Is it officially permissible to be a Christian? Or indeed, anything?

Here in the Daily Mail is a sample of the hoo-ha about nurse Caroline Petrie, who was suspended for offering to pray for an elderly patient. (She also used to leave a mildly evangelical Christian pamphlet.) The patient says, "I have Christian beliefs myself, but it could perhaps be upsetting for some other people if they have different beliefs or thought that she meant they looked in such a bad way that they needed praying for."

Both parties seem reasonable and decent. What's worrying is what happens when officialdom gets involved, as the rest of the story shows.

But I'd love to see a Philadelphia lawyer let loose on the "Nursing and Midwifery Council code" (full text here) which Mrs Petrie is deemed to have breached. By implication, this code regulates not merely conduct, but opinions and even religious faith.

The code commands nurses to "Be open and honest, act with integrity" and straightaway gives a very contentious clarification of the term "integrity": "You must demonstrate a personal and professional commitment to equality and diversity." The managers at the health organisation for which Mrs Petrie works clearly understand "equality and diversity" to cover religions. The logic of this is that Jews, Muslims and Christians (among others) cannot work as nurses - for note the word "personal" in that order. It may be that atheists would also be precluded.

All this results from two things: the State getting too big for its boots; and in attempting to govern every aspect of our lives has delegated insanely wide-ranging powers to quangos, who make and apply rules with a whim of iron. The professions and semi-professions - doctors, teachers, nurses and so on* - all have their own little councils to terrorise them. Such prodnosing easily magnifies a "storm in a teacup" into an issue that could affect your job, wealth, family life and physical liberty.

We need a Constitution to limit the powers of would-be tyrants, even if they are now soft-handed, well-dressed ones. Resist the Red Armani Choir.
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* ... even foster parents.

Janszen, Faber: hyperinflation is government policy

(Graph reproduced by iTulip from NowAndFutures.com)

In an extended "Titanic" analogy, Eric Janszen describes what he sees as the government's response to the crisis: "send rescue", "boil the ocean" and if terrified investors refuse to relinquish the security of Treasury bonds, "sink the rafts" by devaluing the currency. Around the world, he sees a policy of inflation and even hyper-inflation. So does chipper doomster Marc Faber, who now thinks we must eventually have 200% inflation in the USA. 1974 - 82, here we come again?

Inflation bubbling up

Richard Daughty, aka The Mogambo Guru, comments on the sharp rise in raw materials prices.

Further to my recent post on whether gold is overpriced, it's worth pointing out that gold can remain for long periods above trend. Those who mock new buyers of gold may have overlooked this.

UPDATE

Marc Faber: "If I look at government debt in the US, and debt in general, I think the only way they will not default physically on their debt is to inflate." (htp: Michael Panzner)

Murphy: raise interest rates!

A striking article by Robert Murphy on Mises today, about the earlier Depression of 1920-21, and how raising interest rates was the painful, but quick way out.

"... the high rates of the 1920–1921 depression had certainly been painful, but they had cleaned the rot out of the structure of production very thoroughly....Going into 1923, the capital structure in the United States was a lean, mean, producing machine."

Personal choices

I have always been a great believer in personal choice, as I defended in the recent discussion on drug use.

Sometimes, however, I feel a surge of the draconian autocrat that comes from the Prussian part of my ancestry.

Such is the case today: Nadya Suleman, the mother of the octuplets born this week, is already the mother of six other children. She is unmarried, unemployed, and on disability for a back injury at work 10 years ago. In spite of all of those problems, and the fragile state of the US economy, she found a doctor willing to implant another 6 embryos in her womb (2 split later).

Investment Trust success stories

The Telegraph lists 20 ITs that have increased dividends annually for at least the last 20 years.

One factor helping these companies, says the article, is that they are permitted to keep up to 15% as cash in reserve. How much would you, now, be keeping in reserve?

A warning for world-improvers

There are so many proposals to improve the world, and such a short supply of humility and plain, ordinary fear of change. Take spelling, for example, and read this logically-refined paragraph:

Kontinuing cis proses, year after year, we would eventuali hav a reali sensibl writen langug. By 1975, wi ventyur tu sei, cer wud bi no mor uv ces teribli trublsum difikultis, wic no tu leters usd to indikeit ce seim nois, and laikwais no tui noises riten wic ce seim leter. Even Mr. Yaw,wi beliv, wud be hapi in ce nog cat his drims fainali keim tru.

For the whole thing, click here. (There are other versions doing the rounds, since the idea is so good.) (htp: Paddington)