Weekend Ramble, 07.11.15

“Faith in government is a religion.”
~ Anonymous

“Both xenophobic and stupid from a small man with small-man syndrome.”
On Ron Mark – The Veteran, NO MINISTER

“Primarily people want a state house because they are cheaper than private rentals. Social agencies and budgeting organisations know this and work with the client to facilitate acquisition of state rentals.  There is an old adage "beggars can't be choosers" which means people with no other options must be content with what is offered.
“They are not content because they have other options.”
State housing - it's about choice, not need – LINDSAY MITCHELL

“A 6 per cent unemployment rate should be treated as something much more serious –  as a failure of some mix of stabilisation and structural policy –  than it currently seems to be.”
Unemployment – a pretty poor record – CROAKING CASSANDRA

“They believe that magically if an airport extension is built, there will be long haul flights from Wellington to Asia and the Middle East, making the city more attractive for business.  However…”
Wellington Airport Runway Extension: Definition of a Cargo Cult: Part One – LIBERTY SCOTT

And the winner in the competition for longest first sentence is …
If You Support The Voluntary Transactions of Capitalism, Avoid NZ Banks – LIFE BEHIND THE IRON DRAPE

Anything to love here?
Winners of the New Zealand Architecture Awards revealed - Homes To Love – HOMES TO LOVE

“I’d stick [a real post] on Samizdata if I wasn’t so worn out
from laughing at these Million Mask March ‘anarchist’
wankers who want, well, government to do more stuff.”
~ Perry de Havilland on Samizdata non-quote of the day

“London has a smaller proportion of residents born overseas (37%) than Auckland (39%). So does New York (37%). No real conclusion, just that it’s interesting.”
Briefly – STATS CHAT

“Can cities fill up?”
Is Auckland full? – Peter Nunns, TRANSPORT BLOG

TPP: copyright and pharmaceuticals examined rationally…
TPP: What the Government Use of Software Provisions Mean – Eleanor Meltzer, IP WATCHDOG
TPP and Protection of Encrypted Program-Carrying Satellite and Cable Signals – Eleanor Meltzer, IP WATCHDOG
IP Protection for Biologics in the TPP: Trading Away Future Treatments and Cures – Dr Kristina Lybecker, IP WATCHDOG
Trans-Pacific Partnership – What do IP practitioners need to know? – Gene Quinn, IP WATCHDOG
Trans Pacific Partnership IP Chapter – Trademarks, Thoughts on Geographical Indications – Eleanor Meltzer, IP WATCHDOG
The Sticking Point that Shouldn’t Be: The Role of Pharmaceutical Patents in the TPP Negotiations – Dr Kristina Lybecker, IP WATCHDOG

US Gun Control: “Really started when democrats wanted blacks defenceless from democrat lynch mobs…”

“The Greek island of Kos welcomes migrants. The plane from Gatwick is full of them.”
Syrian refugees seek a better life in Europe, but will they find it?  - A.A. Gill, THE AUSTRALIAN

“'We shouldn’t discuss if they are coming – they are coming and they are coming from a horrible situation," the founder said.
Refugees Welcome: 'Airbnb for asylum seekers' started by German couple spreads around the world – INEPENDENT

Truly disappointing.
Guy who took in 24 refugees posts viral message about his disappointing experience. – SOME E-CARDS

Anyone ever actually seen one in the wild?
What is a 'neoliberal'? Please tell me – show me one. – Jim Rose, UTOPIA

“If Labor loves all this public spending, let them get elected on the promise of more taxes. In the meantime, Mr Eloquent and his Treasurer, Mr Fixanything, should be making the case for lower spending and why it is so important.”
Why does the supposed right always try to fix the revenue problems created by the left? – Steve Kates, LAW OF MARKETS

“What is the difference between economic inequality and poverty?”
The Heartland Institute interviews Don Watkins – VOICES FOR REASON

“So behaviour is actually influenced by the incentives and the disincentives we confront? You bet it is. This is an iron law of the human condition. The failure to understand it or apply it consistently explains many of the dystopian malfunctions that surround us.
The most ardent advocates of draconian taxes and regulations on smoking argue that such penalties will deter the smoker. Strange, isn’t it, that many of those same people think they can soak the entrepreneur, the investor, the saver, the employer, and the inventor with little or no negative consequence.”
"If Incentives Matter, We Might Be in Trouble" – Larry Reed, FEE

“In two important respects, this bargaining process defeats the very goal of land-use deregulation necessary for a lasting solution to the housing affordability crisis.”
Land Use: Regulations vs. Negotiations – CONVERSABLE ECONOMIST

Q: “Will she finally raise the federal funds rate that has been zero bound for over six years?” A: Probably not.
The Fed Desperately Tries to Maintain the Status Quo – Ronald-Peter Stöferle, MISES DAILY 

“As the government spends more on [welfare], fewer dollars will be available for investment… ‘If savings are not being created, therefore investment is not occurring, therefore productivity is not growing, therefore the rate of growth in the economy is held back’.”
Greenspan's Nightmare Chart Spoils US Labor Department Data Party – BLOOMBERG BUSINESS

No, Virginia, the basic laws of economics are not suspended when minimum wages are raised.
In the Minimum Wage Debate, There Is Still No Such Thing as a Free Lunch  - NCPA

More from the “what-has-capitalism-ever-done-for-us” file:

And from the what-have dictators-ever-done-for-us file …

And from the what-has-democracy-ever-done-for-us-file …

“Just as capitalism was propelling us forward into a technological future that would, among other advantages, double the average human lifespan, the intellectuals were looking backward to the Middle Ages and predicting that all of this new science and technology would bring disaster. (They're still doing it, except that now they conjure up the bogeyman of global warming in the place of Frankenstein's monster.)"
The Historic Significance of Atlas Shrugged – Robert Tracinski, REAL CLEAR POLITICS

“How many times before have we heard “last chance for climate”? I’ve lost count."
The hilarious legacy of ‘last chances’ for climate, exposed – WATTS UP WITH THAT

““As with any cult, once the mythology of the cult begins falling apart, instead of saying, oh, we were wrong, they get more and more fanatical.”
MIT Climate Scientist: Global warming believers a "cult" – Howie Carr, BREITBART

“[The business-as-usual scenario] became the basis for scores of studies describing horrific futures that appear almost inevitable. But they seldom mention [the business-as-usual scenario’s] extreme assumptions.”
Manufacturing nightmares: an example of misusing climate science – WATTS UP WITH THAT

“Environmentalists like to claim skeptics are making money off hampering global warming regulations, but those same activists are making a lot of money promoting global warming alarmism.”
Global Warming Activists Don’t Like When Someone Follows The Money – Andrew Follett, DAILY CALLER

Alex Epstein: “There is no such thing as solar power. There is just solar coal and solar gas.”
It's not easy being green: Ivanpah solar plant near Nevada burns a lot of natural gas – OC REGISTER

Well, that’s awkward.
NASA reveals that Antarctica is actually gaining more ice than it is losing – TELEGRAPH
Antarctica isn’t melting — a new study finds it’s actually gaining ice – MARKET WATCH
Antarctica Growing, Not Shrinking, says NASA: Why Isn't This News? – DR HURD.COM

Meanwhile, “NASA has nearly doubled warming, by simply tampering with data over the past ten years.”
New Ways To Visualize NASA Temperature Fraud – REAL SCIENCE

"The last thing the political left needs, or can even afford, are self-reliant
individuals. If such people became the norm, that would destroy not only
the agenda and the careers of those on the left, but even their flattering
image of themselves as saviours of the less fortunate. . . ."
~Thomas Sowell, quoted in‘Thomas Sowell, Richie
Parker, and the Left’s War Against Achievement’

The flip side of the Laffer Curve: “Here, no matter what level the topmost income tax rates in the United States have been set, the amount of money that the U.S. federal government actually collects in taxes as a percentage share of GDP is fairly constant.”
Hauser's Law at Work Today – POLITICAL CALCULATIONS

How price signals save your life every single moment of every single day. (By contrast here is the Anti-Julian Simon.)

Neither you nor Neil Young could hear it anyway.
24/192 Music Downloads are Very Silly Indeed – Monty, XIPH.ORG

“Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said it best: ‘We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.’ And it works both ways!
"Yes I Can - No I Can't" – Dr Michael Hurd, DR HURD.COM

“Once you grasp how an artist plays with shapes to convey another layer of meaning it can open up a universe of deeper insight and, sometimes, powerfully erotic subtexts. You may never see art again in the same way.”
Erotic Symbolism in Visual Art – Michael Newberry, NEWBERRY ARCHIVE

Well, I’m a lesbian myself, you know.
Women are either bisexual or gay but 'never straight' – TELEGRAPH

Insight into the production of the "Atlas Shrugged" mini-series by The Godfather producer…
Atlas Shrugged TV miniseries - Albert S Ruddy, Susan Black, Bill Collins – PRODOS.COM
Producer of ‘The Godfather’ Lands Rights to ‘Atlas Shrugged’ Novel – NY TIMES

“CIA counterfeit conservative…”
The Phony Legacy of William F. Buckley, Jr. – Charles Burris, LEWROCKWELL.COM

“’I did not want this to be a mimsy-pimsy building… It is for soldiers. On horses. In armour,’ wrote Wellington’s Beehive architect Sir Basil Spence in 1971.”
When concrete buildings drive people mad – BBC NEWS

How was Winnie the Pooh connected to WW1?
The True Story Of Winnie The Pooh And Her Pal, Christopher Robin – HERE & NOW

Save us all time, huh.
Verification 101: Storyful’s advice for checking out material from social media, and putting it into practice – FIRST DRAFT

“Moralists used to liken books to contagions, seeing censorship as quarantine. Today, students censor themselves.”
Books are dangerous – Frank Furedi, AEON

“While technology has made amazing advances over the last twenty years or more, there is on area of technology that is going backwards at a rapid rate of knots.”
Can’t Anyone Produce a Printer – That Works? – THE VANDAL

“We all know that drugs destroy families. We know this because we've been told it over and over again. Except…”
Drugs don't hurt families, UK Home Office admits – POLITICS.CO.UK

“Ireland set to decriminalize possession of personal use quantities of all drugs…”
Injection rooms for addicts to open next year in drug law change, says Minister – IRISH TIMES

“The Drug War is losing allies.”
Ireland, Mexico, Canada Defect from the War on Drugs – Daniel Bier, ANYTHING PEACEFUL

“The heroes of the repeal effort were the men and women who wrote and spoke against Prohibition, who formed organisations to educate for personal choice, and who refused to enforce the law even when judges never advised them they had that right.”
HHonoring the Heroic Foes of Prohibitions Past and Present – Larry Reed, THE FREEMAN

“Since then, they’ve been using the data from this reactor to study how nuclear waste migrates through the environment…”
In the 1970s, Scientists Discovered a 2 Billion-Year-Old Nuclear Reactor in West Africa – MEDIUM.COM

Finally, a sensible warning sign:

Science!
New Research Claims That Going Down On Women Is Good For Your Health – DAILY DIGEST

Physics!
Watch What Happens When You Fire A Ball At Sixty MPH Out Of A Truck Traveling Sixty MPH In The Opposite Direction – IFL SCIENCE

A different kind of one-man band, Africa-style. George Evans Light: “Starts as if it will be a Hooky Joy Division cover and then just becomes utterly joyous.”

Speaking of joyous…

…and joyful:

[Quips from and thanks and hat tips to Jim Rose, Sinclair Davidson, Econlib, Alex Epstein, Tom Warner, Paul Litterick, Steve Goddard, Mandrake, Jake R., Radley Balko, Rudolf E. Havenstein, hockey schtick, Josh Stearns, Crazy Truth, Screwed by State, Bill Koutalianos, Ian Dunt , The Modern House, Veronique de Rugy, CatoTheYounger, The Great War‏, Derek Haines, Frank Furedi , Motive Power]