Crashing the statist party....

Ontario Election Day minus 25.
My first all-candidates meeting came as much a surprise to me as to my hosts. Just the other day my wife noticed a tiny article in the local paper about this meeting, my name was in the article, so I presumed they were expecting me. They weren't. When I showed up this afternoon at a local Chinese Mall, still no official invite, and no real idea what was going to happen, and no seat at the table, they were surprised. But after a brief discussion/negotiation and their realization that I was not going to get off the stage, they made room. Fortunately I was able to present my two minute speech from a Cable TV taping the day before - perfect for this. Here it is for anyone that needs a quickie intro:
I’m ___your name___, the Libertarian candidate in ___your riding___.

Take a moment and imagine receiving notification that you, and every member of your family, owed $21,000. That is the debt the Government of Ontario will have accumulated on your behalf by the end of this fiscal year. That’s $84,000 for a family of four! That debt has doubled since Dalton McGuinty took office just 8 years ago because spending has doubled. So, is the government twice as effective? Is health care better? Has education improved? Has traffic improved? Where did all this money go?
Everyone understands that monopolies result in increased costs, reduced service, and quality, while competition reduces prices, and improves service. Consider how your electricity bill has gone up – no competition. Consider the sale of liquor, beer, and wine – no competition. How about the long wait times for medical care? Again no competition!
Libertarians would allow a competitive medical care system in Ontario, greater choices in education, and real competition in producing electricity that would reduce your electricity bill. We would remove the government monopoly on the sale of liquor, beer, and wine.
Libertarians realize that government debt is our debt. We would make significant cuts in government spending decreasing the size of government as quickly as possible, including the elimination of many ministries and most of the 630 agencies within our first term. As spending is cut, tax reductions will follow; we can all have more choice about how and where our money is spent. Make a historic choice, choose Libertarian, ___your name___.  Find out more at libertarian dot O-N dot C-A

The meeting topics were: the economy, healthcare and longterm care, helping immigrants settle, education and tuition. There was enough time between each speaking turn for me to come up with a brief speech outline explaining a Libertarian position on each topic. All of the comments were translated into Cantonese in deference to the audience, and I know I scored some points. Culturally the audience, and all the politicians except me,  are attuned to statist solutions for many things. But many of these Chinese are private entrepreneurs and understand where money (wealth) comes from and abhor paying tax and being taxed. It was a good day.     

Change-A-Head, pick your poison!

September 7th marked the first day of the 2011 Ontario Election campaign, the day the writ is issued. Ontario elections are short in time, just 29 days, though this one has been smoldering for months. Public attention is just now starting to focus on the issues and the options.

Dalton McGuinty has, in just eight short years, doubled the per capita debt because spending has doubled in the midst of world economic turmoil. McGuinty has used his majorities in two terms to re-engineer the way electric power is produced and consumed by citizens. The Liberals have bought into the AGW theory hook-line-and-sinker by closing coal-fired generation stations and replacing them with solar panels and windmills. The Liberals are so heavily steeped in eco-fanatasies that they even consider conservation as part of electrical generation, a source of energy! That's a bit like saying that not eating is nourishing.

That is only part of the re-engineering the Liberals have instituted. They think Ontarians should have their choice of pet dog breeds restricted, and they know how best to care for everyone's lawns by restricting the use of weedkillers. They want everyone to quit smoking, or else. This week junk food has been removed from Ontario schools, and it won't be long before Ontarians are smuggling potato chips across the border (like they do now with weed-killer) because the government does not want people to get fat. At this rate, the Liberals will be legislating our choice in wardrobe soon.

So, if they have doubled the debt and the spending what has improved? Is health care better, with more choice less hassle and better service? No, instead of allowing choice they are cracking down on physicians who charge a bit more for better service. The previous link has a snitch-line so people may inform on their "greedy doctors." The Liberals and their partners are even disciplining physicians for the crime of voluntary fee-for-service. Are the roads better so that traffic is minimized? No, the GTA has the worst traffic anywhere.

 

Surely the extra spending and debt has improved something. Many billions went to GM and Chrysler to "preserve vital manufacturing jobs." That of course has saved the economy of Ontario and now things are booming, the recovery is in high gear and the future looks rosy. Oh, wait a minute, that's not true either. The "stimulus" spending here and around the world doesn't seemed to have helped. As I write this, Greece looks to be on the verge of default (once again). Spending and debt are problems everywhere, yet somehow the Government of Ontario believes things work differently here.

The picture above came from an idea after I saw an article written for the PC party called: "Change ahead," which referred to their plan to govern the province. It doesn't matter which of those heads is governing the province, the differences are so subtle that none of what I have written about above, would change substantially. Its time for a historic leap of faith. Its time for Ontario to choose a party that will return choice and prosperity to Ontarians. A vote for a Libertarian candidate, will at the very least register a protest that "change-a-head" doesn't work.             

Media panders to ruling incumbents and wannabees

With just days to go before the writ is issued and the 2011 Ontario Election campaign officially begins, the Liberal incumbents are shoring up the immigrant Muslim vote. In the picture on the left Michael Chan, Minister for Tourism and Culture and my very own MPP, then Gerry Phillips and Bas Balkisoon on the right. What do these three have in common besides being Liberals? They all have substantial numbers of Muslim voters in their ridings and they are giving away money to a Muslim group. Not just any Muslim group, this one has some issues, but more on that later.
Just as the Liberals are pandering to the ethnic voter, the media, both local and national love pandering to the mainline parties.
Just last week I sent a letter to my local newspaper that was critical of the incumbent Liberals. A quick email response from the editor asked if I was "registered as a candidate?" "Yes," was the answer and I explained that my papers were not official yet. No matter, the letter was not published, too bad.
Of course in every recent edition of that newspaper was a story about the local incumbent Liberals doing this or doing that with tax dollars.
The Liberals have been high on OPM (other people's money) since they took office in 2003 and they have been assisted by the media. The print media in this area is dominated by a company called Torstar. Torstar produces the Toronto Star, often called the Red Star in my circles, and it owns the Metroland Group which coincidentally prints the local newspaper in my neighbourhood.
During elections, incumbent parties spend lots of their cash on ads in these local papers, my local paper has a Liberal ad on almost every page, thats OK, they are spending donations. But on those same pages are glowing stories of the good things that Liberals do and are doing, for this community with OPM, your OPM. My pitiful little letter may have swayed the entire election in my favour....right?
The national news papers are just as guilty of pandering to the main parties. Click this and it will bring you to an op-ed, conveniently placed with 3 days to go before the rules change, of the PC Leader giving his "prudent" plan for getting spending under control. He would slash spending by almost 1% by the end of his first term. Decisive!
Anyway, back to that Muslim group. Here is Ezra Levant on a bit of a rant (that rhymes!), on behalf of the new SUN NEWS channel which isn't exactly mainline media, yet:  

Self assembling structures....

In biology its well known that organisms are self-replicating. Some organisms can, by themselves create copies of themselves. For example a single-celled bacterium can divide and produce two bacteria. Plants produce seeds that are able to produce new plants. Two humans, male and female, can produce another human.
This idea of self-replication goes all the way down to DNA, thousands even millions of parts are self assembled into new DNA copied from a template. DNA, can itself through intermediate molecules, make proteins. This is fairly well understood.
But what about buildings or machines assembling themselves, is that possible?
As a movie lover, I immediately thought of the Terminator series when I saw the video below. You know where the computer becomes "self-aware," then all hell breaks loose. Machines make more machines and are at war with humans, is that possible? Maybe, watch:  

Two problems that governments never admit...

Ontario's Debt Clock

In preparation for the Oct. 6th election, my local newspaper asked me for the two most pressing issues in my riding in 500 words or less. They might expect me to rail about the horrendous traffic, or long waits for medical care or the growing nanny state. No, those are just symptoms of the deeper more fundamental problems. Problems that won't be fixed by electing the same old parties and replacing them again with the same old parties. So here is my letter - 496 words -, and if you are a Libertarian candidate, or a candidate for any party for that matter, you may use this:

The two major problems facing Markham-Unionville are the same as those facing the entire Province of Ontario; they are:

 

(1) the increasing DEBT and 

(2) the increasing SIZE of Government.

When Dalton McGuinty was first elected, he promised not to raise taxes or have deficits. He has flagrantly ignored both promises.
The 2011 Ontario Budget, projected the debt for 2012 to be $282.3 Billion, more that twice the debt when the Liberals took office in 2003.
That budget also projects continued deficits and increasing debt until 2018, and that assumes that the economy will improve and interest rates stay low. This unprecedented, reckless, runaway spending is directly related to the second major problem: the size of the Ontario Government.
The Liberals have increased program spending in virtually every ministry as the Ontario government assumes more and more responsibilities from the private sector.
For example: McGuinty’s full-day kindergarten program has severely impacted private sector nursery and daycare businesses. At the same time, the Liberals have created an entire Green Industry of windmills and solar panels subsidized by taxpayer’s dollars through the FIT and microFIT programs.
The debt has been acknowledged by the Progressive Conservatives, and their laughable solution is to cut spending by 2% per year for four years, but increase spending in Healthcare and Education at the same time. That is not a solution at all.
All across the Western world, governments have realized that the profligate spending of the past 50 or 60 years has been greatly overdone. As a result governments have been forced to cut back everywhere, at all levels, to avert a financial crisis worse than the one the world faced in 2008-09.
In Ontario, Libertarians would make real cuts in government spending and decrease the size of government as quickly as possible. At first a budget freeze would be instituted followed by 10% cuts in program spending in each of the first four years across all of the 30 Ministries. This would include elimination or amalgamation of at least half of the ministries within one term.
For example, Markham-Unionville MPP Michael Chan’s Ministry of Tourism and Culture would be closed. There is precedent for this, in the US. The state of Washington closed their Department of Tourism in June 2011 due to budget constraints. Almost immediately, a consortium of private businesses and industry stakeholders formed the Washington Tourism Alliance, shifting costs from the State and public sector to the private sector.
Ontario has over 630 agencies, many like the LCBO, demand huge budgets. Even the Liberals have announced that they plan to cut a paltry 14 agencies if re-elected. A Libertarian government would cut hundreds of agencies, including the LCBO and allow competition in the retail sale of liquor, beer, and wine.
As government ministries and agencies are reduced, and program spending is cut, tax reductions will follow. Ontarians will have more choice about how and where their money is spent, and Ontario will become the dynamo of Canada once again.

Walmart vs. FEMA in hurricane relief

That picture shows Hurricane Irene poised to assault the US Eastern Seaboard. The cleanup is ongoing at the time of this posting. The destruction, while bad enough, is not as bad as it might have been. Warnings came from POTUS Obama himself, from various State Governors, and from a slew of lessor officials. As usual, private commercial television news broadcasters carried the entire event live and round-the-clock, for the benefit of casual viewers, and those directly affected by the storm. The broadcasters disseminated the official warnings and trotted out their own expert commentators providing what amounted to a free service for all concerned.
By and large the cleanup is local, as it should be, but of course Federal and State government agencies will provide some of the assistance because the political "optics" require such help, whether needed or not. The whole thing is reminiscent of a similar hurricane disaster in 2005, Katrina. That storm, which resulted in widespread destruction around New Orleans, showed just how out-of-touch a top-down federal government agency, FEMA, could be with respect to its primary purpose. FEMA has been rightly criticized for its raison d'être today, in the case of Irene, and for it's handling of Katrina. Steven Horwitz has an interesting perspective in this video, on the way a private company Walmart, was in many ways more effective than FEMA:

      

"Holy Grail of climate science?"

The news this week from CERN in Europe is that cloud formation seems directly related to cosmic rays. That is rattling the orthodoxy of the Anthropogenic Global Warming crowd, and they are not happy.
All this reminds me of that story from The Onion a few weeks back that blamed the Eastern heat wave on the massive star at the centre of our solar system. Yup, good call!
Is it possible that the changing climate on earth over the millennia is caused by something other than human produced CO2? Oddly, that is my belief.
Certainly humans producing significant amounts of CO2 is a relatively recent occurrence in the planet's history. So why has Earth's climate been so variable, warming and cooling, since the birth of the planet? Well, maybe it has something to do with causes more significant than CO2. Maybe the cause of fluctuating climate is related to the CERN discovery that cosmic rays seed clouds which affect the albedo of the Earth.
In science there is a principle that applies here: parsimony. Sometimes referred to as Occam's Razor, the idea in this instance is, that it might be better to look for a comprehensive theory that explains climate changes over the history of the planet rather than a theory for each instance that the climate is changing. Of course I will not deny that there may have  been several causes over time. Certainly we are in a warming period after the ice age in the Pleistocene epoch. But the AGW orthodoxy vehemently disagrees with anything that contradicts their premise, that humans are a blight on the planet.
The alarmists have lobbied politicians of all stripes all over the world over the years, into taking action against climate change caused by CO2. The scientists who peddle this crap, have their mouths so firmly attached to the teat of government, that they will ignore the data from CERN and dismiss it as bullshit. Right now in many provinces, states and countries there are "green industries" that heavily depend on the AGW hypothesis.
Ontario's current government leaders and the leaders of most Western countries have their collective heads so far up their collective asses they can only see windmills, solar panels and sunshine. If it weren't so serious it would be laughable, a joke. But it's no joke. The misplaced investments, government subsidized jobs and worse, the mass-media acceptance has created a general apathy among the sheeple reminiscent of a religious stupor. Lets all bow to the GREEN GOD. Where I live, this is how it is, period.
In today's Financial Post, Larry Solomon has a column: Science now settled. In it he talks about the CERN discovery and some of the implications. Whether his pronouncement is premature or not, the debate certainly is far from over. He may be right or wrong, can you say the same?

FYI: comments closed on this posting.

The Power of One

The power of one individual, to change things, came into sharp focus these last few days. The untimely, though not unexpected death of NDP leader Jack Layton was first. I had a grudging admiration and respect for that man, certainly not for his contributions to Canada, or any of the blather that has been coming from the statist mainstream media this week. No, as someone said: "Death is not a reason to rewrite history." So I won't join that parade of mourners, in much the same way as this writer.
Mr. Layton was to his party, everything. He was the leader, and the centre of the socialist solar system in Canada. I indicated as much last May, after the Federal election, he was the "orange crush" incarnate, and the sole reason that his party rose to official opposition status in that election.
Aside from his Marxist-Socialist political stance, there was much to admire about Jack Layton. He was one of the first to support free choice on abortion when it was a divisive political issue (still is - damned conservatives). He was one of the first to back the Gay Rights movement. He was generally antiwar and anti prohibition on some drugs. All those issues would still raise the ire of conservatives across the country, but not libertarians. Mr. Layton had principles, any libertarian can understand that.
So is the NDP in shambles with Mr. Layton's passing? I hope so, in fact I think a Liberal-NDP merging is now more likely than ever, and I hope it happens, just to eliminate vote splitting.

The other picture up there is of Steve Jobs former CEO of Apple. While Jack Layton changed Canada in some ways, Steve Jobs changed the world. Mr. Jobs retired from his duties yesterday, and one can only assume he is not well, and that is a terrible loss.
I have used Apple products on and off (mostly on) since the days of the Apple II. I have a basement full of old Macs, going back to the Mac Classic. I'm using a newish iMac to write this, and I love my iPad 2. You get the picture. Thanks to Steve Jobs and the people at Apple the world thinks differently now. I hope he's OK, and can still add his two cents to whatever new products Apple unveils. Some say he is a micro-manager, and was in control of all that was Apple. If thats true, it is even more impressive.   

The truth about AGW is becoming CLOUDy

Its funny how quickly science can change.
Here I am in the midst of a disagreement on Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) and a Facebook friend (H/T Redmond) tags me on the very same issue with a story that might shut the AGW alarmists down.
This story is just hot off the press, literally, and appears in Nature today, and I can't say that I fully understand its implications just yet. But what I do understand is that cosmic radiation has an effect on climate change through cloud formation....I think. As someone cleverly retorted on Facebook, he can just hear Al Gore saying "bullshit."
But the most interesting part of the story is that CERN scientists have been told earlier to stay mum on the results, likely because it goes against the current AGW orthodoxy.
Of course that is not preventing other AGW skeptics from weighing in here, and here.
This kind of story could have huge political implications, not the least being in the Ontario election campaign now underway. Imagine all the effort spent on reducing CO2 and then discovering that it has a minor role at best on global warming. Embarrassing? You bet.

Environmentalism, NAZI style

LNSGP

Are those two symbols related? Its hard to believe but they are. Combined they can be thought of as forming the basis for the organization whose green flag is on the right: the Libertarian National Socialist Green Party (LNSGP). I should quickly add that the LNSGP, an American organization, has no affiliation with either the US (or any) Libertarian or Green Party.  The LNSGP has 3 precepts namely: personal freedom, environmental improvement, and collective action, a bit too contradictory for me.
I mention this because of my previous posting which featured Al Gore venting his frustration at the opposition to AGW. A comment to that posting contained the phrase "Dishonesty is the primary tool of the AGW deniers." The writer meant that my post was dishonest because I suggested Gore "lost his cool." No, my issue with Gore is very similar to my issues with fascism, NAZIsm, or any top-down organizational "-ism" that forces their opinions (and worse) on humanity.
Gore complains that there is no longer a "shared reality on climate," an admission that public opinion is increasingly skeptical of the climate alarmists. Then he goes on to proclaim "the very existence of our civilization is threatened." That's what he said in his rant, go have a listen. That kind of rhetoric will give anyone with libertarian leanings a reason to step back and examine the speaker and the meaning of his words with a jaundiced eye.
The truth is, I am not opposed to preserving and protecting the environment, far from it. I just have a completely different approach to how that might be achieved (see video below). Let me add, this does not mean that I agree that something needs to be done on global warming, I don't.
Al Gore and others who espouse the idea of collective action on AGW remind me too much of the Green Wing of the NAZI Party. The smear terms "eco-nazi" and "eco-fascist" have a legitimate historical derivation. Environmental concerns were deeply embedded within European fascist philosophy, and Hitler himself was profoundly concerned about the welfare of animals (PETA would love to hear that). Not that Gore and his associates are NAZI's, but their calls for global government action, reduced freedoms, and huge additional costs to fend off a supposed imminent catastrophe, have a totalitarian twinge about them.
So are AGW deniers liars? No more than AGW alarmists are. Al Gore can get just as hyperbolic as anyone, and lately his rants are back page news.
Hear how a libertarian view of the environment can be so much more reasonable:

  

Gore loses cool on global warming

Today in the National Post, Rex Murphy suggests that the global warming debate is "running out of gas." That is not surprising considering the financial crisis that we have had and are still facing. I have mentioned the likelihood that this will happen several times in previous posts. Unfortunately various governments have already committed their populations to a variety of programs designed to reduce carbon emissions at tremendous cost to taxpayers and the local economy. Ontario, of course, is the one most concerning to me and my family with such laws as the Green Energy Act. In this Act the government forces  taxpayers to subsidize uncompetitive "renewable energy" production, while endangering Ontario's future energy requirements in a vain attempt at preventing climate change.  

As a measure of the frustration felt by global warming alarmists with the increasing public scepticism and criticism, Rex Murphy describes Al Gore's recent meltdown in Aspen Colorado. Here is how it sounded:

Making the unthinkable, more popular: A libertarian goal

"Should libertarians become involved in politics?" Not a tough question for me, having run in two elections, and about to start yet another campaign. But that was the question posed in a debate at this year's Liberty Summer Seminar in Orono Ontario.

The debaters were Leon Drolet a former Michigan State legislator, arguing for the affirmative, and Anton Howes (negative) on the board of European Students for Liberty in the UK.
Despite my bias, I found it a fascinating debate and discussion, and a learning experience. Both debaters were excellent, though I, and a majority of the audience thought that Mr. Drolet carried the day. Of course I didn't need convincing, but I was exposed to a new (for me) concept in Mr. Drolet's rebuttal.
Mr. Drolet was careful to acknowledge that his opponent's position was as important as his own, namely the apolitical philosophical advocates (like the Institute for Liberal Studies and other think tanks and thinkers) were as important as the political ones. Both are required to eventually sway public opinion and make policy change in government.

In the rebuttal Mr. Drolet referred to the Overton Window, a model of policy change that describes the range of acceptable options that politicians can support and still win re-election.
In any politically related discussion there are always a range of alternatives as is indicated in the diagram above. New ideas may be so "out there on the fringe" that they are considered by most people as being unthinkable. Others are either already policy, or possible policy. Mr. Drolet suggested that it is up to the philosopher thinker or the think tank to present an idea. It is the politician's job is to sell it, so that it eventually becomes more acceptable and mainstream. In any political enterprise such as an election campaign, the “window” (named the Overton Window) includes the range of policies considered to be politically acceptable in the current climate of public opinion. Any politician may recommend anything within the Overton Window without being considered too “extreme” or outside the mainstream to gain or keep public office. Overton's idea was arranged in a spectrum on a vertical axis of “more free” and “less free” with regard to government intervention. The window moves or expands as ideas become more or less politically acceptable.
So within the context of the American campaign for the 2012 Republican nomination, Ron Paul's ideas, by and large, are considered unthinkable or too radical to make him a viable candidate. That is how the mainstream media are portraying him. But events may change the public perception of Ron Paul, and some or all of his ideas may become more acceptable or sensible to the general public. That's why he is running.
That is true about Canadian libertarians as well. The election campaign in Ontario, now underway, will give us an opportunity to advocate unthinkable or radical ideas to the electorate. The goal is to move the Overton Window toward acceptability and eventually get someone elected. Can this happen? Of course it can.
Unthinkable ideas 50 years ago, are now completely accepted. There is a black President in the US. Marriage between homosexuals is legal in Canada and many American jurisdictions. Marijuana today, seems "less dangerous" and is likely to be decriminalized somewhere in North America in the not-too-distant future. Today there is no law in Canada dealing with abortion. All of those ideas were once unthinkable, but with patience, and persistence, they are within the realm of policy and practice. There is hope.

Libertarian island : Prime time : SunNews Video Gallery

Straight from the Liberty Summer Seminar: Peter Jaworski on Ezra Levant. Click below to see video.

Libertarian island : Prime time : SunNews Video Gallery

The British Non-Working class riots

Theodore Dalrymple best expressed what is and has been happening in Great Britain lately.

"The riots are the apotheosis of the welfare state and popular culture in their British form. A population thinks (because it has often been told so by intellectuals and the political class) that it is entitled to a high standard of consumption, irrespective of its personal efforts; and therefore it regards the fact that it does not receive that high standard, by comparison with the rest of society, as a sign of injustice. It believes itself deprived (because it has often been told so by intellectuals and the political class), even though each member of it has received an education costing $80,000, toward which neither he nor—quite likely—any member of his family has made much of a contribution; indeed, he may well have lived his entire life at others’ expense, such that every mouthful of food he has ever eaten, every shirt he has ever worn, every television he has ever watched, has been provided by others. Even if he were to recognize this, he would not be grateful, for dependency does not promote gratitude. On the contrary, he would simply feel that the subventions were not sufficient to allow him to live as he would have liked."

It's difficult to be more incisive than that, so I won't try, and the entire article linked above is worth the read.

After the 2008-2009 financial turmoil, I recall reading financial commentators who predicted that a crisis of the sort that happened, not a typical boom and bust recession, but one where a fundamental de-leveraging was occurring, a bank and debt crisis, was the type of crisis that would lead to violence, and war. Of course a vague prediction of that sort, probably can be made anytime with some accuracy. But when I read it, it felt ominous almost Orwellian. 

Where will the next war begin or will the ones we have already grow, and become more widespread? Is the violence internal and specific to certain countries? What kind of violence? The advisors I read, pointed to violence related to the economy. Again, is there any other kind? Just about any kind of violence that does not have a sociopathic cause, is caused by economics, any war, any criminal violence, just about everything has an economic root.

The British violence has an economic root too, but its economics according to what Dalrymple suggested above, and what Stefan Molyneux has researched below. 

    

Liberty Summer Seminar - Huddle in the Hinterland

LSS 2011 under the tent

Last weekend I had the privilege of learning about liberty in the country side of Southern Ontario. Just under 100 people, Canadians, Americans, even a few Europeans, all with a deep appreciation of liberty, gathered in the woods near Orono. It was the Eleventh Annual Liberty Summer Seminar (LSS) sponsored by the Institute for Liberal Studies.

This years edition of the LSS was in jeopardy at one point. Some local politicians were determined to close it down because of arcane bylaw regulations. Thanks to widespread support, legal help from the CCF, and a municipal election that ultimately turfed out most of the offending politicians, the 2011 LSS went ahead.

From a personal point of view it's always reassuring to be in the company of other libertarians, sure there are still arguments, but they seem much more productive and satisfying.

In many ways this seminar is like an annual renewal for those attending. Friendships are renewed, ideas are exchanged, passion and determination are refreshed, and the annual downpour has a cleansing effect. It did pour, but not for long.

My plan is, to post several times over the course of the next week or so, highlighting some of the speakers and stories that were observed during the 2011 LSS, and the first one will be about a debate - "Should libertarians become involved in politics?" 

The Cassandra Syndrome

The Procession of the Trojan Horse in Troy
by Domenico Tiepolo (1773)

A comment by an economist with apparent Austrian School leanings, has prompted this posting.That economist was frustrated because he says he can explain the current economic malaise/crisis in Austrian terms, but no one either believes or listens to what he is saying. He likens his plight to that of Cassandra, of Greek mythology.
Cassandra of course foresaw the destruction of Troy and the death of Agamemnon, commander of the Greek army, but no one believed her. In the current context it's a situation that many of us can sympathize with and it has been named the Cassandra Syndrome. The Urban Dictionary defines Cassandra Syndrome as:
1) The condition of speaking the truth and having no one believe you.
2) The condition of being able to predict the future, be it the outcome of a particular event, or the reactions of others to the same event, and having no one believe your prophecy until it transpires.
3) Being able to see or understand things long before others, often resulting in them coming to the same conclusions long after your own initial analysis.
This morning, CBC Radio News reported on the FOX sponsored Iowa Republican Party nominees debate. In that report, Michelle Bachmann was mentioned, Mitt Romney was mentioned, and so on, not a word about candidate Ron Paul of course. To be fair most of the other candidates were not mentioned, but Ron Paul exemplifies the meaning of Cassandra Syndrome exactly. He is the only candidate that calls for peace, liberty, and limiting the power of government. He needs to be heard, to be listened to, and to be supported. Watch and listen to his answers, a Cassandra if ever there was one.

   

Freckles on the sun

Astronomy was one of my first loves. The wonder of it is how much we don't know and are still finding out. There are far, far, more planets around distant suns than you or I can imagine..........watch.

Crash....and reboot!

Disturbing..........

Your life after death.....digitally.

So what happens to our digital life after we are gone? Adam Ostrow, a journalist, argues that we all have one thing in common, we will all die. Then what? Will our blogs be erased? Will our status updates on Facebook indicate the moment of death? Will we live on as part of the ever growing "cloud?" All good questions, a bit morbid maybe, but interesting.

What should be cut?

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about "The curse of the spendthrift legislators." Governments everywhere in the 'first world' have racked up huge debts, primarily because they have ventured into areas they do not belong. Governments at all levels have some legitimate functions in libertarian philosophy. Most of these proper functions can be classified broadly as protecting our rights without impinging on our liberties, including economic freedoms.
So now that the government spending pendulum has swung too far in the wrong direction everywhere, how can it be reversed?  As an example on a smaller scale, the link above mentions that the City of Toronto has a budget shortfall for next year of three quarters of a billion dollars. So city councillors are faced with cutting costs or raising taxes....a lot. What to do? One of the many suggestions in a report produced by KPMG for the city was to cut library services. You might imagine the hue and cry and that was elicited from the statist community for that one.
Realistically there is no way city government (or any government) will revert to the libertarian ideal in the near future. Our only hope is that government makes moves in the direction of more liberty. Two articles by Larry Solomon of the National Post suggest how this may be done. The first here, deals with the KPMG report and its effect on services. The second here, addresses the library questions and the perception that the cuts will somehow encourage widespread ignorance. Both articles offer interesting alternatives.   

Triple-A reality check

Today stock markets around the world resembled that ship over there, and that was after last week, a bad week. Standard and Poor's downgraded US credit on Friday after the markets closed, and all weekend media types were waiting for the other shoe to drop. Well, it's dropping, but maybe not yet completely dropped.
The media are portraying this as a debt crisis, POTUS Obama calls it a crisis in political will. No matter, things won't start improving until and unless everyone agrees that this is actually a spending crisis. It didn't start with Obama, or Bush 2, the problem  is chronic and widespread across the planet at all levels of government. Spending at a greater rate than income creates debt, its very simple, any household is aware of this reality. Why governments have the right to spend more than they have, is a great question, maybe for another time.
Canada lost its Aaa rating in 1992, and it was not reinstated until years later, after the Chretien-Martin Liberals actually downsized the Canadian Federal government. This downsize, that began about 15 years ago, is the reason most commentators say that Canada is doing so much better than the US and the other G7 economies at the moment.
So the reality is that a country functions better when it's spending is under control, and when its government shrinks giving the population more of its own discretionary income. Job creation is better, the monetary system is better and the future is brighter. That is the reality. 

Hyperinflation by fiat

Fiat currency or money, is money that has value only because of government regulation or law. That means there is no tangible commodity that the money can exchanged for, except its equivalent value in other denominations. So, one American dollar will get you four quarters made of some base metal combination, which at least has some heft to it. That is the law in the U. S., but once an American dollar was worth a pre-determined amount of gold, and then things changed.
The bill pictured is 1 x 10 to the 14th Zimbabwean dollars - one hundred trillion Zim dollars. Today, that bill is worth about $5.00 Canadian/US, as a collectors item. In 2008 that amount would purchase a cart of groceries, while 700 Billion Zim Dollars bought a loaf of bread. That's what happens when a currency collapses and hyperinflation ensues.
As posted here, the average life expectancy of a fiat currency is 27 years and as Stefan Molyneux explains in a recent posting below, the world's current reserve currency, the U. S. dollar, may be nearing the end of its life expectancy.

"Our genes talking"

Humans are successful because we have developed "social learning" and have used language to impart that learning to others.
Language is used to unite us, and divide us, and it has transformed humanity more than anything we possess.

Your government = your mommy

Don't touch those potato chips! Put down that can of soda pop! The government KNOWS whats best for you, trust them.
Seems to me, with all the things government is expected to do, chastising people for bad habits is one less thing it should be doing. Come to think of it, with the huge debts being accumulated by all levels of government on our behalf, there are too many things governments are doing. People should be responsible for themselves as much as possible, don't you think?

Rent Control, Race, and Sowell

Uncommon Knowledge is a video series produced by the Hoover Institution. Need your preconceived ideas shaken up? Then give a listen to Thomas Sowell (pictured), and hear what is meant by uncommon knowledge.

  

Warning, this posting is not politically correct and there is swearing too....

How many recycling containers do you use in your home? Here in my corner of the Great White North we have just a couple that we put out, and think we are doing our bit. But are we?
On garbage day a man on a bike, laden with bags and carriers, cycles through my neighbourhood in suburbia, rain or shine, summer or winter, and picks through the recycling "blue boxes" looking for anything of value. What could there be of value? Well, I can watch this guy through my office window as he picks out beer, wine and liquor bottles because the Provincial government beer store, returns a deposit on them and the man also picks up aluminium cans. Why aluminum? Good question, I'll leave that explanation for Penn Jillette and his colleague Teller. Enjoy, but be warned, there is swearing and it might shake your belief in recycling.

A libertarian tangles with statists on TV

Bill Maher frequently makes me angry and almost as frequently makes me laugh so I watch his weekly Real Time show on HBO. Last week he had as a guest Nick Gillespie of Reason TV, who was hawking his new book The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong with America. 
Opposite Nick were, Bill Maher, and several traditional political types - all statists. The fireworks that ensued exposed the weakness of the statist arguments that support the status quo.....or should I say statist quo? Anyway, its interesting to hear all sides in the lively debate:

The curse of the spendthrift legislators

"Democracy at its finest," those were the words used by one City of Toronto councillor yesterday in a deputation marathon that lasted 22 hours. The City of Toronto needs to find $775 Million in savings in next years budget (2012), or it will need to raise taxes or cut services or both. Yesterday 334 people had registered to speak in front of City council to plead their case for saving their particular pet service (see picture) or support the cuts. In the end just under 200 got to speak (many just left during the night) and only one of those spoke in favour of cuts to spending. That is a sobering statistic.

This outbreak of parsimony is now wide spread in Western Democracies. In Europe, nations are teetering toward default on their financial obligations. Our American neighbours are in danger of defaulting by next week. At the Provincial and State and municipal levels across North America, governments of all stripes are coming to grips with massive debt, all of this in the midst of a weak recovery from a severe recession. Recession part two could be a result. The chickens are coming home to roost, the curse of the spendthrift legislators threatens everyone.

But look at Toronto, mobs of rent-seekers stepping up to ensure that they are cared for in the way they have become accustomed. "We want our services, and we want someone else to pay for them," that is the message of the debate.

Last October the new Mayor was elected to "stop the gravy train," to stop what he presented as the excessive fluff that citizens were forced to subsidize. He also promised not to cut services, perhaps naively. Certainly there was some fluff, and maybe the Mayor was aware that his promise was just that. The Mayor and council hired independent auditors KPMG, to suss out the "core-services," things that are required (by their definition) in a big city so that the $775 million shortfall could be eliminated without much pain. Right.

So here we are, for me the lesson is clear, despite all the evidence that you might think favours our cause, we are still at the bottom of a mountain. For those that hope that the libertarian utopia is just around the corner, give your head a shake, then take a deep breath, and prepare for a generational fight. 

Disastrous Debt - America plays chicken with the world

My letter-to-editor in the National Post July 28, 2011

Imagine using your credit card to purchase an item in a store, and having it refused because you have exceeded your credit limit. Essentially that is what is about to happen to the U. S. government. I doubt it will happen, but having it come so close, less than one week, has already had a negative impact on the American credit rating.
The lesson from this is that no person and no country, should rack up a debt so large that payback is jeopardized. How could this happen to a sovereign nation?
Well, probably not that differently from the debt accumulated by an individual, I would imagine. When spending is greater than income, when wishes are confused with needs, and when the future seems so far off, anyone can get into debt problems.
But countries are managed by intelligent people (we hope), elected to represent the best interests of the population. That of course is an assumption that is debatable.
Americans have long considered themselves the world's policemen. America claims it is defending liberty and its own interests in the many, many military adventures it has launched since the Second World War. In how many countries has the American military deployed troops? Would you believe 150 countries! More than 10% of America's Armed Forces personnel are in other countries, far more than at any time since the WWII. Imagine the expense. Most often war or military occupation is a choice and it invariably causes debt, American legislators and Presidents have chosen war and occupation, many times. Spending is a choice as well, so is borrowing. Just as households can live within their means, so to nations. The problem is not debt, it's spending. Instead of living within one's means, an individual chooses to buy now and pay later, putting off payment to the future.
But nations are different from individuals. An individual can only blame him/herself, presumably no individual was physically forced to accept debt or repay it. Nations of course use force as in almost all aspects of their operations. Legislators are often elected with a plurality of votes, not a majority. Even a majority seems inadequate morally, when so many are forced to pay for government actions that they would not support. Yet that is the morality of gang action, of democracy! Worse, the burden of debt is shared by everyone in the nation at some level whether they supported the government action or not, young, old, the newborn and the aged. The original need for the debt is often dubious. The economic pain to the nation is frequently unequally distributed. But the coercion required to repay the debt is always huge and widely spread.
This debt problem won't be "fixed" by raising the debt ceiling (which will happen). What is required is not going to happen, that is, a full assessment of what the U. S. government should and should not be doing. The Democrats and Republicans are on the same side, and that is not on the side of the American people. People will realize that at some point, but when?

The most hated group in America, Atheists!

Atheists watch this. In America you are the most vilified minority around, even though as a group you are probably the least violent, most tolerant, most thoughtful and intelligent.
From Stefan Molyneux:

Kooks left and right

This morning I described myself to a new acquaintance as a politician. I could have said blogger, since the pay is about the same, but I used politician, an uncomfortable word choice for me. The guy looked at me, and realized he did not recognize me (unsurprisingly). Without much pause, he asked, left or right?
It seems thats how people perceive the world of politics (maybe thats our problem?). So I gave the standard libertarian reply: "we don't fit that description." I then proceeded to run down a list of leftish things that I support: choice in abortion, gay marriage, anti-war in Afghanistan, Libya, etc., then I switched to rightish things: gun rights, diminished role of government, low taxes etc. Of course he had never heard of us. "New," he asked? I smiled.
The reason I bring this up is the incident in Norway, 76 dead at the hands of an "extreme right-wing" terrorist. Personally I think he is nuts, but maybe thats too generous. There  have also been left-wing terrorists that have committed murder on a large scale, although they have had a political agenda and they seem to have disappeared of late. The Norwegian nut-case had an agenda, yes, but to say it was confused is somehow disrespectful of the 76 victims. My point is, right or left, like the cartoon above, are just different words that have the same meaning in libertarian parlance: no choice.