Friday Morning Ramble

"Freedom is not a permission granted by any Authority. Freedom is a fact.
Whether or not this fact is known, freedom is in the nature of every living
person, as gravitation is in the nature of this planet. Life is energy; liberty
is the individual control of human life-energy. It can not be separated from
life. Liberty is inalienable; as I can not transfer my life to anyone else, I can
not transfer my liberty, my control of my life- energy, to anyone else."
~ Rose Wilder Lane in The Discovery of Freedom

May your overlords make you truly thankful.
'Government isn't going to limit the number of cats people can own' – NZ HERALD

But we already knew that.
Anthony Horowitz: why Auckland is worth flying 25 hours for

A healthy trend.
Australian Rich Listers spur awe, not envy – NZ HERALD

“It seems to me that investigative journalism is now dead in main-stream media.”
Thought for the Day, 1 June 2915 – Phil Scott, FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH

A brave woman has left us. Her argument has not. “Lecretia Seales, the 42-year-old Wellington lawyer with terminal brain cancer, died of natural causes at 12.35am this morning.”
RIP Lecretia Seales – KIWIBLOG

"An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.
It will succeed where diplomatic management would fail; neither the
Rhine, the Channel, nor the ocean can arrest its progress; it will march
on the horizon of the world, and it will conquer."
~ Thomas Paine

“Its revolutionary impact still resounds today.”
Magna Carta: Eight Centuries of Liberty – Daniel Hannan, WALL STREET JOURNAL

“Labour unions' biggest secret is that they're actually designed to create unemployment.”
Labour Unions Create Unemployment: It’s a Feature, Not a Bug – F.E.E.

“Yesterday the Heritage Foundation released a series of essays on “Saving Internet Freedom” -- an excellent reference work answering claims the Internet requires new and intrusive government regulation.”
New Heritage Foundation Publication on Saving Internet Freedom – Alden Abbott, TRUTH ON THE MARKET

“There is no ‘silver bullet.’ Curtailing online infringement will require a combination of litigation tools, technology, enhanced private-sector initiatives, public education, and continuing development of readily accessible and legally available content offerings. As the Internet continues to develop, the best approach to protecting copyright in the online environment is to rely on existing legal tools, enhanced cooperation among Internet stakeholders, and business innovations that lessen incentives to infringe.”
Copyright and the Internet: Getting the Balance Right  – Alden Abbott, TRUTH ON THE MARKET

“Cutting off your penis is wrong.
Cutting off part of your penis is God's plan, though.”
- Monica Beth

"This gives a whole new meaning to 'blowing up' on social media."
Terrorist ‘moron’ reveals ISIS HQ in online selfie, U.S. Air Force promptly destroys compound - WASHINGTON TIMES

Strangely, charity so often appears to begin at the charity’s own home.
How the Red Cross Raised Half a Billion Dollars for Haiti ­and Built Six Homes – PRO PUBLICA

As it did with FIFA.
Sepp Blatter's Exit Visa & the Forgotten Victims of the FIFA Machine – EQUAL TIMES

“The 2022 FIFA World Cup will be held in a graveyard. Already an estimated 1200 workers have died building Qatar’s World Cup stadiums and associated infrastructure. This number is expected to rise to 4000 over the next seven years. Basically a worker a day.”
The killing fields of the Qatar World Cup – THE ROAR

Irony alert:
Q: “What happens when you draw the undrawable for a magazine issue about "Saying the unsayable"?”
A: Islam.
Drawing the Undrawable: An Explanation from Neil & Amanda – AMANDA PALMER.NET

Big Government... confiscating 5% of our weapons and 95% of our water bottles.
TSA failed to detect weapons 95 percent of the time in security sting – THE VERGE

“These are quotes from the editor of The Lancet, the premier medical journal in the world … ‘much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue’.”
“Science has taken a turn towards darkness” – LAW OF MARKETS

Ahem… “Science journalism (or science) has a problem.”
Round up on the chocolate hoax – Thomas Lumley, STATS CHAT

“…unlike his peers, he refuses to appease the climate change alarmists who attack Big Oil.”
Kudos to Exxon CEO for not appeasing climate alarmists – Jana Woiceshyn, HOW TO BE PROFITABLE & MORAL

“Reducing energy poverty means reducing energy costs.”
The Poor Need Affordable Energy – Iain Murray, F.E.E.

“Only socialism could take an oil-rich nation and turn it into one where people wait in line for hours for survival rations.”
Socialist “Justice” – John Stossel, CAPITALISM MAGAZINE

“It is hard to believe that in these allegedly enlightened times this question even needs to be asked.
From Whence Cometh Our Wealth—–The People’s Labour Or The Fed’s Printing Press? – David Stockman, CONTRA CORNER

Capital is made in the mind, not in the workshop.
The Structure of Capital – Gene Callahan, MISES DAILY

“Almost all of our economic measures are incompetent if the aim is to understand present economic conditions and current trends. But there is no disguising this one. A contraction in economic activity is not part of the story of an economy in recovery.”
“U.S. economy likely shrank in quarter one, but fundamentals strong” – Steven Kates, LAW OF MARKETS

Now, don’t pretend you’re surprised.
BREAKING: Greece Will Not Make Payment Due Tomorrow – ECONOMIC POLICY JOURNAL
For Greece, This Is What Hell Looks Like – ZERO HEDGE

The central topic in all of economics -- and all yours for just 99 cents!
Production Versus Consumption – George Reisman, SOLO

Human creativity and increasing CO2 have done more for famine than Bob Bloody Geldof ever did.
Human Creativity Increases the Economic Size of the World’s Arable Land – Don Boudreaux, CAFE HAYEK
Terrible news for climate catastrophists: the Sahara is getting greener – James Delingpole, TELEGRAPH

22 good reasons not to believe the statements made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
22 Very Inconvenient Climate Truths – WATTS UP WITH THAT

“Well, actually, yes it is.”
It’s not my fault, says Bernanke – Steven Kates, LAW OF MARKETS

“What does Pavlov's dog have to do with monetary policy?”
Goebbelnomics – Paper propaganda – BAWERK.NET

Their economic prophecies were way off. Their economic performance worse.
The Federal Reserve: Promises vs Track Record – Thomas Sowell, CAPITALISM MAGAZINE
Six Major Flaws in the Fed’s Models – MONEY MORNING AUSTRALIA

“Then say "good-bye" to our bubble-driven economic recovery.”
Rate hike needed to pop bubbles - Robert Shiller, YAHOO NEWS

“Anyone who says that economic security is a human right, has been
too much babied. While he babbles, other men are risking and losing
their lives to protect him. They are fighting the sea, fighting the land,
fighting diseases and insects and weather and space and time, for him,
while he chatters that all men have a right to security … ”
- Rose Wilder Lane in The Discovery of Freedom

Ayn Rand associate Harry Binswanger has a new blog with a unique view: Value for Value. Check it out:

• The Dollar and the Gun – VALUE FOR VALUE
• Altruism and economics – VALUE FOR VALUE
• Altruism versus Google – VALUE FOR VALUE

And on that last one …
All the Cool Stuff Google Just Announced, Ranked by Coolness – SLATE

Fill your boots up!
Essential books about liberty available for free distribution, translation – ATLAS NETWORK

“Jeremy Clarkson says his sacking was his "own silly fault" and reveals he could return to the BBC.”
Jeremy Clarkson: getting sacked from Top Gear 'was my own silly fault' – TELEGRAPH

“In my work with parents, I often find myself explaining that the ‘evidence’ we see (observable behaviour) is only the end-point of a whole process – and that the child’s development is a long way ahead of this observable evidence.”
Scientific evidence for the sensitive periods that Montessori observed – MONTESSORITOI

“Alison Gopnik finds that the process used by little babies to figure out the world has much in common with scientific experiments.”
How 1-Year-Olds Figure Out the World – Alison Gopnik, WALL STREET JOURNAL

See: science!
The best place to put your router, according to physics – MASHABLE

Oh, by the way…
That Fancy New Solar Bike Path In Amsterdam Is Utter Bullshit – JALOPNIK

"The avowal of socialist ideas is today the proof of a complete
ignorance of the basic problems of economics. The socialist’s claims
are as vain as those of the astrologers and the magicians."
~ Ludwig von Mises, from Planned Chaos

But didn’t atheism cause communism?

This should be fun to watch: Objectivist philosopher Stephen Hicks debating theologist John C. Wright over several weeks. “A series of back-and-forth articles on key issues to begin on Friday, June 5, 2015 (US time). Our first question will be: Is Religion Worth Arguing About?”"
New debate series on Religion, True or False? – STEPHEN HICKS

Woman the heroine.
Meet Margaret Hamilton, the badass '60s programmer who saved the moon landing – VOX

“The distinctive principle of Western social philosophy is individualism.”
Liberty & Property – Ludwig Von Mises, CAPITALISM MAGAZINE

"Tell us how many people you’ve slept with. Our calculator will tell you if that's a lot."
Is Your Sexual History As Impressive As You Think? – SLATE

So what’s wrong with small and inexpensive?
Congratulations to the Winners: The Smallest Coolest Homes of 2015! – APARTMENT THERAPY

[Hat tips Luke Locke, The Leighton Smith Show, Anoop Verma, Isabel, Jesse Colombo, Jack, Geek Press, Felix Mueller, Architizer, Steve Wrathall, Monica Beth, Paul Litterick', John Stossel, Maria Montessori Education Foundation]

Have a great weekend!
Cheers
PC