Interview with Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Not my material.
Comprehending and Apprehending Power Lust !
Saturday, January 27, 2024
Interview with Anakin before he became Lord Vader
Thursday, February 24, 2022
Why does Ukraine matter?
Via the FB page of Earl Anthony Mertz. Not my material.
For those who ask: “Why does Ukraine matter?"
For those who want to know Russia's POV
For the rest of us ...
This is why Ukraine matters.
It is the second largest country by area in Europe by area and has a population
of over 40 million - more than Poland.
Ukraine ranks:
1st in Europe in proven recoverable reserves of uranium ores;
2nd place in Europe and 10th place in the world in terms of titanium ore reserves;
2nd place in the world in terms of explored reserves of manganese ores (2.3 billion tons, or 12% of the world's reserves);
2nd largest iron ore reserves in the world (30 billion tons);
2nd place in Europe in terms of mercury ore reserves;
3rd place in Europe (13th place in the world) in shale gas reserves (22 trillion cubic meters)
4th in the world by the total value of natural resources;
7th place in the world in coal reserves (33.9 billion tons)
Ukraine is an important agricultural country:
1st in Europe in terms of arable land area;
3rd place in the world by the area of black soil (25% of world's volume);
1st place in the world in exports of sunflower and sunflower oil;
2nd place in the world in barley production and 4th place in barley exports;
3rd largest producer and 4th largest exporter of corn in the world;
4th largest producer of potatoes in the world;
5th largest rye producer in the world;
5th place in the world in bee production (75,000 tons);
8th place in the world in wheat exports;
9th place in the world in the production of chicken eggs;
16th place in the world in cheese exports.
Ukraine can meet the food needs of 600 million people.
Ukraine is an important industrialised country:
1st in Europe in ammonia production;
Europe's 2nd’s and the world’s 4th largest natural gas pipeline system;
3rd largest in Europe and 8th largest in the world in terms of installed capacity of nuclear power plants;
3rd place in Europe and 11th in the world in terms of rail network length (21,700 km);
3rd place in the world (after the U.S. and France) in production of locators and locating equipment;
3rd largest iron exporter in the world
4th largest exporter of turbines for nuclear power plants in the world;
4th world's largest manufacturer of rocket launchers;
4th place in the world in clay exports
4th place in the world in titanium exports
8th place in the world in exports of ores and concentrates;
9th place in the world in exports of defence industry products;
10th largest steel producer in the world (32.4 million tons).
Ukraine matters. That is why its independence is important to the rest of the world.
Independence from both NATO and RUSSIA
------------
SELECT COMMENTS
------------
There's no independence for Ukraine . There's only East or West puppetry . It's harder to kick Democrats out of the Ukraine than to kick them out of America.
They were the bread basket of the old Soviet Union.
They've not been independent. Victoria Nuland of our state dept hired snipers to fire into protestors/police/both "sides" in Maidan Square in 2014, and then installed a bunch of corrupt violent thugs that were literal Nazis that let the Bidens steal from Ukrainians and use it as a piggy bank. I'm glad to see Putin go in. He needs Ukraine as a defense/buffer against the US/NATO/thugs and robbers. Ukraine "leaders" shit in their nest playing both sides...dealing dishonestly with Trump...Marie Yavonivitch was a liar and thief. Good luck to Putin, Russia, and Ukraine. They belong together. If Ukraine really offered a top military/gov job to the sniveling Uriah Heep (Vindman) they obviously aren't competent to govern themselves.
And all the fuss over oil and gas pipe line to Germany
Saturday, January 5, 2019
Rebuttal to an Altruistic Poem
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Price Gouging by Private Companies during a Crisis - Case 2 : Restaurant
This picture was posted on FB in protest against the Saravana group of restaurants for their (perceived) huge price markup. The floods in Chennai / Madras and the resulting shortages are one reason for this, The other of course is price gouging. The truth it turns out is that these are their normal 'AC' prices. Also those who were shocked at the 'amount' on the right side of the bill forgot to divide it by the 'rate'. When you do that it appears reasonable. But all that was lost in the hype and outrage generated. As you may imagine, a lot of people were pissed off with this even though the actual impact on their own lives is very little.
Why ?
Because they feel that Saravana has a duty to them. They feel that it should sell them affordable cheap food at all times at any cost.
Why?
Because they feel so. After all, they are special precious snowflakes or cupcakes to whom the world owes a debt for merely existing.
What Saravana may have failed to realise is that if they do not counter this viral post, it will cause bad publicity and will do Saravana more harm in the long term than the Jeevajothi incident where P. Rajagopal, who owns Saravana escaped punishment for the murder of Santhakumar. The hypocrisy of the masses is appalling. It is a generalisation, but most city dwellers are IMO a despot worshiping population (ancient Rome anyone?), apathetic about someone else's life . So many of them are bothered about the alleged opportunistic pricing of some food items like a dosa or a meal or a coffee, but not the murder of an innocent man.
Had this been a case of price gouging, the shaming done by the free market, is a better deterrent than price controls implemented and exercised by government legal machinery which can be captured by bribing those in power. The murder of a man is not justified but he gets away with it. The supposed price hike is but he gets shamed for it.
Among a morally inept and denial embracing populace, it shows that justice can't be better served merely through unrestricted commerce if individual and property rights are not protected. Without those protections, we do not have laisse faire capitalism. What we have is a proto or quasi fascism instead.
Price Gouging by Private Companies during a Crisis - Case 1 : Airlines
Bastiat von Mises : Capitalism manages resources better through prices which are a signal for scarcity and abundance. The laws of supply and demand are at work at all times
Critic 1: In the above context, it is not an accurate reflection of market forces but of price gouging.
Bastiat von Mises : Jet airways and other private carriers have made air travel cheap for many ordinary Indians. They need to stay profitable or they will go out of business. Price 'gouging' is perfectly acceptable as long as they are not using fraud or force to prevent others from providing the same goods and services. Jet airways (and other private companies and individuals) also have to pay the taxes needed to keep Air India running despite its colossal losses.
Critic 1: It is not that the private airlines are doing charity to help ordinary folks experience flying but are forced by the same market forces that you vouched for earlier. In addition to shareholders, businesses have moral and ethical obligations to customers they serve. Exploiting helplessness caused by extraneous events is fraud in those dimensions. This is not an opportunity to compensate private airlines for taxes they pay assuming they make profit or subsidizing Air India.
Critic 2 : Bastiat von Mises, this is first time I've heard anyone say price gouging in acceptable. Kool-aid anyone ? 😂😂
Critic 2 : Bastiat von Mises, proponents of unregulated free-markets forget some basic problems with the application of the theory in the real world -- markets do not have perfect information, markets can and are manipulated, and real humans use markets -- not perfectly rational and self-interested beings. That is why all sensible financial markets are regulated to some degree. Case in point --
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/5/free-market-dogma-has-jacked-up-our-electricity-bills.html
Bastiat von Mises : Critic 1, Yes it is not charity that forces private airlines to cut prices. It is market forces , i.e competition. The same argument applies when they jack up prices. You win some, you lose some.
Air India is able to provide fares below market prices during crisis times not because they are charitable either but because they are slow to respond to the market situation. They are also cheap during these times but costly for the rest of the year as compared to private carriers. Even if they are cheap it is not because they are efficient in the operations but because they are subsidised by tax money. The only moral and ethical obligation a business has to it's customers is to not commit fraud or default on a service. Those who criticise private carriers should refuse to take their services even when it is cheaper - if you are paying from your own pocket as opposed to your employer's pocket. No point in making others pay for one's own ideals. The opportunity is not to compensate them but for the private operators to make hay when the sun shines. I see nothing wrong with it . They are not charitable organisations.
Bastiat von Mises : Critic 2, the unregulated free market drives efficiency and minimises waste. Adam Smith calls it the invisible hand of the market.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_hand
Free markets are not a theory to be applied on an engineering problem. They are a law of nature like physics - immutable. We ignore them at our peril.
Markets do not have perfect information, true. The premise here is that IF they did, they would automatically take the best possible decisions. Nope. Each participant will make the best decisions for themselves based on game theory. Everyone is afraid of the future and wants to somehow trust something. We are all desperate for someone to rip us off by giving us assurances. Sometimes it is a parent, sometimes a religious person, sometimes a god, politician, movie maker, etc. What markets have is free agents who interact with each other freely. Suggesting that an all knowing central authority whether a religious one or a political one or an economic one or of any other nature knows and will make rules for all is totalitarian. Humans have an inability to face the future that only an intelligent and sentient species that depended in it's evolutionary past on a reliable climate for a stable supply of nutrition has. BTW that explains any calendar of any civilization.
Critic 1 : Bastiat von Mises, If you go back to the snapshot I put you will realize that Air India is also engaged in price gouging. Moreover I don't believe government should be in airline business. Since I had been an extensive domestic air traveler during 92 ~ 97 I have seen the dark side and enjoyed the choices and freedom offered by liberalization of airline industry.
However there is nothing called an unregulated competitive economy optimal for everyone. In the context of airlines engaging in price gouging:
"Current economic theory does recognize that if there is an "externality" the outcome won't be optimal, and most economists would agree that in such cases we need government intervention". This is a link to a recent article titled 'Faith in an Unregulated Free Market? Don't fall for it' - http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/11/upshot/faith-in-an-unregulated-free-market-dont-fall-for-it.html?_r=0
Bastiat von Mises : The only function of a government is to protect individual and property rights. Externalities like the environment are commonly held property and so a company violating it beyond the accepted levels of that jurisdiction are guilty of trespassing. As regards those who sold fake drugs or drugs with only placebo effects are guilty of fraud or misrepresentation. Regarding protecting people from their own stupidity, I believe the government has no role to play. Protecting them from fraud - yes.
Critic 2: Bastiat von Mises, you're missing the point. Markets are not free in the real world. Powerful players will and do interfere in the market all the time. Take for instance high speed trading, highly leveraged equities and do on. Trusted sources lie. People are irrational. That's why the free market ideal is a disaster.
Critic 2: Same thing with communism.
Critic 2: Unregulated, pure ideology driven economics leads to false expectations and bad results.
Critic 2: Your idea of a government as a police force and nothing else is quite Orwellian. It does not exist today for a very good reason. Society suffers badly under such systems.
Bastiat von Mises : Critic 2 , As regards the electricity article, some of the higher costs may be due to various reasons. There is no such thing as a market failure. Only to a failure to meet the desired conditions of the critic.
Bastiat von Mises : I cannot comment on this as I do not have the data available with me and I only have first principles to start with .. however I would like to speculate a few possible reasons.
1. The states' govt run companies found it hard to produce electricity in a manner that is cost effective and so passed the buck (or should I say the lack of ability to make one) on to the private sector to avoid losing favour with the electorate.
2. The companies running the electricity generating facilities were a cartel and rigged prices. But this is possible only in a economy where you have to ask permission to a govt to produce anything' . i.e where there is a license and permit raj.
3. I strongly suspect that states where the costs to end customer are lower are those with a budget deficit
Critic 2: I give up.
Bastiat von Mises : Markets I agree are not free in the real world today. That is why I ask for them to be freed. Powerful players can interfere in the market in a way that is detrimental to customers ONLY with the force of government backing. No one can force us to part with our money or health with our full knowledge unless they use force.
Bastiat von Mises : Trusted sources do lie - like governments that bail out banks and car manufacturers who are 'too big to fail'. Many Individual people may be irrational. But they pay the cost for their follies themselves and serve as a signaling mechanism to peers and others in their vicinity. This is society becoming more rational over generations and how a system becomes anti-fragile over time - through evolution and not through intelligent design.
Bastiat von Mises : Government driven policies by an elite chosen few are in a true sense leverage on a national level as opposed to at a smaller corporate or individual level. That is the real Orwellian mechanism at work and not the free market - which is not ideology driven as asserted earlier. Government as a police force is a necessary evil and needed only to protect private property and individual rights. Not for anything else.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Aam Aadmi Party
Many people in India are rejoicing at the rise of the AAP as they are fed up with decades of incompetent and corrupt rule (mostly - but not exclusively - by the Congress Party). Apparently an IITian ex-IRS officer and his elves will save the day.
Aam Aadmi means Ordinary Man in Hindi. Aam also means Mango in Hindi, leading to the bilingually comprehensible moniker "Mango Man" for the average person. The AAPists claim to fight for the common man just like Socialists. They feel that the system is not to blame but the persons who have occupied the thrones of power so far were to blame for it's failures. They are so fervently patriotic that the term "Nationalist" would fit them well. . Is it wrong to call them "National Socialists" ?
Little does anyone 'want' to realize that they are to blame for their faith in an unnatural and inefficient system. The people of India keep trying to fit the data to the curve. It's time to Stop Blaming Capitalism for Socialism's Failures . Embracing Politics to solve society's problems is like changing the brand of the syringe to alter the properties of the medicine.
Imprinting is a political phenomenon as well. Stop seeing the sarkar as your mai-baap. Very few people in India are willing to take the Red Pill and grow up to political adulthood. No system is perfect. Which is why Laissez Faire Capitalism is what you should adopt as your Economics.
But maybe this is too much to ask for in a world where everyone wants Astrology to be an accurate science and the Astrologer to make a living by revealing to them the future - without telling others.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Why voting for Gary Johnson in 2012 makes sense !
Check out this cool 'Interactive' Infographic. It sadly shows only the 2 candidates foisted on us by the mainstream media ! Play with it and check out how the 2 candidates fare against each other in your state.
Another place to look is here.
If you support Romney or Obama in a Swing State / Battleground State where it is too close to call, please vote for the person you support. If that is not the case, then please give Freedom a presence - if not a chance - by Voting for Gary Johnson in 2012. Let's check your psephological options ...
3) If you are a Mittney supporter in a strongly Mittney leaning State, then you have nothing to fear by giving a vote for Gary Johnson in 2012.
4) If you are a Mittney supporter in a strongly Obama leaning State, then your vote is wasted anyway, so give a vote for Gary Johnson in 2012 to make a point. Watch this video just in case you are not too sure about that.
5) If you are a passive Ron Paul supporter, vote for the next best thing i.e Gary Johnson - instead of voting for the lesser of the 2 evils this year.
6) If you are a fanatical Ron Paul supporter AND you live in a state where you can't write-in his name, then please vote for someone very similar whom you can give a realistic chance of winning. Vote Gary Johnson in 2012. Please remember that even Ron Paul has suggested he might vote for Gary.
7) If you are from New Mexico, you just have to vote for Gary Johnson in 2012 :-). You know his record better than anyone else.
8) If you are senior or retired person who is worried about your medical expenses under either Obama or Romney then you should see this !
CHOICE MATRIX | Your State is Very Likely to Vote : Obama / Democrat | Your State is Very Likely to Vote : Mittney / Republican | Swing State OR 'Too Close to Call' | |
Democrat but not happy with Obama | Vote for Gary as Obama the Democrat will win your state anyway. Register a Protest Vote. | Vote for Gary even if you love Obama the Democrat as your candidate will lose your state anyway. Make your vote useful. Don't waste it in a losing cause. | Sure ! Go Ahead, Vote for your man Obama | |
Republican but not a supporter of Mittney | Vote for Gary even if you love Mittney the Republican as your candidate will lose your state anyway. Make your vote useful. Don't waste it in a losing cause. | Vote for Gary as Mittney the Republican will win your state anyway. Register a Protest Vote. Click Here if you are a Conservative. | Sure ! Go Ahead, Vote for your man Mittney | |
Ron Paul Supporter | Don't waste your vote as a "Write-In" voter. Even Ron Paul has suggested he might vote for Gary. Help the Libertarian Party get that 5% even IF you think they won't win. Gary has said that he would not have run against Ron Paul had he won the Republican nomination. Reward him for that. You agree with him 95% of the way anyway ! | The GOP's RNC stole the nomination from Ron Paul. Make them pay dearly for this ! If you think Obama is the Devil, don't forget that Mittney is no better. | ||
Undecided Voter ! | If you are undecided it means you are unhappy with both candidates but you are unsure about swimming against the tide. Try Gary! Seriously. Even if you don't know anything about the 3 candidates, don't you think it is better for America to have one more influential choice? | |||
New Mexico Voter ! | Do I have to even preach to the Choir ? You know what this guy can do. Help him do to the Country as President what he did for your State as Governor. This is one State that MUST go to Gary ! |
If you are still unwilling to let your candidate lose but want to support Gary, then look at the 'Interactive' Infographic again. This should help you decide if you can ditch one of the 2 mainstream media candidates you still support without helping his opponent !
Use it to decide if you can afford to vote for Gary Johnson instead of your "preferred lesser evil"
if
1) You strongly support either Obama or Mittney over the other
AND
2) You are from a state whose choice of presidential candidate is a "supposedly" long foregone conclusion. NOT "too close to call"
There are ofcourse other reasons to Vote for Gary Johnson in 2012 - EVEN - if you think he won't win ! Given below are the long term non-psephological reasons !
- Your vote can help to end the 2 Party Monopoly - albeit slowly.
- Your vote forces policy makers and the media to pay attention to the spirit of Freedom - both Economic and Social Freedom.
- Your vote will help act as a measure of the growing influence and increasing strength of the (predominantly Ron Paul led) FREEDOM rEVOLution.
- Your vote will give the Libertarian Candidates equal ballot access and federal funding (ok this one sucks - no one should get any funding) !