Petty
Blogging for the inverterately lazy
Hello, to my now single reader. (I still think it’s my mom…)
Anyway, I’ve obviously not got my act together to blog like Megan McArdle, and as I’m thinking more and more, argue like Don Boudreaux (of whom I am enough of a fanboy to recently buy donboudreauxismyhero.com after seeing some sympatico from Steven Landsburg and [...]
US still hates gays…
In an unsurprising - and selfish - move the United States has decided that it should still have to right to criminalize the mere existence of homosexuality. The reason the US delegation put forward for not supporting the declaration is that as the federal government they are not legally aloud to contravene laws of individual [...]
More clueless bureaucrats in the UK
Given the recent lack of posts making fun of UK bureacrats I’ve decided to do an omnibus edition to catch up. Here is a round up of pettiness from the past two weeks.
The Hampshire County Council decided that the tinsel adorning the stop sign of a lollipop man should be removed in case it distracts [...]
New Toronto trash service offers higher incentive to cheat
In caring, kind Toronto, if you want your garbage picked up, you need to place it in city mandated grey bins or you need to have it labelled with city-issued garbage tags. If neither of these is done, you can’t expect your trash to be collected. Additionally home owners must pay according to the volume [...]
Marking with red is aggressive
Queensland state government has published educational changes that pointedly suggest marking with red pen is aggressive and may harm the fragile egos of children. In addition to marking with more subdued colours, such as blue or black (likely to be culled for racist overtones), the guide also includes mandated peer reviewing and tutoring - of [...]
UK: Welcome mats are health and safety risk
A recent Telegraph story tells of the local council in Gosport deciding that residents of council flats who have welcome mats outside their doors are quite possibly causing safety problems. Not only this, but some renters have been threatened with legal action if they don’t remove the mats. This was opposed by some senior local [...]
Followup to Federal Fiasco - my feelings
Since I’ve been a bit slack on my posts this past week, I missed following up on my political disaster review of last week with an entertaining and engaging blow-by-blow. Since I wrote previously, things happened roughly in this order - focusing on how generally inept Dion has handled this thing from the beginning.
Both McKenna [...]
Pay the fine before you light up inside
In Holland where the laws are much nicer to pot than to cigarettes, some bars that illegally still allow smoking have resorted to asking for a cover charge to defray eventual fines. It’s not only an interesting way to make a statement about laws that affect property rights it’s a solid economic move as well, [...]
Clamp down on petty infractions, but not if it’s an MP
As the CSM suggests, all the zero-tolerance, petty bureaucrats in the UK are allowed to push the citizens around, as long as it doesn’t begin to affect the lifestyles of British MPs.
Counterterrorism unit,
Officers didn’t just search the home of [MP] Damian Green – they arrested him, raided his office, and detained him for nine hours [...]
Tomatoes, Weed, what’s the difference?
A crack team of constables tore apart a Scottish house after mistaking tomato plants for marijuana - explicitly stating their obvious confusion as they burst through the door.
Lulu Matheson had been growing tomatoes on her windowsills and these seemingly set the alarm bells ringing for the local police. Obviously the Northern Constabulary’s training criteria doesn’t [...]
Off with the flu
I apologize to my loyal reader, as I have been off with the flu, Santa duties, food poisoning, and general apathy the past few days. Lame excuses all, but…
I’ll endeavour to get my readership above zero over the next few days.
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I aspire to write like Rex Murphy…
because of columns like this.
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Canadian political leaders - someone will lose face
I’ve avoided writing about the whole detent going in Ottawa, mostly because the whole thing has been making me utterly furious - almost apoplectic.
Recently, for the first time in 20 years I’ve become more politically active at all four levels of government that sit, some heavier than others, on top of us - federal, provincial, [...]
UK: No more cheap booze
The national government in the UK is determined to slap new regulations on drinking to attempt to curb a rise in anti-social behaviour. The suggestions range from a ban on happy hours and ladies nights, along with stringent labeling on cans and bottles.
From the Daily Mail:
Critics of liberalised licensing laws claim the move three years [...]
Thailand dangerous? Telegraph opinion lacks perspective…
The Telegraph has recently reported that Thailand is to be considered one of the most dangerous travel destinations on earth right now, right up there with places like Afghanistan, Palestine, Somailia and the Sudan.
The Telegraph must be edited by people who’s detection of hyperpole must be stunted through a lack of logic or common sense. [...]
Bail out everyone dammit…
And merely because I a fan, here’s a quote from P.J. O’Rourke on bailouts:
Print journalists may soon have to send their kids to public schools, feed dry food to their cats, and give up their leases on Prius automobiles and get the Hummers that are being offered at such deep discounts these days. … The [...]
Toronto Mayor clueless on basic economics
David Miller - the seemingly basket-case mayor of Toronto - has decided to change the way they’re trying to discourage plastic bag use by Toronto citizens.
It seems that the original idea was to force supermarkets to pay their customers a dime for bringing in a reusable bag. The change was to instead have the stores [...]
Queen’s Deane doesn’t grasp free speech
Patrick Deane of Queen’s University had the gall to trot out this statement when defending his crack squad of thought police:
Freedom of speech and thought is impossible without respect, consideration and a commitment to mutual understanding.
Is he willfully ignorant or merely inept in his understanding of the words he uses?
Freedom of speech needs nothing but [...]
What’s wrong with $70 an hour?
There seems to be a bit of angry-meme competition on the web amongst commentators with respect to how much a GM employee costs - currently circulating at about $70/hour.
James Surowieki was the first I read, stating:
… you only get to that number if you include all of the costs G.M. is paying for retired workers. [...]
British clown music a danger to the public, especially children
I know that I seem to be picking on British public policy quite often, but it’s just so easy. From a link off the Reason Brickbats page comes this astounding obtuse abuse of civic power.
Zippos Circus clowns were banned from playing musical instruments because the Birmingham City Council told them the music contravened the Licensing [...]
UK says littering should maybe not be considered terrorism
In a landmark psuedo-decision the national government of Britain has decided to stop equating littering with terrorism. It is now safe enough to litter since the government has suggested that surveillance tools and regulations used to attempt to stop terrorism are a bit much when it comes to more mundane offenses - offenses such as [...]
Damn, I have no idea if I’m as smart as I thought…
As a response to the 1999 paper by Unskilled and Unaware of It, Burson, Larrick, and Klayman wrote Skilled or Unskilled, but Still Unaware of It to show that regardless of your skill and intelligence you’re likely clueless anyway.
The original study purported to show that the most unskilled people tend to be the least clued in [...]
Saskatchewan high school to nix fails
Saskatoon High School, Nutana Collegiate, under auspices of Principal Shirley Figley is considering not putting failing grades on student report cards, replacing sub-50s with an incomplete or no mark. Figley says:
…teachers don’t want their students to fail… [and] We don’t need to degrade the student by giving them a number
Based on what I’ve read about [...]
London boroughs fighting musical terrorism
In a huge push to ensure the safety of chemically enhanced ravers all over the London, police are targeting live music performances that don’t comply with new strict discloser rules.
Detective Superintendent Dave Eyles of London states:
Music promotions attract people who have a propensity to use violence. That’s not speculation. We have a duty to prevent [...]
Britain to Lojack fatties in war on obesity
Ok, the title is a bit hyperbolic but in Britain is now promoting a new scheme to tag and track people in an effort to improve health by targeting obesity. In addition to the tags, which track calories and exertion, marketing campaigns and fitness facilities will be deployed to round out the effort. They feel [...]
UK to fine running motorists…
…who are stuck in traffic jams. The incredible British nanny-state has decided to levy fines of £20 on drivers who happen to have their cars running while stuck in traffic. This is likely to:
make a wholesale change in the behaviour of people who are already under stress or,
piss loads of people off and likely cause [...]
And again DST debunked
Daylight savings time (DST) shifts, and especially the debate on it drives me nuts. It’s been shown many times that the logic used by its proponents is spurious at best. And another study (PDF) by Matthew J. Kotchen and Laura E. Grant proves quite nicely that DST is crap, or at least ineffective:
Our main finding [...]
Economics grad students smarter than most
In the constant struggle to legitimize Economics as an intelligent and challenging pursuit the site Econphd.net put together some stats on GRE results. These show that Economics grad students rank 4th among 28 fields of PhD study - behind only physics, math and computer science, and well ahead of pseudo disciplines like public administration [...]
Health and safety chiefs ban poetry group
From the Ananova news site in the UK, a poetry group has been banned from a pub in Ely, Cambridgeshire, that regularly showcases live music. Environmental health officer Elizabeth Bailey says:
We have licences for all sorts of reasons - fire and police need to check it is safe - it is not just us being [...]
