Mannkal's e-Focus January 2014

Mannkal's e-Focus January 2014

Greetings!,

Happy New Year!

from the Mannkal Team

With the festive season coming to an end, the Mannkal office celebrated the end of a challenging yet successful year with a tour of Mannwest's property investments around Perth; a spin on Mannkal's traditional Christmas celebration.

Mannkal Christmas Tour

Mannkal then shut its doors from 20 December 2013 and reopened on 2 January 2014 with renewed vigour and many challenges for the future!

Mannkal is pleased to welcome home the Mises Seminar Scholars. The 2013 Mises Seminar discussed a range of controversial and hotly contested topics including Discrimination & Equality before the Law, Whistle-Blowing and Government Secrecy, and Democracy is Evil, to name a few. Jeffrey Tucker related defiance towards central regimes to the hit TV series, "Breaking Bad" and the blockbuster release of "The Hunger Games".

"At the end of the second day, keynote speaker Jeffrey Tucker gave an address entitled 'The New World of Breaking Bad'. Tucker's novel presentation commented on the shift in popular culture towards defying the central regime, a shift epitomised by the popular television series 'Breaking Bad' and 'The Hunger Games' books and films. The shift in popular discourse towards disestablishmentarianism was said to be reflected in real life through innovations such as the free market narcotics website, 'The Silk Road', and cyber-currencies such as Bitcoin. Tucker argued that together these phenomena were beginning to erode the traditional monopolies of the State and should be celebrated as libertarian success stories".

Ciara O'Loughlin, Mannkal Mises Scholar 2013

Left to right: YeQin Zhang, Paolo Serafini, Ryan Kirke, Charlotte Deniss, Ciara O'Loughlin and Tayler Wright

To view Ryan Kirke's report from the Seminar, please scroll down.

Please feel free to forward this email or any of this material to your own contacts. To subscribe to this publication, please click here (for new subscribers only).

Ron's regular Mannerisms this month (please scroll to the end) addresses the issue, "No longer are we subservient!"

George Bowen

CEO

Quote of the Month

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive... [for] those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience".

- C.S. Lewis

Read all about it!

No Need to Fear Hydraulic Fracturing

Are environmental sustainability and economic prosperity mutually exclusive goals? Marco Navarro-Genie, President of the Atlantic Institute of Market Studies situated in Halifax, Nova Scotia, argues that there is ample evidence to prove this is not the case. More > > >

Legalisation of Marijuana

In November 2012, Colorado legalised marijuana for recreational use with stores first offering the drug for sale on 1 January 2014. Colorado is expected to earn a whopping $US67 million in tax revenue from the sale of marijuana. The question remains whether the economic benefits will exceed the economic and moral costs of legalisation and whether Australia will embark on a similar legalisation strategy. More > > >

Rest in Peace Barbara Branden (1929-2013)

Barbara Branden, an acclaimed writer, speaker and lecturer, passed away on 11 December 2013. The Atlas Society pays tribute to Branden, author of the best-selling biography, The Passion of Ayn Rand, which was later used as the basis of an Emmy-award winning movie. More > > >

The Government Made Me Do It

Theodore Dalrymple claims that Washington DC's wish to treat mental illness and addiction as "diseases" like any other will result in relieving people of responsibility for their own individual choices. Do you agree or has Dalrymple gone too far? More > > >

Look Who's Talking

Barbara Branden on Ayn Rand & Atlas Shrugged

To view the late Barbara Branden's speech with The Atlas Society on Ayn Rand and the publishing of Atlas Shrugged, please click here for Part I and Part II.

Calling all Business People!

Seeking WA "organiser" for newly formed Bastiat Society-Perth lunch group

Why shouldn't WA business people have the opportunity to hear Australia's most thought-provoking speakers?

Judith Sloan, Nick Cater, Andrew Bold, Robert Gottliebsen plus overseas visitors

The Bastiat Society is an international society of principled wealth creators. It engages the business community in a positive, non-political, and academic Society. Each Bastiat Society Chapter is led by a business person who assists in the organisation of approximately 10 events per year. For more information on the Bastiat Society, please click here.

Mannkal is seeking to establish a Perth-based Bastiat Society Chapter and will support this group with its extensive contact base. If you want to make this possible, please contact us on 9382 1288.

"because those who work in freedom should know how freedom works"

Upcoming Events!

Australian Libertarian Society Friedman Conference: 3-4 May 2014

The 2nd ALS Friedman Conference will be held in Sydney this year from 3-4 May. International guest speakers will include Dr Pat Michaels from the Cato Institute in Washington DC and "skeptic lawyer" Helen Dale from the United Kingdom. A host of eminent Australian guest speakers will also be in attendance. More details will be released closer to the date. In the meantime, check out the ALS Friedman Conference Facebook page.

Scholar Reports

Mises Seminar: Brisbane 29 Nov - 1 Dec, 2013

Mannkal Scholars recently return from the annual Mises Seminar held in Brisbane late last year. Mannkal is pleased to announce that the Mises Scholar recipients were Paolo Serafini, Ciara O'Loughlin, YeQin Zhang, Ryan Kirke, Tayler Wright and Charlotte Denniss. To view Ryan Kirke's report from the Seminar, please click here.

Left to right: Ryan Kirke & Jeffrey Tucker

Mannkal Scholar Blogs

Samantha Denford is currently stationed at the Lion Rock Institute in Hong Kong. For more information about her experiences, please click here.

Mannerisms

''No longer are we subservient!" More > > >

(Ron)

(Mannkal)

Click here to visit the Mannkal web site.