The Power of Stupid - 2

See The Power of Stupid - 1 Here.

And besides leftist morons, there is another, more dangerous, type of stupids. The Apologists. They apologise, explain, excuse, blame others, create confusions, and deflect targets on behalf of each and every violent, uncivilized, and unacceptable act of their dear fellows - the leftists, the muslims, and the terrorists. They are the masters of phrases related to "we condemn this but...", "whataboutery", "see what others did", and so on!

So I found such an idiot in my Facebook list - blaming all humans for an Islamic practice called Taharrush. When I informed her that it is them who should be condemned and not everyone else, she kept on deflecting from the topic. Another idiot friend of hers joined to vomit more idiocy - humans are bad, Mahabharata also is violent and 5 husbands! See - it is not only the cult of Islam, which is violent and vulgar but everyone else is as well.
Copying the whole thing here, as it survived. In the process, some of my comments were deleted by her. After 2-3 days, I realised that and reposted some of those comments. Needless to say, I was unfriended soon for telling her what stupid means.

Akshita Bhatnagar Taneja

January 14 at 3:00pm · 

Makes you wish for extinction of human race..

Shocking Arabic Rape Game ‘Taharrush’ Has Made It To Europe & It’s Beyond Disgusting

This is just disturbing.

WWW.SCOOPWHOOP.COM|BY ADITYA VARMA

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Siddhartha Rastogi extinction of human race?? for the crimes of muslims alone? great sense of justice!!

Like · Reply · January 14 at 3:10pm

Akshita Bhatnagar Taneja Selective extinction then? Why? What about good Muslims then? Here we are talking about masses.. It's not a few psychopaths.. Its a lotttt of people!

Like · Reply · January 14 at 3:22pm

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Siddhartha Rastogi Then say that about bad muslims. Why extinction of good humans then?

Also, Taharrush is a religious principle based practice. So curse such a religion for extinction if you are so worried about good vs. bad!

Like · Reply · January 14 at 3:25pm

Akshita Bhatnagar Taneja I actually am against all religions so...

Like · Reply · January 14 at 3:26pm

Siddhartha Rastogi Great. Then let all religions be extinct... but wait - what about the good religions then?

Like · Reply · January 14 at 3:27pm

Akshita Bhatnagar Taneja What about them? People are good or bad.. Why bring religion into everything..

Like · Reply · January 14 at 3:30pm

Siddhartha Rastogi Well, we are going in circles. Let me reiterate it again for you:
- We want good things (religions, people) to stay and bad ones to go extinct (or exterminated?)
- Taharrush is a bad practice, based on the core principles of a religion...See More

Like · Reply · 1 · January 14 at 3:33pm

Akshita Bhatnagar Taneja Every religion can have good bad evil practices.. Its the choice of adoption that lies with an individual.. And what about humanity? If religion is teaching them to be inhuman and absolutely barbaric then why isn't everyone from that religion so...

Like · Reply · January 14 at 5:23pm · Edited

Siddhartha Rastogi Actually they are. And those who aren't are not following "that" religion properly. Therefore, according to the "religion", they must also be killed - just like you and me, because we also do not follow "that" religion.

Like · Reply · January 14 at 5:25pm

Akshita Bhatnagar Taneja I dint think it was THAT bad..

Like · Reply · January 14 at 5:34pm

Siddhartha Rastogi then please read more about the religion and think again.

Like · Reply · January 14 at 6:07pm

Akshita Bhatnagar Taneja I don't want to actually.. No interest in reading about any religion..

Like · Reply · January 14 at 6:08pm

Siddhartha Rastogi So you don't know, won't read, and yet, would judge! Some guts! stupid guts but still!!

Like · Reply · 25 mins

Akshita Bhatnagar Taneja U are no one to judge as well.. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion .. I may think u r stupid.. Am not complaining...am I..

Like · Reply · 18 mins

Siddhartha Rastogi Well, by definition is stupid is someone lacking common sense; like expressing opinions without reading and refusing to read and then, deleting those comments that point out their stupidity!

Like · Reply · 1 min

Write a reply...

Pamini Brahmbhatt Honestly irrespective of religion and fair point of view, this is so shameful to be practised by humans that its not only disgrace for a certain people but for entire human race to have let anything like being practised.

Like · Reply · 1 · January 14 at 6:08pm

Akshita Bhatnagar Taneja Exactly what I meant Pamini Brahmbhatt

Like · Reply · January 14 at 6:09pm

Pamini Brahmbhatt Mahabharat took place because a wife with 5 husbands was tried to be raped and hence god had to intervened. In geeta it says if a nation cannot protect a lady, it better be diminished or destroy the evil irrespective of cast, religion and race. The fact that we indian girls are sharing this post which is happening far away from us means this kind of things is reaching us too may be digitally, its affected me and everyone who will read this post. Hence, i pray to god to rather face extinction then live in the world where such hideous crimes which shrivers the soul takes place. Really Game of Rape? Who cares about the good or bad people, either bad be dead or entire race faces extinction.

Like · Reply · January 14 at 6:23pm

Akshita Bhatnagar Taneja True.. Why would anyone want to bring a new life into such a horrible world .. It may reach us or it may not but knowing that there are people who are living this life with things much worse happening to them.. It makes u wish that everything should end.. With it their suffering will end too..

Like · Reply · January 14 at 6:33pm

Pamini Brahmbhatt Ye! Humans are on top of chain as we have free will. And if free will is leading us to destruction of everything that suppose to be only beautiful than we better be extinct, animals were doing great without us anyway. No nuclear wars, no pollutions, no religion to guide and hence no misunderstood religion, Earth remains green and ever flourishing. Really i never thought i will never come across anything like this. A rape game, it just seems so disturbing that my faith in humans has shaken. Its sick of me saying this but a serial killer is better thn sch monsters atleast they have some mental problem, thr moral part of brain doesn't work and hence they end up killing people as they dont feel pain but what abt these people?

Like · Reply · January 14 at 6:43pm · Edited

The Power of Stupid - 1

Lately, I have been getting a lot of leftist style economics bashing (more accurately, neoclassical, capitalist, free market bashing) small stories, pictures, memes, and so on. Most of the times, these "anecdotes" have a strong condemnation with an ethical and humanitarian angle. However, all at the same times, these are utterly wrong representations - misinformed, manipulative, and misleading on purpose. With a little effort, I could see through the apparent idiocy of the same. At times, I tried explaining it too. But each time a new idiot pops up to share the same old anecdote to declare how economy is a facade for greed of few and it doesn't work and oh so poor are so exploited and all similar leftist brainwashing crap, I felt too drained to explain the whole principle again and again.

So now what I am going to do is this:
I will copy those stories and and explain those here on my blog. And each time an idiot shares the same old idiocy, I will put up the link in there to explain it again. Hopefully, this will counter the power of stupidity by a little... hopefully!

So the first one is this article from NDTV (no wonder the direction here):
Oil in India Now Officially Cheaper Than Mineral Water

The essence of the article is this: The Indian crude basket now has US$ X per barrel price tag; therefore, retail price of oil is Rs. 12 per litre, which is lesser than mineral water bottle at Rs. 15 per litre.

What the article purposely leads one into thinking is this: Yes, it is so unfair and unjust for this government to charge us Rs. 60 for petrol, when it gets oil itself for just 12 Rs. What a greedy bunch of profit-mongering corrupt capitalists.

What the article omits on purpose is this: Crude prices are internationally traded prices. Crude has to be processed into different commodities (petrol, diesel, aviation turbine fuel, kerosine, and so on) for retail usage. The cost of processing and cost of labour, safety, security, accounting, transportation, insurance, etc. has to be added to the cost of crude. Therefore, the retail landed cost of retail petrol is about Rs. 32/- whereas, the retail selling price is Rs. 60/-. So the comparable margins are not over Rs. 12 but over Rs. 32.

Now, come to the second part - why so much of taxes and why government has increased the excise on oil instead of letting the retail price fall. The answer is three-fold.
One, oil has many taxes that are levied by the states and oil being as essential commodity (therefore low price elasticity), state governments tax it a lot. The proposed GST also keeps oil (and alcohol) out of its ambit because of the same reason.
Two, oil has ad valorem taxes. It means the tax is not fixed but is determined as a percentage of price. So if oil prices fall, the taxes also fall. Since oil is a big revenue source, a sudden drop in the tax collection would mean government expenses have to be randomly cut down. Therefore, to meet the tax targets, tax rates are increased. When oil prices increased a lot around 2013, P. Chidambaram was overshooting the revenue targets with the same tax rates and therefore, had to cut down the tax rates as elections approached. Essentially, government is always trying to charge the same amount irrespective of the base price of oil.
Three, the government revenue is spent on lots of infrastructure and welfare activities. If government fails to meet the revenue targets, the expenses would also falter. Therefore, it is better to keep the revenue trajectory of a government on a stable path rather than shaking it with each change in oil prices.

Therefore, it ain't no grand capitalist conspiracy of greed folks but plain economic prudence!!

Standing on the shoulders of Giants

Researchers would be familiar with the idea of standing on the shoulders of Giants! And for those who are not, here is the idea through a proof - doing poetry programs with the names of Ghalib and Gulzar and whomsoever!

First pic of my talk on Gulzar's work in August 2012, under the banner of Cafe Pallette.
Second was a program I conducted to commemorate 215th birth anniversary of Mirza Ghalib under the aegis of Karwan - the Poetry Club of IIM Indore.
and the third one - this weekend, I will be serving a cocktail of Ghalib and Gulzar - and why they should or shouldn't be talked about in the same line.

हमें ज़िन्दगी तमाम कर रही है

इंदौर में आज से थोड़ी थोड़ी ठण्ड पड़नी शुरू हो गयी है... गुलाबी, रूमानी, अलसायी ठंडक!

और ऐसे उपन्यास पढ़ने वाले मौसम में, कविता लिखने वाले मौसम में, कैमरे के साथ टहलने वाले मौसम में, लॉन में टहलते हुए झरते-उगते पत्ते निहारने वाले मौसम में, चिड़ियों की चहचहाहट सुनते सुनते चाय पीने वाले मौसम में, और किसी दोस्त के संग घंटों तक चुप बैठे रहने वाले मौसम में... 

ऐसे मौसम में हम यहाँ इंटरनेशनल ट्रेड की किताब लिए जाने किस लोक से किस लोक में भटक रहे हैं. 

ग़ालिब होते तो शायद ऐसा मिसरा उठाते कि: 

वो दिन गए कि कहते थे नौकर नहीं हूँ मैं 

और फैज़ आगे जोड़ते कि:

दुनिया ने तेरी याद से बेगाना कर दिया 

तुझसे भी दिलफरेब हैं ग़म रोज़गार के... 

और जॉन एलिया बात को ऐसे ख़त्म करते कि बस: 

वही रोज़गार की मेहनतें, के नहीं है फुर्सत-ए-यक-नफस

यही दिन थे काम के और हम, कोई काम भी नहीं कर रहे

और हम, ठण्ड के नाम पर एक ठंडी आह भर कर...., इतना ही कहेंगे कि: 

अफ़सोस इनमें से कोई भी नहीं बाकी और 

हम जो बाकी हैं हमें ज़िन्दगी तमाम कर रही है