Friday Morning Ramble, after a bad week …

“The heartbreakingly simple front page of today's Irish Examiner” ~ Super Rugby

“If this tax is really about levelling the playing field for local businesses, and not just another revenue grab, then National should have no problems offsetting the cost of this tax through tax cuts elsewhere.” ~ David Seymour
GST to go on digital goods – STUFF

The latest Dirty Politics stories in 140 words.
Shorter Ng/Rachinger/Slater/Key – DIM POST

“While ‘dirty politics’ Lusk style will never disappear altogether I think his influence is over-rated (by himself), and with increasing sunlight on murky political dealings politicians with a view to future prospects will be more wary of doing business with the politically toxic.”
Story on the Lusk for power – YOUR NZ

“The way to boost web traffic is to” not suck?
Anatomy of a Corporate Disaster – Inside Weldon and Glucina’s Gossip Site Scout – Duncan Grieve, THE SPINOFF

Yes. Yes they are.
Helmets 'a barrier to spread of cycling' – THE AGE

“Over the last few days, one of the most important books I have read in a long time has become available. It is called One Treaty One Nation, and was written by eight authors from a wide variety of political backgrounds – National, Labour, Greens, NZ First, ACT and Libertarians, indeed from every significant political party in New Zealand with the single exception of the Maori Party …
Don Brash on One Treaty, One Nation – FACEBOOK

“Tuhoe chief executive Kirsti Luke said a majority of Tuhoe people in that area were on benefits, and tribal leader Tamati Kruger said the iwi aimed to change that. "We are declaring war on dependency," Mr Kruger said.” Hopefully, with their own money.
"...being a beneficiary is a type of servitude" – LINDSAY MITCHELL

How Special Housing Areas frequently work in practice – UK edition.
The last woman left on a derelict street – BBC NEWS

“This was not an "attack on all humanity." It was an attack on Western liberal values. And it wasn't an attack on "the universal values we share," since there are in fact few universal values that humanity shares. If humanity shared universal values, there wouldn't be wars, or hundreds of millions of subjugated women, or theocratic and secular tyrannies.”
The Left and the Attack on Paris – Dennis Prager, TOWN HALL

“Please pay attention to the recurrent shrieks of Allahu Akbar. This is the cat call from the Middle Ages, or from Middle Earth, that we will have to live with for the rest of our lives. So this fight against Jihadism — this is a generational fight. This is something we are doing for our children, ultimately, and for our children’s children.
”We have a war of ideas that we have to wage, and win, and unfortunately we have to wage it and win it with ourselves first.”
The Meaning of the Paris Attacks – Sam Harris, THE BULLY PULPIT

“War is hell, and war is bad. But when someone declares war on you, there are two choices: Roll over and die, or fight back. To advocate fighting back is not to confess a love of war; it’s to embrace a love of life.”
Are Americans Willing to Die for Political Correctness? – Michael Hurd, LIVING RESOURCES CENTER

“Yes, Maajid Nawaz came up with the Voldemort Effect.” ~ Robert Tracinski
Why Not Calling ISIS “Islamic” Hurts Muslim Reformers – Maajid Nawaz, THE BULLY PULPIT

“Officials are again pointing to the need for mass surveillance to take down terrorists. Here’s what we know about how well it works… ‘Putting more hay in the hay stack just makes it harder to find the needles.’”
What’s the Evidence Mass Surveillance Works? Not Much – Lauren Kirchner, PROPUBLICA
Metadata Surveillance Didn’t Stop the Paris Attacks. Intelligence Officials Want More of It Anyway. – SLATE

Two Irish bands, one with balls …
Paris attacks: Punk heroes Stiff Little Fingers vow to play concert in the French capital – BELFAST TELEGRAPH
Cancelling Paris Concerts After Attacks Was the Biggest Mistake of U2's Career – OBSERVER

“’Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword’ (Matthew 10:34).
One of the great achievements the United States was to separate religion and state or said another way ‘ethical philosophy and political philosophy’.”
How to Tame Religious Terrorists – Stephen Hicks, EVERY JOE

“Here's what a rearguard action must consist of, at minimum, if it is to have any hope of being effective…”
Six Steps (Non-Exhaustive) toward the Saving of Western Civilisation – Lindsay Perigo, SOLO

Also: Starving the recruitment network.
Anonymous Takes Down 5,500 ISIS Accounts After ISIS Calls Them "Idiots" – ANON.HQ

Also: “The fight for free speech has been key to the historic struggle that has brought humanity from the caves to something approaching civilisation. It is how we decide what we believe to be the truth. That is why the freedom to question everything has been central to the advance of everything from scientific progress to political democracy. Today we need it more than ever.”
Free speech: our best weapon in the war for the west – Mick Hume, SPIKED

Also: “Allowing people to proactively respond to threats has always been a better idea that trying to anticipate what assailants might consider to be an easy target.”
Armed Citizens May Be the Solution to Terrorism, Says Interpol Secretary General – HIT & RUN

Q: What were the circumstances that led to the rise of Islam in C7th? A: War, Plague, Economic Collapse.

 

Also: “The defectors provide unique insight into life in the Islamic State,” the report says. “But their stories can also be used as a potentially powerful tool in the fight against it. The defectors’ very existence shatters the image of unity and determination that I.S. seeks to convey.”
ISIS Defectors Reveal Disillusionment – NY TIMES

Also: “They’re drawn to the movement for reasons that have little to do with belief in extremist Islam… a detailed, or even superficial, knowledge of Islam isn’t necessarily relevant to the ideal of fighting for an Islamic State, as we have seen from the Amazon order of Islam for Dummies by one British fighter bound for ISIS.”
What I Discovered From Interviewing Imprisoned ISIS Fighters – Lydia Wilson. THE NATION

“ISIS will hit the same wall as Al Qaeda: Globalized terrorism is no more effective, strategically, than conducting aerial bombings without forces on the ground. Much like Al Qaeda, ISIS has no support among the Muslim people living in Europe. It recruits only at the margins.”
The Attacks in Paris Reveal the Strategic Limits of ISIS – Olivier Roy, NY TIMES

“Belief in a cruel God
makes a cruel man.” 
~ Thomas Paine

“In the wake of the horrific atrocities in Paris, France, committed by Islam's heroes, the Jihadists, ‘Moderate Muslims’ are running over the dead bodies of Islam's victims to tell us how peaceful Islam is, and they're attempting to "prove" it by quoting from the Koran.”
Countering the Immoderate Lies of "Moderate Muslims" – BOSCH FAWSTIN

“We infidels are only just beginning to understand the flexibility of the Koran. There is a ready-made  verse for every occasion – to prove the peacefulness of Islam or, more frequently, to proclaim the wrath and terrible vengeance of Allah to be visited on idolators and kafirs (despised unbelievers).”
Slaughter by Koranic Command – Roger Franklin, QUADRANT

“There is currently no word to describe someone who manifests ... ‘an irrational fear of honestly and openly discussing Islam.’ The current usage of the term "ISLAMOPHOBIA" has no redeeming features.”
Sign my Petition: That ISLAMOPHOBIA be defined as "An irrational fear of openly and honestly discussing Islam"’ – Prodos Marinakis, CHANGE.ORG

“To be critical of Islamism, to be critical of the beliefs and principles of those determined to destroy the ‘camp of kufr’, and to start asserting and defending the values still manifest in Western society, has nothing to do with persecuting Muslims, or rendering Islam unacceptable.”
After Paris: the myth of Islamophobia – Tim Black, SPIKED

“The ‘kill us, we deserve it’ school of political analysis after Paris.” ~ Josie Pagani
Jeremy Corbyn isn’t anti-war. He’s just anti-West – Nick Cohen , SPECTATOR

“Refugees weaken the Islamic State, and they are less likely to commit terrorism than other immigrants or even Americans.”
6 Reasons to Welcome Refugees after Paris – David Bier, FEE

“Evil on its own is impotent. Evil can only achieve its values through the actions of others—by that which we let evil-doers extort from us.Never has this underlying impotence been more true of any ideology than Islam.”
And, into that vacuum stepped Islam … – NOT PC
Are we all Parisians today? – NOT PC
Post-Paris: More writing & talking – NOT PC

““All of the other suspects in the Paris attacks appear to have been European citizens. In fact, large numbers of citizens from France, Britain and other Western nations have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight, suggesting that the problem is not so much those coming from over there but those who are already here. Nor are these people necessarily the ones with familial links to the Islamic world: There have been a number of European converts to Islam who have travelled to join the Islamic State, and vast numbers of European Muslims have repeatedly condemned the actions of the Islamic State.”
The Islamic State wants you to hate refugees – WASHINGTON POST

“The “foreign policy as master key” people will have to explain to me why so many of the perpetrators in French terrorist attacks are not only European-born, but have backgrounds in Algeria or even Morocco, as in the case of the tentatively identified mastermind of the latest assault. These young people may come from families that have historic grievances against the French Republic, but there are no American drones raining death down on to Casablanca. “Blowback” seems like a badly incomplete explanation…”
Colby Cosh: After Paris, are we sure the map that needs changing is in the Middle East? – Colby Cosh, NATIONAL POST

“The vetting has served us relatively well so far, too: There have been no vetted refugees in the United States who have gone on to become terrorists.”
We Should Welcome Syrian Refugees – Jason, Kuznicki, ORDINARY TIMES

“Very few of the 11.8 million Syrians who have fled their homes during the current conflict are now in Europe.”
Reality check: Number of displaced Syrians in Europe – AL JAZEERA

"Perceptions can easily run ahead of reality, however…. And European publics wildly overestimate the proportion of their populations that is Muslim.”
Daily Chart: Islam in Europe – ECONOMIST

“But as many [Europeans] are slowly realising … the threat comes not from Muslim immigration: the threat is homegrown. …”
Home-grown horror – NOT PC

“Once it has been established that this implicit right [by nation states, instead of the entire EU, to protect their borders] can be used and the basic boundaries inside of Europe are the old European borders, we have entered a new Europe, or rather the old one.”
Paris, Sharm el-Sheikh, and the Resurrection of Old Europe – George Friedman/John Mauldin, OUTSIDE THE BOX

“For all the individuals protesting the Syrian refugee crisis, if you are using an Apple product to mount your protest, please stop.” ~ Rick Wilmes
Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian refugee – DAILY NEWS BIN

“From here Rockwell continues to elaborate on an argument whose basic assumptions are — I say without equivocation — mind-numbingly stupid… The fact that these two are so desperate for a pretext, any pretext at all, for excluding brown immigrants from Mexico who might “deconstruct their culture,” that they’d grasp at a straw as idiotic and morally bankrupt as this, tells us all we need to know about “paleo-libertarianism.” It isn’t libertarian at all, but is motivated by an overpowering desire for a society controlled by people who look and think exactly like themselves, where nobody is allowed to do anything people like themselves disapprove of.”
How Low Can Lew Rockwell Go? – Kevin Carson, C4SS

Ever wondered what Americans thought of Jewish refugees on the eve of World War II?

Another disaster looms in Paris. "The U.N.’s climate chief, Christiana Figueres, says openly that the aim of the [global warming] talks is ‘to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the industrial revolution.’ That outlook will be welcome among attendees like the delegation from Bolivia. That country’s official material submitted for the talks proposes a ‘lasting solution’ for climate change: ‘We must destroy capitalism’."
Gambling the World Economy on Climate – WSJ

“When the raw data is used, there is little if any evidence of global warming and some evidence of global cooling.”
Global warming ‘fabricated’ by NOAA & NASA – James Delingpole, BREITBART

Meanwhile, in an Indian village … “Life has improved after Greenpeace came, say the villagers. But not because the group brought solar. Rather, they said, they appreciate that the group brought the chief minister, who brought in the grid.”
Coal Trumps Solar in India – SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

“100 million of the world’s poorest people will be better off thanks to Australian legislation that was passed last month.
”In contrast to the rhetoric that claims to help people, this legislation had nothing to do with increasing foreign aid or redistributing wealth. It had everything to do with the new $16 billion dollar Queensland coal mine that is set to become ‘the biggest Australia has ever seen’.”
The Moral Case for Coal – Celeste, AUSTRALIAN TAXPAYER’S ALLIANCE

Another milestone of failure by Al Gore: No change in Arctic sea ice for a decade.
Another Milestone Of Failure By Climate Experts – Tony Heller, REAL SCIENCE

Meanwhile, the BBC has just discovered that ice doesn't melt at –30C.

William Gladstone’s story is a fascinating one. He almost invented the political implementation of classical liberalism. But he was far from a liberal at first: On every important political issue of the day he challenged his own thinking, and came out against the abuse of power and the protection of privilege. This is heroic, and scarcely normal today. “Today, when a citizen gets elected to make government smaller but ends up moderating his positions while in power, conventional wisdom credits him with having ‘grown in office.’ William Gladstone’s philosophy evolved in precisely the opposite direction — from a hodgepodge of statist notions to principled application of liberty.”
When the Power of Love Replaced the Love of Power – Larry Reed, FEE

“Here is the problem that continues to elude academic theory; falling gasoline prices has no “net effect” on economic growth.”
Economic Theory Meets Main Street Reality—–It’s Not All Good – Lance Roberts, CONTRA CORNER

“Universities seem increasingly to focus on the so-called student experience over the students’  education … University has become the place for teenagers to go when they wish to delay being an adult, rather than being the bridge to independence it was once considered to be.”
On not going to university -  Jennifer Richards, SPIKED

“Post modernism, deconstructionism and progressive education have caused today's rebellion against the mind.”
Campus Insanity? Blame The Philosophers – Robert Tracinski, THE FEDERALIST

Never let school get in the way of your education.
Homeschooled with MIT courses at 5, accepted to MIT at 15 - NEWS.MIT.EDU

“I still utterly fail to understand how 'management' exists as an undergraduate degree. … if there are 22 year olds out there who are fit to manage anything, they're likely doing it already without having bothered with a degree.”
Econ testimonials – Eric Crampton, OFFSETTING BEHAVIOUR

“The world is on the cusp of a ‘post-antibiotic era,’ scientists have warned after finding bacteria resistant to drugs used when all other treatments have failed… It is likely resistance emerged after colistin [the drug of last resort] was overused in farm animals.”
Antibiotic resistance: World on cusp of 'post-antibiotic era' – BBC NEWS

Just so you know: “The research by Dr. Cullen and many other scientists has shown that despite the high levels of contamination in Japan, the levels across the Pacific are so low they are difficult to detect.”
Fukushima Findings – DOLLARS AND CROSSES

And now for some good news: “Food inadequacy affects a far smaller share of the population in 2015 than in the 1990s.”

“Bond is driven by a lust for life — for adventure, for sleek luxury cars, for truffles and foie gras and martinis, and yes, for beautiful women. He is certainly out of place in our age of Neo-Puritanism. He probably eats processed meat, the scoundrel.”
Why We Need James Bond – Robert Tracinski, THE FEDERALIST

“James Bond represents the individual spirit that is cultivated by the West against the communist idea of the regnant collective… An individual like Bond who thwarted communist schemes and plots without the Party or the collective was Fleming’s answer to Marx.”
Ian Fleming’s Coldest Warrior: The Anticommunist Origins of James Bond – VICTIMS OF COMMUNISM

“To further understand why the ownership of ideas is important, we’ll look at the 3 characters in Rand’s works to find out.”
Intellectual Property On Trial: John Galt, Howard Roark and Steve Ingalls – Sylestor Kuo, KUO’S GULCH

“P. J. O’Rourke introduces you to the wonderful world of a profession that literally anyone can do.”
P.J.’s Guide to Talking Like A Pundit – DAILY BEAST

Peter Singer: The end point of utilitarianism.
Fun with Singer – Eric Crampton, OFFSETTING BEHAVIOUR

“Why is the seemingly straightforward concept of objective value so difficult for many people—especially those with a background in economics—to understand? The answer is that many economists confuse agent-relative value—value in relation to some valuer—with morally subjective value... they assume that there is no objective standard for determining moral value; they assume that value is only a matter of personal opinion.”
Economists’ “Subjective Value” and Ayn Rand’s Objective Value Reconciled – Ari Armstrong, OBJECTIVE STANDARD

“We talk a lot in these pages about what to do with one’s money, but I question whether most subscribers (forget about the public at large) have an adequate grasp of the basics.”
Rethinking Money As The Greater Depression Deepens – Doug Casey, ZERO HEDGE

“It's a paradox. Music has this incredible power to evoke, but
we don't know what it evokes. You can't talk about it as being
'very emotional' or 'very passionate' because that's bullshit.  So
I only ever talk about it in its own terms…”
~ Richard Gill, music educator

“How is success gained by people of whom little is expected? Tom Petty was once one of them.”
Should Everyone Be in a Rock Band? A New Freakonomics Radio Podcast – FREAKONOMICS

Now this is cool …
Scroll through the "new New York Skyline" with this interactive infographic – ARCHINECT

“There are two overs to go and we need ten to win. I have just come in and am on strike. Malcolm Marshall is brought on for the penultimate over. ‘Finish this off, Macco!’ they call from behind the wicket. ‘Two balls will do it!’ He probably can’t hear as he’s at least 70 yards away at the end of his curving run.”
The strange things real fast bowlers make you do – Simon Hughes, THE ANALYST
Wasim Akram: the fastest bowler I never saw – Simon Hughes, THE ANALYST

Answers many questions: "In the cells of fruit flies, Chinese scientists say that they have found a biological compass needle: a rod-shaped complex of proteins that can align with Earth’s weak magnetic field."
Long-sought biological compass discovered – NATURE

So what hope for an architect who writes?

Balm for a bad week. [Trans: ‘Wach auf” = “Wake Up!”]

Antidote.

Fuel.

Hat tips, thanks and quips … Nathan Michael Blunsdon, Australian Libertarian Society (ALS), Samizdata, Dim Post, Duncan Bayne, Steve Milloy , Ezra Klein, ‏Laila al-Zwaini , World Economic Forum, The Four Horsemen, uberfeminist ‏, Rudolf E. Havenstein, Steve Goddard, HumanProgress.org, Today's News, Richard Calhoun, Tom Holland, Josie Pagani, Students For Liberty, Martin Kramer, Terry Baucher, Full Comment, Famous-Quote.net, The Hay Festival, maajid nawaz, Quilliam, Craig Ranapia , Trigger Warning, Vinay Kolhatkar, Christian Wernstedt, Kenneth Weaver, Mother of Exiles, Rick Wilmes, Marvin Adams, Keith Speary, Rani ShriVidya, Dale B. Halling, Wyatt Storch, For New Intellectuals, Monica Beth, Counties Manukau Steelers, Prodos Marinakis, Michael Neibel, Matthew Sullivan, Steve Bock, Hilton Wayne Holder, Jim Matzger, Peter McCaffrey, Celia Cobo-Losey, James Dalton]

Thanks for reading, and thinking.
Have a great weekend.
PC