Friday Afternoon Ramble:

“The basic and crucial political issue of our age is: capitalism versus socialism, or
freedom versus statism. For decades, this issue has been silenced, suppressed, evaded,
and hidden under the foggy, undefined rubber-terms of ‘conservatism’ and ‘liberalism’
which had lost their original meaning and could be stretched to mean all things to all men.
    “The goal of the ‘liberals’—as it emerges from the record of the past decades—was to
smuggle this country into welfare statism by means of single, concrete, specific
measures, enlarging the power of the government a step at a time, never permitting
these steps to be summed up into principles, never permitting their direction to be
identified or the basic issue to be named. Thus statism was to come, not by vote or
by violence, but by slow rot—by a long process of evasion and epistemological corruption,
leading to a fait accompli. (The goal of the ‘conservatives’ was only to retard that process.)”
- Ayn Rand, From ‘Extremism,’ or the Art of Smearing,’ in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

“An independent Electricity Authority report may tell us whether some of the $17m Vector  admitted to spending on lawyers and experts fighting the Commerce Commission’s methodology for price control, could have been better spent on a few sprinklers and engineers.”
NBR covering the right questions on Auckland electricity – STEPHEN FRANKS

“As explained by the great economist Harold Demsetz, the theory of perfect competition is not a theory of competition at all.”
Competition: Real and Mistaken – Don Boudreaux, CAFE HAYEK
Peter Thiel on the Virtues of Monopoly – TRUTH ON THE MARKET

Will the NZ left ever recover from the fact the National Party now embodies all the socialism the public is able to support? 
NZ election 2014 post-mortem – LIBERTY SCOTT

“It is much easier to do to explain your defeat at elections on a conspiracy, rather than on your ideas having been tried and failed time and again.”
How much of the political spectrum is neoliberal (and under the Svengali influence of the Mont Pelerin Society)? – Jim Rose, UTOPIA, YOU ARE STANDING IN IT!

“Self-determination of the manner and means of one's death is an individual’s basic right. But unfortunately politicians follow a dreadful pragmatism, rather than a principled view toward our freedom, so let me provide it.”
Why This Government Urgently Needs to Pick Up Maryan Street’s Euthanasia Bill – Mark Hubbard, LIFE BEHIND THE IRON DRAPE

“The problem of the deserted wife” is what started us down the DPB slippery slope. But check out the size of that problem…
ODT: 100 years ago – LINDSAY MITCHELL

“One tool in the compact cities toolbox is boosting residential densities along arterial roads. It’s a tool that should be used sparingly.”
Hardening Arteries: Intensification and Inner City Congestion – Phil McDermott, CITIES MATTER

“QThere’s a story that charging your phone in your bedroom make you fat.
“A: Yes, there is.
“Q: Why?
“A: Because it looked like a good headline.”
…and to divide the light from the darkness – Thomas Lumley, STATS CHAT

“You ask why I cannot “be more practical about trade.”  My answer is that unconditional support for unconditional free trade is the most practical policy that is practically available…”
Impractical Practicality – Don Boudreaux, CAFE HAYEK

The scientific method in 61 seconds, delivered by the great Richard Feynman:

“Steven Guilbeault of Greenpeace said that anything proved AGW; Guilbeault stated: 'Global warming can mean colder, it can mean drier, it can mean wetter, that's what we're dealing with.'”
Man-made Global Warming Causes everything including a freezing Antarctic – AUSTRALIAN CLIMATE SCEPTICS’ PARTY

“Climate scientists have confessed they are baffled – yet again – by another all-time record area of sea covered by ice around the Antarctic coasts.”
Antarctic ice reaches ALL TIME RECORD HIGH: ‘Climate scientists have confessed themselves baffled’ – THE REGISTER
Antarctic Sea Ice Reaches New Record Maximum – WATTS UP WITH THAT

More bafflement.
September Snow Cover Was Highest On Record In North America – STEVEN GODDARD

“A new paper published in the Open Journal of Atmospheric and Climate Change by renowned professor of physics and expert on spectroscopy Dr. Hermann Harde finds that climate sensitivity to a doubling of CO2 levels is only about 0.43C, about 7 times less than the IPCC claims, but in line with many other published low estimates of climate sensitivity.”
New paper finds climate sensitivity to CO2 is only 0.43C, about 7 times less than the IPCC claims – HOCKEY SCHTICK

“'The scientific reality is that virtually every claim — from A to Z — of the promoters of manmade climate fears is falling short or going in the opposite direction from reality.'”
Climate Truth Fact File: 2014 – CFACT

“Man-made climate change is the only scientific theory where
the people who point to evidence are called deniers and
conspiracy theorists, yet the people who stick to a computer
models that have all failed, are called the ones defending ‘science.’”
- Carbon Dioxide

“The Sceptical Science kidz and Trenberth think that the deep ocean has absorbed all the heat that isn’t showing up in the atmosphere, and that’s [why] we have “the pause”. Well, that’s busted now according to ARGO data and JPL and it has NOT gone into the deep ocean.”
The “heat went to the oceans” excuse and Trenberth’s missing heat is AWOL – deep ocean has not warmed since 2005 – WATTS UP WITH THAT
No, the missing heat isn’t hiding in the deep ocean, either – ANDREW BOLT
New paper is a brazen & unjustified attempt to claim the oceans have warmed 'more than we thought' – HOCKEY SCHTICK

“Now we know why alarmists like to use 1979 instead of 1975 to start their graphs.”
Climate Change LIES – CARBON DIOXIDE

“Temperatures at the Melbourne Regional Office were the hottest ever this past year, with their thermometer located five feet away from the asphalt of Victoria street…”
Melbourne Asphalt Was The Hottest Ever – CLIMATISM

“If you put the government in charge of the Sahara
Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.”
- Milton Friedman

“Climate-change policy does not turn stones into bread. Hoffman’s claims violate both common sense and the peer-reviewed economics literature. Adding restrictions on businesses and households takes away options, and make us poorer.”
Stones Into Bread: False Claims of CO2 Taxation – Robert Murphy, MASTER RESOURCE

“’It’s absurd to rely on economies based on constant growth on a finite planet.’ But, is it?”
Finite Resources and Infinite Growth – Andrew Leach, RESCUING THE FROG
Environmentalism Refuted – George Reisman, MISES DAILY

“But equally there’s no hard limit on how large that economy can become as long as we keep finding new ways of adding value.”
When Physicists Do Economics We Seem Not To Get Economics As The Result – Tim Worstall, FORBES

“’Alienation’ and ‘disadvantage’ simply cannot explain why jihadist Numan Haider tried to kill two Melbourne police officers.”
Costello: the alienation excuse for jihadists won’t wash – ANDREW BOLT

“Now consider the issue of the moment: the fact that some of our sons and daughters are so alienated from this country that they are prepared to cross half the world to take up arms against our values, our allies and our interests. Not just in Syria and Iraq, either. British Muslims have been picked up on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Two were suicide bombers in Gaza….
    “What, then, should we do? We should offer something better. If British identity is systematically derided and traduced, if British history is presented as a hateful chronicle of racism and exploitation, if British patriotism is seen as knuckle-headed, don’t be surprised if many … grope back towards older patriotisms.”
The way to defeat British jihadis is to offer something better – Daniel Hannan, TELEGRAPH

“25-year-old, middle-class teacher who joined ISIS - then fled after seeing horror of beheading.”
The middle-class teacher who joined ISIS - then fled – MAIL ONLINE

“Alberici asked Doureihi specifically whether [Australian groupp] Hizb ut-Tahrir supports Islamic State fighters, not once, not twice… but 16 times!!”
This Is How Not To Answer When Asked “Do You Support Islamic State?” – BUZZFEED

Tammy Bruce – “Gee, I wonder how that happened?”
Satellite photos reveal massive damage at suspected Iran nuke facility – TIMES OF ISRAEL

"Affleck comes off as hostile and dogmatic in his attacks on Harris, and thereby manages to illustrate one of the purposes of the “Islamophobia” trope. Through intimidation and smear tactics, it aims to shut down desperately needed analysis and discussion of the ideas that in fact animate the global jihadist movement."
    Never go full Affleck.
The 'Islamophobia' Smear: Ben Affleck's Failed Takedown of Sam Harris – Elan Journo, VOICES FOR REASON
What Does Ben Affleck’s Defense of Islam Reveal? – Michael Hurd, CAPITALISM MAGAZINE

“Democracy is a great brake, but it is a terrible steering wheel.”
– Guy Herbert

“While the on-going interventions by the Federal Reserve have inflated asset prices, the only real accomplishment has been a widening of the wealth gap between the top 10% of individuals that have dollars invested in the financial markets and everyone else.”
Obama's Economic Recovery In Pictures – ZERO HEDGE

“The reserve currency status of the dollar has cost the United States as many as six million jobs.”
The Rise And Fall And Rise And Fall Of King Dollar, Part 1 – Ralph Benko, COBDEN CENTRE 
The Rise And Fall And Rise And Fall Of King Dollar, Part 2 – Ralph Benko, COBDEN CENTRE

“I don’t mean to burst your bubble, but the leader we’re talking about isn’t the President of the United States.”
Nation’s Leader Rejects Keynesian Economics, Acknowledges that Real Jobs Are Created by the Private Sector – Daniel J. Mitchell, TOWN HALL

“It is impossible to square the concept of velocity of circulation with one simple fact of everyday life: we earn our salaries once and we dispose of it. That’s a constant velocity of roughly one.”
The velocity myth – Alasdair Mcleod, COBDEN CENTRE

“The new accounting rules mandated by the EU’s statistics office, Eurostat, include revenue from illegal activities related to drugs trafficking, prostitution and cigarette smuggling… illegal activities are now the difference between economic growth and economic recession in Europe.”
Presenting the ‘Hookers and Blow’ GDP component for select European economies – Simon Black, SOVEREIGN MAN

“One day he's the king of debasing green pieces of paper, and the next he's talking about gold.”
Is it Alan Greenspan or Alan Goldspan? – ECONOMIC POLICY JOURNAL

“Every student of economic history knows the Austrian tradition had all but died out by the middle of the 20th century, supplanted by Keynesianism and a faith in central planning. Right? Wrong.”
Economic Historians Are Wrong About the Austrian School, Says Israel Kirzner – Stephanie Slade, HIT AND RUN

What really ended the Great Depression?  (Lots of links!)
The Truth About the Great Depression – FREEDOM KEYS

“This. This and more this. Great conversation, and great project!”
Awesome: Austrian Economist Takes on Bestselling College Text, Chapter by Chapter – TOM WOODS

"The term open minded is an invalid package deal, it is used to equate the
thinker with the sceptic and thereby to give sanction to the latter. But the
thinker who actively integrates evidence to arrive at new ideas has nothing
in common with the sceptic who feels free to assert possibilities without
required evidence.... a mind that is open to any possibility regardless of
it's relation to the total context of knowledge is a mind detached from
reality and therefore closed to knowledge."
- David Harriman, The Logical Leap

“Envious people believe they will never be strong, capable or content, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If I had the power to wish away one – just one – faulty aspect of human nature, it would be envy and jealousy. Nothing contributes more to mental illness and general human destruction.”
The Antidote to Envy – DR HURD.COM

“For the first time, scientists have been able to reverse memory loss in Alzheimer patients.”
Memory Loss Associated with Alzheimer’s Reversed for First Time – NEUROSCIENCE NEWS

“‘Addiction’ is something most addicts grow out of.”
Most People With Addiction Simply Grow Out of It: Why Is This Widely Denied? – SUBSTANCE.COM

“As one of my philosophy professors noted: "I have never experienced a mind that was not in close proximity to a brain."”
Proof of Life After Death? Maybe Not. – Ronald Bailey, HIT AND RUN

“An animal liberationist group storms into a restaurant and pleads with people to stop murdering innocent chickens. Go ahead and laugh. But if you think they're wrong, do you know why?”
Do We Need a Declaration of Independence for Chickens? – Michael Hurd, DR HURD.COM

“To stop sweatshops, we shouldn't outlaw them—they're sometimes the only available employment for those who live in poverty. Instead, we should change institutions in order to spur economic growth and lift sweatshop workers out of poverty.”
Cliché #21 – "Capitalism's Sweatshops and Child Labor Cry Out for Government Intervention" – FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION

“No matter how much capitalism develops in the direction of direct worker control and individual sovereignty, reducing the role of large-scale enterprises and monopolies, the socialists still complain with the old bromides of exploitation while calling for government to crack down. So much for revolution. It’s the digital-age capitalists who have recaptured the revolutionary idealism that socialists long ago set aside."
Who's Afraid of the Workers' Revolution? - FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION

““Never think of enemies a moment longer than is necessary to fight them.”
Objectivism and the Amount of Anger – Tony White, PERIPATETIC THOUGHTS

“'There are idiots.'”
First sentences of non-fiction texts: The Top Ten – 3 QUARKS DAILY

This could really help parents...
We Turned Off the TV – HUFFINGTON POST

“A great summary of the most recent studies into outcomes from Montessori education.”
Does it Work? What Research Says About Montessori and Student Outcomes – NATIONAL CENTER FOR MONTESSORI IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

Definitely worth all the fuss!
Craft Beer: What's all the fuss about? – Matthew Martin, NZ HERALD

“Wright first arrived in Japan in 1917 and that same year he met Arata Endo – 27 years old at the time and fresh off the team working on plans to construct Meiji Shrine.”

Introduction to the "only philosophy for living on this earth," in just 10 minutes.... a great value for your time.

The importance of a good wedding photographer.

Post by Hamza Bibi.

[Hat tips Maria Montessori Education Foundation, Anoop Verma, On Liberty Street, Maria Montessori Education Foundation, Lawrence Reed, Montessori Australia, Friends of Kebyar, Carol Potts, Betsy Speicher, Bosch Fawstin, slone, Quotable Right, Stephen Gordon, Rudolf E. Havenstein,  Rick Gator, Feisty☀️Floridian]

Thanks for reading,
Have a great weekend!
PC