A frolicsome February

To give me a gentle start into 2015 blogging – and to help those of you currently enjoying computer and internet  access to catch up with things you might have missed here last year – I’m going to post some of the best posts from each month of last year.

So, today, these were NOT PC’s top few still relevant, or still pointed, posts for February last year…

1. QUOTE OF THE DAY: On the gap between rich and poor
           “The poor are not poor because the rich are rich.
           The two conditions are generally unrelated.”
             - Robert Samuelson, from his article
                “The Poor Aren't Poor Because the Rich Are Rich”
   
2. Just thought you should know
   "Libz Announce Deregistration…
   “At this point I would like to sincerely thank those who helped set up the Libertarianz Party, who stood as candidates, who assisted with election campaigns and all those who voted for us. Over the years it has become obvious that registered party status was not going to be a successful approach for the people involved in libertarian politics in this country. We re now moving on from that. Watch this space!"
   UPDATE: The space is still being watched, if not yet filled…
   
3. Waitangi Day: Something to celebrate
   Oh Galt, it’s Waitangi Week again – and already the hikois of protest and the graspers of the unearned are infesting the place from top to bottom.
       The birth of the best little country in the world is being celebrated – not with the deserved pride of a great achievement – but, once again, with the full cast of cant and lies and humbug. A Waitangi Day of one race, once again – with a Prime Minister, once again, being led up the garden path by the same embittered old crone who shows up for the purpose every year.
       While most of the professional grievance industry can now be found inside the tent pissing out, the regular eruptions of Mt Hone are early warning signs that stuff (beaches, land, “compensation”) isn’t being thrown into the laps of tribal leaders as quickly as the grievance industry would like.
       And even if they were given all they wanted, like Oliver Twistthey’ll still be back asking for more, sir.  Such is the culture to which modern Treatyism has delivered us: one of separatism and race-based welfare—one in which government is the referee in disputes between free individuals, but instead the great, all-encompassing deliverer of goodness. And the Browntable one-percenters to whom the goodness is delivered (in the form of cash and goods and large tracts of the North and South Island) are sparing indeed when handing on the cash and goods and large tracts of land  to the 99-percent whom they claim to represent.
       Which brings us back to the reason for this particularly fractious season…
   
4. Where's my free will?
   I don’t know about you, but when I tune in to the infantile ‘debate’ about obesity – about  who to blame when folk get fat and how ‘someone must do something” (for “someone” read “government,” and for “something” read coercion) – I find it disturbing that fatties and pollies alike find common cause in removing personal responsibility from their respective equations.
       If you're a fat bastard and you don't want to be, how about you stop blaming vending machines, your school, your parents, your genes and just try the 'don't-eat-so-frigging-much' diet. (Do you see many fat starving Africans in famine photos hiding at the back going, "Oh, I've just got big bones"? No? Is that a clue? Sheesh!)
   And if you're a politician, how's about you implementing a self-imposed 'I-won't-poke-my-nose-into-your-business' week, and just leave us and our eating habits alone.
   You see, it's not about victims, it's all about choice -- something you educated people want to remove from our understanding of human affairs.
       Why would you choose to do that?
       You've probably seen me mention a few times Tibor Machan's view on the basic errors made in the 'ongoing' nature/nurture debate (here for instance). As he's just blogged on how this error affects the 'obesity debate,' allow me to quote …
   
5. Tall Poppies, Cyber Bullies, Culture Wars & Antidotes
   It sounds like a joke, but in fact it’s deadly serious. What do a tennis player, two actors and a model-turned TV presenter have in common? The answer is: being cut down from below by the culture.
       The difference between them is how they responded.
       The death of Charlotte Dawson is the immediate reason for asking the question – a death she seems to have chosen in response not just to depression, but to a vicious online hate campaign she could never allow herself to ignore…
   
6. You can’t drive a Toyota with a cloth cap
   If you had a dollar for every time a local unionist or union supporter was heard to say that higher Australian wages are due to greater union militancy (as if all that extra capital Australian workers have to work with were  irrelevant), you’d have enough money to pay all of Matt McCarten’s outstanding debts.
       Sure, unions can push wages high. But sustainable wage levels are generally a function of capital and its productivity – push them higher, and they soon become unsustainable.
       Latest example: Toyota Australia, joining Ford Australia and General Motors Australia on the scrapheap.
       Killed.
       Killed, not just by protectionist businesses (so eager to farm subsidies they forgot their actual bottom lines) and not just by governments keen to pluck a good-looking golden goose (which helped reduce all their profits) but by ongoing and crippling union activism (which helped raise costs beyond what could ever be sustainable).
       And with this, says the Macrobusiness blog,  the Australian disease enters a terminal phase …
   
7. Quote of the Day: On politicking
           “No doubt Boscawen would have been a safe pair of hands. But ACT
           needs something or someone more inspiring to become relevant again.”
             - John Armstrong, in “Act finally does something right”
   
8. Quote of the Day: On Changing the World
           “If you are seriously interested in fighting for a better world, begin by identifying the nature of the  
            problem. The battle is primarily intellectual (philosophical), not political. Politics is the last  
           consequence, the practical implementation, of the fundamental ideas that dominate a given nation's
           culture. You cannot fight or change the consequences without fighting and changing the cause…”
              - Ayn Rand, “What Can One Do?,” from the book Philosophy: Who Needs It