Friday Morning Ramble–The Weekend After the Week After

Alleged #dirtypolitics by blog overwhelmingly rejected by voters, but drums still beating for censorship of blogs.
Blogs Back on the Agenda – John Drinnan, HERALD

“Cash-strapped, spendthrift council wants to issue its own currency. What could possibly go wrong?” – Bernard Darnton
Citizens could be working for rates – STUFF

And how convenient, just in time to send 800 police out to arrest someone who may or may not have been planning a beheading.
Spooks can monitor all of Aussie net – STUFF

Australia to Legalise Medical Cannabis?
The Federal Government Will Consider A Bill To Legalise Medical Marijuana In Australia Next Month – BUSINESS INSIDER

“When the government regulates a property, it gets inspected once a year. When the customers themselves regulate it, it gets inspected every time someone rents it.”
Regulation of Lodging by the Market Process – THE FREEMAN

P.J. endures several news cycles of the Putin-backed RT News cable channel and reports back.
Up To a Point: Binge Watching Putin's Propaganda Network – P.J. O’Rourke, DAILY BEAST

"They who say all men are equal speak an undoubted truth, if they mean
that all have an equal right to liberty, to their property, and to the
protection of the laws. But they are mistaken if they think men are equal
in their station or employments, since they are not so by their talents."
- Voltaire

“The risks of a deflationary bust are rising.”
Is a Shift in the Austrian "True Money Supply" Pointing to a US Contraction? – CIRCLE BASTIAT

“The great economic disconnect fuelled by the Federal Reserve continues.”
If you had assets before 2008 you’re probably doing fairly well, If you didn’t, well sorry – Nick Sorrentino, AGAINST CRONY CAPITALISM

All their fault?
Where Are All Those Free-Market Economists Who Caused The Financial Crisis? – STEPHEN HICKS, EVERY JOE

Regulatory capture: The Goldman Sachs Edition.
The Goldman Tapes And Why The Delusion Of Macro-Prudential Regulation Means The Next Crash Is Nigh – David Stockman, CONTRA CORNER
Disgruntled Fed Lawyer Blows Whistle on Regulatory Capture – Keith Weiner, FORBES

“…for a regulation to emerge and endure, both the “bootleggers,” who seek to obtain private benefits from the regulation, and the “Baptists,” who seek to serve the public interest, must support the regulation.”
Bootleggers & Baptists: How Economic Forces & Moral Persuasion Interact to Shape Regulatory Politics – CATO

“It appears the ruling elite have finally woken up to the reality in which the rest of the world's laboring populace has been living.”
Is This Why Christine Lagarde Is Suddenly "Quite Worried" About Disconnect Between Market, Economy? – ZERO HEDGE

Thomson Reuters has been predicting Nobel Prizes for the last dozen years, with modest success, and this year names as a potential economics winner Austrian Israel Kirzner, for all his work on the entrepreneurial market process. “My work [says Kirzner] has explored, not the nature of the talents needed for entrepreneurial success, not any guidelines to be followed by would-be successful entrepreneurs, but, instead, the nature of the market process set in motion by the entrepreneurial decisions.”
Israel Kirzner for the Nobel Prize! – Peter Klein, CIRCLE BASTIAT

“Those unfamiliar with the intellectual zeitgeist of the mid-20th century might be unaware of just how radical Mises’s views were at the time, but it’s perhaps safe to say that Mises’s philosophy of laissez-faire was beyond heretical in those days. The “third option” of actually free markets, as opposed to debating how exactly the state should intervene, simply was not an option.”
The Radicalism of Ludwig Von Mises – Ryan McMaken, CIRCLE BASTIAT

“In this context, I think it is a mistake to accept the premise that inequality, per se, is a ‘problem’ needing to be ‘solved,’ and to craft ‘alternative solutions.’”
Why and how we care about inequality – John Cochrane, GRUMPY ECONOMIST

“"Piketty stirs up resentment against the producers and holders of wealth, and then says we need to tax it away to assuage that resentment. Instead, as an economist, he should be explaining why wealth is good and how, in the hands of those who know how to invest it profitably, it leads to prosperity for everyone involved in the economy. Economists know this. They can’t not know it. It is a fundamental principle of their science.
"But Piketty won’t acknowledge it. Why might that be?"
The Banality of a Leftist: Thomas Piketty—Raymond C. Niles, OBJECTIVE STANDARD

"It’s living in a nightmare where the walls just never stop closing in on you."
‘Poor people don’t plan long-term. We’ll just get our hearts broken’ – GUARDIAN

In the wake of Poseidon the People’s Pontificaion March, more about the Pretender and the pretend "consensus":
"CO2 is said to be responsible for global warming that is not occurring, for accelerated sea-level rise that is not occurring, for net glacial and sea ice melt that is not occurring . . . and for increasing extreme weather that is not occurring.”
Leo vs. science: vanishing evidence for climate change – Tom Harris and Bob Carter, NEW YORK POST

Naomi Klein: ".. she admitted that the left really is using global warming as a tool in its campaign against capitalism, and urged leftists to stop denying and trying to hide the fact..."
White House using global warming as a tool against capitalism? – Ron Arnold, CFACT

So, if these were their predictions, huge warming that never happened, why is their “global warming” still a thing?

“The leaden speeches at this year's UN climate summit shows our leaders' gullibility.”
Dreary climate summit was surely their saddest fiasco yet – Christopher Brooker, TELEGRAPH
UN calls for ‘all hands on deck’ to tackle climate change – FOX NEWS

“Americans now face beheadings, gang warfare, Ebola, ISIS and a new war in Syria. It’s natural to assume that the world has gotten more dangerous. But it hasn’t.”
It’s Better Now – John Stossel, CAPITALISM MAGAZINE

"I don't think Mother Earth is fragile. I think Mother Earth is
a wild animal with a lot of potential that we need to harness."
—Alex Epstein, quoted in ‘UN Climate Summit heats up in New York’

"'If there is no God, anything goes.' This popular claim is an eloquent distillation of a deep-rooted false alternative wreaking havoc on human life and happiness.”
Religion vs. Subjectivism: Why Neither Will Do – Craig Biddle, OBJECTIVE STANDARD

"All of that suggests that our Che problem is really a philosophical one. It’s not just that Guevara was an activist who was widely read in the deep thinkers — Jean-Paul Sartre, Bertrand Russell, Friedrich Nietzsche, and of course Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It’s that all of us since Che are battling over the abstract significance of his legacy. What’s true and what’s myth? What ideals and evils are at stake? And, as the fashion battle demonstrates — what’s cool and hip? That is to say, to use philosophers’ labels, that the Che battle is about epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics."
Our Che Guevara Problem – Stephen Hicks, EVERY JOE

The Heidegger problem; another glaring issue about their own that modern philosophers need to address, and haven’t. And won’t. (And can’t?)
Heidegger in Black - Peter E. Gordon, N.Y. REVIEW OF BOOKS

“On his show yesterday, John Oliver asked asked the question, "Why is Ayn Rand still a thing?"  Not only is Ayn Rand still "a thing"—she's more "a thing" than ever. Readers in third-world India are discovering that Rand's novels describe the very dishonesty and corruption that surrounds them.”
Third World Objectivism – Shanu Athiparambath, THE FREEMAN 

“Business is moral because our lives and well-being depend on it, and businesspeople are heroes and moral creators who deserve, not our disdain and criticism, but our thanks.”
Business as a Moral Endeavour – Janna Woiceshyn, CAPITALISM MAGAZINE

“When Yaron Brook and I started working on our book Free Market Revolution, which offers Ayn Rand’s moral defense of capitalism, the idea that capitalism needed a moral defense was virtually unheard of….”
Just What Is a “Moral Case” for Capitalism, Anyway? – Don Watkins, VOICES FOR REASON

“In order to sustain its life, every living species has to
follow a certain course of action required by its nature.”
- Ayn Rand, 'What is Capitalism?'

“Tyranny can't thrive, no matter where in the world it is.”
This Chart Proves Just How Terrified The Chinese Government is Of Hong Kong Right Now – CAPITALISM IS FREEDOM

“Intellectual freedom cannot exist without political freedom; political freedom cannot exist without economic freedom; a free mind and a free market are corollaries.”
Productive vs. Parasitical Societies – Edward Cline, CAPITALISM MAGAZINE

This comic perfectly encapsulates Twitter …

“Today, there is a vigorous and sometimes caustic debate over whether computer software is a patentable invention. … this essay details the historical evolution of computer software and shows how intellectual property (IP) law played a key role in its technological development… Understanding the history of computer software and its evolving protections under the IP laws confirms that software programs today are inventions that, if they are new, useful, nonobvious and properly disclosed in a patent application, are rightly eligible for patent protection.”
A Brief History of Software Patents (and Why They're Valid) – Adam Mossoff, SOCIAL SCIENCES RESEARCH NETWORK [15-page PDF]

“An author chooses if, when, and how to run a “free” promotion, and with what title; a pirate deprives the author of any of those choices about his own work, forcing him to participate in a free distribution scheme, whether he wants to or not, and whether he benefits or not.”
Thoughts About Book Piracy – Robert Bidinotto, VIGILANTE AUTHOR

“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being
overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is a hard business.
If you try it, you’ll be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But
no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.”
- Rudyard Kipling

Virtually unknown, and only partially released in1946, and now finally released in full. Well, almost.
Textbook of Americanism, by Ayn Rand – THE FREEMAN
"Ayn Rand, the Movies, and the Idea of America" -  by Laurie Rice, THE FREEMAN

English teachers and students.
Famous Novelists on Symbolism in Their Work and Whether It Was Intentional – MENTAL FLOSS

How to find out if you have Ebola…

Just what it says on the box. Or should have.
Honest Names for Classic Childhood Games – MEDIUM LARGE

Hipster pop music writers are going classical.
‘Pop belongs to the last century. Classical music is more relevant to the future’ – Paul Morley

And hip painters are going figurative, and representational.
Contemporary Art’s Body Language – John Seed, HYPERALLERGIC

“…it could mark the moment - together with the Lucian Freud exhibition that will be opening shortly at the nearby at the National Portrait Gallery - when figurative art once again starts to become the dominant genre in the contemporary exhibitions.”
Why art has become 'less' – David Hockney, BBC

And at last, it’s official …
Morrissey is a Twat – VIZ

Don’t they make a beautiful couple…

[HT Stephen HIcks, Geek Press, On Liberty Street, Lawrence Reed, Justin Templer, Adam Mossoff, Vicky Bogle, Viz Comic, Paul Litterick, Berend de Boer, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Anoop Verma, Gold Standard Institute, Julian Crawford, Bernard Darnton, Zacly News , Old Whig]

Thanks for reading … and commenting.
Have a great weekend!
PC

PS: And finally, your beer for the weekend …