Of witches and wireless

In1692 in the village of Salem Massachusetts, two young girls, the daughter and niece of Reverend Samuel Parris, began to have violent fits where they screamed strange sounds, threw things, contorted themselves into strange positions and acted as though they had been possessed. The girls complained of being poked by pins and pinched, yet the local doctor could find nothing physical that caused these symptoms. Soon other young women in the village began exhibiting similar behaviour. The cause of these "possessions" was at that time considered to be witchcraft, a capital felony crime in the colonies. The three people charged and the trial that resulted has been popularized in the cinema and on the stage. That story was only a small part of the wider hysteria in colonial Massachusetts that eventually resulted in the arrest and imprisonment of over 150 individuals and the eventual execution of 19 people.
We think things like that don't happen anymore, the results of that particular mass hysteria had catastrophic effects on human life for individuals and families who listened, often uncritically to the testimony of local experts. Mass hysteria still happens today. How many times have you heard stories of buildings being evacuated after the discovery of a mysterious white powder? The white powder eventually is identified as chalk or something equally innocuous, but the irrational fear stems back to those days after 9/11 when all white powder was assumed to be anthrax spores.
So when I read about parents in the Barrie Ontario area that want the Simcoe County School Board to remove Wi-Fi routers from their schools because of their affect on children, I though witchcraft. Parents are complaining that their children are suffering from headaches, dizziness, nausea, racing heart rates, memory loss, trouble concentrating, skin rash, hyperactivity, night sweats and insomnia. Skin rash! All of these symptoms began apparently after the 14 local schools had wireless installed.
The experts are lining up; Ontario's Chief Officer of Health, Health Canada, the Simcoe Board and an assortment of government agencies all claim there is no danger and no evidence to support the parents' claims. The parents have Prof. Magda Havas from Trent University and the NDP Health critic France Gelinas who think the matter deserves further study. Everyone has an ulterior motive here, except maybe the parents. Prof. Havas does work on the potential dangers of non-ionizing electromagnetic energy - big motive.
This type of story - cell phones cause brain tumours, high tension wires cause leukaemia and on and on have been fashionable for as long as those technologies have been around. I hate to quote the WHO, but they say no evidence for any of this.
Interestingly our nearest star, the Sun, produces a wide range of both ionizing and non-ionizing radiations - huge amounts - but of course it's natural radiation. It's the "man-made" stuff we need to be concerned about, you know like organic and chemical - chemical bad, organic good. Simple solution: I'm wearing an aluminum foil hat right now to protect me, maybe it will help those poor kids too.

The greatest gift to the American libertarian electorate was the Obama administration

This is from Reason TV. Thanks to a fellow blogger I'm showing it to you.

Stimulus spending US style

Need a laugh? If you are an American this isn't really that funny - its just unbelievable. If you are Canadian you should not feel smug, it's not that much different here. This video link was brought to my attention by Cato-at-Liberty, enjoy:

Complexity, the State and You

It was totally by accident that I discovered Freedomain Radio some years ago while "surfing-the-net". This is a libertarian site, run by a true libertarian, but not in the political sense. Stefan Molyneux is a philosopher, or more correctly a libertarian philosopher (with a degree in philosophy), a sort of male Ayn Rand who uses modern tools to publish his message. He blogs, produces podcasts, he posts to YouTube and he writes books. He has some extraordinary insights that he shares with people through all these methods of publication. Need something to think about? Just spend a few minutes watching/listening/reading his always thought provoking material.
If you are in the Toronto area he will be attending one of our libertarian "pub-night" meetings in September. If you have Facebook - check this out, if not go to the Ontario Libertarian Party site and click on the pub-night prompt. Stefan is a local, from the Greater Toronto area and I think he is getting better and better at delivering his message. Here is one of his latest YouTube postings that gets to the core of libertarianism.
 

The best a government education system can provide

As a former public high school teacher I often feel pangs of guilt because I was part of a system in Ontario that did not have the best interests of its students as its ultimate purpose (although I did try to ignore the system). What was its ultimate purpose? Not an easy answer, but the system was primarily geared to other things like, staffing, timetabling, government "edu-babble" and maybe then to students. Of course this view was not shared by most teachers but I'm certain it was shared by many students.
Thanks to the wonders of social networking, email etc., I present to you a courageous valedictorian, Erica Goldson, of an American public high school who feels much the same as I do. If you want read along the full text of the speech is here. Erica is an anomaly, and her speech is obviously not typical but as you will hear, deeply felt.

A census I can support

That lovely photo (dragonfish) is just one of many taken over the last 10 years in a worldwide Census of Marine Life that will be formally presented in early October 2010.
This type of cataloguing and describing of species represents one of the lowest and oldest "levels" of scientific enterprise (although this study required the most up-to-date technology).  Cataloguing and describing species pre-dates the 18th Century's Carl Linnaeus (the father of Taxonomy) who invented the binomial naming system still in use today. It is worthwhile work and not surprisingly it reveals that there is an awful lot we have yet to discover about planet Earth.
The number of "new" creatures revealed in this study should be humbling to the scientists and for me indicates just how little is known about how things work on Earth.

The reason I bring this up aside from my love of science and nature, is the spin being applied to this story. Sure human actions are endangering ocean life, we are all aware of what "over-fishing" has done to the East Coast Canadian Maritime fisheries, but to me that is an issue of ownership. When no one owns an area, whether on the ocean or the land, when that area is designated as "public property" or "government-owned" who is responsible for the area? Of course the simple answer is that government bureaucracy "manages" the area. Well, in Canada the Department of Fisheries and Oceans "managed" the East Coast Cod Fishery, how did that work out? The Minerals Management Service in the USA was responsible for "regulating" safe oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, how did that work out? If these areas were privately owned, the owners would probably be more careful preserving them. I'll bet they would harvest whatever resource wealth was in their territory in as sustainable a fashion as possible to protect their own interests. Governments, bureaucrats, typically have other motives like pandering to special interest lobby groups for political favours.
The worst thing that could happen to some of these marvellously diverse and productive ecosystems discovered in the Census of Marine Life is that they are "managed" by various government agencies around the world.  

Blackberry Ban

The boys at RIM in Waterloo must be a little concerned about this. It seems the very reason business people, and politicians use the Blackberry service, that is, security, is troubling to the bureaucrats in the United Arab Emirates. They, along with India and the Saudi Arabia can't monitor traffic in the Blackberry Network. Of course that is kind of the point, but I won't quibble.
The UAE will ban Blackberry service as of Oct. 11, 2010. If that happens there is already talk about a black market in SIM cards to circumvent the Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRA) in the UAE (too many initialisms!). That's the power of the free (even if it is black) market!

Let the CRA support You

"We are from the government, and we are here to help you."
According to this below the Black Market is bad, and you should not support it. Rather, you should be happy that the government will support you. How can you argue with that kind of logic?

We're in trouble folks......

The Black Market Bailout 2

Just to follow up my last post that mentioned illicit food places, the West coast also has its share of these. I was listening to the People's Radio network (CBC Radio 1) last evening, to a program called The Main Ingredient. They highlighted a "floating restaurant" called The Wandering Spoon  in Vancouver BC. Three regular daytime chefs cooking whatever they like to discerning and willing patrons without government oversight, regulation or constraint (and for a lower price too). What a concept!
Just to the South in Seattle there was a chef that prepares black market buntings in the French way. The pictured Ortolan bunting is apparently delicious eaten plucked and whole, but must be smuggled into the US from Europe where it is endangered. Naughty boys!    

The Black Market Bailout

There is an interesting article in the Financial Post today asking the question "Did Washington avert a depression"? Of course the answer is a resounding yes, not just because it's the Financial Post, but because the guy that wrote the report was a former vice-chairman of the Federal Reserve. What the hell do you think he would say? Naturally they don't go into the fact this "intervention" into the economy is going to be reconciled at some point down the road, but by that time the unwashed masses will have forgotten what caused the reconciliation. Of course those same unwashed masses will be forced to pay for the consequences without hope of any bailout. But there is one way for them to get that bailout and hints of it, are occasionally visible.
In Michigan, one of the hardest hit of all the States economically speaking, some businesses are accepting payment for goods or services with alternative forms of currency. Imagine a restauranteur accepting copper (and I don't mean pennies) as a payment for meals. Of course Ontario and BC have increased taxes on many more items this month with the new HST. Does that mean an all cash underground economy will grow? Do bears crap in the woods? "You betcha" as whats her name would say.
Yessiree the unwashed masses may be unwashed but they are not stupid. They want their bailout too. Which brings me to the story of the illegal "grilled cheese factory" in Manhattan. Apparently there is a talented grilled cheese maker in NYC who eschews the local government regulations and the prohibitive cost (not to mention risk) for setting up a legit business. This fellow has created a business making and delivering grilled cheese sandwiches for $5 in a brown paper bag to customers on local street corners. He even has a FaceBook page and a "company" name: Bread.Butter.Cheese. This could be the way of the future, the black market bailout!  
    

Why the mandatory long form of the census is so vitally important

It's not going away; the latest Tory taunt is still all the rage for the bureaucrats of Bytown. And why not, the Census delivers vital information if you are a bureaucrat, and vital information if you are a Canadian that thinks the greater good of the country is best served by a well informed government at the helm. It makes perfect sense, not just for government, but for businesses that are too lazy or too cheap to do a proper analysis of their own market.
The Census is essential so government can implement new policies and programs, so it can best spend the taxes and tariffs it coerces collects from Canadians. With this information the politicians and portfolio mandarins in Ottawa are obviously best equipped to accommodate the needs of all Canadians. They will be behind the proverbial curtain, tweaking the dials and adjusting things just so, in order to make certain the economy hums along with no surprises, no bumps so clear will be their view. Trust in them, trust in StatsCanada and we will be a just and happy society. Sure.

All the statists were lining up in front of the Parliamentary committee "to study the long form" these past two days, all of it available for your viewing pleasure on CPAC. Rumours are flying that a compromise is in the works - so Canadian, it's sickening. I still don't understand why the conservatives decided to do this now, it really is not what you would call a "conservative" idea. But it's a diversion, more interesting than leaky oil wells and oppressive humidity. It is also a great opportunity to examine the role of government in our lives, the problem of course is that it shows just how comfortable we are with big government doing big things.
Neil Reynolds has some interesting comments on that very topic this week with reference to the Census. Interestingly he writes for the Globe and Mail which has been leading the statist charge to preserve the coercive mandatory long form of the census. I suspect whoever is pushing that agenda at the Globe might have political aspirations in the Liberal Party.     

Census Shmensus

Looks like the Harper Conservatives have created another issue where none existed before. Harper has a knack for this. While they have not yet backed down (yet) on returning the long form of the Census for 2011, the pressure among the statists must be getting unbearable (there is now a FaceBook page!). Seems that all of the things Harper proposes that I like, he reverses course on. Remember the $1.95 per voter party funding cut fiasco? I liked that, and it was gone.
I think people are thinking about the Census issue from the wrong perspective. Suppose there was no long form of the Census, suppose the government suddenly announces that there will be a series of personal intrusive questions about race, ethnicity, income, plumbing, education etc. in 2011. I'll bet some of the same people who are now up in arms about the long form being removed will argue the reverse. How about this guy?

Don't you think he would object to the intrusiveness of the long form? Sure he would and he would probably use many of the same words, he would wonder why the government needs to know all this information and he would cry out that this shows how ideological these Conservatives are - snooping where they don't need to be.

Nullification, American and Canadian style

Thomas E. Woods' latest book is about an old idea - nullification. The book called Nullification: How to resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century harkens back to a Jeffersonian idea that individual US State legislatures have the authority to ignore and declare void any federal law they deem unconstitutional. In Canada the analog is Section 33 of the Charter commonly known as the "notwithstanding clause" that allows provinces to opt out of Federal decisions. Neil Reynolds has a nice piece in today's Globe and Mail that provides a method that might restrain the growth of the welfare state in both Canada and the United States. Have a look.

Leading American Libertarians

I was directed to this video by a FaceBook friend and I can't resist posting it, enjoy.

Making the long form of 2011 Census voluntary - a good start

By now if you live in Canada and keep up with the news you have heard about the announcement made by the Harper Conservatives with regard to next years Census. Federal Industry Minister Tony Clement announced that the "long form" of the Census called the National Household Survey (see left) will be voluntary rather than mandatory as it has been in the past. Clement said that this was actually recommended by StatsCan, but rumours within StatsCan spin this story a different way. Whatever the truth it seems to be a tiny positive step that the Conservatives should be commended for.
Of course that's not what the opposition thinks and Clement's statement has been criticized (not surprisingly) by a large number organizations that claim they need the information from the long form to do proper planning. Many groups brought out there big guns, the C. D. Howe Institute brought out its President, William Robson.
In the Globe and Mail last week Robson admits that the long form is intrusive - "Knowledge comes at a price". But he goes on to show that's OK and he has no idea how the term "libertarian" fits into the politics of Canada or anywhere else. Let me quote one of the juicier bits:

"If you are one of the many Canadians who would like government to do less but do it better, this spectacle risks making you tear your hair. The state’s role in our economy and society has grown prodigiously over the past century – and not only radical libertarians worry about the resulting cost to prosperity and freedom. As governments’ reach grows, however, so does the need for information with which citizens can hold them to account. In eliminating the census long form, the libertarians have taken out the wrong target."

I've read that paragraph a few times and I can't believe Robson does not see the contradictions. He sort of laments the fact that the "state’s role in our economy and society has grown prodigiously over the past century" - it's a "worry", but as it grows it needs more information so citizens can hold government to account. Huh, it's the citizens that will suffer? Does he think libertarians would want more information from government to keep an eye on government? I'm shaking my head, but that is only part of why Robson thinks we need the long form. He mentions education, we need the long form to sample graduating students to see if they comply with the government mandated curriculum in the government mandated schools. On immigration, we need the long form to better plan the Canadian labour market. Then there is health care:

"The state plays a huge role in Canadian health care: Good information on personal and neighbourhood characteristics can help us know if we are healthier or sicker as a result. It redistributes income on a colossal scale: The long-form census can reveal much about the successes and failures of these programs. In all these areas, good information helps Canadians hold their governments to account."

Is that a great quote or what? I'm certain the next Census is going to give us the required information so we can fix health care, shorten those queues, improve the technology and justify that "colossal" redistribution of income right?

Just one point on the immigration. My parents came to Canada 62 years ago with virtually nothing but me. There was no government program for immigrants, no English classes, no co-ordination with skills and the labour force; my parents figured it out with help from various charitable agencies, family and friends. It worked amazingly well, my family and the thousands of others that came from war-torn Europe managed without government central planning, detailed statistics, charts and graphs and all that Statistics Canada does with more than half-a-billion dollars a year of our tax money.