A Reformation for Islam?

Former PM ( and catholic) Tony Abbott has called on Islam to have a reformation. He sees it as one the the big answers to terrorism.

First of all it is very ironical a catholic would call for a reformation when they do not recognise anything of the Reformation itself!

Roughly the reformation started when Erasmas ( who remained a catholic) showed how Catholic dogma was completely different to that in the original documents.  It was Luther and then of course Calvin who showed how catholic dogma was incompatible with the scriptures.

Islam have no original manuscripts. They were burnt.Islam actually had their enlightenment ( related to the reformation but not the same) period before the Western world and then retreated from it.
The Reformation actually caused more deaths in its early stages as mainly Catholic but also Protestant rulers put heretics to death.This could be called terrorism!
Among those targeted were people who translated the manuscripts into language everyone understood so it would not be the monopoly of the Catholic denomination!

Imagine for a moment that a reformation did occur. would people who support ISIL and their version of Islam change their views? Of course not.

Yet again Abbott has strayed into territory he does not understand .

The only person applauding would be Malcolm Turnbull. The reason being he gains stronger support each time Abbott opens his mouth not Bill Shorten as people are gladdened that Turnbull is PM now and not Abbott.

Innovation

The Government announced its innovation policy as did the Opposition.

It was a great shame I do not hear either talk about getting greater competition within Australia.

It is competition that drives innovation as it is the main driver that makes companies different to others. It makes sense to innovate as this will drive greater profits. It differentiates itself from other companies.

Why are we stopping people fighting ISIL?

Police interviewed a young man and who went and fought against ISIL.

Why in the hell would it be a crime to fight ISIL?

ISIL is one of the most evil organisations the Earth has known. The sooner it is gone the better.I have no trouble at all in punishing people who have gone and helped them ( although disillusioned supporters are sometimes the best propaganda weapons against ISIL) however leave people who go and fight ISIL well alone.

Ian McFarlane

Ian McFarlane has been a liberal member of parliament from Queensland. It is a safe seat. He has been a rather nondescript cabinet member for a while.

Now it appears he is about to switch to the National party because in essence he lost his cabinet position.

Two things stand out in this.

Why would a person merely switching sides make any difference to a coalition agreement. No electorate vote is involved.

If I was an ambitious younger national MP then I would be pretty unhappy that a political has been will get into cabinet and I didn't.
I can think of least two national mps who should be Ministers now but are not. ( I should state I went to the wedding of one MP and have known him for a while since he worked in the financial markets. i have known his wife longer.)

Around the Traps 4/12/15

It is time for Around the Traps again.

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

• Rod Tucker on what-will-the-nbn-really-cost
• Andrew Elder on brough-enough
• Mike Callaghan on Getting-serious-about-climate-change-means-putting-a-price-on-carbon
• Croaking Cassandra  on weak-inflation-expectations-again, is promoting R&D the road to NZs future , nominal-gdp-targets-for-new-zealand, national-savings
• Mark the ballot on aggregation-stands-at-546-per-cent , updates
• Ross Gittins on lets-not-repeat-our-many-competition-stuffups, times-get-tougher-for-oldies , economys-transition-grinds-on-despite-quarterly-bumps
• Greg Jericho on transition-mining-boom-is-bust-or-is-it , australias-gdp-up-09-over-quarter-great-headline-but-not-the-full-story
• The Kouk on budget-deficit-narrowing-is-manna-from-heaven-for-scott-morrison , the-decline-of-union-membership, tobacco-consumption-falls-again-plain-packaging-and-excise-hikes-work , what-lies-ahead-for-australia-s-economy
• Kevin Davis on why-levying-gst-on-banking-has-been-in-the-too-hard-basket
• Bernard Mees on industry-super-funds-saved-from-us-style-ideology
• Paul Graham on the-electricity-network-is-changing-fast-heres-where-were-heading 
• Dean Biron on the-new-football-should-stop-engaging-in-old-soccer-debates
• Leon Berkelmans on Why-DFAT-is-wrong-on-the-opportunity-cost-of-FTAs
• Patrick Baker on 500-years-of-drought-and-flood-trees-and-corals-reveal-australias-climate-history
• Richard Ackland on eric-abetzs-close-to-extinction-howl-at-the-media-it-doesnt-get-much-more-predictable-than-this
• Adrian Cherney on yes-lets-have-a-frank-and-open-discussion-about-the-causes-of-extremism-and-terrorism

Northern America

• Greg Mayhew on avoiding-pointlessness Thanks Brad
• Barkley Rosser on its-monday-so-silent-samuelson-wants-tocut-SS-benefits-again
• Mark Thoma gives us Tim Duy on fed-watch-the-final-countdown
• Greg Ip on the-false-promise-of-a-rules-based-fed Thanks Brad
• Lael Brainard on normalising monetery policy when the neutral interest rate is low Thanks Mark
• Calculayed Risk on public-and-private-sector-payroll-jobs-under-various-Presidents
• Edward Lambert on estimate-ed-towards-a-recession

Europe

• Kruggers on iceland-ireland-and-devaluation-denial
• Simon Wren-Lewis on five-small-thoughts-on-autumn-statement , was-german-undercutting-deliberate, paris-climate-change-and-uk-government
• Kevin O'Rourke on it-has-finally-happened
• Colm McCarthy on the-euro-debate-and-the-abuse-of-language
• Coppolla comment on those-elusive-welfare-spending-cuts
• Chris Dillow on osbornes-wage-squeeze

Asia

• Leon Berkelsman on /IMFs-yuan-decision-why-it-matters-and-why-some-are-not-pleased
• Menzie Chinn on the-rmb-in-the-sdr
• Stephen Roach on china-slow-consumption-growth Thanks Brad
• David Brewster on Chinas-first-overseas-military-base-in-Djibouti-likely-to-be-a-taste-of-things-to-come
• Ben Bernanke on chinas-gold-star Thanks Mark
• Edward Lambert on japan-should-increase-wages
• Julian Sneider on Memory-loss-Chinas-high-stakes-gamble-in-the-tech-industrys-bloodiest-segment
• Andrew O'Neil on Middle-powers-hedge-against-China

Wonk

• Siobhan Austen and Darren O'Connell on nobel-laureate-douglass-norths-work-leaves-a-strong-legacy-for-economics
• John Quiggin on secular-stagnation-and-the-financial-sector
• Robert Waldmann  on demand-supply-and-what-is-new-after-2008
• Nick Rowe on is-two-the-new-zero , questions-for-moneymacro-historians-of-thought
• David Glasner on once upon a time when Keynes endorsed the Fisher effect
• James Hamilton on commodity-prices-and-exchange-rates
• Kruggers on is-the-economy-self-correcting-wonkish
• Noah Smith on econ-101-and-data-reply-to-david, why-teach-kids-macro-at-intro-level
• Twenty cent paradign on fight-for-our-principles Thanks Mark
• Tim Harford on the-pillars-of-tax-wisdom, eyes-on-the-innovation-prize
• Kevin O'Rourke on exchange-rates ,
• Tony Yates on reply-to-pk-financial-frictions-pushed-against-deflation
• Timothy Taylor on douglass-north-and-instititions
• Simon Wren-Lewis on the-centrality-of-policy-to-how-long
• Chris Dillow on on-legacy-ideas , capitalism-socialism-innovation
• David Glasner on eric-rauschway-on-the-gold-standard-2
• Kruggers on multiplier-evidence-and-multiplier-denial
• Lord Keynes on the-important-points-about-marxs-labour-theory-of-value
• Brad De Long on must-read-jan-mohlmann-and-wim-suyker-blanchard-and-leighs-fiscal-multipliers-revisited
• Croaking Cassandra on the-wealth-of-nations-and-democracy

General

• Francis Markham , Bruce Doran and Martin Young on gambling-on-pokies-is-like-tobacco-no-amount-of-it-is-safe
• Paul Rogers on isiss-plan-and-wests-trap
• Chris Dillow on syria-overconfidence-tribalism
• Casper Wuite on Why-UN-brokered-Libyan-peace-talks-are-crucial-in-the-fight-against-ISIS
• Timothy Taylor on what-if-government-paid-kidney-donors

Climate

• Menzie Chinn on a-year-for-records-temperatures-acres-burned , satellite-data-on-temperatures
• and Then Theres Physics on censoring-their-own-research , sensitivity-to-cumulative-emissions, bayesian-estimates-of-climate-sensitivity
• dana1981 on how-much-meat-contribute-to-gw
• Aric Sea Ice Blog on if-the-atmosphere-gets-cleaned-up
• Lucas Chancel and Thomas Piketty on carbon-and-inequality-kyoto-paris
• Timothy Taylor on cap-and-trade-lessons-of-experience
• Jason Hall-Spencer on attack-of-the-jellies-the-winners-of-ocean-acidification
• Mark Gibbs on sea-level-rise-is-real-which-is-why-we-need-to-retreat-from-unrealistic-advice
• Rabett run on uah-tlt-series-not-trustworthy
• Skeptical science on scientists-open-letter-wsj-ridley-peiser
• hotwhopper on el-nino-in-lower-troposphere-watch-this-space
• moyhu on big-uah-adjustments
• Greg Laden on incredibly-important-finding-on-renewable-energy

Andrew Gelman (Mainly Stats)

• how-to-analyze-hierarchical-survey-data-with-post-stratification
• garry-is-50-years-old-he-is-a-chess-player-who-is-also-active-in-a-political-movement
• arizona-historian-just-cant-stop-copying
• why-us-litigious
• data-transplanted-in-kidney-study
• extrapolation, causal inference and hierarchical modelling
• Kaiser Fung on the-proliferation-of-useless-data , what-you-learned-and-not-learned-about-machine-learning

Genial Dave Giles ( Econometrics)

• nuttin yet
• i-received-email-from-tymon-soczynski

Dianne Coyle ( quirky + Book Reviews)

• revolutionary-money , on-being-creative
• Various on the-spectacular-peacock-spider-dance-and-its-strange-evolutionary-roots
• scepticlawyer on why-goldcurrency-ratios-mattered-in-the-interwar-period

Vox wonk

• douglass-north-economist-s-historian
• ideas-of-douglass-north
• cfm-monthly-survey-china-s-growth-slowdown
• election-day-vote-buying-evidence-monetary-aggregates
• accounting-differences-europe-s-post-crisis-growth
• pro-poor-bias-trade-new-research-expenditure-channel
• immigration-and-far-right-voting-new-evidence
• tpp-unveiled
• sovereign-wealth-funds-new-era-oil
• towards-new-wto-institutional-approach
• german-wage-moderation-and-ez-crisis
• monetary-policy-expectations-and-aggregate-ez-shocks
• development-and-political-connections-firms
• ez-internal-devaluations-and-negative-demand-spillovers
• rmb-s-international-vs-regional-role
• beijing-pollution-and-hazy-data
• price-oil-and-price-carbon
• asset-price-inflation-ez-winners-and-losers
• electricity-shortages-and-industry-evidence-india
• import-competition-and-mental-distress
• fracking-and-coal-displacement

Federal Politics

There are a few things happening in Federal politics at present.

Is Tony Abbott trying to do a Rudd? 

He may well be trying but he has no hope. The Liberals were elected despite Tony Abbott not because of him. He was and is unpopular. He came across on TV as a complete klutz. His record as PM was 'ahem' unimpressive. If Malcolm Turnbull was to slip up the Liberals would not be looking to Abbott.

Mal Brough

Mal Brough has blatantly and openly  misled Parliament. In years gone by he would be gone for that. NOT for Police merely raiding his offices. Only an arrest would do that.He is now clearly a liabilty to the government and one wonders why Turnbull appointed him in the first place. It brings back memories of his bad political judgement both in the Republic campaign and then as Opposition Leader.
Andrew Elder comments.


hmmmm

Has the internet made peer review redundant?

I was reading an article the other day where the person said the article was peer reviewed and this made it 'special'.

I am thinking aloud here but has the internet made this redundant?

Rogoff and Reinhart's blunder was seen quite quickly because of the internet not peer review.
 Andrew Gelman has a small piece here and here on such things.

Has the internet made peer review a public peer review and hence better if the writers take note of the criticisms?