Friday 9 October 2015

Friday Morning Ramble, 09.10.15

“Hanlon’s Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity.”
~ Robert J. Hanlon

Lindsay Perigo likes Fox. [Although Bill O’Lielly is a piece of shit]
Formidable Fox – Lindsay Perigo, SOLO

“If we're tallying the social costs of obesity, what should we make of this one? ‘Obese men make more money than their slimmer counterparts…’”
Obesity and Income – Eric Crampton, OFFSETTING BEHAVIOUR

“The drop in Maori teenage birth is quite phenomenal. Though untested, the Youth Parent Payment reforms must be a factor.”
Bennett's biggest contribution – LINDSAY MITCHELL

“Our idea for flexibly responding to refugee flows: allow private refugee sponsorship.”
Welcoming Refugees – Free Press, SCOOP

“A better option than exclusion would be to restrict migrants’ eligibility for benefits.”
The Case for Open Borders – Bryan Caplan, TIME MAGAZINE

“Suggestions that strong net NZ migration (i.e. strong net immigration) will contribute to the unemployment rate increasing from 5.9% currently to 6.5% over the next year will be music to the ears of the anti-immigration lobby, but the opposite is likely to happen.”
The bullshit meter was set off by one of Westpac's economists – Rodney Dickens, RODNEY’S RAVING [4-page pdf]

“Barring people from carrying guns on campus made it particularly vulnerable to a ‘lone wolf’ attack.”
Strong support for guns in town shocked by college shooting – NZ HERALD

“Residents in Roseburg, Oregon, are rallying around the Second Amendment in the wake of the heinous attack on Umpqua Community College, suggesting the attack itself is proof of why citizens need to be armed for self-defence.”
Roseburg Oregon residents say school shooting shows why citizens must be armed – BREITBART

“Look at it this way. Do you want to live in a world where a violent criminal knows that all the nonviolent, non-criminals out there are disarmed?”
The Massive Ignorance Behind The Guns Cause Crime Agenda – Michael Hurd, CAPITALISM MAGAZINE

“People who go around saying ‘Violence never solved anything!’ should
study the sudden decline of Japanese imperialism in late summer 1945.”

~ Kevin D. Williamson

“Recent events in Syria have demonstrated that when the USA, and with it the Western world, decides to withdraw from being involved in other countries, that others will fill the vacuum.”
Abandoning foreign policy now means Pax Rus - is it what you wanted? – LIBERTY SCOTT

“With Saudi Arabia a critical player in the latest flare up in mid-east violence …  an honest and fresh perspective … into what is really going on in the kingdom was long overdue.”
A Deep Look Inside The Tyrannical Regime In Saudi Arabia – Ali Alyami, CONTRA CORNER

“Opponents of patents [and copyrights] often … say that “real” property rights do not expire, they go on in perpetuity.  Since patents and trademarks [and copyrights] expire after a certain period of time, they cannot be true property rights. To answer this question, it is necessary that examine the nature of property rights more carefully…”
 Can Patents be a True Property Right When They Expire? – Dale Halling, STATE OF INNOVATION

The chairman of the film and television production company South Pacific Pictures refutes suggestions that the extension to copyright under the Trans-Pacific Partnership will stifle creativity.
South Pacific Pictures' John Barnett defends copyright extension in TPP – RADIO NZ

“The idea that a drastically reduced copyright term will “encourage artists to keep creating new work” is probably the most offensively flawed statement too-often made in favour of radical reduction of copyright terms.”
Copyright Doesn’t Restrain Culture – Part II – David Newhoff, THE ILLUSION OF MORE

“Q:’Why do individuals or families (such as the Walton family) need or deserve millions and billions of dollars in personal wealth?’ A: In short, because they earned it.”
All Earned Wealth, No Matter How Big the Fortune, is Deserved Whether ‘Needed’ or Not – Michael LaFerrara, PRINCIPLED PERSPECTIVES

“Depriving patentees of licensing income based on these myths will remove incentives to invest and take risks in developing new technologies.”
Busting Smartphone Patent Licensing Myths – Keith Mallinson, CENTER FOR THE PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

“There is no such dichotomy as “human rights” versus “property
rights.” No human rights can exist without property rights.”

~ Ayn Rand

Yay capitalism!
World's 'extremely poor' to fall below 10% of global population – STUFF

“Just imagine if they tried immodest market liberalism."
Who Really Wants to Solve the Problem of Poverty? – Stephen Hicks, EVERY JOE

“The prevailing social dogma of our time — that economic and other disparities among groups are strange, if not sinister — has set off bitter disputes between those who blame genetic differences and those who blame discrimination.”
Economic Inequality: There is No Economic Determinism Under Capitalism – Thomas Sowell, CAPITALISM MAGAZINE

“Poverty occurs automatically. It is wealth that
must be produced, and must be explained.”

~ Thomas Sowell

DEBATE: Is Inequality Fair:

“There is no way to describe current Federal Reserve policy other than as monetary confusion and misdirection.”
Time to end monetary central planning – Richard Ebeling, COBDEN CENTRE

“Here is the current state of unemployment. In terms of pre-GFC it's not pretty, particular for females.”
Stalled recovery? – LINDSAY MITCHELL

“Our research indicates recession is very real possibility in 2016.”
They Say Recovery, We Say Recession – RUNNYMEDE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT

“It's shaping up to be the crummiest year for U.S. stocks since the implosion of Lehman Brothers.”
Brace for worst year on Wall Street since 2008 – CNN MONEY

Ben Bernanke says the biggest impact of QE was to “create jobs”:

…may change everything about the climate debate, on the eve of the UN climate change conference in Paris next month. A former climate modeller for the Government’s Australian Greenhouse Office, with six degrees in applied mathematics, Dr Evans has unpacked the architecture of the basic climate model which underpins all climate science. He has found that, while the underlying physics of the model is correct, it had been applied incorrectly. He has fixed two errors and the new corrected model finds the climate’s sensitivity to carbon dioxide (CO2) is much lower than was thought.”
Perth electrical engineer’s discovery will change climate change debate – Miranda Devine, NEWS.COM.AU
New Science 1: Pushing the edge of climate research. Back to the new-old way of doing science – Dr David Evans, JO NOVA

Warmist: "the apocalyptic version of climate change no longer works" to motivate people. Crying wolf too much?
Conservationist says apocalyptic views about climate change don't work to change minds – BLOOMBERG

Recycling: as much about the rituals as any other religion, and enforced even on non-believers. And equally ineffective.
Recycling: The Equivalent of Prayer in Urban Religion? – Michael Hurd, LIVING RESOURCES CENTER
The Reign of Recycling – John Tierney, NEW YORK TIMES

“Coal & oil, steam engine, electricity, roads & fertilizer saved more nature than all environmental laws ever written.”
How to strand assets – Ted Nordhaus & Michael Shellenberger, THE BREAKTHOUGH

“Those who argue that the science is "settled," also apply for millions in government
research grants to ... study the settled science further and settle it even further. Go figure.”

~ Vinay Kolhatkar

"It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists.”
Top Scientist Resigns Admitting Global Warming Is A Big Scam –... – YOUR NEWSWIRE

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Dr. Robert Stadler…”
WATCH: Cruz Humiliates Sierra Club Prez at Senate Hearing – PJ MEDIA

“"Think about how many times you hear that 97 percent or some similar figure thrown around. It’s based on crude manipulation propagated by people whose ideological agenda it serves. It is a license to intimidate.
It’s time to revoke that license."
'97% Of Climate Scientists Agree' Is 100% Wrong – Alex Epstein, FORBES

“Despite our deeply rooted prejudices against ‘filthy lucre’, however, money is the
root of most progress….  The ascent of money has been essential to the ascent of
man…. Far from being the work of mere leeches intent on sucking the life’s blood
out of indebted families or gambling with the savings of widows and orphans,
financial innovation has been an indispensable factor in man’s advance from wretched
subsistence to the giddy heights of material prosperity that so many people know today.”

~ from Niall Ferguson’s 2008 The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World

“To understand something, especially something involved in the creation of evil, is to risk offending it. Evil and irrational people are usually quite cranky. You risk offending Nazis by trying to understand what animates such an ideology. The same applies to Islam. If you don’t like this fact, then you’re due to get over it.”
New Research: How Islam is Psychologically Toxic – Michael Hurd, DR HURD.COM

“What may be the world's oldest fragments of the Koran have been found by the University of Birmingham.”
'Oldest' Koran fragments found in Birmingham University – BBC

Theist and atheist have completed their series of articles debating key issues in religion. The full seven-round series is available here …
Theist vs. Atheist – STEPHEN HICKS 

Embedded image permalink

“Achievement Unlocked: 4chan pranksters wage successful hashtag campaign to get feminists to post peed-pants selfies.”
Feminists Fall For #PissForEquality Hoax – LEGAL INSURRECTION

“A real man is a thinker, a wrestler/boxer/physical figher and a reader. Knows guns. Not afraid of emotions, but knows how to control them. Understands objective truth and reality. Principled, but not a narcissist.”
25 Ways to Be a Real Man – AMERICAN THINKER

It's always an adventure with a woman in the passenger seat …

“Persuading laureates they’re winners can be a tough call; ‘it’s not a prank’.”
No, Really, You Won a Nobel Prize – WALL STREET JOURNAL

“I get a text message alerting me that my marijuana delivery will be at my apartment in four minutes.”
Farm-To-Table Weed Exists — & It Comes In A Mason Jar – REFINERY 29

“The sky is no longer the limit.”
Markets Could Take Us to Mars – Chelsea German, ANYTHING PEACEFUL

“Suppose the US Government made the following declaration: ‘The first person to land on Mars, and to live there some specified minimum duration (such as a year), and to return alive owns the entire Red Planet.’”
Mars: Who Should Own It – RON PISATURO

NASA has uploaded the entire catalogue of its 8,4000 Apollo mission photographic archive onto Flickr - with images spanning the Apollo 7 mission (the first manned test flight in 1968) through to Apollo 17, the final lunar mission in 1972 …
NASA gives us free space – THE 1709 BLOG

PS: “I had a pint of fresh 8 Wired HopWired IPA in one hand, a steaming bacon butty in the other, World Cup Rugby was on the big screen, England were getting knocked out of their own tournament and it was quarter to nine in the morning. It Was a Good Day.”
The Hunt for Red October, Rugby and Bacon – Neil Miller, MALTHOUSE BLOG

“The ANZ Bank has come out with the most detailed report on the New Zealand Craft Beer industry ever…”
NZ Craft Beer: Industry Insights – ANZ BANK

“The big brewer's win at the Brewer’s Guild awards is being questioned by some, but the process is transparent.”
Why Lion won top brewery award fair and square – Geoff Griggs, STUFF

“The exercise of drinking beers he often ignored, because they were common, seems to have been educational - if only to see why some beers were worth passing over.”
Find room in your fridge for familiar beers – Jono Galuszka, STUFF

“The interesting observation I made at the time was a lot of feedback from people was “I use to be a beer drinker but I drink wine now because it has a range of flavours.” Now 10 years on I can see a turning tide. The wine drinkers are returning to beer, this time its craft beer. Why? because it offers flavour, and a diverse range of styles.”
Craft Beer VS Wine in New Zealand – LUKE’S BEER

[Hat tips and quips Ayn Rand New Zealand, Stephen Hicks, David Burge, Famous-Quote.net‏, Jesse Colombo, Andrew Wang, Jason Krupp, ACT Party, Bibliophilia, Bjorn Lomborg, Screwed by State, Luke’s Beer]

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