Monday, April 01, 2019
AN UNCONSTRAINED BUREAUCRACY | Thongchai Thailand
AN UNCONSTRAINED BUREAUCRACY | Thongchai Thailand
"THE UNITED NATIONS IS AN UNCONSTRAINED BUREAUCRACY.
It is financed mostly by taxpayers from a few donor countries but the large and growing bureaucracy is too far removed from those taxpayers to be directly accountable to them.
It is run by unelected, unaccountable, undisciplined, and incompetent bureaucrats.
The organization’s size, budget, and scope are unconstrained.
The budget funding process provides perverse incentives for these bureaucrats to increase the size and scope of their organization simply by creating multitudes of agencies and programs, and by inventing problems and environmental crises set on a global scale.
...In the case of the United Nations these concerns are magnified manifold because this public sector is so far removed from the taxpayers that provide its funds that it operates in an oversight vacuum with no accountability
The United Nations Convention against Corruption or UNCAC fights corruption in poor countries by promoting transparency, accountability and oversight.
Yet, the UN is itself immune to these anti-corruption measures.."
Read all.
- HOW THE UNITED NATIONS USES GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTALISM
"THE UNITED NATIONS IS AN UNCONSTRAINED BUREAUCRACY.
It is financed mostly by taxpayers from a few donor countries but the large and growing bureaucracy is too far removed from those taxpayers to be directly accountable to them.
It is run by unelected, unaccountable, undisciplined, and incompetent bureaucrats.The organization’s size, budget, and scope are unconstrained.
The budget funding process provides perverse incentives for these bureaucrats to increase the size and scope of their organization simply by creating multitudes of agencies and programs, and by inventing problems and environmental crises set on a global scale.
...In the case of the United Nations these concerns are magnified manifold because this public sector is so far removed from the taxpayers that provide its funds that it operates in an oversight vacuum with no accountability
The United Nations Convention against Corruption or UNCAC fights corruption in poor countries by promoting transparency, accountability and oversight.
Yet, the UN is itself immune to these anti-corruption measures.."
Read all.
How the Modern State Commits the Very Evils It Was Created to Prevent - Foundation for Economic Education
How the Modern State Commits the Very Evils It Was Created to Prevent - Foundation for Economic Education
"One of the striking things about America’s recent political environment has been the increasingly warm embrace of socialism, particularly by younger generations.
At the same time, as the title of a recent New York Post editorial put it, “Socialism’s millennial fans don’t even know what it is.”
And the text makes the point more stron
gly: “Millenials—ignorant of socialism’s appalling economic and human-rights history—increasingly embrace socialism and its naively unrealistic prescriptions.”
Defenders claim they don’t want complete, or “real” socialism, but selective socialism in areas where they anticipate benefiting at the expense of others.
...But they do want selective socialism in areas where they anticipate benefiting at the expense of others as recipients or as arbiters of what “society wants” and will impose on citizens.
Further, they generally want the government to determine how nominal resource owners are to use them rather than direct government ownership.
Of course, that means their preferred system is better described not as socialism but as fascism...
Bastiat's Defense of Liberty...
Read all!
"One of the striking things about America’s recent political environment has been the increasingly warm embrace of socialism, particularly by younger generations.
At the same time, as the title of a recent New York Post editorial put it, “Socialism’s millennial fans don’t even know what it is.”And the text makes the point more stron
gly: “Millenials—ignorant of socialism’s appalling economic and human-rights history—increasingly embrace socialism and its naively unrealistic prescriptions.”
Defenders claim they don’t want complete, or “real” socialism, but selective socialism in areas where they anticipate benefiting at the expense of others.
...But they do want selective socialism in areas where they anticipate benefiting at the expense of others as recipients or as arbiters of what “society wants” and will impose on citizens.
Further, they generally want the government to determine how nominal resource owners are to use them rather than direct government ownership.
Of course, that means their preferred system is better described not as socialism but as fascism...
Bastiat's Defense of Liberty...
Read all!
Here’s Why Trey Gowdy Opposes Release Of Mueller Report | The Daily Caller
Here’s Why Trey Gowdy Opposes Release Of Mueller Report | The Daily Caller:
Gowdy, who left Congress in January, was referring to anti-Trump text messages that former FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok exchanged with his mistress.
“I don’t think the report should be released because the Department of Justice speaks in indictments. They’ve already indicted a lot of people,” said Gowdy.
“If you’re not indicted, I don’t know that the Department of Justice should be releasing a political hit piece that people like Schiff and Nadler are then going to use for 2020.”
“I don’t think the report should be released because the Department of Justice speaks in indictments. They’ve already indicted a lot of people,” said Gowdy.
“If you’re not indicted, I don’t know that the Department of Justice should be releasing a political hit piece that people like Schiff and Nadler are then going to use for 2020.”
Jussie Smollett, and the strange alchemy of egalitarian despotism | Spectator USA
Jussie Smollett, and the strange alchemy of egalitarian despotism | Spectator USA:
Especially pernicious, he noted, was the conjunction of the word ‘social’ with the word ‘justice.’ ‘Much the worst use of the word “social,”’ he wrote, and ‘one that wholly destroys the meaning of the word it qualifies, is in the almost universally used phrase “social justice.”’
There are, Hayek continued, other instances of this sort of ‘semantic fraud.’
...You could see this process at work in the spontaneous two minutes of hate directed at the MAGA-behatted students from Covington Catholic last month.
The instant, hysterical pile-on against the boys was a marvel to behold.
...Now we have the example of Jussie Smollett...
The outrage over this horrible hate crime was as instant and hysterical as that which greeted the unfortunate boys from Covington Catholic.
Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory ‘Spartacus’ Booker spoke of ‘a modern day lynching.’
...Except, as all the world now knows, Jussie Smollett was not set-upon by Trump-supporting thugs..."
Read all.
- The less hate there is in the United States, the more hate crimes must be manufactured in order to keep the Fraternal Order of Victims afloat
Especially pernicious, he noted, was the conjunction of the word ‘social’ with the word ‘justice.’ ‘Much the worst use of the word “social,”’ he wrote, and ‘one that wholly destroys the meaning of the word it qualifies, is in the almost universally used phrase “social justice.”’There are, Hayek continued, other instances of this sort of ‘semantic fraud.’
...You could see this process at work in the spontaneous two minutes of hate directed at the MAGA-behatted students from Covington Catholic last month.
The instant, hysterical pile-on against the boys was a marvel to behold.
...Now we have the example of Jussie Smollett...
The outrage over this horrible hate crime was as instant and hysterical as that which greeted the unfortunate boys from Covington Catholic.
Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory ‘Spartacus’ Booker spoke of ‘a modern day lynching.’
...Except, as all the world now knows, Jussie Smollett was not set-upon by Trump-supporting thugs..."
Read all.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory…
Instapundit Blog Archive QUOTE OF THE DAY: QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory.
Destroy its books, its culture, its history.
Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history.
Before long that nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was.
The world around it will forget even faster.”
—“Milan Kundera Warned Us About Historical Amnesia. Now It’s Happening Again,”
Ewan Morrison, Quillette, today.--Posted by Ed Driscoll
Ewan Morrison, Quillette, today.--Posted by Ed Driscoll
CNN, MSNBC Ignore Inappropriate Kissing Allegations Against Biden | The Daily Caller
CNN, MSNBC Ignore Inappropriate Kissing Allegations Against Biden | The Daily Caller:
CNN and MSNBC have not covered the allegations a former Democratic lawmaker levied against former Vice President Joe Biden in the 12 hours after the allegations surfaced on Friday afternoon.
Former Nevada Assemblywoman Lucy Flores, whom Biden campaigned for at the time of the incident in 2014, accused him of inappropriately kissing her. The allegation was published in an essay titled, “An Awkward Kiss Changed How I Saw Joe Biden,” in New York Magazine.
CNN and MSNBC have not covered the allegations a former Democratic lawmaker levied against former Vice President Joe Biden in the 12 hours after the allegations surfaced on Friday afternoon.
Former Nevada Assemblywoman Lucy Flores, whom Biden campaigned for at the time of the incident in 2014, accused him of inappropriately kissing her. The allegation was published in an essay titled, “An Awkward Kiss Changed How I Saw Joe Biden,” in New York Magazine.
Castro, Chavez, and 'bad luck': Glenn Reynolds
Castro, Chavez, and 'bad luck': Glenn Reynolds:
In fact, as Yale professor Carlos Eire notes in The Washington Post, Castro was not a benevolent patron of the poor, but a "brutal Big Brother” who crushed dissent, tortured, imprisoned and executed his critics, and stole everything he cared to steal from his island’s inhabitants.
- Castro and his ilk showed us that under socialism, the powerful grow rich — and everyone else grows poor.
Robert Heinlein once wrote:
Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.em
This is known as “bad luck.”
I thought about this statement this weekend, reading two news stories.
The first was about the tide of Venezuelans taking to boats to escape Venezuela’s economic collapse.
As The New York Times reported, “Venezuela was once one of Latin America’s richest countries, flush with oil wealth that attracted immigrants from places as varied as Europe and the Middle East."
The first was about the tide of Venezuelans taking to boats to escape Venezuela’s economic collapse.
As The New York Times reported, “Venezuela was once one of Latin America’s richest countries, flush with oil wealth that attracted immigrants from places as varied as Europe and the Middle East."
"But after President Hugo Chávez vowed to break the country’s economic elite and redistribute wealth to the poor, the rich and middle class fled to more welcoming countries in droves, creating what demographers describe as Venezuela’s first diaspora.”
Now, in their absence, things have gotten worse, and it’s poorer Venezuelans — the very ones that Chavez’s revolution was allegedly intended to help — who are starving...
Well, Venezuela was once rich.
But mismanagement and kleptocracy can make any country poor...
But mismanagement and kleptocracy can make any country poor...
Under capitalism, the rich grow powerful. Under socialism, the powerful grow rich — and everyone else grows poor.
Which brings me to the other story, the death of Cuban dictator-for-life Fidel Castro.
Although many among Western political and entertainment elites still think of Fidel Castro fondly, such people are, at best, what Lenin called “useful idiots.” In fact, as Yale professor Carlos Eire notes in The Washington Post, Castro was not a benevolent patron of the poor, but a "brutal Big Brother” who crushed dissent, tortured, imprisoned and executed his critics, and stole everything he cared to steal from his island’s inhabitants.
He lived the lifestyle of an emperor, while his people were subjected to poverty.
He persecuted gay people and Christians, and exported war and terror.
Oh, he said things about equality and justice, but those were lies.
In his country, as in socialist dictatorships everywhere, there were two sets of rules:
Those for the connected elite, and those for the subjects.
They talk about equality, but what they set up turns out to be an awful lot like a monarchy..."
Read all.
Professor teaching evaluations now include 'diversity,' 'cultural awareness' ratings - The College Fix
Professor teaching evaluations now include 'diversity,' 'cultural awareness' ratings - The College Fix
"Villanova University has launched an effort to monitor professor bias in its lecture halls, according to a pair of professors employed there.
This school year, teaching and course evaluations completed by students now include questions about professors’ “sensitivity,” and commitment to “diversity and inclusion.”
Professors Colleen Sheehan and James Matthew Wilson note in The Wall Street Journal that students at the Catholic institution “are now being asked heavily politicized questions such as whether the instructor has demonstrated ‘cultural awareness’ or created an ‘environment free of bias based on individual differences or social identities.’”
“In short,” the authors continue, “students are being asked to rate professors according to their perceived agreement with progressive political opinion on bias and identity.
Students are also invited to ‘comment on the instructor’s sensitivity to the diversity of the students in the class.’”
This includes things such as gender identity, disability, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and “etc.” That last item, the professors say, sounds “like an ominous catchall.”..."
Read all!
"Villanova University has launched an effort to monitor professor bias in its lecture halls, according to a pair of professors employed there.
This school year, teaching and course evaluations completed by students now include questions about professors’ “sensitivity,” and commitment to “diversity and inclusion.”Professors Colleen Sheehan and James Matthew Wilson note in The Wall Street Journal that students at the Catholic institution “are now being asked heavily politicized questions such as whether the instructor has demonstrated ‘cultural awareness’ or created an ‘environment free of bias based on individual differences or social identities.’”
“In short,” the authors continue, “students are being asked to rate professors according to their perceived agreement with progressive political opinion on bias and identity.
Students are also invited to ‘comment on the instructor’s sensitivity to the diversity of the students in the class.’”
This includes things such as gender identity, disability, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and “etc.” That last item, the professors say, sounds “like an ominous catchall.”..."
Read all!
Scientists Skeptical of Anthropogenic Global Warming
Scientists Skeptical of Anthropogenic Global Warming
"The war on meat has been gathering pace among our Western elites. ... in the interests of quelling climate change...
"The war on meat has been gathering pace among our Western elites. ... in the interests of quelling climate change...
The IPCC’s AR5 estimated the global warming caused by a tonne of livestock methane would be 28 times that of a tonne of carbon dioxide.
All this is now challenged by a new and authoritative research paper, Allen et al (2017): “A solution to the misrepresentations of CO2-equivalent emissions of short-lived climate pollutants, under ambitious mitigation”.
This paper finds that conventional GWPs misrepresent the impact of short-lived gases (such as methane) on global temperature... because a steady-state herd of cattle can add very little to global warming.
Methane has a half-life in the atmosphere of only about six years – so that every new molecule added is offset by the expiry of a molecule emitted by that herd a few years earlier.
“Traditional greenhouse gas accounting ignores the impact of changing methane emission rates while grossly exaggerating the impact of steady methane emissions”.
And – “Climate policy the world over has traditionally treated every tonne of methane as supposedly “equivalent” to 28 tonnes of carbon dioxide…
It isn’t.
All this is now challenged by a new and authoritative research paper, Allen et al (2017): “A solution to the misrepresentations of CO2-equivalent emissions of short-lived climate pollutants, under ambitious mitigation”.
This paper finds that conventional GWPs misrepresent the impact of short-lived gases (such as methane) on global temperature... because a steady-state herd of cattle can add very little to global warming.
Methane has a half-life in the atmosphere of only about six years – so that every new molecule added is offset by the expiry of a molecule emitted by that herd a few years earlier.
“Traditional greenhouse gas accounting ignores the impact of changing methane emission rates while grossly exaggerating the impact of steady methane emissions”.
And – “Climate policy the world over has traditionally treated every tonne of methane as supposedly “equivalent” to 28 tonnes of carbon dioxide…
It isn’t.
REPORT: A Massive, Private Climate Change ‘Resiliency’ Program Is On Its Last Legs | The Daily Caller
REPORT: A Massive, Private Climate Change ‘Resiliency’ Program Is On Its Last Legs | The Daily Caller:
The Rockefeller Foundation is planning to pull the plug on its 100 Resilient Cities initiative as early as the summer of 2019, Bloomberg reports.
The 100 Resilient Cities program is the largest privately funded climate change resiliency program in the United States. The Rockefeller Foundation began the program in 2013 with the goal of funneling money into the infrastructure of 100 cities across the world, preparing them to endure the effects of climate change.
The Rockefeller Foundation is planning to pull the plug on its 100 Resilient Cities initiative as early as the summer of 2019, Bloomberg reports.
The 100 Resilient Cities program is the largest privately funded climate change resiliency program in the United States. The Rockefeller Foundation began the program in 2013 with the goal of funneling money into the infrastructure of 100 cities across the world, preparing them to endure the effects of climate change.
This has been copied from a Grand Rapids Police Officer that was working.
"This has been copied from a Grand Rapids Police Officer that was working.
***A little opinion rant about the Trump Rally last night***
This rant is not the opinion of my employer.
I like many men and women, worked over time last night for the Trump rally.
The group I was with rode 18 miles on our bikes in a roughly 4 square block area, to ensure the rally and protest was safe for all the attended (Republicn, Democrat, and anyone else that attended.)
I can honestly say that in one event, I have never seen so much support for myself and my co workers from the folks waiting in line to get in the arena.
Every time we turned a corner there were cheers and thank-you's from those attending.
Once the rally started, those on bikes, approximately 20-30 of us, made a line in between those waiting to get in the arena, and the protestors.
This was merely to ensure fights did not break out between the two groups.
Several of the protestors in attendance had their faces covered, wore gloves (even though it was nearly 60 degrees), and attempted to conceal their identities.
Now one would ask themselves, why would you try to conceal your identity if you are there for a "peaceful protest?"
Well lets just say, several thousand people were in line waiting, some since the night before, to go in an see their president speak, and the "peaceful protestors" said some of the absolute WORST THINGS I have ever heard to people waiting in line.
I have been in this job and I have heard some terrible things said to me because I wear the uniform I do. But to scream and yell and completely antagonize someone just because they wear a hat that reads "Make America Great Again," is beyond me.
Maybe I grew up differently than these degenerates, but I was taught RESPECT, regardless of who it was.
I have not liked every president, governor, mayor I have ever experienced, but I would never completely and utterly disrespect people the way these anti Trump groups did.
Now I get Freedom Of Speech and Right to peaceful assembly, which these idiots always preach about, but this was anything but!
Water balloons were hurled at the crowd (who knows what they were filled with) and several of them even tried to instigate fights with Trump supporters as they were walking by.
One moment that stuck with me was when I had two girls in front of me holding Anti Trump signs and they were yelling at the crowd, and at me, calling me a racist, and a Trump supporter, and trying to get me to react.
This went on for quite some time, but I didn't give them the time of day.
About 10 minutes later, a teenager with a MAGA hat walked through the protest crowd and I kept my eye on him as he was deep in the crowd.
This kid appeared to be just walking from one end to the other, maybe in an attempt to leave.
I then witnessed the two girls confront him and they began to yell.
The kid also started yelling back at them.
Well guess who comes up to me and asks me to tell this kid to leave because he is offending them?
I asked what was wrong and one of the girls said, "he is using offensive language and swearing at us." Needless to say, I just laughed and told them that if they didn't like the way he was talking, they could leave.
Long rant I know, but my mind has been made up at who the real problem with this society is, and last night, 99% of those wearing the red hats were some of the greatest Americans I have ran into thus far!"
***A little opinion rant about the Trump Rally last night***
This rant is not the opinion of my employer.
I like many men and women, worked over time last night for the Trump rally.
The group I was with rode 18 miles on our bikes in a roughly 4 square block area, to ensure the rally and protest was safe for all the attended (Republicn, Democrat, and anyone else that attended.)
I can honestly say that in one event, I have never seen so much support for myself and my co workers from the folks waiting in line to get in the arena.
Every time we turned a corner there were cheers and thank-you's from those attending.
Once the rally started, those on bikes, approximately 20-30 of us, made a line in between those waiting to get in the arena, and the protestors.
This was merely to ensure fights did not break out between the two groups.
Several of the protestors in attendance had their faces covered, wore gloves (even though it was nearly 60 degrees), and attempted to conceal their identities.
Now one would ask themselves, why would you try to conceal your identity if you are there for a "peaceful protest?" Well lets just say, several thousand people were in line waiting, some since the night before, to go in an see their president speak, and the "peaceful protestors" said some of the absolute WORST THINGS I have ever heard to people waiting in line.
I have been in this job and I have heard some terrible things said to me because I wear the uniform I do. But to scream and yell and completely antagonize someone just because they wear a hat that reads "Make America Great Again," is beyond me.
Maybe I grew up differently than these degenerates, but I was taught RESPECT, regardless of who it was.
I have not liked every president, governor, mayor I have ever experienced, but I would never completely and utterly disrespect people the way these anti Trump groups did.
Now I get Freedom Of Speech and Right to peaceful assembly, which these idiots always preach about, but this was anything but!
Water balloons were hurled at the crowd (who knows what they were filled with) and several of them even tried to instigate fights with Trump supporters as they were walking by.
One moment that stuck with me was when I had two girls in front of me holding Anti Trump signs and they were yelling at the crowd, and at me, calling me a racist, and a Trump supporter, and trying to get me to react.
This went on for quite some time, but I didn't give them the time of day.
About 10 minutes later, a teenager with a MAGA hat walked through the protest crowd and I kept my eye on him as he was deep in the crowd.
This kid appeared to be just walking from one end to the other, maybe in an attempt to leave.
I then witnessed the two girls confront him and they began to yell.
The kid also started yelling back at them.
Well guess who comes up to me and asks me to tell this kid to leave because he is offending them?
I asked what was wrong and one of the girls said, "he is using offensive language and swearing at us." Needless to say, I just laughed and told them that if they didn't like the way he was talking, they could leave.
Long rant I know, but my mind has been made up at who the real problem with this society is, and last night, 99% of those wearing the red hats were some of the greatest Americans I have ran into thus far!"
History for April 1
History for April 1 - On-This-Day.com
Otto Von Bismarck 1815 - First chancellor of united Germany, Lon Chaney 1883 - Actor ("The Phantom of the Opera"), William Manchester 1922 - Writer
Debbie Reynolds (Mary Frances Reynolds) 1932 - Singer, Actress, mother of actress Carrie Fisher, Ali MacGraw 1938 - Actress, Rachel Maddow 1973 - Broadcast journalist
1979 - Iran was proclaimed to be an Islamic Republic by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini after the fall of the Shah.
1987 - U.S. President Reagan told doctors in Philadelphia, "We've declared AIDS public health enemy No. 1."
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