The pond knows that Dame Groan's groaning has a select pond audience, and this is probably as savage an assault on SloMo's mob as the Groaner will ever muster, albeit heavily disguised by dragging in an immigrant Dutch idea ... and we all know what the Groaner thinks of furriners ...
Indeed, indeed, how swiftly and quickly Dame Groan's application of her rule skips over the Ruby Princess and lands on that prime object of hatred, the doings of comrade Dan ... because it wouldn't do to do too much groaning about gold standard Gladys ...
What a surprisingly tame conclusion. No reptile raging at the dying of the light, just a kindly suggestion that perhaps it would be helpful if politicians weren't politicians ...
The infallible Pope chipped in with an excellent reminder of the best political thinking currently doing the rounds ...
Buoyed by all this, the pond had no hesitation plunging into another excellent reptile offering ...
Yet another splendid, vivid, evocative reptile illustration. The downsized lizard Oz graphics department routinely manages to astonish the pond.
As for having a Tuesday shot of the hole in the bucket man, the pond makes no apology. Whenever the pond is ailing and in urgent need of medical advice, the pond always seeks out our Henry ...
Ah, risk assessment!
The pond offers no assessment of the risk to the noggin of reading our Henry, and offers no guarantees. In short, the pond shall have no responsibility, obligation, or liability whatsoever with respect to the terms, interpretation, or implementation of the said column; the administration of the effects of the said column; the management, investment, or distribution of any proceedings arising from the effect of the said column, or any other funds paid or received in connection with actions arising with the said column; the payment or withholding of taxes that may be due or owing by stray readers or any other recipient of funds arising from actions in relation to the said column; and hereinafter, and until the twelfth of never, a very long time, stray readers, interested parties, and all other individuals, persons or entities fully, finally, and forever release, relinquish, and discharge the pond from any and all such responsibility, obligation, and liability as can be devised by agile minds bemused and battered by exposure to our Henry's risk assessment.
Now carry on, and besides, it's only a very short exposure ...
Dear sweet long ad astra lord, he is a marvel and a wonder, and yet, yet again, the reptiles have left off any reference to his co-author.
The pond thought it should remedy that deficiency that with a pinch of Pincus...
The pond is always standing by to help.
And so to the bonus, and here the pond has been exceptionally cunning.
An unsubtle blogger, in a quest for hits and readers, would have led off with Killer Creighton.
After all, Killer's people, with a deep fear of masks and social distancing, were out and about on the weekend, punching horses and carrying on, as only Killer's tribe can do.
But the pond likes the sort of easter eggs you used to get in the golden age of discs.
Think of the delight a stray reader might discover, thinking bloody Dame Groan, and our Henry and a pinch of Pincus, is that all there is, my friends, is that all there is?
Well no, there's Killer ... and suddenly that kind reader drawing the pond's attention to xkcd came more sharply into focus ...
Excellent, there's Killer with a snap of his people, and as befits their Freudian angst, not a mask in sight. How pleasing for the Killer, what a relief ...
And then Killer starts off his piece with a most excellent distraction ...
Say what? Did Killer just open up with talk of the need to act on climate change? What a most excellent feint, and bluff ...
Killer treasures climate science denialists as much as he treasures liberty and freedom from masks ... and blather about the killing fields, and how many might die so that he doesn't have to endure a facial covering ...
Please, just a few samples, in short form, just the headlines ...
Most excellent and worthy stuff.
Sadly the pond could only do a quick sampling of Killer's excellent work on climate science, but perhaps the moment the pond loved the best came with a twittering, wittering reference to the great climate science myth ...
Deleted accounts, suspended accounts?
Guess that's what happens when you're a font of misinformation, and travel with a pack of ratbags and speak of a religious obsession rather than attempt to deal with the science.
And speaking of a prime ratbag and boofhead obsessive, and faux blather about the need to act on climate change as the fundamental moral imperative of our age, back to the next Killer gobbet ...
Of course Killer would have a kind word for bunging on a superspreader event - or at least we might yet hope it's a superspreader event.
His noble willingness to head off to an ICU and expose himself to the risk of catching Covid in order to save a few twits from themselves will warm the hearts of his fellow health workers ... and the pond looks forward to Killer reports from the front line in due course.
But perhaps not all the reptiles were onside with the message because at this point the reptiles felt the need to insert some click bait in the form of a petulant Peta video ...
Relax, the pond has rendered it harmless by turning it into a screen cap ... but please note the way the reptiles have provided a summary, to avoid the need to watch, and note well how petulant Peta manages to insert the boot into the BLM protest, even though those wretched folk wore masks and talked of maintaining distance ...
Petulant Peta cleverly managed to fuel the outrage at those uppity, pesky, difficult blacks, while purporting to be outraged by the activities of horse-punching far right loons.
So she manages to be both for Killer's mob and against Killer's mob ... how cunning is that? Almost up there with Jim Chalmers doing a tax policy revision ...
And now, oh say it isn't so, a last gobbet of Killer insights ... and the dear sweet lad returned for a moment to climate science, as you might expect of a Killer mind not particularly interested in a way to a survivable planet ...
Indeed, indeed, just what the pond was saying about the bubonic plague only the other day ... how silly of those medieval folk to change their way of life.
But please, you've now heard from David Hume and the Romans, is it wrong for the pond to offer up G. K. Chesterton, him being a ferocious tyke and all?
There is an apostolic injunction to suffer fools gladly. We always lay the stress on the word "suffer", and interpret the passage as one urging resignation. It might be better, perhaps, to lay the stress upon the word “gladly”, and make our familiarity with fools a delight, and almost a dissipation. Nor is it necessary that our pleasure in fools (or at least in great and godlike fools) should be merely satiric or cruel. The great fool is he in whom we cannot tell which is the conscious and which the unconscious humour; we laugh with him and laugh at him at the same time.
And so to taking pleasure in the company of the Killer, and a painting celebrating Killer's insights and profound understanding of history ...
And now to end with a celebration of Jim Chalmers and Olympic backflipping by the immortal Rowe.
Hearing our Jim - oh Jim! - interviewed by Patricia Karvelas was either a visit to the dentist for root canal therapy, or perhaps one of Dante's innermost rings of hell, but there's more soothing Rowe unguent to apply here ... and perhaps gold standard Gladys and Slo 'it's not a race' Mo, will be in the next heat ...
Just a thought, but in looking at failures of education, surely a prime example is Adam Creighton. He supposedly holds "a Bachelor of Economics with First Class Honours from the University of New South Wales, and Master of Philosophy in Economics from Balliol College, Oxford" yet his state of (lack of) knowledge and ineptitude at reasoning and problem solving is appallingly obvious.
ReplyDeleteTo say that he "served as a senior economic adviser to then-Australian opposition leader, Tony Abbott" says all that can possibly be said, doesn't it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Creighton_(journalist)
Oh my, Killer C isn't the only one:
DeleteYes, adult literacy should be improved. But governments can make their messages easier to read right now
"According to the OECD, 40–50% of adults in Australia have literacy levels below the international standard required for participation in work, education and society."
https://theconversation.com/yes-adult-literacy-should-be-improved-but-governments-can-make-their-messages-easier-to-read-right-now-164621
Maybe Donners et al are right after all and Australia has fallen into adult illiteracy in the past 20 years. Though perhaps we've always been illiterate.
DP - thank you for the bio. of Jonathan Pincus. I was surprised to see that Pincus having his name associated with this day’s extra Henry. The Pincus I recall from meetings and seminars of the Economics Society in South Australia would have been cautious about going to metaphor, and I am sure he so advised his students. However, here it seems he is trying to make some point about bushfire response that is relevant to Covid response.
ReplyDeleteRight now, there is less unity and direction for what to do about bushfires, at any policy level, in this country, than there is for Covid.
Yes, we had a ponderously-named ‘Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements’, presumably because the fella who doesn’t hold a hose did not want it called something as simple as ‘Bushfire Royal Commission’ - but its ‘recommendations’ include use of the word ‘modest’ when it comes to actual aerial fire fighting equipment, and otherwise says everyone should talk a lot, gather lots of date, talk some more. Which would all be fine, if, on my way to town, I did not drive through extensive stands of grass, currently thriving on the wet winter, and which will start drying-out in 4-6 weeks.
And, on that ‘modest’ recommendation (?) for aerial capability - the Henry might have added that ‘Per ardua ad astra’ is the official motto of the Royal Australian Air Force, among others. It is not clear if any old Romans actually said ‘Per aspera ad astra’, or if it was cobbled together in the last couple of centuries for school, and state, mottos.
Pincus seems like the Ian Norman of economics, the eternal sleeping partner.
DeleteNot sure why you would need a collaboration for this gobbet though as it doesn't involve much analysis. Behind the tortured words it's just pointing out that ATAGI's brief is quite narrow and the math is quite well understood.
Governments are free to deviate from the recommendation if they want to factor in, say, there own incompetence in managing quarantine or informing the public, it's just that deviating from the recommendations means owning the outcome - "courageous decision minister". Much easier to blame ATAGI instead.
It works if ardua is aspera, which I think for many it is.
ReplyDeleteAs to Pincus, well the question basically is: who writes the articles ? Do they write alternate paragraphs or something ? Who is supplying the subject matter expertise and why is a Master of Philosophy in Economics from Balliol allowed to post utter crap about the "national debt" without being taken apart by experts such as Ergas and Pincus ?
GB - the Pincus I could observe was not a particularly sociable character, but about half of his professional output has been with co-authors. Most frequently, with Geoff Brennan, and, more recently, with the Henry, on a range of topics. This is a high proportion of joint authorship for academics at his level - make of that what you will.
ReplyDeleteIf not sociable, neither was he reticent about getting into stirring discussion, in seminars or in print. Because you have cited John Quiggin from time to time, you might be interested in a little stoush of now 43 years back, but from a time when these players were trying to establish themselves.
The editors of Australian ‘Economic Record’ sought articles from Quiggin, and a ‘companion piece’ from Brennan and Pincus on the then lively subject of public choice theory.
Pincus and Brennan declined, offering as one of their reasons ‘compiling an adequate survey of the public-choice literature was too large an undertaking’, but they did prepare a paper ‘specifically as a critical response . . . . (on the issues Quiggin raises)’.
Their contribution includes comments like ‘Certainly the queries Quiggin raises about much public-choice orthodoxy are worth taking seriously.’ - all very generous of them - but they accuse him of ‘impugning the scholarly integrity of those with whom he happens to disagree’ and wrap up with a patronising ‘It is, in our view, utterly regrettable that Quiggin did not see fit to focus his considerable energies on the substantive issues.’
Thus, from authors who did not accept the original brief from the editor, because, well, it was all too much to do the professional thing and survey the available literature - but allow us to make a snarky response, including gems like ‘Nevertheless, there is more to all this than seems to be dreamt of in Quiggin’s philosophy, Horatio’.
Seems Pincus does like to work with someone who has a shaker of clumsy literary quotes to sprinkle over the work.
As for Pincus chiding our Killer - plenty of opportunity there to be patronising about what the Killer contributes, but - perhaps he is still averse to compiling an adequate survey of the Covid literature.
Strewth, Chad, 43 years ago - I was a spruce young lad of 35 still resident in Canberra back then. Time sure races when you're having fun, doesn't it.
DeleteBack in the old Bulletin Board days - before the web took off - I was a 'member' of the LTUAE BBS (Life, The Universe And Everything) in which John's older brother Bob was also a member. I later joined Compuserve for several years, until it basically faded away as the web took off.
Years later, John kicked me off his blog for reasons I have never discerned but from years of LTUAE I could certainly adopt an abrasive manner. I guess that in today's terminology I would have qualified as a troll, but all good times come to an end. However, their effort above was banal indeed. Consider: "Atagi's work should include a central or reference scenario that realistically takes account of the fact that the stop-go cycle cannot persist forever."
Well of course it should. And then: "In that way it would be modelling an exit from the pattern and allowing Australians to measure the risks they will face if they choose to remain unvaccinated." And who knows, it might even allow them to measure the risks that they pose to others, as potential "spreaders", if they choose to remain unvaccinated.
Hi CW,
Delete“By their publishers you will know them”; Matthew 7:16; from things that I let the internet make up.
The Pincus appears to have made the usual transition of the aged RW academic so that now his finest thoughts are brought to you by the ever successful vanity publisher - Connor Court.
You do wonder who funds all these dud books?
DW
thank you DW - I truly had missed that in the odd times when I rake over the Connor Court. Pincus now, partially, in the stable, and trying to divine a relationship between Menzies and the 'Wealth of the Nation'. That would be a challenge, but I happen to have several other books 'on the go' just now - and expect to maintain that arrangement for a while yet, to the exclusion of another hagiography of Ming.
DeleteI just wonder if there's anybody who actually reads these dud books, DW. A readership equal to the Catallaxy subscriber's list perhaps ?
DeleteBy golly Chadders the pond is pleased at the way that Pincus set you off. The pond takes it as understood that people with less time on their hands will routinely head off to have a quick quig or two with Quiggin ...
Deletehttps://johnquiggin.com/
Sound advice Dorothy. Apart from his lively writing, the Quiggin actually understands that statistics stuff, which puts him in a different category to Dame Groan, and the Killer, and everyone whose head appears on 'Sky'.
DeleteA lot of what Dame Groan is saying here might actually be true, it's just that I cannot recall her making any of these comments when vaccine procurement was under way. She may have said something, she moans about so many things it is hard to keep track.
ReplyDeleteIt appears, however, that it could have been a deliberate policy to do nothing rather than a lack of familiarity with Dutch economists
https://pharmadispatch.com/news/exclusive-pm-intervened-to-get-action-on-vaccine-procurement
"The health portfolio appeared to adopt a 'business as usual' approach based on a 'sit and wait" strategy that assumed vaccines would not be developed quickly or at all. It is understood that this was significantly based on advice from McKinsey & Company with support of senior officials in the Department of Health"
If this is true it would explain why Australia's vaccine rollout has lagged so badly behind countries with far less health resources.
A lot of the wisdom of hindsight, you reckon Bef ? It's fairly easy to come by, so it's reckoned. But I dunno about this Tinbergen "rule" - it sounds a lot like a certain American president said of a rival that "he can't fart and chew gum at the same time".
DeleteI can grasp that if one wants to achieve multiple objectives concurrently then a clear understanding of each objective, how it is to be obtained, and what impact and/or interaction that might have on pursuing other objectives is essential. But as far as I can see, many politicians can't even pursue one single objective effectively.
So yes, if we want to both obtain a supply of vaccine and promote CSL (which we once used to own) then a fallback plan - eg ordering heaps of vaccines from other sources - might just be a good idea.
Contingency planning and concurrent action?
DeleteYou can see in the NSW outbreak how conservatism works against those things. Gladys seemed to inherit a better health infrastructure than Vic which allowed a better test and trace procedure. It never even occurred to the politicians that the number of cases might exceed the capacity of the system so they pursued a plodding, incremental approach to lockdowns. Doing a little bit more or introducing extra measures would only attract criticism.
Other states already realised that controlling an exponentially growing number of cases would be like catching a falling knife.