Friday Morning Ramble: Week 3

 

Week three …

Mavens are talking up Bill English’s Waitangi speeches 2017. Compare with the same man’s Waitangi speech 2002 – also widely ignored, also remarkable. (So, that would be three Waitangi speeches then …)
PM Bill English gave two speeches on Waitangi Day. Both were remarkable. Both were almost entirely ignored – Simon Wilson (2017), SPINOFF
The Treaty of Waitangi and New Zealand citizenship – Bill English (2002), NZ HERALD

Paul Litterick: “La cage aux pollies.”
Protests at opening of $1.5m state house artwork in downtown Auckland – NZ HERALD

“'Oh I wouldn't want to live in it. It's like a prison.' Seriously? People need to mind their own business. This development will only be successful if sufficient people choose to purchase an apartment in it. If people are happy to live there why should it be anyone else's concern?”
Comment on ''The decision must be appealed': Residents oppose huge Auckland retirement village' – Stephen Berry, FACEBOOK

Vapid populism from petrol’s biggest profiteer: government.
Energy Minister Judith Collins announces probe into petrol prices – STUFF
Petrol Porkies – NOT PC

“There is no evidence to suggest crime is actually on the rise, the Salvation Army says.”
No logic to more police, prison beds - Salvation Army – RADIO NZ
2017 State of the Nation Report – SALVATION ARMY

Long overdue. (Why so long, I wonder?)
Govt moves to wipe historical homosexual convictions – RADIO NZ

“'The world needs globalisation, it needs trade,” says China’s richest man. Speaking at the launch of Alibaba's Australia and New Zealand headquarters, he said: "Everybody is concerned about trade wars. If trade stops, war starts."
'If trade stops, war starts' Alibaba founder who visited Donald Trump warns – INDEPENDENT (UK)

“We need medicinal cannabis to be treated the same as any other prescription medicine.”
Medicinal cannabis prescribing set to change – RADIO NZ

Penelope Meowser: “’Withdrawing’ doesn't seem to be the appropriate word. I think ‘forfeiting’ would be more accurate.”
Yaron Brook & Lindsay Perigo Debate on Trump, Immigration and More – Amy Peikoff, FACEBOOK
Will Trumpcare Cover the Effects of Trumpbrain? – Amy Peikoff, BLOG TALK RADIO

 

“BTW, all, did you see that Gareth Morgan wants a written constitution
which gives rights to plants? We live at a very special time in history.”
~ Jamie Whyte

 

Judith Curry: “Are climate alarmists afraid of climate change, or fossil fuels?”
Is Anything Wrong With Natural, Non-Man-Made Climate Change? – Mario Loyola, FORBES

Alex Epstein: “Green economics: Wind and solar use the largest share of workforce to produce the least amount of electricity (6%).”
US solar power employs more people than oil, coal and gas combined, report shows – INDEPENDENT (UK)

Blacked out again as South Australians swelter, their state is rapidly becoming the world’s crash-test dummy for so-called ‘renewable energy.’
South Australia Heatwave Wind Power Collapse, Rolling Blackouts – Eric Worrall, WATTS UP WITH THAT
The true meaning of populism – Steven Kates, LAW OF MARKETS

“It’s been a rough ten years as a so-called ‘climate denier.’ Every year the climate data would show a complete refusal to follow the accepted and official line, and every year the faith of the climate change faithful only seemed to get stronger and stronger. And their abuse of heretics like myself only got stronger and stronger. I have lost friendships over my stance on this issue. I have been attacked publicly by those around me on numerous occasions. And I have endured the casual mockery at social gatherings where the accepted response has been to pat me on the head in a condescending manner – here he is; our own climate denier. Isn’t he precious?
“… But money talks and bulls— walks, and the money is beginning to drop out of this con to end all cons.”
Dear Climate Alarmists – We Will Never Forget nor Forgive – Adam Piggott, XYZ

“Alternative facts have no place in climate-change research. Greater integrity is essential if the scandals are to stop.”
Politics And Science Are A Toxic Combination – Matt Ridley, GWPF

 

 

Meanwhile, in the absence of political pull…
Hedge Fund Of Hillary Clinton's Son-In-Law Has Shut Down – ZERO HEDGE

“I didn’t think I’d ever see the day when a Republican president equated America with Russia — and did so in a way that echoed the worst of fever-swamp radical leftism
Trump’s Comment On American ‘Killers’ Isn’t as Bad as You Think; It’s Worse – David French, NRO
Retired general: Trump's Putin remarks may be 'most anti-American statement' ever by president – THE HILL

“This ‘moral equivalence’ by Donald Trump, equating the United States with the Russian thugocracy, is outrageous and disgraceful. There is no excusing it. Putin is a killer. He rose to power via the Moscow apartment bombings atrocity (go Google it). He has had his political rivals murdered by poison and other nasty means. He runs an brutal oligarchy with an iron fist, and permits no opposition. To whitewash this record is unconscionable. To draw even the most remote comparisons to the United States is disgusting. For a U.S. PRESIDENT to do it, is beyond the pale.”
Donald Trump equating the United States with the Russian thugocracy, is outrageous and disgraceful – Robert Bidonotto, FACEBOOK

James Fallows: “How to tell Nixon from Trump: This is kind of thing Nixon said on the secret White House tapes.”
Trump: "Do you want to give his name? We'll destroy his career." – STEVE KOPACK
Statement Responding to President Trump’s Remarks Today on Civil Forfeiture Reform – INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE

Steve Simpson: ”Once you celebrate eminent domain, admire Putin, and blame courts for terrorism, supporting civil forfeiture doesn't seem like a big deal.”
Trump says there is 'no reason' to curb asset seizures by police – REUTERS

“After President Barack Obama’s numerous empty threats, the United States has scant credibility to enforce them.”
Opinion: Will President Trump stand behind his red line with Iran?  - Andrew Malcom, MCCLATCHY

“[Senior presidential advisor] Bannon admits he opposes legal immigration more than he does ‘illegal’."
Transcript of Steve Bannon's Tirade Against Legal Immigration, Asians, and Silicon Valley, and His Belief in the 'Race to the Bottom' – STU-TOPIA
Steve Bannon in 2016: legal immigration is the real “problem" – VOX

Awkward.
Immigrants Do Not Increase Crime, Research Shows – SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

Amy Peikoff: ” “More evidence that an immigration ban, alone, would be ineffective in eliminating the risk of Islamic terrorism. ISIS must be neutralised.”
Not ‘Lone Wolves’ After All: How ISIS Guides Plots by Remote Control – NEW YORK TIMES

“"In fact, liberalised marijuana laws in some states are already having an effect. The Washington Post reported in March that 'marijuana seizures along the southwest border tumbled to their lowest level in at least a decade.'”
Legalising Marijuana Would Hurt Mexican Drug Cartels More Than Trump's Border Wall – REASON

Radical Capitalist Episode 84: Economic Nationalism vs. America …

 

“’The institution of apartheid was not racism …’”
Stefan Molyneux: A nut still mistaken for a free enterpriser – STU-TOPIA

“’The one thing that people overlook is that the sort of dependence that results from exchange, i.e., from commercial transactions, is a reciprocal dependence.  We cannot be dependent upon a foreigner without his being dependent upon us.  Now, this is what constitutes the very essence of society. To sever natural interrelations is not to make oneself independent, but to isolate oneself completely.’”
4 Quotes on Free Trade from Classical Economists – Don Boudreaux, FEE

“Five books on war and foreign policy [suggesting] neoconservative veneration of nationalism leads to a foreign policy of perpetual war overseas.”
John David Lewis recommends the best books on War and Foreign Policy – FIVE BOOKS.COM

“A week-long war—one barely covered in university history courses—explains the subsequent sixty years of American foreign policy in the Middle East.”
We Are Still Living With Eisenhower’s Biggest Mistake – Michael Totten, THE TOWER

“The National Employment Law Project (NELP) released a study claiming to have directly disproved any link between minimum wage and job loss. But they asked the wrong question and proved no such thing.”
Debunking a Misleading Minimum Wage Study – Dave Thompson, FEE

“It's not a good outcome for civil libertarians, but his nomination was never really that surprising, given Trump's ‘law and order-focused campaign.”
Jeff Sessions, Fan of the Drug War and Asset Forfeiture, Confirmed as US Attorney General – Scott Shackford, HIT & RUN

 

"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the
stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases,
while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of
the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force"
~ Ayn Rand

 

“It is widely believed today that our moral, cultural, and political alternatives are limited either to the ideas of the secular, relativistic left—or to those of the religious, absolutist right—or to some compromised mixture of the two. In other words, one’s ideas are supposedly either extremely 'liberal' or extremely 'conservative' or somewhere in between. Ayn Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism, rejects this false alternative and offers an entirely different view of the world.”
What Is Objectivism? – Craig Biddle, OBJECTIVE STANDARD

Too good to miss.
Ayn, What if Atlas Snapped? – Kirk Barbera, FEE

“Your soul has a single basic function-- the act of valuing." ~ Ayn Rand
"'You own that structure you've stopped before and heard yourself answering.' 'In what sense?'" – Excerpt, THE FOUNTAINHEAD

Greg Salmieri: “Since any sense faculty will be limited in its acuity, regarding these limits as obscuring the world from us amounts to taking as one’s standard of awareness the sort of omniscience that Moore, Bertrand Russell, and others thought that we had of sense-data. But it is impossible to live up to this (supernatural) standard, and so it will push us toward the conclusion that our acquaintance with external object is always partially obscured or else superimposed with a hallucinatory material. Any view that includes this (supernatural) standard of direct awareness will, if developed consistently, lead us to regard ourselves as trapped behind a veil of perception (even if some versions will permit us to regard the veil as less than fully opaque).”
Awareness is not omniscience; it’s awareness of something in some form – FOR THE NEW INTELLECTUAL

“…including the Human Flourishing Framework–a tool that will supercharge your ability to acquire, organize, and apply life-enhancing knowledge in every area of life.”
Discover how to flourish in every area of life – Alex Epstein & Dan Sullivan, THE HUMAN FLOURISHING PROJECT

 

 

Public education has been failing to educate ever since it began. “They grant diplomas, which can be important for finding a job. But do they teach you how to gain the knowledge and skills to take control over the rest of your life and live as a free person?” People like Marsha Enright are filling that gap.
Empowered Reasoning, Active Minds, Autonomous Individuals – Marsha Enright, GREAT CONNECTIONS SEMINARS

“One of the most formative courses in my educational history was David Harriman’s “Fundamentals of Physical Science” – formative of my knowledge of science, formative of my views on education, formative of my very ability to think. It taught me what it really means to learn science, and by extension, what it really means to learn.”
David Harriman's Fundamentals of Physical Science: A Historical Inductive Approach – Lisa Van Damme, OBJECTIVE SCIENCE

I wonder what the proportions are for bloggers?
92% of left-wing activists live with their parents and one in three is unemployed, study of Berlin protesters finds – MAIL ONLINE

Charlotte Cushman: “This is where egalitarianism eventually leads. This is why ideas matter. There ARE differences between men and women and they are good. Destroying men's masculinity is evil.”
    “Holly Christopher said, ‘If this is the next big thing in men's fashion, we won't have to worry about overpopulation anymore, the human race will die out.’"
Latest Men’s Fashion at New York Fashion Week – SAD & USELESS.COM

“’I give it a few seconds — not even minutes — and then I’m moving again,’ says Handscombe, a 35-year-old graduate student in creative writing at American University.
    “But it’s not just online anymore. She finds herself behaving the same way with a novel.”
Serious reading takes a hit from online scanning and skimming, researchers say – WASHINGTON POST

Taliesin Fellows: “I just found this Architectural critique Blog. Sometimes funny, sometimes spot on and ..... but I'll let you be the judge. What do you think? Is this an accurate reflection of modern suburbia?”
McMansion Hell

“Wright dedicated the design ‘to Nature’ and called it the ‘Sectless Chapel.’ His sketch shows a space-rocket-like structure with a base of ramps, underneath which is space for parking.”
Unbuilt Frank Lloyd Wright chapel comes to life in new visualisations – David Romero, via CURBED
Frank Lloyd Wright's unbuilt Trinity Chapel is realised in images by David Romero – DEZEEN

I remember visiting the Martin House complex just before the restoration began. It was beautiful even then …

 

“Though Romanticism, notable for its dramatically driven themes of human character, is important in Rand's thought, she has high regard for the importance of light in painting…. Olaku's sensitivity to light manifests in how deeply his landscapes recede — not only are the lights themselves different, they are placed in depth. Though light is the outstanding feature in Olaku's paintings, he is also a master of perspective and the reflective nature of water.”
Energizing the Eye: Atlas Contest Winner, Abiodun Olaku – Michael Newberry, ATLAS ART CONTEST

“What makes this entire epistolary record so moving is that, in spite of being unscrupulous at times, Hemingway was also a creature frequently in raw pain, and the reader of these letters is able to witness him in the act of processing his pain and his guilt, with defences that were never quite up to the task.”
Little bit of poison for everyone – TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

“The independence of cats is one of the features most admired by those of us who love them.”
What cats can teach us about how to live – John Gray, NEW STATESMAN

And finally, the important news …
Hottest 100 Kiwi Craft Beers of 2016 – The Results – THE CRAFTY PINT
Hottest 100 Kiwi Craft Beers of 2016 – Analysis – THE CRAFTY PINT
Hottest 100 Kiwi Craft Beers of 2016 – The Top 3 – THE CRAFTY PINT

[Hat tips to and quips and snark pinched from Duncan B., Mark, Barry Woods, Michael Yon, Paul Litterick, Rani ShriVidya, Alice Smith, 7Kiwi, Ari Armstrong, Motive Power, Schooley, UBC Objectivism, hockey schtick, Robert Alonzo Harris Mathenge, Open Group on Objectivism, Myles Salmon, For The New Intellectuals, Stephen Berry, Arts & Letters Daily, Rick Wilmes, GABS Festival, Michael Yon, Anoop Verma]

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