Cut the bastards off!
I have been looking for sites like this for a long time. Thank you!
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3/31/2006
Cut the bastards off!
Both The Whig and Clint have been commenting, indeed defending, the great volumes of taxpayer money pumping into our past Prime Ministers.
On The Whig I've been patiently explainging to good old Aaron Bhatnager in the follow-up comments just what the libertarian perspective is on all of this..
Keeping up appearances? I want to keep down appearances! Let these dimming menaces fund their own parades now. We've already paied for their *democratic* victory laps once, in more ways than dollars can count, and now we have to do it undemocratically in perpetuity?
For more excellent Rick-points, follow the link above. Bhatnager's main defense for his position seems to be that I've yet to face my mid-life crisis and gone all soft and wishy-washy like he is!
[update- remasted those comments into a full opinion piece here]
3/30/2006
Red Confectionary
I know why I think this blog is called what this blog is called..
<--- Click here for animation
I've decided to add Red Confectionary blog to my watchlist. It's not because Ms Pamziwamzi has done anything to draw attention to herself. It's that a mate of mine mentioned to me meeting up with her in Wellington earlier this week, so I visited RC, and then I saw this.That tore it, and now they've bought themselves a ticket for Rickattention.
<--- Click here for animation
I've decided to add Red Confectionary blog to my watchlist. It's not because Ms Pamziwamzi has done anything to draw attention to herself. It's that a mate of mine mentioned to me meeting up with her in Wellington earlier this week, so I visited RC, and then I saw this.That tore it, and now they've bought themselves a ticket for Rickattention.
Other dark-side blogs I try to help reform for reason, as a public service you understand, include..
Capitalism Bad
Philosophically Made
No Right Turn
And, increasingly,...
Good Old Shoe
On behalf of Rick Enterprises Intergalactic, a big thankyou to my old pair of Tredlite steal-cap shoes."Why buy work boots?" it occured to me on the day I picked these up from a safety shop down Auckland's Panmure Rd. I love their covert nature. They function as work shoes and going-out shoes- and nobody at a restarant or bar would suspect I could kick a brick the length of Queen Street. That could come in handy in a combat situation.
With a bit of Kiwi boot polish and new laces now and again they've lasted a little over three years. I've given them hell and they've sucked it all up. Dozens of differnet jobs in New Zealand and Oz, wet and dry, rich and poor, they've carried me and never let me down. A thing well made.
Finally, now, the tread is comming away. Some particular foot peddles at work kept hooking on and have done them in at last.
My new ones are Aussie made, they're Oliver brand, from Ballarat. Had to get one size down to fit right, and they're great. You can get three styles in work shoe. Extra shiney is too pansy. Semi-shiney is what I got and it'll do but will scuff and show marks. I would have prefered to get the same style as I had before, the pebbley hide-texture.
Still, she's not a bad deal. $90 or so, whereas the old pair cost $80 NZ. And this time I'll remember to claim back the tax!
The Treadlites I plan to throw in the sea or a river, probably the Murry latter this month. They're too important to go in the bin, I want them to go on living and wind up on the end of someone's fishing line or something.
3/29/2006
On being Right
On The Right blog have been blogging for 10 years (not really, but something like that. I forget what) and are celebrating by accepting blog items from others on what it means to be 'on the right.' This link takes you to my contribution.
I decided to post it to SOLO, where you can read a slighly shorter and improved version.
If you get that far and want more, I've uploaded the Mp3 clip from Newstalk ZB's podcast of Deborah Coddington being 'right-wing'. I'd prefer to say she slipped from grace but it's nearer the truth to say she was never really quite there in the first place.
I decided to post it to SOLO, where you can read a slighly shorter and improved version.
If you get that far and want more, I've uploaded the Mp3 clip from Newstalk ZB's podcast of Deborah Coddington being 'right-wing'. I'd prefer to say she slipped from grace but it's nearer the truth to say she was never really quite there in the first place.
3/28/2006
Tony Blair
Britain's Prime Minister (for a little bit longer) Tony Blair is visiting Helengrad today.
The Herald Reports that one of the things he and our Prime Minister Helen Clark will be talking about will be the Kiwi OE to Britain.
Last year 4000 young New Zealanders obtained visas for working holidays in Britain without needing proof that they had a job or were going to study.
The British High Commission said last week that in the future New Zealanders might have to show they had sponsorship from an education or employment provider before being granted a visa.
Please please please don't screw this up Helen. Or what am I going to do in 2008? It's hard enough at the moment for me, buggering about finding a way to have my American adventure and to work at the same time. Let's not muck it up with the Mother country.
3/27/2006
Shumpterian as heck!
Joseph Shumpter was a funny old sod, also a very clever economist. An Austrian Economist actually, broadly speaking. Austrian Economics is a school of economic thought, as is Marxism or Monetarism or Classicism or Keynesianism for example. The reason this way of thinking about economics is called 'Austrian' is because it's origionators hail from Austria. Go figure.
One of Shumpters economic ideas was that of the product cycle.
It goes a little something like this. When a new product first comes into being it is only sold to a handfull of pioneering consumers, rich folks who can afford it probably. New Zealand is a good test market for things like this it is said. If we like the new cheesburger or softdrink or mobile phone accessory then that's a sign it's worthwhile investing more in the product and and offering it to a larger market.
Next stage, the product goes mainstream and satiates demand.
Next, the product becomes standardised and cheep. The people who were holding out now buy the product, thus the producer wrings the last few sales dollars out of his product- milking it for all it is worth.
Next though, clever manufacturers and marketing agencies work to postpone the day when the product has become yesterday's fad, yesterday's cool, yesterday's news. Even after this happens they will try to revive it, bring it back into fashion. Some how they manage to do this over and over again. They make old sunglasses from the 1920s cools again, they make 1960s bell-bottoms cool again. They revive ABBA. They make 'retro' into a virtue. Put your out-of-fashion clothing at the back of the wardrobe and wait around long enough, it'll all come back into style again- it's just ride out the product cycle.
For as long as anybody can remember, hoolahoops, and yo-yos and marbles have stormed the school playgrounds. Then the fad dies, time passes, the toys are discarded. Next thing you know some clever marketers have found a way to make them cool again, as cool as ever- and you have to buy them all over again.
In New Zealand at this very moment it is happening again. Not a yo-yo craze (give it time) though, no. Marbles are back in style! I got a call from a mate back in Auckland asking that I send over some of these new B'daman toys please, because the kids are mad for them but they're not yet avaliable in stores. Well they are now, within the last couple of weeks they have hit the shelves at Kmart stores if not elsewhere.
And what's a B'daman? I don't really know, but any 8 year old will tell you. Last time I looked it was Pokemon that "my" Auckland kids knew back to front. Pokemon is just a game of cards- another fad that rises and falls with the product cycle. The B'daman merchandise is marbles though, plain and simple.
How did the entrepreners make kids extatic and get parents paying big bucks for glorified marbles? Well, at 3:35pm on TV2 there's a TV show all about it for one thing. And for another it's not just glass spheres- there are plastic doohickies and rules and stories to learn. However, at the end of the day it is just marbles.
It's always just a hoola-hoop, just card games, just marbles, just a yo-yo, or whatever. It's as Shumpterian as heck!
I wonder which of the old favorites it'll be next, and I wonder how they'll manage to make it popular again. Rest assured, an entreprenerial imagination is already working on the solution.
3/26/2006
Rodney's Rebbles
Left-wing nuts your time is through,
Now you have to answer to...
Brand new ACT board elected!
Game on boys and girls!
(ripped off from New Zeal. He wont mind)
I expect big things from these people. They're going to cooperate and get the freedom message out and sink the ship of big government and make a mighty come back in the next election The Association of Consumers and Taxpayers.
ps New Zealand's other libertarians party, Libertarianz, just appointed a new president too.
Now you have to answer to...
Brand new ACT board elected!Game on boys and girls!
(ripped off from New Zeal. He wont mind)
I expect big things from these people. They're going to cooperate and get the freedom message out and sink the ship of big government and make a mighty come back in the next election The Association of Consumers and Taxpayers.
ps New Zealand's other libertarians party, Libertarianz, just appointed a new president too.
What's with you people?
Philosophical appreciation is not the same as biographical appreciation. Why do people keep mixing them up?
Let me tell you right now that, philosophically, I don't really give a damn what Ayn Rand believed. Likewise, when it comes to Scientology I don't give a damn what Tom Cruise believes. What I want to know are the premises, the reasoning and the conclusions. Is it sound? Is it valad? Does it wash out harsh stains and leave my dishes squeeky-clean?
Call me crazy, but I want to go out on a radical limb here and suggest that we qua Objectivists are wasting our time studying Ayn Rand. We should be studying Objectivism instead.
3/25/2006
Zheng Heland?
Maybe we should rename New Zealand "Zeng Heland" now then?
In today's Stuff news, Waikato Uni have been looking into an old old map. Chinese explorer Zheng He drew this map, maybe, after popping by Enzed around about 1418. Cool idea, huh?
1300 The Maori- I think...
1642 Able Tasman
1769 James Cook
1942 The Americans
Of course the idea that there's more to this narrative is not new. I've read a book by some guy that claimed we were visited 2000 years ago by the Phonecians- based on obscure rock squiggles. There are also stories about ancient Celts rocking by and some people even think there's a very large red-headed warrior grave paved over by the highway just out of Greymouth.
Radical alternative views like these are interesting! I file it alongside holocaust denial, haunted houses, and UFOs. I'll always go along to a haunted place every time I get the chance (not often enough!) to investigate. Why I take time for what would otherwise be foolishness is due to the benifit of what you can learn about your own beliefs (not to mention nerves) and those of others.
I really must try to get into the Old Melbourne Gaol before I leave here. It's supposed to be haunted to bits!
In today's Stuff news, Waikato Uni have been looking into an old old map. Chinese explorer Zheng He drew this map, maybe, after popping by Enzed around about 1418. Cool idea, huh?
1300 The Maori- I think...
1642 Able Tasman
1769 James Cook
1942 The Americans
Of course the idea that there's more to this narrative is not new. I've read a book by some guy that claimed we were visited 2000 years ago by the Phonecians- based on obscure rock squiggles. There are also stories about ancient Celts rocking by and some people even think there's a very large red-headed warrior grave paved over by the highway just out of Greymouth.
Radical alternative views like these are interesting! I file it alongside holocaust denial, haunted houses, and UFOs. I'll always go along to a haunted place every time I get the chance (not often enough!) to investigate. Why I take time for what would otherwise be foolishness is due to the benifit of what you can learn about your own beliefs (not to mention nerves) and those of others.
I really must try to get into the Old Melbourne Gaol before I leave here. It's supposed to be haunted to bits!
Ruth and Grass
Chaos Theory theory,-
Take my advice. Do your best to remove the sons of bitches from your life. I don't care if they're your brothers, your fathers, your sisters, or what. Remove them. It's like rolling a car off of a piece of sod. Just as the blades that were under the tires will straighten and grow, you'll gradually feel the strength and hope flow back into you. ~ Steve H - Hog on Ice
And so it does.
Rick Theory theory,-
Remove the "son of a bitch" from the sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, fathers, mothers, and others in your life. What is needed is not new and faultless people we haven't met yet. What is needed is an improved relationship and appreciation with the folks we already know.
One of CS Lewis' short stories had it that, in heaven, even the blades of grass themselves would not yield or be bent by the prickled feet of sinners. If you make ME into, even an analogical, blade of grass then that's how it's going to be.
3/24/2006
Property Rights
Rick and I had an interesting conversation tonight: I was startled to find that Rick's a strong supporter of 'Intellectual Property Rights'. You might find this strange. Surely, that's exactly what is expected of a libertarian?: property rights are pretty much at the very bottom of their political ideology. The reason I found Rick's position on this point strange is that I genuinely believed that my stand on the issue is very compatible with libertarian views.
See, I make a very stark distinction by property rights and 'intellectual property' rights. There are two main reasons for this.
The first is that I don't recognise many types of intellectual property as being even vaguely related to the concept of physical property. In case you were wondering exactly what intellectual property is, here's a list of the things which make up IP:
A more modest conclusion, reflection on libre prehaps. Well there's a liberty I do believe in: my liberty to do whatever I'd like to in the comfort of my own home, when that activity doesn't adversely affect others. Copyright infringement doesn't. I'll keep doing it.
See, I make a very stark distinction by property rights and 'intellectual property' rights. There are two main reasons for this.
The first is that I don't recognise many types of intellectual property as being even vaguely related to the concept of physical property. In case you were wondering exactly what intellectual property is, here's a list of the things which make up IP:
- Copyrights
- Patents and design rights
- Trademarks
- Industrial secrets
At such a broad scale, people can't even see the specific publicMy second reason for rejecting claims of intellectual property is related to the first. Just as it's distorting to treat IP as physical property, it's dishonest to portray what happens when IP laws are broken as akin to what happens when physical property laws are broken. I'm referring specfically to the concept that copyright infingement is theft, a type of theft, or even anything to do with that T word. Here's what Thomas Jefferson, himself a classical liberalist, had to say on the issue:
policy issues raised by copyright law, or the different issues raised
by patent law, or any of the others. These issues arise from the
specifics, precisely what the term "intellectual property" encourages
people to ignore. For instance, one issue relating to copyright law
is whether music sharing should be allowed. Patent law has nothing to
do with this. But patent law raises the issue of whether poor
countries should be allowed to produce life-saving drugs and sell them
cheaply to save lives. Copyright law has nothing to do with that.
Neither of these issues is just an economic issue, and anyone looking
at them in the shallow economic perspectives of overgeneralization
can't grasp them. Thus, any opinion about "the issue of intellectual
property" is almost surely foolish. If you think it is one issue, you
will tend to consider only opinions that treat all these laws the
same. Whichever one you pick, it won't make any sense.
If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.This is what I believe. Thanks to electronic media, when I share the work of an artist with someone else, I don't believe that I'm infringing on anyone's rights: I don't recognise that any rights exist to be infringed upon. Perhaps that's a bit of a extreme view to take. Perhaps I shouldn't have expected to be agreed with, especially when Rick, expecting what I think he'd term socialist filth, was met with a view that's perhaps strikingly more libertarian on this issue than his. This whole issue just begs to be tied up in Cyberpunk mantras of 'information wants to be libre and gratis', but I don't believe I'll go there until I've seen Rick's reply.
A more modest conclusion, reflection on libre prehaps. Well there's a liberty I do believe in: my liberty to do whatever I'd like to in the comfort of my own home, when that activity doesn't adversely affect others. Copyright infringement doesn't. I'll keep doing it.
Sense Of Life Objectivists
Objectivism. It's a philosophy. Mine.
A philosophy is just like a religion, except that it's non-deity based. Theology deals in a God or in gods, philosophy deals in reasoning. There are lots of both to choose from, old ones and new ones from all around the world. I picked Objectivism.
There are a couple of major Objectivist club-houses in the States and a very little wanna-be one overseen by Lindsay Perigo, a Kiwi incase you've never heard of him. His one, SOLO (Sense Of Life Objectivists) has been going for 5 years now and keeps on rising and crashing again. I could see that all along but joined up last year anyway, just before it went to hell again at the end of last year.
Once again, SOLO is up from the ashes and trying to make a go of things with the same formula as has lead to the previous booms and busts. At this stage it's not so much an institution for philosophical and social revolution as a glorified group blog. A home for people who aren't interested in the impressive Credo at all but in frivolities. The stock in trade is bashing other Objectivists and each other, and in piling sexual inuendo on to any message post (or message poster) than can bare it.
Pick this up and make it into a world class Objectivist fighting machine? They must be mad. They must be lemmings!
But.....but prompted by an anonymous commenter back here I emailed SOLO's new Exec and more or less had this conversation with him...(I'm Kirk, of course...)
Kirk: I take it the odds are against us and the situation is grim.
Picard: You could say that.
Kirk: You know, if Spock were here, he'd say that I was an irrational, illogical human being by taking on a mission like that. Sounds like fun!
In other words, I've just gone and joined Sense Of Life Objectivsts again.
Note to self: Don't say I didn't warn you about this in the first place, Giles. You lemming.
3/23/2006
Bangladesh
The other week I was blogging about
George, if you recall. George the economist.
I promised to come back to one of the very interesting points George made with respect to the global warming mumbo-jumbo and what it means for developing nations. Bangladesh, for example.
Have been waiting for a nifty lead-in but in all this time the best I can do is that No Right Turn and ACT On Campus have just done respective little environmental jigs. One is praising Michael Chrichton and the other is bemoaning the fact that the Gov isn't doing more to respond to climate change- take a wild guess for yourselves which blog is saying which!
So here's a new (for me) debating point from George Reisman. If we in developed nations already have more carbon emission than the planet can afford then not only must we cut back but those in developing nations better stay right where they are.
No economic progress for you Mr Nguyen- who keels over from a deadly infection for want of the price of a swab of Dettol! Try and understand sir, we might maybe could perhaps turn the planet into Keven Costner's Waterworld if we let you live.
"Please sir, may I have some more?" says a starving little Oliver Singh in back-water India. NO you brat! The Greenies wont let you! For an economy with that kind of standard of living we'd have to permit your nation to have a decent transport network and we 'friends of the earth' can't let you. Already too too much of that in the world now! How do we know we're not on a "tipping point" to another ice age? Your hunger might save the world- so starve!
Sorry Mohammed, you can't have literacy and safe-sex because that kind of standard of living is traded off in favour of saving us from a possible nuclear winter. Will your sacrifice prevent one? Well, we don't have a clue actually- so let's just stay on the safe side shall we? Continue living and dieing in filth therefore, okay? Jolly good.
Remember, the Greenies don't actually claim the world is heading for doom. When cornered, they only say that it might be and that we'd better not risk the unknown possibilities.
Hell, it's bad enough to consider that the "environmentalists" (I don't accept that you have to be a Greenie to be one) want to clip the flight wings of the West! But the Greenie agenda is seen even more truely as the horrific proposal that it is in this light. They want to ground developing nations before they've even gotten off the ground, and all on a hunch!
3/22/2006
Steam and Religion
As a spin-off from talking about The Root of All Evil, Richard Dawkins' new television documentary, the Julian Pistorius blog has called me out on my views on religion.
My respect for religion is like my admiration for a well-made steam engine. It's great what it can do, we're more powerful with it than with nothing in its place BUT it has been supplanted and the new way is better. But Julian comes back with...
"That amounts to saying that...the ball and chain you've shackled yourself to makes nice sounds as they drag along the ground."
Well he's right! Just as the limitation of steam-powered industry was a shackle upon further progress it too was a pleasent, even romantic, way of life- from which many "nice sounds" and stories are still with us. But like a ball and chain, the age of steam had to be cast off in order to be supplanted. Could we possibly have had Henry Ford's transport revolution and be getting by these days in steam automobiles? Could we have today's aircraft without the petroleum revolution? Could we send space craft to the moon with massive water-boilers as the prerequisite?
Steam, like religion, was a fine thing. Where would the Industrial Revolution have been without it? But, like religion, its time in domination has come and passed (all due respect to people who live in Huntly and Rotorua). Only someone who cannot admire something in a steam engine cannot either admire something in religion.
Julian says,-
"In my mind, religion is the careful avoidance of thinking about certain things...To believe in something with no ground in reality, to rely on faith, is just playing pretend."
Religion is not so one-dimentional as this. Epistemology asside, you've got to give religion credit for lifting us out of the muck. In the beginning humans were few in number, existing in small tribes that competed with the other animals to survive. Standard of living? What standard of living!? Life expectancy? What a joke! But this is the benchmark, it was as primitive cavemen that we lived and can live again. It's not our genetics that separates modern man from primitive man but the institutions that have been slowly put in place since those times and it started with religion.
For example, how long would the 1.2 billion Muslims survive without their religion? If you could strip it away and leave them with the primitive cave-man mindset they would all die. Cave-man sense is insufficient apparatus to support 1.2 billion people. Maori stone-age culture, in 700 years, didn't do much better for their prospects. Australian Aborigionals have been in action even longer than that and achieved far less progress for themselves and many continue to be "shackled" by it. Mere humans, however, with the addition of Islam have a social system that gets the food, shelter and clothing to many millions within many nation states. Islam is the firmament for an international airline and for the world's top oil producers. How much of the economic wealth in the world is traded into the hands of Muslims? Lots. What faith preserved and advanced the Western heritage when the West was in the Dark Ages? This one. Which conception of life can make primitive cave-men the major security threat to the superpower of the twentyfirst centurary? This religion, this culture.
Antiquated and inferior though it is, religion deserves our admiration for what it has done for us in the past and for what it still does for others today.
3/20/2006
7. ONE CAN'T HIDE
<---- Click to enlarge
"The seventh lesson I teach is that one can't hide. I teach children they are always watched, that each is under constant surveillance by myself and my colleagues. There are no private spaces for children, there is no private time. Class change lasts three hundred seconds to keep promiscuous fraternization at low levels. Students are encouraged to tattle on each other or even to tattle on their own parents. Of course, I encourage parents to file their own child's waywardness too. A family trained to snitch on itself isn't likely to conceal any dangerous secrets." - John Gatto
Great, just great.
"What's this?" Social Development Minister David Benson-Pope asked. "State-control of education is failing? That can only mean we need more of it!"
Q: Does the government that seeks to farm us ever consider that pulling the MORE-GOVERNMENT/LESS-GOVERNMENT lever to the high-power-for-Helengrad setting is the problem, not the solution?
A: Nope! More government is their ownly solution! Less government is their only problem.
And now, unless somebody does something, The Government is going to see that we don't mind them going ahead with this outrage and many others the same.
John Taylor Gatto, "The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher" from Gatto's book, "Dumbing Us Down."
Stuff news item
3/19/2006
Lindsay Mitchell
He who knows how to breathe the air of my writings knows that it is an air of the heights, a robust air. One has to be made for it, otherwise there is no small danger one will catch cold. The ice is near, the solitude is terrible- but how peacefully all things lie in the light! how freely one breathes!...Philosophy, as I have hitherto understood and lived it, is a voluntary living in ice and high mountains- a seeking after everything strange and questionable in existence, all that has hitherto been excommunicated by morality.
- Nietzsche, Ecce Homo
I was reading Andrew Falloon back-comments, as you do, and Lindsay Mitchell wrote...
Not even the driven snow is a pure as you Rick
A libertarian this wise & discriminating belongs on the NZB3 blogroll I think!
3/18/2006
SXSW - Bruce Sterling
Bruce Sterling, a Science Fiction writer famous for his cyberpunk work, gave this keynote speech at this years South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. The recording has been bouncing around the popular tech blogs for the last few days. It's wide reaching in scope, to say the least, combining discussion of Web2.0 (a kind of revitalisation movement in web development and design) with general observations of the strange anomic alienation that is slowly enveloping American culture.
We're seeing just frantic collisions of fundamentalist delusion with objective reality. We're on a kind of slider bar between the unthinkable and the unimaginable now; between the grim meathook future and the bright green future.It's about fifty minutes long, and a very interesting listen. Bruce has a preacher's fire in his words; rightly so considering his audience are the people he is speaking about, not just to.
Saturday's Headlines
>> STUFF SEX-ABUSE INQUIRY DEMANDED Child-welfare groups are demanding a full government investigation into institutional care in New Zealand to prevent a repeat of rampant sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and brethren at a Christchurch home for troubled boys. |
Macro-molestors asked to investigate micro-molestors.
>> NATIONAL NEWS GUARD ALLEGEDLY SMUGGLED VIDEOS The Corrections Department has started an internal investigation amid allegations that a female prison guard was caught smuggling pornographic videos into Christchurch Prison. |
Hey, at least they're not smuggling it out!
DRUG KINGPINS TARGETED People have had a gutsful of gangs and their illegal drug activity and police are out to stop the kingpins. |
What's this? So the police ARE going after Labour after all then?
MOTHER OF STABBED TEEN THREATENS LEGAL ACTION The mother of a Wanganui teenager stabbed through the heart is threatening legal action over a botched 111 call that she says could have saved her son's life. |
Law and order still getting the time and attention it deserves, even though it has to compete with so many other simply wonderful invasive Government hobbies.
Nice one Dom
Congratulations are in order for my co-blogger Dominic.
His Labour Government have managed to get away scot-free with over-spending more than .4 million dollars of taxpayer money on their re-election campaign. Remember that one, the one they only narrowly won?
Let's have a round of applause for Dominic and his party. Well done, well done.
No I'm not angry. Not as angry, at any rate, as many other right-thinking bloggers. After all, being a libertarian and a New Zealander is to bare witness to a seemingly endless flow of such blatent atrocities. This is not some isolated one-off incident at all! It has long been the very business of governments to rip off the taxpayer for their own self-serving goals. It's only that on this occasion the crime has been illegal, but those who are especially furious about that might improve the integrity of their consistency by applying their fury to the myriad of our Government's legal crimes.
3/17/2006
Hudson Leick
More thoughts on "powers that be" who think we mere mortals on the ground can't run our own lives with our own money.<--- This is actress-sex-goddess-babe-evil-fighter-bandit-Xena-nemisis Hudson Leick/Calisto. Xena: Warrior Princess, we all remember, was a ratings hit involving our own Lucy Lawless. The Yanks made it, I think, in West Auckland or some such. It was a fantasy TV show set in a fictional Ancient Greece.
Calisto was our heroine's, Xena's, arch-enemy. She fought with her sword, her sexuality, and her dirty and siniser mind games- always driven by her vengeful lust toward Xgirl. She was sort of a cross between a hateful Drew Barrymore and a horny Wolverine. Powerful performance. I wish I watched the show more now....but I digress.
Below is a picture of Leick on another show around about the same time Xena was still on, Touched By An Angel.
I used to watch both of these shows sometimes, but the latter, the one about angels rocking down from Heaven and fixing our lives, dropped off my watch list one day. That was the day Ms Hudson Leick first joined the show and just ruined it for me.
This time Hudson was an angel, teaming up with that red-head young-motherly girl with the Irish ling. And it made me angry!
In this episode the angels were to be doing their 'touching' at 10,000ft in the air. They were deployed, Mission Impossible style in place of mere earthly air hostesses. This was because the angels knew (by angelic powers, duh) that disaster on this flight was imminent. The plane was going to crash or hit a duck or some such. As far as I remember that was it. It was just an airborne human crisis with human fears that called for, not human compassion but the sort of relief that only the true powers that be could provide. High as it was, even this plain was subject to a higher power!
Yes, and that's when it became all too plain to me that the premise of this whole TV show was that people cannot run their own lives for themselves! It wasn't so obvious when the angels were dressed in flowing dresses or slacks in the suburbs. They just delt with families and individuals then, fixing their lives. But when they infiltrate, IMF style, an airline's cabin crew that gives the whole game away just blatently doesn't it? I didn't watch that show the same way again (if ever).
It makes me angry, it should make everybody angry! The self-styled powers that be storming in and taking the place of responsible adults is an affront to our dignity and an incentive to us not to develope the virtue. If an angel came down here and tried to usurp your moral efficacy you'd punch her in the nose! Why then, when, as in my previous post, it's Dominic's Liarbor Government (far from angels!) do we vote them into power instead?!
What've you got to say about that Dominic?
The Day I Tried To Live
Woke up. Read a chapter of "Speaker for The Dead." Sat at the desk, checked the nets.
The same as any other day, people are telling me how to live. Gosh, you'd think I'd'a lived long enough now to see that one comming.
Capitalism Bad and No Right Turn are all sad because Wayne Mapp's Employment Relations Amendment Bill is moving along, thanks to the Maori Party chipping in their votes. One of the things they complain about is how it provides a 90 day window for an employer to fire someone without recourse. Sounds fair to me! Employment should be flexible enough to cope with the ever-changing demands of the marketplace. The person who creates a position should have full discretion about who gets to fill it and not have to carry people who don't measure up. But the leftie blogs want to tell us how to live, make slaves of employers all for the sacred god of people having work.
Work!? If work were the answer to all our problems we could all just dig holes/fill them in ever other day, all day. That's work. That's jobs.
If a 90 day firing window (too short a season for me!) is unreasonable, I would like to know how Maia would like it if boyfriends and girlfriends weren't permitted to part once they'd been on a date? Shouldn't they get 90 days to decide if they want to be stuck together forever too? We don't have a law making them stick together, but if we did then Mapp's bill would be one asking for at least 90 days to break the relationship or forever hold their peace.
In other tell-us-how-to-live news, Rodney Hide bloggs that ACT were the only ones to oppose a law that would make (what?) sign language another official language. Official language! Good for ACT for opposing, but Rodney said it was on grounds of economics. Costing be damned! It’s liberty! A free market for transacting in language works for the same reason free markets always work! Language lives and changes today as it has long before anybody considered attempting to clamp laws on it. How vein these people are who think they can Canute-command our lives to make them better!
And then I got to the third thing. Three things and I blog.
On Stuff, Education Minister Steve Maharey has promised to use more tax money to combat bullying. Great, so the Government comes down to the playground into our lives and tells us how to live in yet another way. Instead of running our own lives and solving our own playground social problems and domestic conflicts the state is going to do it or, at best, be involved in our business. Their "help" will cost us and errode our responsibility to each other and it will cost us because we're funding their damned tampering.
Don't be getting me wrong now. I'm not against new employees (hell, I've had more casual jobs than pairs of socks!), I'm not against deaf people, and I'm not a patron to bullies. What I believe is that these things must never be the fodder for the abusive powers of state intervention, which causes great harm. Also, as far as solving these issues go it is imperitive that we deal with them on the personal level and not the Governmental level. Where we let Helengrad run our lives with our money we implicitly agree that they've got the right to do that and that we can't do it better for ourselves.
What kind of zombies have we become when we need to "dial 111-for-Government" to do what previous generations did naturally for themselves?
The same as any other day, people are telling me how to live. Gosh, you'd think I'd'a lived long enough now to see that one comming.
Capitalism Bad and No Right Turn are all sad because Wayne Mapp's Employment Relations Amendment Bill is moving along, thanks to the Maori Party chipping in their votes. One of the things they complain about is how it provides a 90 day window for an employer to fire someone without recourse. Sounds fair to me! Employment should be flexible enough to cope with the ever-changing demands of the marketplace. The person who creates a position should have full discretion about who gets to fill it and not have to carry people who don't measure up. But the leftie blogs want to tell us how to live, make slaves of employers all for the sacred god of people having work.
Work!? If work were the answer to all our problems we could all just dig holes/fill them in ever other day, all day. That's work. That's jobs.
If a 90 day firing window (too short a season for me!) is unreasonable, I would like to know how Maia would like it if boyfriends and girlfriends weren't permitted to part once they'd been on a date? Shouldn't they get 90 days to decide if they want to be stuck together forever too? We don't have a law making them stick together, but if we did then Mapp's bill would be one asking for at least 90 days to break the relationship or forever hold their peace.
In other tell-us-how-to-live news, Rodney Hide bloggs that ACT were the only ones to oppose a law that would make (what?) sign language another official language. Official language! Good for ACT for opposing, but Rodney said it was on grounds of economics. Costing be damned! It’s liberty! A free market for transacting in language works for the same reason free markets always work! Language lives and changes today as it has long before anybody considered attempting to clamp laws on it. How vein these people are who think they can Canute-command our lives to make them better!
And then I got to the third thing. Three things and I blog.
On Stuff, Education Minister Steve Maharey has promised to use more tax money to combat bullying. Great, so the Government comes down to the playground into our lives and tells us how to live in yet another way. Instead of running our own lives and solving our own playground social problems and domestic conflicts the state is going to do it or, at best, be involved in our business. Their "help" will cost us and errode our responsibility to each other and it will cost us because we're funding their damned tampering.
Don't be getting me wrong now. I'm not against new employees (hell, I've had more casual jobs than pairs of socks!), I'm not against deaf people, and I'm not a patron to bullies. What I believe is that these things must never be the fodder for the abusive powers of state intervention, which causes great harm. Also, as far as solving these issues go it is imperitive that we deal with them on the personal level and not the Governmental level. Where we let Helengrad run our lives with our money we implicitly agree that they've got the right to do that and that we can't do it better for ourselves.
What kind of zombies have we become when we need to "dial 111-for-Government" to do what previous generations did naturally for themselves?
3/16/2006
There's no rain
I retract and recant.
New Zealand does have our own special fish on the Yarra, a John Dory. I still haven't found it but I was listening to Tripple R (RRR) on the radio while I was along the bank last night. They said it was there and every country had a fish, so okay. RRR weren't being paid to be nice last night! They were taking the piss out of everything that happened and kept saying "quick, let off some more fireworks, the act is dieing!!"
And the baton did go along the river platforms, fish and all! I was sure they couldn't do that. If you look again at the picture I took [below] there is a little walkway through the guts of each platform. Those footy players had to walk in a narrow straight line though, that's for sure.
And the rain did not come! It still hasn't, although the cumulous cloud is heaping up now. I think now that it wont rain until tonight or perhaps dawn tomorrow. I was sure all hell was going to break loose and the sky would open up. What we did have was cold, it hasn't been this cold in Melbourne for ages.
Plenty of people along the banks, I watched the batton go past me on my way to work. The flags were nicely visable if you were high enough. Lots of people in the city too, not watching the action. It wasn't too badly congested though. The mood was special, but not as special as could have been hoped for.
At work we were expecting to be busy but then the council pulled the plug after pissing too many people off. Two people turned up to get their vehicles back, one was a games official and another was games security staff. Great planning ah? The people supposed to be making the games work were kept up to the early hours fighting each other yet all of us being in the right and doing the jobs the organisers wanted us to do!
New Zealand does have our own special fish on the Yarra, a John Dory. I still haven't found it but I was listening to Tripple R (RRR) on the radio while I was along the bank last night. They said it was there and every country had a fish, so okay. RRR weren't being paid to be nice last night! They were taking the piss out of everything that happened and kept saying "quick, let off some more fireworks, the act is dieing!!"
And the baton did go along the river platforms, fish and all! I was sure they couldn't do that. If you look again at the picture I took [below] there is a little walkway through the guts of each platform. Those footy players had to walk in a narrow straight line though, that's for sure.
And the rain did not come! It still hasn't, although the cumulous cloud is heaping up now. I think now that it wont rain until tonight or perhaps dawn tomorrow. I was sure all hell was going to break loose and the sky would open up. What we did have was cold, it hasn't been this cold in Melbourne for ages.
Plenty of people along the banks, I watched the batton go past me on my way to work. The flags were nicely visable if you were high enough. Lots of people in the city too, not watching the action. It wasn't too badly congested though. The mood was special, but not as special as could have been hoped for.
At work we were expecting to be busy but then the council pulled the plug after pissing too many people off. Two people turned up to get their vehicles back, one was a games official and another was games security staff. Great planning ah? The people supposed to be making the games work were kept up to the early hours fighting each other yet all of us being in the right and doing the jobs the organisers wanted us to do!
3/15/2006
Will it be a washout?
3 hours to go, and will it rain on the Opening Ceremony?
It's overcast and still and now a wind with that special certain something is blowing in from the North.
And the answer is "yes," it's going to piss down. I have a sense about these things, finely honed on the Canterbury Plains.
They're all gonna get wet. Oh shit, and me too.
It's overcast and still and now a wind with that special certain something is blowing in from the North.
And the answer is "yes," it's going to piss down. I have a sense about these things, finely honed on the Canterbury Plains.
They're all gonna get wet. Oh shit, and me too.
Bendigo Report
Things are warming up down the Yarra, I was there an hour ago. Cameras are being deployed, something new- little bubbled things (lights? cameras?) have been attached to the fish floats. And people have already taken up viewing positions. Not really very busy at 3:30pm, nothing like it's going to be latter tonight. I remember what New Year's was like. Poor Rick has to get through all that right in the thick of it all at 9pm because the city depot is charged with clearing the area of the running marathon tonight and is expected to be busy enough to call me in for extra manpower.
Meanwhile, here at Inner East HQ for towing there's bugger all going on. It's just the normal steady flow, I'm not being hit with heaps of council-sanctioned car impoundments. Not even Bridge Road is busy, which is what I was expecting to go nuts. Bridge Road runs up to the MCG and is the sort of place you might park if you were walking to the Opening Ceremony.
I think perhaps that Games staff are on patrol and warning people away from parking in the wrong places, therefore ruining the sport for the tow-truck drivers we've got out there.
These pics BTW are of Games venues in Bendigo, sent to me by my mate Kat who lives up there. Basketball and shooting are up her way.The top pic shows that the road is closed (not a main one thankfully) and that everyone has to catch a free shuttle-bus to the shooting venue.
The next pic shows one of the floodlights that are on all night to keep the basketball venue secure.
She also has a picture of where the "athletes" are staying. It's all fenced up, but it's rather boring so I'm not blogging that.
This last pic shows the enterance for the basketball. There are two doors, one for those with bags and one door for those without. You've got to have your bloody bags serached if you want to watch the Bendigo basketball.
Thanks Kat.
Rickguide: Opening Ceremony
It's all on thisevening. I'll be at work but watching it on TV with luck. Then again, I have to pass through the leftovers latter tonight to get to our city office so I might see some fallout. We're pulling extra hours at work because as a towing company we're part of getting events ready. Make sure nobody's parked where they're going to be in the way!
So, starting from Princess Bridge all the way along the 1km stretch known as 'Birrung Mar' we've got these 'fish' in the middle of the Yarra river as mentioned earlier.This is a picture of the end of the procession. The last fish is the English roach before this layer-cake dais. Last time I looked there was a gap between the Roach, the dais and a set of stairs leading up out of the water to the Swan st bridge. The MCG is just a little ways off to the right of this picture.
Along the banks there are these signs telling you about the kinda 'fish' you're seeing out there from your side of the river.These little signs wont mean bugger all tonight when the banks will be throbing with 600,000 people or so. Therefore, it must be intended that this fish business will be a permenant display for the course of The Games.
They're not to shoddy either, these fish. Must have cost an absolute shirt load for all the work that's gone into just this.
Allong the northern bank of the Yarra there are several towers of scaffolding spaced out. I would take it that these are for cameras to watch what happens below.
From what I've heard, the athletes (ours at any rate) play a small role in all this. They're out there for 27mins and that's inside the MCG itself. Like the Games at Turin there'll be all hooting and hollering and expensive nonsense in the name of art and then the athletes with their flags will hatch out smiling all the way.
The role the fishies and the flag platforms play is purely decorative. There's no chance of standing on them as the next pictures show.These are some shots a couple days ago of these flag-things out of the water. NZ has a flag but no fish-thing of our own. I couldn't make sense of the order, sure ain't alphabetical. But I now understand that they're grouped from start to finnish by continent. We're in the third quartile.
You can't see these flags from the banks at all, just the name on the side. They're clearly designed for the TV cameras from those towers and from helicopters above.As this picture shows, they're simply floating structures full of shiny reflective tin-foil with a flag stretched over the top like a drum. There can be no standing on them.
Ergo, all the jazz and kerfuffel will involve folks on boats juggling and dancing and throwing up fireworks making their way between the bridges. Then the athletes pop out, along with the help of CGA Assistents in some cases. Blogger Ruth Nossek, for example, gets to carry the flag for Botswana. Lucky girl!
And what this "giant flying tram" thing at the G is, I do not know. Probably no more than that!
Come to think of it, since fireworks are part of this thing it'll still being in full fling at 9pm when I'm trying to get from one depot office to the other. What fun I'll have trying to manage that...
Oh, and in other news I heard on Newstalk ZB that the Kiwi team are a bit pissed off that they have no feed of all these goings on tonight. They're just cooped up waiting to play their part and don't get to see anything of what comes before them. No TV for the athletes? They're not going to put it on the big screen at the MCG? Bit rough isn't it.
3/14/2006
Is it Aquaman?
Can somebody tell Radio Live it's the Commonwealth Games, not the Olympics?
Meanwhile....
Looks like the Australians are going to be swimming in suits eh? They look pretty good. They look a bit like comicbook superheros.
This kinda swimming suit jaz started out with Aussie super-swimmer Ian Thorpe (announced last week not to be competing) in the 2000 Olympics. I wonder if the idea has taken off anywhere else? Don't imagine there are any Kiwis dressed up this way, have to watch and see on Thursday.
One team that does it though is the Pakistani woman's team. It says in the Herald Sun today (cover above) that it's the reason they get to swim at all. Being Muslim, Pakistan never used to let women get involved. Showing off a woman's body like this is un-Islamic after all. However, thanks to the swimming-suits devout Muslim chicks are in the game. Good on them for that. If Islam was as bad as some would have us believe then it could easily suppress these girls from thinking up a compatable solution and, indeed, stop them from being able to petition for, and have their inclusion in, The Games granted. Yet here they are, devout Muslims and all.
Meanwhile....
Looks like the Australians are going to be swimming in suits eh? They look pretty good. They look a bit like comicbook superheros.
This kinda swimming suit jaz started out with Aussie super-swimmer Ian Thorpe (announced last week not to be competing) in the 2000 Olympics. I wonder if the idea has taken off anywhere else? Don't imagine there are any Kiwis dressed up this way, have to watch and see on Thursday.One team that does it though is the Pakistani woman's team. It says in the Herald Sun today (cover above) that it's the reason they get to swim at all. Being Muslim, Pakistan never used to let women get involved. Showing off a woman's body like this is un-Islamic after all. However, thanks to the swimming-suits devout Muslim chicks are in the game. Good on them for that. If Islam was as bad as some would have us believe then it could easily suppress these girls from thinking up a compatable solution and, indeed, stop them from being able to petition for, and have their inclusion in, The Games granted. Yet here they are, devout Muslims and all.
Bad news for WIN
The WIN Party of New Zealand and Geoff Mulvihill first came to my attention when party leader John van Buren featured in a a newspaper article reported on
NZB3 podcast #7.
I don't know why they call themselves "WIN" but they're a single-issue party (they deny this) that's all about the specific property right of 'smoke and let smoke' for any adult who wants to do it at no cost to anyone besides themselves.
According to the Herald Mr Mulvihill is a bit up shit creek now. After willfully resisting the "don't let people smoke in your own bar" rules his liquor licence for the Timaru Carlton Hotel is up for review. Sounds like he's not going to be renewed.
Sad news about that, since WIN are the greatest champions of liberty on this issue. But perhaps this is karma for not joining ACT or Libertarianz and shacking up with United Future instead ah?
3/13/2006
The Islam Issue
"Death to Destiny Church! "
"Death to Scouting New Zealand!"
"Death to Shinto!"
"Death to The Salvation Army
Death to St Stephens Anglican Church!"
"Death to St Bedes Colledge!!"
"Death to Parnell Christian Woman's Knitting Circle (meets every second Sunday at Jubilee Hall, bring your own wool and scones)!! Yahh!"
Just some of the possible Free Radical title-issues to come? Well why not!? If Lindsay Perigo's libertarian magazine can call for the death of Islam and the above possibilities, while perhaps not as urgent to Mr Perigo, are no less logical.
It was Mr Perigo and his 'Politically Incorrect' radio show that put me on to libertarianism and Objectivism. I used to think he was great but then silly ideas like this one cropped up. Of course he isn't calling for the death of people but for the death of a bad doctrine. However, it is not really Islam being referred to in these pages but, rather, Islamism.
Islam is culture, working machinery of everyday life that works for millions of families by keeping them safe and at peace in social cooperative local and international communities. We in the Western world once faltered into a Dark Ages and it was the Islamic world that took up the civilisation we passed away, added to it, and allowed us to take up our civilisation again hundreds of years latter. Some things about Islam could use improving but the same must be said for our own culture even though both serve us well enough.
Islamism, on the other hand, is the Ku Klux Klan of Islam, the crazy bastards going hyper-mental and blowing shit up all over the place. This is who The Free Radical should be directing vitriol against! That's who's really being written about, if unwittingly, but incorrectly being identified with Islam. You're attacking the wrong blokes Mr Perigo! Some Kiwi practitioner of Islam might be browsing the magazine rack and see the TFR's "death to Islam" jump out at him and be unjustly alarmed. He might even accept the TFR's false alternative and be forced to choose sides, throw his lot in with terrorisers.
Alexander Downer rightly said this at the end of last month,-
"To characterise this fight against terrorism as a fight against Islam is to invite not just a clash of civilisations but the broadening of support for terrorists."
I wonder if there's any TFR content about how to supplant Islam with an atheistic philosophy of reason? Not very likely. I think it's an exercise in yelling the words "Western" and "freedom" back at the people yelling "Jihad" at us rather than a project to improve the condition of civilisation.
Not Your Average Lawyer
Roundup was late and I only just caught this story from the Auckland High Court now,..
An Auckland jury made legal history yesterday when it convicted an Iranian wrestler of importing more than a million dollars worth of methamphetamine before any evidence was called in his trial.
Sounded very suss to me! Has the world gone mad? Well yes it has a bit but this is another story.
Seems that the lawyer in the Iranian's corner, based on the admissibility of some evidence, had his mind made up from the outset that the case wasn't a winner and there would have to be an appeal. But, and here's the not-average bit, instead of marking time and milking the client for his money, instead of fritting away court time and jury time they just stopped.
The defense lawyer and the judge pulled the breaks on time-wasting and dispensed with the traditionally inevitable bollocks by asking the jury at the outset to just say "guilty" so everybody could go home. And the jury did. That's the first time this has ever happened. I guess it was the lawyer's idea, so kudos to him and the judge ah? I guess they've read Bleak House or something and got the point and perhaps I was a bit mean about lawyers last week.
On the other hand, does this set the precident of admitting that "innocence" or "guilt" are play-things for practical economy and not true judgements of justice?
On the other hand, does this set the precident of admitting that "innocence" or "guilt" are play-things for practical economy and not true judgements of justice?
The law journals must be all abuzz. Was this such a good idea or not?
Very Hush-Hush
Things are going on.
Secret things.
Commonwealth Games Arrangements Act banned-from-reporting things.
There is a giant tram inside the MCG and there are dozens of 'fish' floating in the middle of the Yarra River. Things are getting ready for tomorrow, the details and pictures of which are not to be shared, hush-hush or the Victorian Government will get ya!
Anyway the ban is over now thanks, in part, to John Howard saying a ban like this was bullshit. Which it is! After all, anybody in town can see everything that's going on with their own two eyes!
There's a huge line of fish the whole way along the 1km of river between the Princess and Swan St bridges. I say 'fish' but in truth there's also a shrimp, a tortoise, a dolphin and a couple of whales out there.Each fish platform has two 'fish', one facing each side of the bank and representing a totem water animal from a Commonwealth Country.
New Zealand doesn't get to have a totem animal. Hmph.
Yesterday other platforms were put together and towed out between each fish. These platforms have all the flags of the Commonwealth on them. Whereas the fish wont look like much from above, these flags are essentially invisible from the banks. But you can read the name of the country on them, and I did ID the Enzed one.
The parade of animals terminates in a floating dais and a set of stairs out of the river, up to the Swan St Bridge. The MCG is just along the way from there.
The last fish before the dais is the Roach, representing England. I think Lewis Holden would appreciate that. :)
The Kiwis Have Landed
Ruth Nossek keeps a blog. She's a Commonwealth Games Association (CGA) Assistent, one of the local blue-garbbed volunteir staff. Ruth is support staff for the Botswana team, and they're New Zealand's neighbours at the Games Village.
She writes on her blog...
However, the village is now beginning to take on a life of its own. No longer is it just a shell ready to be occupied...
The NZ team have REALLY arrived. They have a very large contingency, and will be occupying a large block of houses near to the Botswana office (we share a Resident’s Centre with NZ and Scotland amongst others). Already their team officials (a fair number) have been ‘decorating’ each of the houses with large silver fern paintings hung outside for all to see. The NZ block is also covered with yellow signposts …
Good!
3/12/2006
Games On
Yeah, 18th Commonwealth Games is here in Melbourne BTW. I have noticed.
John Howard's down inspecting the premises, The Queen has landed in Canberra, odd goings on down the river, lots of volunteirs comming and going on the trains in their blue uniforms. And there were fighter jets above the CBD today too. Noisy.
When I was 3 years old the Games were in Brisbane. 1982. I can clearly remember from TV that there was a big kangaroo named Matilda. Her pouch opened up like a draw-bridge and lots of little (kangaroo?) people raced out to do things like jump up and down on trampolines. I was very impressed by the concept.
Matilda, BTW, now lives at Wet'n Wild. This is one of the big theme parks on the Gold Coast.
This whole Commonwealth Games jazz annoys me on several levels. For example, I don't like the State meddling in economic activity. On the other hand it is a nice internationalist event to have. But then again, it's going to bugger up our lives around here for the rest of the month. Although, it does give athletes a reason to exist. But I don't even like athletes because they're so often pushing a tiny part of their human potential at the greater expense of the whole!
So, my blogging about The Games for the next couple weeks is going to be as bi-polar as anything.
3/10/2006
Small Minds
Fantastic media coup in favour of The Libertarianz Party of New Zealand. The only bad publicity is good publicity, don't you know?
JulianP, speaking on the Census rebellion, ended up having his words twisted into their antithesis! Libertarians are the arch-enemies of racism. By what Socratic rhetorical spell did this quick-minded interviewer argue the libertarian into the racist corner?
It was a something along these sorts of lines...
Interviewer: But don't libertarians think the government should have a role in telling people what to think?
Libertarian: No. I don't like what you believe, but I defend to the death your right to believe it.
Interviewer: What if I believe in Christianity? In smoking cigarettes? That okay with you?
Libertarian: I have my own preferences for those things, but I'd never ask that they be forced on others.
Interviewer: Does this apply to racism also?
Libertarian: Yes it does. Real freedom is the freedom to be right AND the freedom to hold badly mistaken views.
Interviewer: Thankyou. And that concludes our interview with the Christian smoker racist.
News Headline: MoreFM, Northland: Libertarianz are racists! [mp3]
JulianP, speaking on the Census rebellion, ended up having his words twisted into their antithesis! Libertarians are the arch-enemies of racism. By what Socratic rhetorical spell did this quick-minded interviewer argue the libertarian into the racist corner?
It was a something along these sorts of lines...
Interviewer: But don't libertarians think the government should have a role in telling people what to think?
Libertarian: No. I don't like what you believe, but I defend to the death your right to believe it.
Interviewer: What if I believe in Christianity? In smoking cigarettes? That okay with you?
Libertarian: I have my own preferences for those things, but I'd never ask that they be forced on others.
Interviewer: Does this apply to racism also?
Libertarian: Yes it does. Real freedom is the freedom to be right AND the freedom to hold badly mistaken views.
Interviewer: Thankyou. And that concludes our interview with the Christian smoker racist.
News Headline: MoreFM, Northland: Libertarianz are racists! [mp3]
Capitalism Bad; Tree Pretty
There she goes again. Here also. Maia, our Kiwi Feminist friend from before has refused to learn.This time she's wondering why her tear-up-FHM-magazine and make-Motherhood-state-funded and I-hate-men philosophy isn't going down so well with the girls. Gee, that's a tough one.
She's also grappling with the question of what all this Feminism stuff really is anyway. Is it like environmentalism for society? Well I think I know, so I told her...
Feminismm is not a monolith, nor is environmentalism.
Some environmentalists focus entirely on the marine environment, some are tireless campaigners for global warming while other environmentalists are exposing it as a lie. So what is an environmentalist? What these various shapes and shades of environmentalist have in common is a concern (after their own fashion) for the environment (after their own conception thereof).
Feminism is the same way. There is no single feminist lense unless it is to look at the world through a masculine/feminine conflict discourse. In the course of championing this cause there is a major branch of feminism which engages in polylogism.
Polylogism- "Many logics." The idea that there is not one standard of logic for all but as many standards of understanding as there are minds in the universe.
I think the defeat of polylogism explains why some feminists have the 'fear of being called out as the frauds they feel they are' and the reason "that 30 years of calling sexist men out has got us precisely nowhere."
Modern capitalism has proven successful for both the masculine and the feminine, it has caused the errosion of class conflict and the waning of racism. It has been demonstrated for everybody more and more that there is one standard of justice, of reality, of truth, of rights for all. One standard of reason for all; Polylogism has passed away.
And that is why patriarchy discourse must also wither intelectually, and it is also the reason modern women cannot adhere to it and act on it without feeling the contradiction of the fraud.
Well, most modern women.
But let's hope Maia and co catch up with the rest of us some day soon.
Capitalism Bad; Tree Pretty: Many Stones Can Build An Arch; Singly None
3/09/2006
George Riesman
Well if No Right Turn looked stupid last week the latest from George Riesman blog todayhas them looking even more stoopid now!
I'm all about economics, and of all the economists and schools of economics to pick from I go with the Austrian School. George Riesman is the modern-day torch-bearer for the kind of economics I like best. It is the economics of capitalism, the economics of rights, the economics of freedom.
Economics is not about dry and dusty trade figures or exchange rates. Don't be to thinkin' that economics is just about prices and what the banks get up to, there's far more! Economics is about the whole of human action. Not only does Riesman write about how money comes and grows but, as an economist, he has to understand environmentalism as well.
He makes several excellent points about the pro-global warming "environmentalists," here's one...
They tell us that if we destroy our capacity to produce and operate tractors and harvesters, to can and freeze food, to build and operate hospitals and produce medicines, we shall secure our food supply and our health better than if we retain and enlarge that capacity.
He makes another point, one I hadn't considered before. I'm going to blog about it above latter on but click on his link above and you can read about it right away.
It's not that those who don't fall for "global warming" want to poision the air. We don't believe that's what's happening. But even if we did, we would sooner poision the air than poision the engines of industry: The sources of all the prosperity that's now, and all that's yet to come.
Meet Dr Meat
Dr Marc Wilson wrote back in response to yesterday's blog item...
Hiya Rick,
Golly! It warms my heart to know that my work has encouraged such debate (my thanks in particular to those who've taken the time to write me encouraging emails of the 'go back to the hole you came from' variety).
My position on the value of research such as that reported this morning is this - just because something is mundane and everyday, that does not mean that it is not worth investigating. Most people eat meat. Why? Most meat-eaters haven't even thought about it, and THAT is why I am interested. Might just as well ask straight people why they're heterosexual! We have a tendency to expect people who adopt a minority position to explain why they do so, without asking ourselves why the majority do something unthinkingly. At the same time the point of my research is not to link politics with diet - it's just the way that I do my research that allows me to do it :)
To soothe the savage beasts that question the value of their contribution to my salary - my research on diet is intended to allow a greater understanding of healthy diet decisions (meat consumption represents a single question out of many), or to understand a little about why people make the political decisions that they do. The fact that I tend to ask these questions at the same time means that I can have some fun and look at how they relate to each other - not that I'm actually intending to publish a paper on 'What your diet says about you!'
Deep in your hearts, you know the truth! When you go to a BBQ, who's standing around the fire, with a beer in hand? Of course masculinity is linked to meat-eating... It will come as no surprise, I'm sure, that meat-eating is associated (statistically, but not causally) with support greater NZ involvement in the Iraq war.
On that note,
Marc
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/psyc/staff/marc-wilson/index.aspx
P.S. Oh, and I am a committed meat-eater too :)
Hiya Rick,
Golly! It warms my heart to know that my work has encouraged such debate (my thanks in particular to those who've taken the time to write me encouraging emails of the 'go back to the hole you came from' variety).
My position on the value of research such as that reported this morning is this - just because something is mundane and everyday, that does not mean that it is not worth investigating. Most people eat meat. Why? Most meat-eaters haven't even thought about it, and THAT is why I am interested. Might just as well ask straight people why they're heterosexual! We have a tendency to expect people who adopt a minority position to explain why they do so, without asking ourselves why the majority do something unthinkingly. At the same time the point of my research is not to link politics with diet - it's just the way that I do my research that allows me to do it :)
To soothe the savage beasts that question the value of their contribution to my salary - my research on diet is intended to allow a greater understanding of healthy diet decisions (meat consumption represents a single question out of many), or to understand a little about why people make the political decisions that they do. The fact that I tend to ask these questions at the same time means that I can have some fun and look at how they relate to each other - not that I'm actually intending to publish a paper on 'What your diet says about you!'
Deep in your hearts, you know the truth! When you go to a BBQ, who's standing around the fire, with a beer in hand? Of course masculinity is linked to meat-eating... It will come as no surprise, I'm sure, that meat-eating is associated (statistically, but not causally) with support greater NZ involvement in the Iraq war.
On that note,
Marc
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/psyc/staff/marc-wilson/index.aspx
P.S. Oh, and I am a committed meat-eater too :)
3/08/2006
Liberty Fuel II
Here's another one from last night, this time from the Christchurch LibertarianzBy this particular preparation of your census form you don't get to combust the actual form. Nevertheless, this liberty manufacturing machine displays your liberty just as well as a Wellington firebreather or a Northland BBQ.
You put in the symbol of statist control at one end, and in just one simple step the machine manufactures liberty at the other end.
If the libertarian of pure heart looks very very closely between the gaps in the shredded form- and even then this only works every 6 years on nights like last night- you can actually see your liberty between those gaps.
Thanks Barry!
Ever get the feeling everyone was out to get you?
He's worried about Rodney... shit I'd be worried about the Soviets!!!
Sent to me by a spy, click image to enlarge. A rather unfortunate layout from NZHerald.co.nz on Friday last week. It'll be long gone now.
Yes, the worst thing in the world?
I was listening to yesterday's Watercooler podcast (made in Christchurch) as per usual. The lads have been sent in a nice little song called Lullaby For Lawyers by Steve Newman.
Starts off like this...
There are rats
There are bats
There are stinky, mangy cats
But the worst thing in the world is a lawyer!
And it just gets better and better from there! :)
A song like this, I thought it was written 100 years ago by Gilbert and Sutherland or the like. But no, written by Steve Newman alright. Seems to be the best song on his CD, which you can sample on the Steve Newman link above.
But if you want to listen to the whole thing (you do, you do!) go listen to the tail end of Watercooler's March7 podcast. You'll be glad you did.
Starts off like this...
There are rats
There are bats
There are stinky, mangy cats
But the worst thing in the world is a lawyer!
And it just gets better and better from there! :)
A song like this, I thought it was written 100 years ago by Gilbert and Sutherland or the like. But no, written by Steve Newman alright. Seems to be the best song on his CD, which you can sample on the Steve Newman link above.
But if you want to listen to the whole thing (you do, you do!) go listen to the tail end of Watercooler's March7 podcast. You'll be glad you did.
Liberty Fuel
There he is in the Libertarianz' answer to a suit, the 'Politically Incorrect' Tshirt. The rare treat of seeing your liberty shining by its own light and radiating its own heat: put match to the census!
More on what went down last night reported on JP and PC blogs.
Meat and Mushroom Clouds on Doves' Feet
DPF at Kiwiblog, and commenters, have been reacting to the work of Dr Marc Wilson of Victoria Uni (and his student/s).
The Dominion today reports on Wilson's latest work into social psychological factors influencing peoples' food preferences. DPF says....
An academic study on meat eating has found that a partial reason why men eat meat is to "express dominance or masculinity".
Silly me. I thought I ate meat simply because I enjoyed the taste. But what would I know.
Well, actually, yes! SILLY YOU! Likewise the commenters on Kiwiblog bemoaning the decline of accademic standards and relevance. I happen to think that Wilson's work in the persuit of knowledge is perfectly legit.
It's not the big and obvious things that shape the world, and not big and obvious things that remain to be discovered. Of course we eat meat to fuel our body and because it tastes great, that's as obvious as a lion's roar! Duh! Revolutionary ideas, such as Einstein's Special Theory of Relitivity come from looking more deeply into the little things. The subtle and commonplace assumptions we make about space and time, for example, when questioned, produced a revolution in physics and gave man the command of nuclear forces that changed the world.
From small things big things one day come. As Nietzsche expressed it, "It is the stillest words which bring the storm. Thoughts that come with doves' footsteps guide the world."
So there's your historical and philosophical defense Dr Wilson, what about a specific one for your work?
Since I'm rather taken with Michael Foucault (philosophy), Thornstein Veblen (economics), and Desmond Morris (anthropology) when it comes to social psychology I don't have any problems thinking about what value Wilson's work might bring. Instead though I'm going to email him this blog item and ask for his own answer to the blogosphere.
The Dominion today reports on Wilson's latest work into social psychological factors influencing peoples' food preferences. DPF says....
An academic study on meat eating has found that a partial reason why men eat meat is to "express dominance or masculinity".
Silly me. I thought I ate meat simply because I enjoyed the taste. But what would I know.
Well, actually, yes! SILLY YOU! Likewise the commenters on Kiwiblog bemoaning the decline of accademic standards and relevance. I happen to think that Wilson's work in the persuit of knowledge is perfectly legit.
It's not the big and obvious things that shape the world, and not big and obvious things that remain to be discovered. Of course we eat meat to fuel our body and because it tastes great, that's as obvious as a lion's roar! Duh! Revolutionary ideas, such as Einstein's Special Theory of Relitivity come from looking more deeply into the little things. The subtle and commonplace assumptions we make about space and time, for example, when questioned, produced a revolution in physics and gave man the command of nuclear forces that changed the world.From small things big things one day come. As Nietzsche expressed it, "It is the stillest words which bring the storm. Thoughts that come with doves' footsteps guide the world."
So there's your historical and philosophical defense Dr Wilson, what about a specific one for your work?
Since I'm rather taken with Michael Foucault (philosophy), Thornstein Veblen (economics), and Desmond Morris (anthropology) when it comes to social psychology I don't have any problems thinking about what value Wilson's work might bring. Instead though I'm going to email him this blog item and ask for his own answer to the blogosphere.
3/07/2006
NumeroNazis Have Their Day
March 7th, come at last. National census day.
And why are New Zealand's true patriots kicking up a fuss about that?
In Christchurch, Wellington, and in Northland libertarians are shredding or fire-breathing or BBQing their census forms, each after their own regional appetite! The same civil disobedience will be carried out nation-wide by many other libertarians. Are these people mad?
Yes! Mad about liberty though, that's all. And if you're not why not? Kiwis who see their liberty stolen away and quietly cooperate are not patriots, they're traitors! It can't be that everyone who bends to the census is a traitor, so it must be they don't see what's happening here and need to have it explained.
Protection of people and their property is the name of the game. It is a principle of law that our rights belong to us and not to those whose greedy hands can take them away. Everybody knows that (although we may argue about what those rights are).
Government and law are the organisation of that principle. Government is a desirable thing and if it would just stick to this, its business, then peace and order would be all we'd ever know.
A nation run like that would be so simple, tidy, quiet and non-oppressive. We'd have the most just and trasparent government anybody could ever think up. And nobody would have any political favours to quarrel over anymore because there would be no privilages avaliable to co-opt.
Unfortunately for New Zealand we have given ourselves a government that does things the other way around.
Census day comes around every five years, and every five years all the libertarians in the country refuse to cooperate for the above reasons. The reasons come to two main points that strike me above all others.
1. Families and households are forced into being tax collectors and accomplaces to beurocracy. The Government makes us help them farm us, makes us assist them in perfecting their plans for greedy hands to finger people and property that they have no right to touch. Libertarians refuse to cooperate with or be a part of this undertaking.
2. They're not asking, they're ordering. Even libertarians, who are jellous of their liberty, would lend a hand or an answer to anybody who needed one. But the character of assistance to others is completely transformed when it changes from being a freely chosen voluntary offering into a contribution you are ordered to follow so no harm will come to you. We libertarians, we don't take well to ultimatums like that either.
"I am not a number, I am a free man! I will not be stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered! My life is my own! -- Patrick McGoohan, The Prisoner
NumeroNazis have their day today, sticking their skewers through every Kiwi they can in order to make a huge national abacus out of us all. And they would have completely gotten away with it too if it weren't for those darn libertarians.
And why are New Zealand's true patriots kicking up a fuss about that?
In Christchurch, Wellington, and in Northland libertarians are shredding or fire-breathing or BBQing their census forms, each after their own regional appetite! The same civil disobedience will be carried out nation-wide by many other libertarians. Are these people mad?
Yes! Mad about liberty though, that's all. And if you're not why not? Kiwis who see their liberty stolen away and quietly cooperate are not patriots, they're traitors! It can't be that everyone who bends to the census is a traitor, so it must be they don't see what's happening here and need to have it explained.
Protection of people and their property is the name of the game. It is a principle of law that our rights belong to us and not to those whose greedy hands can take them away. Everybody knows that (although we may argue about what those rights are).Government and law are the organisation of that principle. Government is a desirable thing and if it would just stick to this, its business, then peace and order would be all we'd ever know.
A nation run like that would be so simple, tidy, quiet and non-oppressive. We'd have the most just and trasparent government anybody could ever think up. And nobody would have any political favours to quarrel over anymore because there would be no privilages avaliable to co-opt.
Unfortunately for New Zealand we have given ourselves a government that does things the other way around.
Census day comes around every five years, and every five years all the libertarians in the country refuse to cooperate for the above reasons. The reasons come to two main points that strike me above all others.
1. Families and households are forced into being tax collectors and accomplaces to beurocracy. The Government makes us help them farm us, makes us assist them in perfecting their plans for greedy hands to finger people and property that they have no right to touch. Libertarians refuse to cooperate with or be a part of this undertaking.
2. They're not asking, they're ordering. Even libertarians, who are jellous of their liberty, would lend a hand or an answer to anybody who needed one. But the character of assistance to others is completely transformed when it changes from being a freely chosen voluntary offering into a contribution you are ordered to follow so no harm will come to you. We libertarians, we don't take well to ultimatums like that either.
"I am not a number, I am a free man! I will not be stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered! My life is my own! -- Patrick McGoohan, The Prisoner
NumeroNazis have their day today, sticking their skewers through every Kiwi they can in order to make a huge national abacus out of us all. And they would have completely gotten away with it too if it weren't for those darn libertarians.
3/04/2006
Around the traps
Adventures in the blogosphere this week...
David Farrar at Kiwiblog has blogrolled us without us having to even ask. Most pleased.
Impressed that Gen XY got their 'Animal House' [Ed- Bachelor Party] parody displayed in parliament. Still think issue makes an unfortunate display of our concern for muckraking vs real Kiwi life/death issues. But their Benson-Pope-On-A-Rope is pretty damn funny.
Pointed out on New Zeal that Benson Pope in the girl's dorm might have been a championing refutation that the highest authority and power in our society is that of a woman's body over a man ( paper beats rock). Oswald Bastable pointed out however that a bag of wetas could have cleared the dorm room and spared Pope his troubles (scissors beat paper). But man, unlike woman, is not afraid of the weta (rock beats scissors). An entire philosophical conception of the world emerges from this which clears alot of things up I suspect.
Came out in support of 'Fred Dagg Diplomacy' on The Whig. Reckon diplomacy should be done with ideas and words, not 'conspicious consumption'. If exporters want to put the razzle dazzle on foreign markets they can do it themselves, without the taxpayer provided in-house bloody chefs.
The only podcasts I listen to anymore, Shire Network News and the Voice Booth ones were both featured exclusively in Managing Information Strategies magazine, MIS.
Not PC said "Rick, that is possibly the most intelligent thing I have ever heard you say. Take a bow." Stoaked.
Idiot/Savant chickened out on discussing global warming on No Right Turn so I told him I'd have to go for a drive around the block a few times to cheer myself up.
"Never apologise for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologise for the truth ~ Benjamin Disraeli." Saw and stole this quote from Chaos Theory so I put it on my MSN byline. Just about everybody I chat to found it apropos and copied it for themselves.
David Farrar at Kiwiblog has blogrolled us without us having to even ask. Most pleased.
Impressed that Gen XY got their 'Animal House' [Ed- Bachelor Party] parody displayed in parliament. Still think issue makes an unfortunate display of our concern for muckraking vs real Kiwi life/death issues. But their Benson-Pope-On-A-Rope is pretty damn funny.
Pointed out on New Zeal that Benson Pope in the girl's dorm might have been a championing refutation that the highest authority and power in our society is that of a woman's body over a man ( paper beats rock). Oswald Bastable pointed out however that a bag of wetas could have cleared the dorm room and spared Pope his troubles (scissors beat paper). But man, unlike woman, is not afraid of the weta (rock beats scissors). An entire philosophical conception of the world emerges from this which clears alot of things up I suspect.
Came out in support of 'Fred Dagg Diplomacy' on The Whig. Reckon diplomacy should be done with ideas and words, not 'conspicious consumption'. If exporters want to put the razzle dazzle on foreign markets they can do it themselves, without the taxpayer provided in-house bloody chefs.
The only podcasts I listen to anymore, Shire Network News and the Voice Booth ones were both featured exclusively in Managing Information Strategies magazine, MIS.
Not PC said "Rick, that is possibly the most intelligent thing I have ever heard you say. Take a bow." Stoaked.
Idiot/Savant chickened out on discussing global warming on No Right Turn so I told him I'd have to go for a drive around the block a few times to cheer myself up.
"Never apologise for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologise for the truth ~ Benjamin Disraeli." Saw and stole this quote from Chaos Theory so I put it on my MSN byline. Just about everybody I chat to found it apropos and copied it for themselves.
3/03/2006
Great Minds
That's interesting. Cox and Forkum and Tremain have produced nearly the same cartoon within 48hrs. Great minds, they say, think alike.
3/02/2006
Stranger Than Fiction
When media fight! Kiwiblog has all the links.The Independent reports that TVNZ and TV3 peeps got into a bar fight with each other on Friday!
This is just the sort of thing written about by such thinkers on human nature as Thornstein Veblen and Desmond Morris.
We are, they would say, the same territorial and violent savages humans ever were. Yes, it's a jungle of concrete and steel. Yes our furs are Armani suits. Yes our tribal call is a nation-wide broadcast. But we're still apes acting out the same play for all that. It's just that the costumes, the set, and the script writing has become more sophisticated.
I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. That which is crooked cannot be made straight; and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.- Solomon
Of course this is bullshit. Veblen is especially seductive, and entertaining, but his savage philosophy can't counter the optimistic assurances of Objectivism. And poor old Solomon, he could have written a much more chipper Bible page if he'd had a dose of Ayn Rand.
3/01/2006
Say no more
I think I'll spare the Rand and the Mill.
If my 'toon doesn't explain what you ought to know
You can tell me all about it on the link below....
What better rebuttal to Dominic's item could I waffle?
If my 'toon doesn't explain what you ought to know
You can tell me all about it on the link below....
What better rebuttal to Dominic's item could I waffle?
Dominic's Theory of Labour Relations
On March 7th....
I don't need Claton Cosgrove's permission to be a New Zealander.
I don't need Claton Cosgrove's census forcing me to tell him I am.
I don't need to fill in a census at all if I'm free.
I don't live in New Zealand this time 'round so it's a tad moot...but if YOU do, and you want the rare treat of seeing your liberty shining by its own light and radiating its own heat: put match to the census.
Silentrunning Murray, you are missin' the point.
[update- gave MurrAy his a]
