Ignorance, Gillard PM, Holidays Approach, Gaming Reviews

[tcpip]

Most regular readers will know I'm an advocate of land tax as a replace for inefficient and unproductive taxes on labour and capital. On a whim, I entered this discussion on a property investment website. Enjoy the results. What I find particularly remarkable is their ignorance of basic economics (like the Law of Rent or the distinction between land and capital) on matters they claim expertise in. Actually I must confess I find this a lot; often people with a strong opinion on a topic like to think they're an expert on a topic. Personally, I prefer to form a strong opinion by reaching "deeply considered convictions", based on reason and evidence, rather than having "deeply ingrained prejudices" from emotions and assumptions.

Julia Gillard became the first ever female Prime Minister of Australia yesterday (that's only taken over one hundred years, *grumble*). It's an acting position whilst Rudd is in Bali (finally a PM who's acting on climate change!) , and one which seems to attract a share of odd events. I've sent her a congratulatory email (the last email conversation we had was a little terse; I was writing on behalf of Labor for Refugees and she was shadow minister for immigration).

Speaking of which, for the second year in a row, I'm desparately trying to organise tickets to Bali again over the break. I've contacted Flight Centre, and they've sent an email confirmation saying their processing the request, but no confirmation yet. Meh. It's been years since I've been to the archipelago, and I really want to see it again. New Zealand is not an option this summer (I think I'll go south for winter). If this doesn't work out for whatever reason maybe a visit to Tasmania is in order; it's been a while since I've seen Murdoch's former Vice-Chancellor, Professor Peter Boyce and we remain in irregular correspondence.

This week I finally managed to finish my review of Earthdawn: Gamemaster's Compendium; it's a huge, stunning book and quite good on the substance level as well. Not so good is the old AD&D module D1: Descent into the Depths of the Earth, which is seriously lacking in style, substance and a purpose for existence. Played another session of Legend of the Five Rings last Sunday with a refitted AD&D Oriental Adventures module. It's going very well, if only I can hack out some overall narrative to the various instances of character development and plot leads.

Comments

Re: jatku

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Nothing learned from one economy can be successfully implemented in another.

Yeah, that was a particularly bizarre statement.

And only Australian economists, who are currently working, could hope to make any accurate observations or predictions about even the most fundamental aspects of the Australian economy.

Tragic that I could name some of those as well, eh? And I'm still waiting for ONE contrary argument from an economist...

Because once again the government exists only to the detriment of the citizenry.

I wonder who he'd call if his house was broken into? Or do you suppose he'd form his own vigilante group?

The world would apparently be a much better place if we just had less smart people.

Maybe said poster would feel less threatened ;-)

I'm guessing that the thread only deteriorates into a pointless flame war after these gems.

Actually, most have fled the field once they realised they didn't have an argument.

Re: jatku

[demonhellfish.livejournal.com]

Well, there was that fellow who decided to try ad hominem but rather failed because you weren't trying to hide you previous work or your position. That's almost like an argument. Sort of.

Re: jatku

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

One would have to be pretty silly to try to hide in a forum and post using their name!

It is interesting that when asked to discuss any of the facts of the material they decided not to contribute anymore.. Oh well.