Today is the last day of nominations for the SA Blog Awards 2008. It would be great if this blog got enough nominations to qualify for consideration in any category, but it would be excellent fun if those categories included “best green blog”. I wish there was a left-wing category too, or an option for socialist site of the year, but green will do.

Here’s my original post, explaining how and why the fluffy creature alongside will benefit from my boundless soft-heartedness if you, most honoured readers, make it so.

Click the big, colourful button to the right (or click here) to do the right thing by this kitty.

Jim Fedako wrote an interesting article over at the Mises blog musing about the nature of accounting in public services. It neatly captures the problem that the public provision of a public good is not meant to be done for profit, so how do you really account for government’s performance? An extract:

Government accounting is a true oxymoron. We can determine the cost of government, but what about the value produced? What is the product? What is its value? What is the bottom line? Of course, these unanswered questions do not stop government from playing business, pretending to create value and profit for society.

[…]

[W]henever government officials speak of fiscal accountability, they are only considering approved budget versus actual spending. They are not referring to worthiness of expenditures, only whether or not they spent revenue according to the budget, with no outright theft of money. Oh, sure, the officials will claim that fiscal accountability means that money was spent on productive activities since, as expected, it is assumed by the governmental entity that only productive activities were approved in the budget. Circular reasoning.

[…]

The implication is that a governmental entity that increases its tax revenue faster than its expenditures is performing a service for its constituents; the entity is achieving a profit for the taxpayers. Conversely, a governmental entity in a deficit cycle is creating a loss for its taxpayers. So, the more a government confiscates, the better off the taxpayers. Does that make sense? Down is up, and up is down. Somewhere, somehow, we ventured down the rabbit hole.

I’m not convinced this is the final word on the subject, but it certainly is food for thought.

As counterpoint to a rant against white supremacists I wrote for the Mail & Guardian’s online opinion site recently, I thought this video was pretty apt. The events portrayed here remind me of the caricature image of the stupidity of “houtkoppe” (blockheads), as the whites I went to school with during apartheid days commonly called blacks. Except, these particular houtkoppe are perfectly white.

But enough with the theory and the rationalisation. It’s just damn funny: