Comments on: Mont Pelerin in Iceland

By: MH

MH — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:30:46 +0000

Eyja,

There isn’t much seriousness in this thread, so please don’t mind us. Best of luck for you in your country’s current difficulties.

By: John Emerson

John Emerson — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 23:42:23 +0000

Eyja is a self-hating Icelander, alas.

By: jackd

jackd — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:35:58 +0000

Re NaCl, a friend once said of his sister-in-law that the two of them were like sodium and chlorine – either one was harmful alone but if you put them together you’d get an explosion.

By: Eyja Brynjarsdóttir

Eyja Brynjarsdóttir — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 08:29:17 +0000

The point of the original post about the influences on Davíð Oddsson and his cohorts is spot on. But I’m having a bit of a hard time wrapping my mind around the tone of some of the comments; not to mention the point of the Björk-quote. It can’t be possible that people are actually taking her fruit-filled statements about anything seriously, can it? Yes, binge drinking is much too common in Iceland and has been for the past 50 years or so, but that’s where the accuracy ends.

I suppose I’m just sick of encountering that “look-at-them-weird-Icelanders-oh-what-an-amusing-novelty-thing”. Oh, and please don’t send any neocons our way; we already have more of them here than we can handle.

By: MH

MH — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:31:35 +0000

Yes, let us be sure to separate substances that, when swallowed, will generate lye, hydrogen, and heat from those substances that are poisonous.

By: John Emerson

John Emerson — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:06:09 +0000

These are important distinctions. Words have meanings. MH is a relatvist moral equivalence heretic of the first water. I say stone him— the Bjork way, with ancient Norse vodka.

By: Cryptic ned

Cryptic ned — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:19:36 +0000

Fire isn’t really “poisonous”.

By: MH

MH — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:54:33 +0000

Given that water will start sodium on fire, I’d say it is as poisonous as chlorine, if in a different way.

By: John Emerson

John Emerson — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:04:46 +0000

I believe that pure sodium catches fire easily and might harm you that way, though it’s not poisonous the way chlorine is. But two wrongs don’t make a right, and NaCL is just wrong! wrong! wrong!

By: MH

MH — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:45:59 +0000

So, should I just put pure sodium on my eggs?

By: John Emerson

John Emerson — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:25:37 +0000

False, tobacco is worse. And who cares if it’s a drug? (And ether is a nice buzz too!)

If you remove the sodium ion from table salt you have a deadly poisonous gas.

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:24:41 +0000

I am all for freedom but to “run riot?” Well you can have it. Alcohol has killed more people than any other drug and make no mistake it is a drug. If you remove the water molecule from alcohol you have ether !!

By: Hidari

Hidari — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:07:26 +0000

Are we finally at the stage yet when, faced with the usual ‘free market’ drones objecting to the ‘socialism’ of Obama (and Brown) we can finally respond…’oh yeah well…if you don’t like it why don’t you go and live in Iceland!’.

Actually no because according to no less an authority than Mr Gissurarson Iceland has now turned to the ‘hard left’. So it just goes to show.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123361722202741355.html

By: ejh

ejh — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:32:13 +0000

another on ”The Monetary Order” where he outlined his idea of competitive monies

I wonder – did Hayek ever operate a cashdesk? How many compartments did he think one had?

By: MH

MH — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 02:59:46 +0000

Well, at least Iceland knows what to do with mixers.