This trend toward prescriptive behaviour is a direct result of abandoning the Rule of law for a “Law” of Rules.
– commenter R. Richard Schweitzer
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From time to time I get into a lot of trouble with my allies because I express skepticism of the value of prescriptive rights, regulation or transparency. In fact am inclined to think (though there may be tactical advantage in their reception in law) human rights are an ornamental distraction from the pursuit of liberty, Gucci belts for those who think buying trousers is disgusting. One of the reasons we are in such a terrible mess in the UK is that those on the left who used to care about personal liberty became utterly infatuated with the legalism, having been given the Human Rights Act as a pretty distraction, and now spend all their time defending its importance. November 14th, 2009 | 13 comments - (Comments are closed)
 “…how will the media blame it on the failure of capitalism?” Well, you know, China started market-friendly practices, it goes belly up, nothing bad ever happened in Mao’s China, and so on. The editorial in The Guardian writes itself. – Commenter ‘Dom‘ November 11th, 2009 | One comment - (Comments are closed)
The predicted insanity of “quantitative easing” (i.e. re-inflating the bubble) is laid bare:
I would quite like to see the people responsible for one of the greatest rolling acts of theft in recent history hanging from lampposts. Bernie Madoff was a minor league player by comparison. November 2nd, 2009 | 13 comments - (Comments are closed)
Wise words have been heard coming from the lips of someone in the acting profession, to wit multi-talented MILF action babe Milla Jovovich.
Common sense of course and that she had to even say this is an indication of the extent to which civil society has decayed. Violent art forms are as old as art itself. 
November 2nd, 2009 | 8 comments - (Comments are closed)
The trouble is rules based safety nets often end up subsidising what they are supposed to be alleviating. The big advantage a charity has is that they do not have to give you anything if they do not think you actually deserve it… the state on the other hand operates (quite rightly) not by using discretion but by following politically derived formulae. To get things from the state all you have to do is understand the system. This has all manner of unintended consequences when you (in effect) nationalise charity and replace private institutions with public ones… in short, when you replace charity with an entitlement, you completely change the rules of the game. November 2nd, 2009 | One comment - (Comments are closed)
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. – Lord Acton, from The History of Freedom in Antiquity …with extra added bonus quote from the same: Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime… November 1st, 2009 | 9 comments - (Comments are closed)
Fact One: preposterous surveys cost the British economy £1.38 billion Fact Two: prior to the invention of Twitter, no one employed in British offices knew how to waste time that should be spent working, as no one was surfing the internet, flirting with co-workers, staring out the window at that hottie over there with the short skirt and high leather boots, photocopying their bums, telling jokes, gossiping… Fact Three: 97.4% of all statistics are made up on the spot. October 27th, 2009 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
Encourage adults to consume alcoholic beverage in a bar setting. Set an arbitrary closing, thus to encourage rapid consumption during the final 15 minutes. Throw out on to the street, inebriated, disenchanted drinkers, mostly young males. And here’s the clincher, all at the same time. Ensure that all other bars in the immediate area follow the same pattern. Then act surprised when incidents of violence and criminal damage spike. Suppose for one perverted moment that an increase in violence and criminal damage were the intention. The present arrangement could hardly be improved upon. – The hilariously pseudonymous commenter ‘Mustapha Jihad‘ October 27th, 2009 | 6 comments - (Comments are closed)
Whenever is found what is called a paternal government, there is found state education. It has been discovered that the best way to insure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery. – Benjamin Disraeli October 25th, 2009 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution or that have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is “needed” before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents “interests,” I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can – Barry Goldwater October 24th, 2009 | 25 comments - (Comments are closed)
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