The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule. – H.L. Mencken
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule. – H.L. Mencken
![]() Perspective is everythingPosted by Michael Conaghan on 5th May 2012 10:55pmHere Rory Sutherland argues that the circumstances of our lives may matter less than how we see them. At TEDxAthens, he makes a compelling case for how re-framing and the importance of choice is the key to happiness. Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian School of Economics get a substational 'shout-out' early in the 13th minute but you should watch the whole presentation.
Brisbane City Council ElectionsPosted by Michael Conaghan on 30th April 2012 4:42pmOn Saturday the citizens of Brisbane visited polling booths to elect their 'representatives'. Up for grabs in the local city election were Major, and numerous councillor positions for the various wards. The end result was that Graham Quirk from the LNP was re-elected Mayor of Brisbane. The Liberal-National Party extended their lead by three seats to hold 18. The ALP holds five, an Independent one, and two (Northgate and Deagan) currently hang in the balance. It is also interesting to note that, "Tennyson Ward voters have ushered in Brisbane City Council's first independent councillor in 60 years. Councillor Elect Nicole Johnston ruffled LNP feathers when she quit the party in her first term going on to develop an extremely inharmonious relationship with Lord Mayor Graham Quirk." Unimpressed with being forced to vote, some entrepreneurial minds got creative.
Toe the party line, all the timePosted by Michael Conaghan on 28th April 2012 12:59am
I didn't watch this clip, but I'm sure it's great.
Counterfeit cash found in NSWPosted by Anthony Coralluzzo on 22nd April 2012 10:37pmThe Australian reports that counterfeiters are at-large!!
I'm glad the police are now pursuing counterfeiters as I recently put together my own crack team of investigators, and we managed to track down two of the biggest counterfeiting centres in this country.
The problem appears to be a bit bigger than $240 dollars.
UPDATE: We managed to photograph one of the perpetrators. ABC brainwashing children via gamesPosted by Anthony Coralluzzo on 22nd April 2012 5:55pmWe all remember the infamous Planet Slayer game that the ABC was forced to take offline a few years ago, but that hasn't stopped the ABC from continuing the practice of using web games to brainwash children.
... and "Fergus on Ice", where you must save precious Antarctica from melting away, and avoid the wicked black jelly beans. Say ... I wonder if those black jelly beans might represent carbon dioxide?
Granted, it is far more subtle, however is there any doubt the ABC will, at some point, produce another outrage like Planet Slayer, that they hope will remain under the radar?
Red Ted spends $2m on media watchPosted by Anthony Coralluzzo on 22nd April 2012 12:10amThe recent Queensland elections prove that there exist alot of deluded people in Australia who think the Liberal Party is the answer to the extreme statism of the Labor Party. You wonder how on earth that is possible when the leaders of this Party, in the two most populous states, are Barry O'Farrell and "Red Ted" Baillieu...
Audit the RBAPosted by Sukrit Sabhlok on 7th April 2012 12:07pmMost central banks are staffed by unelected bureaucrats. They are considered outside the realm of political control. The Treasurer, no matter how much he may disagree, is bound by convention not to interfere with the monetary policy decisions of the bank. This state of affairs has insulated them from accountability. Parliament does not control the Reserve Bank of Australia’s budget, as it does for the High Court. Full disclosures of monetary policy dealings domestically and internationally are not accessible. The RBA’s exemption from Freedom of Information laws prevents the public from finding out the extent of its relationships with external actors. Like the Fed, no parliamentary committee truly oversees every aspect of its decision-making, meaning it is probably more secretive than the Australian Security Intelligence Service. Sports welfare in the greatest sporting nation on earth?Posted by Anthony Coralluzzo on 4th April 2012 9:46pmI like Soccer. I like Aussie Rules. However, the idea that it is the role of government to fund sports, is deeply offensive. Surely Australia - the greatest sporting nation on earth - doesn't need government handouts for sport. Nevertheless, at a time when we are trying to pay down a massive federal debt, Prime Minister Julia Gillard today announced that a massive $8 million tax-payer dollars will go to soccer in Western Sydney.
The evil that government is capable ofPosted by Anthony Coralluzzo on 2nd April 2012 1:37pmModern life in the West has left us complacent with regard to the true evil of which the state is capable. A sickening photo of a coercively aborted foetus has emerged from China. I won't embed the photo but I have linked to it here. The story behind the photo is all too familiar in China. A woman is kidnapped by bureaucrats, drugged, and her child aborted. The Epoch Times describes a case from 2009 in which the mother also died:
Such a case ought to remind us of the evil that the state, and its most ardent advocates, are capable of. Such barbarism is not confined to countries like China. One-child polices have been advocated by prominent people and publications in every Western country:
In addition, academics at the University of Melbourne have argued that legalised abortion should be extended to make the killing of newborn babies permissible, even if the baby is perfectly healthy. We must remember that totalitarian policies, on par with coercive abortion, are far from being unheard in the West. In the early 20th century, over 30 state governments in the United States implemented forced sterilisation laws. Thousands were sterilised against their will, and in some states the practice continued into the 1970s. The most prominent country to implement forced sterilisation was, of course, Nazi Germany. The Nazis took the further step of implementing forced euthanasia, via their T4 program.
Using race to further the statePosted by Anthony Coralluzzo on 2nd April 2012 12:19pm
Mises said ...
Race and class are, however, the very differences played up in popular culture, and indoctrinated via public schooling. Hence statists so ably use them as a means to artificially divide the people and further their philosophy. In playing-up the specific case of Trayvon Martin - one of many homicides that occur daily in the United States - the media even go so far as to use a novel phrase - "white Hispanic" - in describing the race of the shooter George Zimmerman, who, like Obama, has one "white" parent and one non-white parent. If George Zimmerman is racially classified as "white-Hispanic", is Barack Obama himself not "white-African"? And yet, have you ever heard Mr Obama described in that way?
Statists deceive by indoctrinating the idea that the enemy is always something other than the state. If people are focused on race and economic stratum (think 99% demagogy) they lose focus of the true and common enemy of all the people: the state. Don't be deceived. |