The price of democracy?

Muslim Brotherhood logo

"The dark ages are staging a comeback via the age of enlightenment." So begins a column in the National Post where George Jonas muses about the Egyptian Crisis. In Opening a back door to theocracy, Jonas suggests that it may be goodbye Hosni, which leads ultimately to hello Hamas.
Democracies have done this before, yielding to religious or non-religious dictatorships, especially when limits are not adhered to. Yes, Mubarak's 30 years have been dictatorial, but the implication is be careful what you wish for.
Jonas suggests that recent comments by Obama have not helped. Actually it was the comments that Obama didn't make that might lead to problems. Obama didn't say how the current uprising would lead to an orderly transition. He didn't say how the past and present unorganized opposition would suddenly get organized. Most importantly he didn't say how these protests would prevent handing over Egypt to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
Of course we would say that is the price of democracy, the people may choose and sometimes those choices are not wise. In limited democracies where there are checks and balances, where orderly transitions can and do occur, mistakes can be corrected. Just remember, the Muslim Brotherhood needs only to be elected once.   

Unrecorded History?

One reason people find history so boring and difficult to relate to, is that those people, who are portrayed in history books, were the movers and shakers of the world in their time. They were the leaders, the monarchs and nobles, the presidents and prime ministers, the explorers and discoverers, and the dates of their achievements were recorded and transmitted for posterity.
But what was everyone else doing? You know, the common folk. Did they not play a role in shaping their present and their future. Of course they did, but few of them were taking notes, so much of that history - interesting history - is lost.
In the following ReasonTV video clip, author Thaddeus Russell attempts to recover some of that lost history. His new book A Renegade History of the United States could be very interesting. As he says, these people did not write pamphlets or manifestos, they were not explicitly political, they were just living and often "doing things they were not supposed to be doing." In doing that, they have left us all a legacy of freedom, far greater in many cases, than was achieved by the leaders. Of course by extrapolation similar stories were not written every where else.  

Hey Canada, what's a Bieber?

Forget the football game. This is what you missed if you live in the Great White North. The wonderfully creative, and hugely entertaining commercials, that the Yanks get to see between the downs. For me they are the "ups", have a look, they are all here.

A loveable libertarian?

I can't recall the last time I watched a TV sitcom regularly. Was it Seinfeld, All in the Family, I Love Lucy, I'm not sure?
My wife showed an article in MACLEAN'S magazine the other day, I guess she thought it reminded her of me. The MACLEAN'S article titled The Lovable Government Hater refers to the character played by Nick Offerman in the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation.
The character played by Offerman (Nick Swanson) is a "libertarian, government-hating bureaucrat," which sounds like a contradiction in terms. As the MACLEAN'S article points out, most government-haters on TV are portrayed as militia fanatics, but Nick Swanson is - a nice guy. What a relief, TV is breaking out of the practice of stereotyping, although not entirely. Nick Swanson is still portrayed as being religious, gun-loving, humourless,  a throw-back to the '70's and "virulently anti-government." The good news? He is conflicted, which makes him seem real, almost human. That's a good thing, we don't need one-dimensional government-haters, we need caring people with better solutions.

Egypt - The end of Statism?

Stefan Molyneux makes a compelling argument for the end of Egyptian statism in a video blog on the Freedomain Radio YouTube site.
In it, he talks about how Egypt virtually invented the idea of "state" 6000 years ago, but still suffers the terrible poverty of any third world nation. Why?
Watch!

Ron Paul talks about Foreign Aid

This is refreshing.
Rep. Ron Paul is interviewed on a CBC Radio program about the Egyptian crisis, and the whole idea of foreign aid. He answers questions about foreign aid to Egypt, to Israel, and to many of the countries in the middle east, but most importantly Rep. Paul outlines the libertarian view of foreign aid as only he can, in simple, clear and unambiguous terms. The interview was broadcast on Sat. Feb. 5, 2011 in edited form. But here is the entire uncut version of the interview, enjoy: Uncut Ron Paul Interview. 

Sandwich Sinner

How do you know when zealotry has gone too far? One test would be when innocents are impacted, thats true in religion or politics. When a 6-year-old kindergartener has been punished for a misdemeanour that he can't possibly understand, you know the zealots have gone too far.
Is it a sin to bring a sandwich for lunch wrapped in a plastic bag? It is at a school in Laval Quebec. This story became news in a National Post article early in the week. A six-year-old boy was sent home crying when he was excluded from a draw for a teddy-bear because he brought a sandwich to school in a ziploc bag. Shame!
This story has received North American coverage when ABC News picked it up here.
Today the National Post ran an editorial titled Playing the environmental shame game which does a pretty good job of outlining the obvious.
Whose business is it whether plastic bags or recycled containers should be used for lunch? Whose business is what kind of light bulbs you use at home? Whose business is it what form of transportation you choose? Whose business is it what type of diapers you use for your children? Whose business is it how many squares of toilet paper you use daily?
The answer to all those questions is NO ONE, BUT YOURS!

User Based Billing for the internet in Canada PODCAST included

It's called UBB or metered billing and it has become a hot topic around the web and political circles in Canada. The issue revolves around a recent decision made by the CRTC that essentially removes the "unlimited" option for subscribers who use internet resellers as their ISP. The resellers are using infrastructure that was built by the capital investments of Bell, Rogers, Telus and Shaw cable (the big 4). The resellers are using those "pipes" to deliver service and undercutting the big 4, so they complained. The CRTC design essentially forces the resellers to have tiered limited options just like the big 4 have had for several years now. If you want more internet usage you can buy more, but if you exceed the limit you will pay a heavy toll. Thats the problem, and of course it has been made worse by the increased downloading of movies, games and so on, by subscribers who are dumping their cable TV contracts.

Because this might be an election year, subscriber rumblings have reached the office of Federal Industry Minister Tony Clement, and he has promised he will review the CRTC decision, which is interesting because he can overrule it.

I discuss this issue with my friend Rod Rojas in a short podcast available on the Ontario Libertarian (OLP) website. Below is a description of the podcast and the link. I'll make excuses now. This is our first attempt at doing something like this (so not that polished really) but Rod and I are planning to make this a regular feature of the OLP site, and we have bigger plans.    

This Free-to-Choose podcast is about User-Based-Billing UBB. A recent decision by the CRTC forces small internet providers (often called resellers) to charge their subscribers based on their internet use. Previously the resellers were offering unlimited use for a set fee. Monthly fees for heavy internet users could rise dramatically. The essence of the problem seems to be related to competition (or the lack of it) and regulation by the CRTC. We encourage people to visit this website: http://dissolvethecrtc.ca/. 

Econ 101 vs Green Econ 101

How can you "reduce consumption of carbon-emitting energy......reduce smog, curb traffic congestion, stop urban sprawl, bring back jobs from China, help fund public transit, save the auto industry, produce a big double dividend of tax cuts and reduced emissions.....generate federal-provincial harmony (in Canada)," and in the U.S. "boost jobs, unleash U.S. innovation, reduce the U.S. government deficit, reduce oil imports," all of it on top of the first bunch mentioned? How? Simple, institute a carbon-tax, thats all it would take, magic! Terence Corcoran in the Financial Post, take us through the magic steps required to reach that plateau of nirvana. No longer is global warming the prime motivation for a carbon-tax, now that they have your attention, there are all sorts of other benefits besides saving the planet from catastrophic heat death. 
In the Post, Mr. Corcoran discusses a new report in the Climate Prosperity series (I didn't make that up folks) from the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE), sort of like nut tree. Isn't it great that we are funding a government initiative like this that will take care of us all? Isn't it? 

NEW WEBSITE: Ontario Libertarian Party - The Party of Choice

Introducing the new banner for the new look website of the Ontario Libertarian Party.
The OLP is gearing up for its biggest ever campaign in the provincial election to be held on October 6, 2011. We need everybody's help to have an impact.
We have a committed, excellent organizational team, lots more candidates, and we are up against a provincial government that is financially and morally bankrupt. Worst of all, the chief opposition party, is not much different.
Ontarians have a chance to change the direction of the province and move Ontario from the nanny state/have-not province that we have become, under the leadership of Dalton McGuinty's Liberals, back to its rightful place as the dynamo of Canada.
Visit our site, contribute to our War Chest, and tell your friends.    

Revolution

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable." John F. Kennedy

Robert Redford Hypocrite

Global warming is a marketer's dream

I always read the letters-to-the-editor in the paper each day. It's a reflection of the editor, and the newspaper's bias, as well as what the readers are thinking. Of course my choice of newspaper reflects my bias, and reading this blog post may reflect yours.
A letter from Glen Leis of Newmarket Ontario (a northern suburb of Toronto) was very insightful. Mr. Leis responded to this column in the Financial Post and his comments are worth sharing.

Climate change (the commonly used euphemism - I prefer global warming) is an ideal cause célèbre because it cannot be observed or measured in real time (you won't see: "Breaking News - Global warming is happening RIGHT NOW!"). No honest scientist would suggest that the record snowfall in the US north east this winter (2010-11), or the very mild Vancouver Olympics (2010) were actually caused by global warming. Those were weather events, not to be confused with climate. However, as Mr. Leis points out, because global warming cannot be definitively measured (in real time), (more and more) money needs to be sent to allow scientists to find a way to do just that.

The media (and Al Gore) however, are not scientists and they have no compunctions about saying that every hurricane, snowstorm, cold weather event, hot weather event, swarm of tornadoes, flood, every weather extreme, is somehow related to the ongoing crisis that is climate change. For them its like the War-on-Terrorism without the Jihadists, an ongoing story that can be milked day-in-and-day-out. Everyone knows who the culprits are, it's understood that global warming always underlies the event. To push that agenda, CNN now has "Extreme Weather" reports. And all of it sells TV time thank you very much!
Mr. Leis continues, the global warming scam, "creates a partnership between industry and government, paid for by the average taxpayer."
In Ontario we are blessed with government-subsidized solar and wind power generation, subsidized hybrid, and electric cars, in fact an entire green industry created by government fiat that could never exist without the crutch of subsidy it's so uncompetitive.
Climate change is a marketer's dream. It plays on fear as well as a person's desire to do the right thing. Put a hybrid label on a car, and people will buy it without thinking about the large expensive battery that will need to be exchanged within the car's lifetime. Call yourself a "green-politician," and people will blindly vote for you regardless of qualifications. That's how powerful the confirmatory bias has become.
Leis concludes by saying that this is "activism spoon-fed to the masses by corporations and governments." "Any movement that espouses massive transfers of wealth to the likes of Robert Mugabe and Communist China must be questioned."
I'm certain I have not convinced the followers of the Gorical, so strong is their zealotry. My real purpose is to save you and me a lot of misdirected expense. In Ontario election day is just nine months away. 

"This ain't Canada right now..."

More fallout from last summers G20 riot in Toronto.
The video below presents a scene that would make a civil libertarian cringe. The police officer is using his experience when he approaches the bearded young man dressed in black with a backpack walking around the downtown near the G20 conference.
The cop is profiling, a technique that I think needs to be used in the broader context of airport security searches and beyond. Does profiling work? Have a look at this article that explains why the Israeli security experience has been so effective for the past 40 years.
Back to the video below, yes it looks bad, but as George Jonas points out in the National Post recent events regarding the rights of individuals and their property have been far more egregious. What is the cause of our apparent loss of freedom here in the Great White North? Jonas thinks, and this may seem counterintuitive, it's the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He may have a point.

"Factories of Death"

That is the phrase James Hansen used to compare coal-fired power plants to places like Auschwitz. Its welcoming front gate is seen there in the picture.
Is it any wonder why anthropogenic global warming skeptics have been called deniers since Hansen's unfortunate comment.
Coal has been used by people as a fuel since the Bronze Age, maybe earlier. It was the fuel that drove the Industrial Revolution which ultimately gave us the modern world, and it is still the fuel that is responsible for producing 40% of the world's electricity production, 69% of China's electricity production and 90% of American electricity production. Coal is going to be around for a very long time indeed.
Niel Reynolds points out in a recent column, that coal is still the future and Alberta is a laboratory in this link.