

So there’s a natural question: Is there something wrong with modern philosophers?
 Are Philosophers Stupid About Politics? – Stephen Hicks, EVERY JOE

“…viewpoints from credible experts; not self-proclaimed nutritionists!”
The dangers of Paleo dieting – STUFF

Jazz didn’t start quite the way we thought it did.
Hogan Jazz Archive director Bruce Raeburn explores a Storyville myth at Satchmo Summerfest – TIMES –PICAYUNE

The AFL International Cup 14 is proof you don't need to have grown up in Australia to have fallen in love with AFL football.
International passion for Australian football – AFL.COM.AU

From the Archives: How Epic Armageddon got named .. and how brewer Luke Nicholas "taps" a world-famous beer writer from "time to time"?

Best car ever, the Shelby Cobra?

Or one of these beauties?

[Hat tips Stephen Berry, Linda Kimpton, Paul Blair, FinnyQuac, seven2521, Liberty Ideals, Pat Peters, Ph.D., Binyamin Appelbaum, Mariam Veiszadeh, Leon Bertrand, Reason Magazine, Yaron Brook, Classic Cars magazine, Per-Olof Samuelsson, Against Crony Capitalism, Jazz on the Tube,  Jeff Perren Novelist, Justin Templer, Neil Wilson, Carbon Dioxide, AFL International Cup, Michael Neibel, Studio Rubix, David Seymour]

Thanks for reading,
Have a great weekend!
PC