Edutainment

Keynes Versus Hayek; Second Round

Hat tip: Tom Woods

Who said...

"Tradition may be defined as an extension of the franchise. Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our groom; tradition asks us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our father."

G K Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Big laughs for the Austro-Libertarians

George Soros: what a cock. Courtesy of Tom Woods, we glimpse through a window into the man's ignorance.

Soros said, “Friedrich Hayek is generally regarded as the apostle of a brand of economics which holds that the market will assure the optimal allocation of resources — as long as the government doesn’t interfere. It is a formalized and mathematical theory, whose two main pillars are the efficient market hypothesis and the theory of rational expectations.

“This is usually called the Chicago School, and it dominates the teaching of economics in the United States.”

There may be some readers who don't get why that's funny. Tom will explain...

Meanwhile in the Evil Union...

The Telegraph carries a report on our would-be gauleiters plans to erect an iron curtain around the European internet. Much like the infamous 'Anti-Fascist Defence Wall' that divided Berlin for many decades, the new totalitarians will claim their action is to protect us. According to the story, no one is available to comment on behalf of the Borg, because they're all on holiday. I doubt that - their malice never sleeps.

Gorgeous

Didn't she look lovely!

UPDATE - Puddlecote says it well

Gun stuff, I think

I looked up one of my favourite You Tube channels, 'Liberty in our Time', and this is on the front page, so let us see...

"Justice being taken away," wrote St. Augustine centuries ago, "what are kingdoms but vast robberies?" In this detailed presentation, investigative journalist William Norman Grigg documents the emergence of a global "Robber State" in which police power is perverted into an instrument of oppression, and the forces of organized terror and plunder prey upon the rights of all people. Filmed in 1999 and produced by The John Birch Society.

My first post chez Orphans

As noted below, I am contributing to a new multi-author blog, Orphans of Liberty, and my first post is now visible, entitled; 'Fighting the Brussels Squid and its crooked corporate control-freakery'.

A radical departure? Perhaps not.

Orphans of Liberty

A joint venture by various voices with varied views, here united under one banner – the defence of liberty.

Whatever label, be it libertarian, conservative, liberal or none of the above; whether we base our claims on Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights, the Natural Law according to Aquinas, Grotius, Locke and the rest, or take a rationalist utilitarian view on what works and what assuredly does not, the battle must be joined against our political foes, including:

the EU state and those in our own government who support and further its agenda;

the seemingly-inexorable aggrandisement of state interference in our private lives, so much so that almost nothing is left private at all;

the noxious fumes of these viscious but lumbering brutes, as their control-freak minions, the massed clip-board sadists at their command, fan out across our economy and society, an evil root takes hold, thrusting up vile invasive vegetation, proliferating legislation, where no rules or few were thought needed, now these are legion. Examples abound, and nary a mention of this gathering storm of oppression from our guardian gate-keepers in the mainstream media.

Here, then, is our defiance. Read, engage, enjoy!

Worse than a chocolate teapot

The police sure are tough, when confronting a law-abiding, terminally ill victim of crime. Pity they do fuck all about the criminals who aggressed against her property and threatened her, but they were 'travellers', and for the politically-minded bobbies, it's racist to apply the law to them, hence in their frustrated desire to do something, they raid the victim and steal her shotguns, and, in the modern style, they do it at 3.15 in the morning.

Elsewhere in Daily Mail Land, the brave bobbies leap into action to arrest a pub singer for offending a Chinese passer-by with a rendition of 'Kung Fu Fighting'. On this occasion we learn; "‘The law is the law and it was their duty [to act]", but not in the case of theft, criminal damage and threatening to cut someone's throat.

A simple case, clearly stated: Down with Brussels!

Farage on Finnish TV, back in February 2011: a good, concise, summary of the case for this country's sovereignty against the vile EU conspiracy. Also, here is a speech Farage gave during the same trip.

Orphans of Liberty: a new blogging venture

Today marks the launch of a new multi-author blog, named (at present, contrary to my vote!) Orphans of Liberty. It has arisen due to various discussions about the way forward for me and other bloggers of a similar ilk, with James Higham and Longrider taking the lead. I have just submitted my inaugural post, and I am hoping that the new site will be a great success, and will be doing what I can to make it so.

I intend to keep my own blog ticking along, but I am notoriously bad at multi-tasking, and as blogging is a labour of love rather than remuneration, I expect it will take a while for me to work out how to do both.

Graham Watson MEP: scum

Earlier I was listening to Lord Monckton on the Alex Jones Show, telling the tale of Jason McGoldrick, grabbed in the middle of the night by the Stasi Soca and bundled off to a prison in Hungary, where he was kept for four months without any charge, until he was released, due to pressure from the UKIP MEP William Dartmouth. It's not hot off the press, but here's a good compare and contrast of the traitorous Lib Dem Nazi MEP Graham Watson, who boasts of his part in implementing the European Arrest Warrant and one of his victims.

Tumbrils - roll!

Fuck you, Graham Watson MEP. You dare mention the Rule of Law. Man, you better fear the Rule of Law if it returns to this country. Breaking in doors in the middle of the night, hauling people off to foreign jails, holding them without charge is nothing to do with the Rule of Law - but may it be visited on your head! May you reap what you sowed!

Is this security, or just putting all your eggs in one, government-approved basket

I don't like the look of this. The calming voice tells me it's all voluntary, but I suspect that's merely for the initial period. Besides, as the title question poses, where is the guarantee that somebody's one ID doesn't get stolen or misused? Also, what happens it gets switched off for whatever reason? All of a sudden you don't exist: the computer says no.

The governments of the world keep muscling in on information technology, usually by trying to scare us about terrorists, criminals and sexual deviants, but I'm still far more wary of the governments. I know there are bad people out there, but I also know some of them are within the system I'm told is to protect me.

Hat tip: Infowars

Hazlitt for the hard of reading

Here are the first two chapters of Henry Hazlitt's 'Economics In One Lesson', the second being his take on The Broken Window Fallacy, so well-described by Bastiat, and so widely-subscribed to amongst the court economists.

Chapter One: The Lesson

Chapter Two: The Broken Window

I must express my thanks to the reader, Dare, whoever and wherever he is. He has also done Chapter Three. Also of interest is this essay by Lew Rockwell, contrasting Hazlitt with John "Snake-Oil" Keynes. Hat tip for pic and essay: Economic Noise.com . Various books by Hazlitt can be found here at Mises.org in the Literature section.

Ron Paul at the NH Institute of Politics

Rep. Ron Paul speaks at the NH Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College, Manchester, NH, on the 15th April 2011.

"Andrew Withers ate my hamster"

Independent politician Andrew Withers is engulfed in an internet storm, following damaging allegations that he's actually a member of a fringe political party, and that, in the midst of a red wine-fuelled binge, he swallowed his host's beloved pet rodent.

Wiping tears from her eyes, Anna explains: "Poor little Elpuck. I still clean out his cage every week, although he's never coming back. Andrew promised to replace him 'by next Tuesday', but that was some time ago."

Mr Withers has dismissed the story as nonsense, stating: "Euh, moi, je m'en fous. Elle est folle, cette fille. Je n'ai jamais touché son rat".

David Deutsch contra AV

Still undecided. Still nothing appealing on the menu.

Hat tip: Samizdata

How many pages are in the UK tax code?

Courtesy of this post at The Last Ditch, I have learnt the answer: 11,520 pages (or about half as long as this 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary), and it doubled under New Labour.

Burn it I say, and make Gordon Brown eat the ashes.

LPUK members: the apposite clause...

... of the Party Constititution is:

11: Special General Meetings

11.1 The NCC may, at any time, call a Special General Meeting, hereinafter referred to as a "SGM"
11.2 Attendance at a SGM is open to all non-suspended Party members only
11.3 The NCC shall
(a) give notice of the date and place of the "SGM" to members at least four weeks before the intended date;
(b) set the entire agenda for the SGM
11.4 At a SGM
(a) only attending Party members will be entitled to vote;
(b) a two thirds majority of those voting will be required for a vote to be carried.

Any time after the 16th of May is fine with me.

Join my party!

Ah, minor parties, doncha just luv em...

Everyone seems to have forgotten the old maxim 'no publicity is bad publicity'. The Libertarian Party of the United Kingdom has knocked along for a couple of years without making much impression. Now a golden opportunity has arisen to raise the party's profile. No, not the Rally against Debt, but instead the emergency investigation into the party's leader, following very damaging allegations from blogger Anna Raccoon.

I feel like I shouldn't leap to judgement on the matter, not knowing the full facts, and while an investigation is going on. Besides, there's no need, as so many people have already done so.

Personally, I never joined the party believing it was going to win elections, at least not before some kind of major political earthquake or mass die-off scenario. Rather, I saw it and still do as a way to meet other libertarians, advance the ideas and build the presence of libertarianism in our society, alongside many other organisations and institutions in this country and around the world. I didn't see the choice as between joining the Libertarian Party or else UKIP or Tory or Lib Dem etc, but rather joining this party or not joining any party. The opportunity cost (by which I mean what I gave up by joining) was negligible. The only thing it prevented me from joining was another party.

Since doing so, my only activity qua member has been to blunder into the annual meeting two hours late, and go drinking with various people in Southwark, people who I find interesting and worthwhile to meet and discuss matters with. I have also in the same time attended a few LA events and met some good people. There will be those who will think 'well, that's hardly likely to advance the cause, is it?', to which I reply, firstly it's long been the tradition for radicals to meet in taverns, drinking and plotting, the ghosts of libertarians past will not necessarily be proud, but they'll hardly be able to judge! Secondly, as I alluded above, it is important for libertarians to meet other libertarians and build some kind of movement, if only to keep these ideas alive!

In the fallout of this blow-up, I do not begrudge the schadenfreude that many politically-minded non-libertarians will be feeling. Enjoy yourselves.

But to my fellow libertarians: The party is only a means to an end. That end is to bring forth a more libertarian society. The party is a vehicle for these ideas. Yes, I know, it's got a flat tyre, but do you abandon a vehicle because of a mere puncture? If all the libertarians who originally joined were back in the party, rather than drifting away one by one, maybe you all could help make it what you originally wanted it to be. If this business drives a dagger through its heart, which it easily could, we're just back to square one, and we will have wasted an opportunity.

I shall for the moment keep my opinions and comments about revolvers and bottles of whisky to myself, and I shall certainly be attending the next meeting in Southwark. It promises to be very interesting.

That dumb referendum part II

Talk about underwhelming. Now both sides have pissed me off, I have come up with what I expect to be my official position:

Spoiling the ballot; scrawling something about the hated EU and what happened to that referendum?

As before, contrary thinkers are welcome to debate me. There's still time to change my mind. Every vote counts, after all.

One of my favourite patriots

I'm not writing much tonight, so I'll post 'Revolution' by Aimee Allen. She's one of us, you know, and she ain't no summer soldier nor sunshine patriot (you can tell that from her coat).

And as below, here's something else completely: Lou Reed - 'Dirty Boulevard'. The connection is they're both great.

Fulfillment

I was sitting in the pub the other lunchtime, and asked the barman what I was listening to, and it Sheryl Crow, and I vowed there and then I would put a tune of her's up on my blog.

If only everything I ever vowed as as easy to accomplish. Never mind, here's something related only tangentally: 'Last thoughts on Woody Guthrie'.

Tom Woods defends Ron Paul

"Don't like Joe Biden OR Mitt Romney? You're a crank." So goes the message from Salon Magazine, as paraphrased by Tom Woods. Here's the resource page he mentions.

The Laffer Cliff

The other day I noticed for the first time in a while the cost of a packet of 20 cigarettes. De-sensitised as I am to the voracious greed of HM Government, aided and abetted by the shrieking harpies of by the Puritan Front, I was still shocked. I can’t imagine anyone paying that for a packet of cigarettes, and I expect a drop in sales will ensue, to be claimed by aforementioned plunderers and puritans as a victory. Most insulting of all is the new packets containing 14 cigarettes.

But let me point out to the sons and daughters of Satan Temperance, the reason I’ve only just noticed is because a friend of mine came back from abroad and brought me a package of the finest tobacco, and someone else is doing me the same favour right now. Neither of these people smoke, and neither of these people were asked to do this. It has becomes such a well-established fact that Britain is a tax hell-hole, that bringing back tobacco has found its way onto the itinerary of many travellers who wouldn’t dream of lighting up themselves, and all this is before we come to the smugglers.

Greed and puritanical zeal; two vices united in blind embrace, have forced the price of tobacco to such a point that one is obliged to circumnavigate the domestic impost, to the benefit of foreign governments and criminals, and who could even feign surprise? As for my contribution to UK tobacco duty, forget about it. I’ll let the Belgian taxman have it instead.

Anti-smoking nuts market chemical lobotomy as "cure"

If you thought smoking was bad for the health, meet the fucking cure!

"The vaccination works using pleasure inhibitors by preventing the subject from getting any enjoyable sensation from his or her intake of nicotine."

Yeah, I think we've been here before, haven't we? Here's one story to start you off. Not so much kicking the habit, as kicking the bucket. But... wait a sec... now, there's an idea...

New cure for smoking unveiled

A new treatment for nicotine addiction is close to approval, and, according to clinical trials, it may sound the death nell for smoking. "Tumbril TM promises a revolution in smoking cessation" claimed Prof. Guillotine of the Committee of Public Health and Safety. (cont. pg 94)

Hat tip: Dick Puddlecote

What he said

Another inspirational song from the one and only Johnny Cash - 'I won't back down'.



Hat tip to the Alex Jones Show

Can we leave yet?

I try, honestly, to raise the tone round here, but then shit like this comes along.

European politicians rejected three cost-cutting measures, which would have seen salaries frozen and travel allowances cut...

"Marta Andreasen, a former chief accountant at the European Commission and Ukip MEP, said : "This proves categorically and unambiguously that when the European Parliament speaks of austerity measures it applies to everybody else except the institution itself.

"MEPs were given the opportunity to lead by example and save millions and millions of pounds in the budget for 2012. Instead they chose to show their true colours to taxpayer's across Europe. I am appalled that Labour and Liberal MEPs voted to fly in the lap of luxury at taxpayers expense while ordinary people at taking cuts in services and paying more tax."

I'm just gonna take a few deep breaths and let it go.

Hat tip: Calling England

Irony overload

Some guy from the BNP has been charged with a 'public order offence' (notice the vagueness of that term) for something he did in his back garden. Not nude sunbathing, but rather burning a book. Not just any book, mind - that book.

"A statement from the Home Office said: "The government absolutely condemns the burning of the Qur'an. It is fundamentally offensive to the values of our pluralist and tolerant society."

Tolerant, but not that tolerant, it seems. The BNP may well lack a certain pluralism and tolerance, but so does that book. To claim that burning it, especially in a private place, is any kind of public order offence, you have to use the elliptical logic that someone else is going to over-react and that they are going to commit the offence, which stinks of being a special privilege bestowed by a cowardly state on one section of society. This would not apply to a Bible-burner, because it is assumed Christians can take it in their stride, which no doubt they can. It would not apply to communists over burning a copy of Das Kapital, or atheists if someone torched Dawkins' 'God Delusion'. It only applies to one group in society, who have officially been designated as having the thinnest of skins. The question is; are any muslims man enough to stand up and denounce the arrest, on the grounds that it's actually no big deal?

I won't hold my breath for that, but the case does draw attention to the merits of a written constitution. At least in America, a citizen can point to the Bill of Rights and say 'fuck you and your thin skin. Read Article One and kiss my arse.'

General knowledge

Who is this?
	It's that Dr Seuss character, the Grinch
	I think he works down my local bank
	It's Herman van Rumpuy, President of the Brussels Institute for the Destruction of Democracy
	I don't know, but he gives me the creeps
	Other
pollcode.com free polls

Iceland: Well said!

Iceland: top geysers

Am I, an Englander, supposed to be annoyed because plucky little Iceland just gave the Agincourt salute to Britain and the Netherlands? Well, I'm not. I'm happy that, at least somewhere, there are people who won't go willingly into serfdom on behalf of a handful of crooked banksters.

According to a sorrowful Ministry of Truth bulletin:

"Solving the dispute is also seen as key to Iceland's chances of joining the EU."

Chances? That makes it sound like a positive thing! What a bizarre notion! Does the Beeb not realise that the majority of people in this country detest the EU and long for the day when we reclaim our independence?

If any Icelanders come across this humble blog, may I exhort you to keep up the good fight.

Pic found here; Hat tip: Snowolf

Rip Van Will Hutton and my own half-digested economic thoughts

Any article which contains the phrase: "John Maynard Keynes, the 20th-century's finest economist" sets off sirens in my brain: Repel! Repel! Enemy! Fire at Will! Literally in this case.

Will Hutton comes over like the character Rip van Winkle, waking from his long sleep and wandering into town. He's looking for his old pal John Maynard. Unfortunately for Will, John Maynard's been dead for years, killed by reality. Bretton Woods also; long gone. After years of poor health, finally put to sleep by Dr Nixon back in 1971.

Bretton Woods; the bastard son of the Gold Exchange Standard; this latter; the bastard son of the Gold Standard.

The Gold Standard; the Maginot Line of sound monetary defence; all very well for the length it covered; unfortunately with a Belgian barn door swinging open round the side; supposedly founded on hard currency, but with a central bank free to magic up money from the thin air.

Hutton's position boils down to one idea; print money and everyone will be rich. He's not the first to come up with it, and sadly he won't be the last. He ends his piece with: "It's a race against conventional thinking – and time." But sometimes, indeed oftentimes, the 'conventional thinking' is correct and the pipe-dream-smartie-pants wankfesters like Will are all wrong.

What I hear in my head when the evil spirit of Keynes is invoked

Laughs with Ludwig

Once during a speech he was making at a statistical congress in Bern, Pareto spoke of 'natural economic laws,' whereupon [Gustav] Schmoller, who was present, said that there was no such thing. Pareto said nothing, but smiled and bowed. Afterwards he asked Schmoller, through one of his neighbors, whether he was well acquainted with Bern. When Schmoller said yes, Pareto asked him again whether he knew of an inn where one could eat for nothing. The elegant Schmoller is supposed to have looked half pityingly and half disdainfullly at the modestly dressed Pareto - although he was known to be well off - and to have answered that there were plenty of cheap restaurants, but that one had to pay something everywhere. At which Pareto said: 'So there are natural laws of political economy!'

An anecdote which Ludwig von Mises was fond of, related by Murray Rothbard in this book.

The stuff they put in the water

I have voiced my opposition to water fluoridation many times. Here's a good clue as to why it may not be a good idea to drink it. Most of England's tap water is not fluoridated, but in certain places it is (Southampton was added to the list in recent times, despite a consultation which revealed the vast majority were opposed).

Hat tip: Infowars

Reprise: Max versus the vampire squid

I've posted this before, but it's too good to leave mouldering in cyberspace: Max Keiser eviscerating Goldman Sachs.

Update: It's a Max-Fest tonight. Here's his latest show covering, amongst other things the Wacovia cocaine thing, and how it links to the global crash of 2008.

Ibrahim Maalouf - Beirut

My neighbour saw him the other day in Camden, and said he was pretty hot.

Chomsky: dissembling bastard

I saw this some time ago, and ever since I wanted to refute it, but haven't until now summoned the energy to do battle with Chomsky's gattling gun delivery of lies and fallacies.

Firstly note the deadpan world-weary tone. This allows him to brusquely discard certain points that otherwise would confound him. Also note how he talks about America, and stresses how different America is to the rest of the world. In the same way with discussing Adam Smith, who he mis-represents outrageously, Chomsky is relying on the ignorance of his audience. The suggestion that libertarianism in America means the complete opposite to libertarianism in the rest of the world is nonsense. It is a way of thinking that draws on certain traditions and the work of various thinkers, and in different places it may have different emphases, but it unites on the core principles, one of which is, and has always been, a belief in free trade and laissez faire.

His discussion of the 'tyranny' of corporate America is so over-the-top, he is lucky to be speaking to an audience of sycophants, because any sceptic would have trouble stiffling laughter. As is often the case, there is an ounce of truth in his pound of lies, but let us ponder what he is suggesting. I work for a living. I do not have freedom of speech at work, insofar as I am not free to insult my boss. But what are the consequences in this 'tyranny'? What can my boss do to me? Why, only dissolve the contract between us, and fire my arse. I then walk away, a free man, to seek other employment. Contrast this with what a tyrannical government can and does do to those that offend its delicate sensibilities. However bad Microsoft is, there aren't prisons filled with ex-workers who called Bill Gates a geeky twat. No one is tortured. No one is strung up. Chomsky belittles the meaning of 'tyranny'. Sure, we can go looking for examples of Pinkerton shooting up strikers, but the question with such matters is for the courts of the land, and no company is, in principle, above the Law. Tyrannical governments put themselves routinely above the law. Tyrants often claim to be the law.

Moving on to Chomsky's ridiculous views on the division of labour, which he claims to have picked up from 'the real Adam Smith'. What anyone who's read the book knows, is that Smith contradicted himself pretty severely on this subject, but never did he put forward the undiluted Marxoid views of the Chom. Whereas Smith extolled the division of labour as the very substance of society and its advance, in a later part of the book, he criticised it for weakening the martial character of the nation. But Chomsky wants to dismiss the main argument and focus only on the later comment, which he seasons liberally with Marxist utopianism. Without division of labour, we'd all be living in mud huts. Those that call for the end to division of labour are utopian millenarians who seek the destruction of the world, such as Karl Marx. The closest to the true marxism was practiced by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, who achieved, in Marxian terms, a 33% success rate, in other words they killed one third of the population if Cambodia. No doubt Chomsky would approve.

What does liberty mean to Chomsky? From what he says, it must be the Hegelian liberty: that being, the abandonment of individualism into an amorphous blob called Man. Freedom from the alienation of not being merged with the Godhead, or whatever mumbo-jumbo that dissembling charlatan came up with. Best summarised by Orwell: (Hegelian/Marxist/Chomskist) freedom is slavery.

That's all I'm saying for now, but readers; expect an edit.

Kinnock wishes death on Lord Pearson

Neil 'Windbag' Kinnock, crooked, traitorous enemy of the nation, minted from his tenure in Brussels, where his job was to cover up fraud and persecute whistle-blowers, now ensconced in ermine - like the true class warrior which he once claimed to be - interrupts one of the very few Parliamentarians who loves this country, Lord Pearson, with this remark:

Lord Kinnock: My Lords, when the noble Lord, Lord Pearson of Rannoch, says that he wants to stick to his guns, I am inclined to hope that he goes very near to the muzzle of those guns-indeed, just in front-because that would be a suitable location.

May your words come back on you, you fucking leech.

Hat tip: EU Referendum. Read the debate here, from Hansard, 5th April 2011, but be warned; you will be sickened by what so many of these treasonous 'Lords' say.

One hit wonder

Kathleen Emery singing that old spiritual 'Sometimes I feel like a motherless child'.

Wise words from The Last Ditch

Commenting on the reaction to plans for an anti-debt rally, Tom Paine makes an excellent suggestion:

"My first public spending cut (and it wouldn't hurt a single vulnerable person - Polly Toynbee is financially-independent and can blog her nonsense just as easily as publish it on dead trees) would be to deny The Guardian its advertising revenue by offering all government jobs online."

Who could argue with that - other than the Graun itself? I'd love to see them do so. No doubt they'd bleat about the sanctity of a 'free press', oblivious to the howling contradiction between a government-subsidised newspaper and press freedom.

Petrol - 53 pence per litre!

Times are tough - unless you're the thieving taxman, who's never 'ad it so good. The image below, courtesy of PetrolPrices.com, based on a litre of petrol selling at 132.9 pence per litre, breaks down the price into its components.

No surprises here, of course, just seething resentment to note what we would be paying, if HM Government could live within its means and stop robbing us blind.

So, 53 pence for the petrol, 80 pence into the state's back pocket -kerching. Expressed otherwise, 60% of the price you pay is tax, and that the tax increases the price by 152%.

With such inflated prices, it's no wonder there's so few independent retailers left.

To drum the point home, remember: Pay £50 for petrol, £30 is tax.

MPs pushing through draconian tax regime, but exempt themselves

Calling England draws my attention to this Telegraph article by Ian Cowie:

New tax year, same old MPs. After Budget promises to tackle tax avoidance, Parliament is passing legislation to block several loopholes – but an obscure clause specifically exempts MPs from these new restrictions.

Yes, really. Anyone who thought the denizens of Halitosis Hall had learned their lesson after the MPs’ expenses scandal will be disappointed. But it seems politicians still cannot get their heads round the childhood adage about sauce for the goose and gander – or why their constituents are fed up with buying them duck houses.

A reader who prefers to be known as ‘HTaxpayer’ emailed me to flag up this new scandal. He – or she – said: “Complex and at times draconian draft tax legislation, which has the potential to impact on any employee or employer in the UK, is contained in the Finance Bill.

“HM Revenue & Customs says that this legislation is only there to stop ‘tax avoidance’. However, Section 554E(8) specifically exempts members of the House of Commons and the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority from the new legislation in situations where they are actually caught by it.

“If the legislation is fair and proportional, what is the need for a specific exemption for members of the House of Commons? Why don’t they rely on the same arrangements that every other employer and employee in this country has to rely on?

“If the legislation only targets tax avoidance, why is there a need for a special exemption for MPs?”

Read the rest of the article.

I started downloaded the bill. It's a huge document, which indicates to me that it will make bad, complex law if enacted. A large bill enables the writers to hide unpleasant, unwanted, alarming clauses where only the most caffeine-fuelled vigilance will find them. This will be no exception I am sure.

A long time ago

Rest in Peace, Bill

Open to suggestion

A message from one of my confederates informed me that rather than working he was listening to Fela Kuti - Zombie and it was making a lot of sense to him. I resolved to check out the source for myself. I declare; it's making a lot of sense to me too.

Meet the good guys

Question: When is massacring, raping, even eating civilians okay?

Answer: When you're the UN-sanctioned good guys.

I have no doubt that brutality is being committed by both sides in Ivory Coast. Why the fuck the UN is joining one of those sides is more of a mystery.

It seems to me that we are seeing the true face of the UN emerging from the shadows, as it begins to impose on the world its concept of World Order, and that concept I suspect is not much different from a boot stamping on a human face for ever.

Bernard Von NotHaus's conviction; perverse, monstrous and very, very dangerous

Bernard Von NotHaus, the owner of Liberty Dollars, has committed no crime. That, however, is not enough in today's fucked-up America. Indeed the words of US attorney Anne Tomkins...

"Attempts to undermine the legitimate currency of this country are simply a unique form of domestic terrorism."

... reveal who the real domestic terrorists are: The Federal Reserve. Quoting from Article One of the US Constitution:

Section. 10.No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.

So, where the fuck does that leave Bernanke's counterfeiting crime syndicate? May the ghost of Andrew Jackson rise from the grave and bring vengeance down on these apostates! Meanwhile, here's another indicator that Nothaus is on the side of the angels, the despicable Southern Poverty Law Center are against him:

... von NotHaus' group has been followed for years by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group that tracks political extremism. Long before the government began its investigation into von NotHaus, the group was raising concerns about the popularity of Liberty Dollars among fringe groups on the far right.

"He's playing on a core idea of the radical right, that evil bankers in the Federal Reserve are ripping you off by controlling the money supply," said Mark Potok, spokesman for the group. "He very much exists in the world of the anti-government patriot movement, whatever he may say. That's who his customers are."

That's right, folks. If you've noticed the depreciation in the value of the Fed's paper dollar, or for any other reason you favour precious metals as a store of wealth, you are a terrorist, at least according to the vile SPLC.

The irony, as the Fed dollar slides, is that a one-ounce silver coin marked 20 Liberty dollars on silver content alone is worth $38.50 today, so a funny kind of counterfeiting operation.

Hat tip: Infowars

Catching up with the kleptocrats

I know I'm not the only one who likes Max - there's at least two of us! I don't agree with everything on his show, but he's always entertaining.

"This week Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, report on American household wealth declining by 23% while billionaires see their wealth rise by 25%. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Dmitry Orlov for an update on the state of economic collapse in America. "

Here's something else, which relates to the criminality behind the 2008 crash - the documentary 'Inside Job'.

Why even bother?

Our criminal justice system has fallen so far beneath contempt, I'm beginning to think we might as well shut the bloody thing down and save the money. With all the courts boarded up, at least the illusion that we are in any way protected by the state will disappear.

I am provoked to return to this theme by the 'sentence' handed out to a particularly nasty young thug: a £20 fine and an anger management class. She doesn't need anger management. Her crime was nothing to do with anger, and everything to do with her being scum what needs tying up in a sack and throwing in the river.

Never mind. I suppose the 'justice' system will have another opportunity the next time she's arrested. Or the time after that...

Another track

My political scalpel is a little blunt, so I'll keep the tunes coming.

Big banks laundering drug money: Graun catches up

The Grauniad is running a story on Wacovia laundering money for the drug cartels, which is good, I suppose, but it illustrates to me how behind the mainstream media are with such issues. This is not news to anyone who takes an interest in such things, but I guess when the MSM does finally turn a weary eye towards such matters, it legitimises those who have shouted about the high-level complicity between Wall Street, elements of the US government and the cartels. Or maybe it doesn't. Maybe they're still crazy conspiracy theorists.

Intoxicating

Can't add much to this... except the b-side; 'Tradewinds'.

Neil Young, various old men

Why we should leave Afghanistan

This.

There are many reasons why NATO should get out of Afghanistan. The killing of the UN staff over the burning of a copy of the Koran is just one more.

That dumb referendum

I seem to be drifting towards a 'no' vote in the AV referendum. It seems a waste of time, and would not improve anything. I can see how it would help Labour and the Lib Dems to snuggle up for the foreseeable on the sofa of government, but that's not much of a selling point. I don't see how it would help smaller parties, except the Greens - again, not a great benefit. I don't think it will do much to help UKIP or my own dear party, the microscopic Libertarians. I could abstain, which gives a small measure of pleasure, knowing, as I do, how the politicians hate to be ignored, but that's rather an empty feeling.

If anyone has any strong views, you're welcome to try and persuade me...

That time again

Another song I've posted before, but it came to mind.