BDS Movement Debate | Oxford Union
26 Oct 2018 Leave a comment
in discrimination, International law, law and economics Tags: Israel
Alan Dershowitz on why Noam Chomsky deserves a Nobel Prize in lying
26 Oct 2018 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, International law, law and economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Hamas, Israel, Middle-East politics, Noam Chomsky
Joan Robinson was a useful idiot on North Korea too
26 Oct 2018 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, Marxist economics, Public Choice Tags: fall of communism, North Korea, useful idiots
The Supreme Court’s Next Climate Change Case?
26 Oct 2018 Leave a comment
Phil Goldberg writes at RealClearPolicy The Supreme Court’s Next Climate Change Case? Excerpts in italics with my bolds.
The U.S. Supreme Court is about to get a look at the latest attempt by environmentalists and their political allies to bypass legislatures and use the courts to enact their climate-change agenda. So far, they have sued America’s energy producers in hopes of having judges, not regulators, set carbon emission limits and making energy producers pay for local infrastructure projects to deal with the impacts of climate change. As the Progressive Policy Institute has explained, selling fossil fuels is not illegal, and sensible people on both sides of the aisle have long agreed that these actions have no foundation in the law.
Indeed, this litigation has already percolated up to the U.S. Supreme Court once. In a unanimous ruling authored by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Court made it clear that…
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#AllahisGay” 🕋 Pride Day in Vancouver, Canada 🏳️🌈
26 Oct 2018 Leave a comment
in economics of religion Tags: free speech, political correctness
Rawls’s Distributive Justice | Political Philosophy with Jason Brennan
26 Oct 2018 1 Comment
in Rawls and Nozick Tags: distributive justice
Words to Remember About Equality and Freedom
25 Oct 2018 Leave a comment
Here’s another of those things well said, that need to be remembered. It comes from William Voegeli’s book The Pity Party: A Mean-Spirited Diatribe Against Liberal Compassion.
Economist Dierdre McCloskey calculates that in “the countries that most enthusiastically embraced capitalism” some two hundred years ago, real, per capita economic growth has increased by 1 .5 percent annually. Owing to the miracle of compound interest, this increase has meant a 19-fold increase in living standards over the past two centuries, which, she contends, is a “change in the human condition” that “ranks with the first domestications of plants and animals and the building of the first towns” McCloskey argues that this enormous economic result had a cause that was cultural rather than economic. Humans did not suddenly become more acquisitive or creative. Rather, “when people treat the marketers and inventors as having some dignity and liberty, innovation takes hold. The new
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WORST PITCH OF ALL TIME – JAMAICA 1998 West Indies v England 1st test
25 Oct 2018 Leave a comment
in cricket
Rejoinder to @TVNZ reply to @BSA_NZ complaint
25 Oct 2018 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality
My rejoinder is TVNZ is so sloppy with the facts that it is spent most of its reply on the exemption in cases of where paternity is uncertain or disputed. That has nothing to do with my complaint about their failure to mention in their broadcast the exemption in the case of threats of violence.
To support their reply, TVNZ attached a rambling paper from Auckland action against poverty and a Herald op-ed about the need to have a lawyer’s letter. TVNZ misread the rambling Auckland action for poverty document with talks about needing a lawyer to get the exemption lifted. This is different to when first applying for the benefit. The New Zealand Herald op-ed is unclear about which exemption is under discussion: for threats of violence or for disputed paternity.
TVNZ interviewed the minister about the exemption but put none of the activist allegations to her according to the attached official information response of TVNZ. An opportunity lost for balance.
I put the allegation that a lawyer is required to apply for the exemption in case of threats of violence through official information requests to the Minister and her ministry. Both the Minister and the ministry said that was not so: a lawyer is not required to apply for the exemption. The Ministry also explained that benefit applicants are interviewed by the case manager and briefed on their options.
TVNZ included the link https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/core-policy/child-support/carer-unable-to-provide-written-proof-of-the-risk-of-violence.html
I clicked on the link Exempting section 70A reductions https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/core-policy/child-support/exempting-section-70a-reductions.html and then clicked on Risk of Violence link https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/core-policy/child-support/risk-of-violence-01.html and then clicked on Carer required to provide proof of risk of violence link https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/core-policy/child-support/carer-required-to-provide-proof-of-the-risk-of-violence.html
The above screenshot lists all the 3rd parties who are credible witnesses. TVNZ had to go through these links to find the link Carer unable to provide written proof of the risk of violence at https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/core-policy/child-support/carer-unable-to-provide-written-proof-of-the-risk-of-violence.html
Sole parent beneficiary applicants are not asked for a letter from a lawyer as claimed by TVNZ. The link supplied in the TVNZ reply says applicants are advised to speak to a family violence coordinator or a service centre manager at WINZ. TVNZ is convicted by the information it supplied to the BSA.
In summary, TVNZ never mentioned the exemption on air. When I complained, it relied on allegations from activists that were never put to the Minister or her ministry despite opportunities to do so in an interview with the Minister. In the reply to the complaint, TVNZ provided written proof to the BSA from WINZ that applicants are advised to speak a family violence coordinator or a WINZ service centre manager if they are having trouble documenting the threats or abuse. The link provided by TVNZ shows there is no requirement for a letter from a lawyer. The exemption was never mentioned on air nor its purported shortcomings. The claim that TVNZ did not need to mention the exemption because it was unworkable because of the need to hire a lawyer has no foundation in fact and was never put to the minister or WINZ for comment and balance.
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