Sunday, November 30, 2008

Take action against the Canadian Coup

We need to think about how we the people should react to this attempted coup by the Liberal PArty of Canada, the NDP and Bloc Quebecois (who were apparently in collusion and planning this coup since the election results came in six weeks ago). Since this is a grab for taxes and power, we should be prepared to resist in any way possible, including a tax strike (a la John Galt) and various forms of active and passive resistance.

As well, overwhelming the MSM through letters, bogs, posting on their sites, call in radio neds to be done in order to push the message through that this is not about the economy but only about grabbing for entitlements from our pockets.

Finally, we can take action directly against the Liberal Party for their part in these events, do everything possible to cause them to spend money, call for the return of the stolen $20 million in ADSCAM money and find out which banks loaned the LPC money for their operating expenses; find out and tell these banks you will withdraw your savings and refuse to do business with them unless they call the loans right now.

Take action now.

Freedom is a self help project.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Who is watching the watchkeepers?

We saw the shameless antics of the MSM during the Canadian and American federal elections. Careful filtration of the news, creative use of headlines, pointed inattention to certain stories and creative selection of photographs were all used to support the "Progressive" slates in each election and discredit, ridicule or diminish the message of the "Classical Liberal" voices.

Now it is clear that private interests are extending the reach of Progressives and attempting to throttle the exchange of ideas and information in the Bolgosphere; specifically, the Google search engine is being censored and right wing blogs and videos are under attack.

This is particulary dispicable, since Google is the premier search engine and the source of information for much of the civilizd world. "To Google" is considered a verb and understood to mean to search for information. Since competators either have inferior search algorithems or are associated with restricted "walled garden" approaches to avalable information, this represents a huge threat to free speech, both more insidious than the Orwellian "Human Rights Comissions" of Canada, and more all encompassing.

Read what this blogger has to say:

http://thesecretsofvancouver.com/wordpress/google-censoring-right-wing-blogs/activists

Google Censoring Right Wing Blogs

November 28th, 2008 Posted in activists

Google2.0

The abuse of power by the friends of Obama…

Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, is a staunch Obama supporter and is in line for a cabinet post… and is now using Google as a tool against right wing thought.

A good example: In the past few weeks, Atlas Shrugs was usually in the top five of the search results for “Obama birth certificate“, “Obama odinga“, “honor killings”, “Obama campaign finance fraud“.

Now they’ve been wiped off Google search pages.

Google also shut down a number of anti-Obama sites on their Blogger network, during the election.

Here’s a small sampling:

Blue Lyon @ http://bluelyon.blogspot.com (back up after the election)

Come A Long Way @ http://comealongway.blogspot.com

Hillary or Bust @ http://hillaryorbust.blogspot.com

McCain Democrats @ http://mccaindemocrats.blogspot.com

NObama Blog @ http://nobamablog.blogspot.com

Politicallizard.blogspot.com @ http://thelizardannex.blogspot.com

Reflections in Tyme @ http://reflections-in-tyme.blogspot.com

More on the story here.

Nice Change from the Obamanauts…

Be careful what you say. The fairness doctrine has begun.

photo credit: ConnorTreacy

Like the MSM, we do have the ability to take action. Looking up other search engines and making them your default is probably the best means of making the point, since this has the potential to deprive Google of advertising revenue. Money talks, and we can say a lot by removing some of Google's income stream.

John Galt, the Internet awaits you.

Friday, November 28, 2008

UPDATE!!!Don't Even Think About it Mme Governor General.

I've heard it more than a couple of times with regard to this political party tax grab/vote subsidy but anyone want to try and tell me how this money grab is democratic?

I mean if the winning party of an election gets 14 million votes and wins a majority but then proceeds to lie, cheat and steal, elect unpopular people to lead their party, divorce the party from the very people parties are supposed to represent and still get $23,800,000 every year regardless of the poor job they do?

On the other hand, if you eliminate the subsidy the party has to remain loyal to its base, it has to generate it's own funds. It has to be able to come up with leaders, platforms and policies that their supporters will support and it has to hopefully do well enough to gather more support the next time. That is democracy.

Democracy is not being forced to treat a vote like a post dated cheque.

The other concept being hoisted upon us is that these parties (all of them) are somehow part and parcel of our democracy and they must survive or our democracy won't function. Absolute bullshit.

There is no party that has to exist. If the party can not survive on it's own then like a business it shouldn't. There is no legal, democratic or constitutional mandate for any of them. They are supposed to be private entities separate from and unconnected to government qua government in any way. Anything less than that is an aberration of democracy the likes of which we see in Banana Republics and communist "Peoples Republics".

I hope that the Conservatives stick to their guns on this one. It's sink or swim time and I'm sick and tired of the political parties using my money to keep themselves afloat.


The word you're looking for is breathless indignation.

But before these leeching slimeball waste of skin political backroom dolts try to rob me of the right to vote for who leads this country they should probably take a breather.

They should take a good hard look at the second chart here.

If you think that western Canada is going to roll over and suck the teat of a socialist Government that they overwhelmingly rejected, that is imposed on them by an unelected Royally appointed babysitter, you're smoking dope.

Look at the numbers from Manitoba west... 71 CPC Members of Parliament, 7 Liberal, and 14 NDP. 71 to 21, you do the math...

Try to pull a fast one Mme Jean and the separatists in Quebec may get their wish courtesy of Liberal NDP and Bloc greed and delivered by the long ignored western provinces.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Praise the Dollar, and Pass the Consumerism

Organizations like Adbusters, (which I will not lower myself to link to) would have you believe that the act of spending money is a crime. That it is some sort of new age sin, an evil that keeps us all from being truly happy. That this message originates in and is preached to its vacuous followers from the security, safety and opulence of the wealthy West seems lost to both the originator and receptors of the message.

We consume, but that is merely the end result. First there is an idea, a spark of creativity or brilliance that stimulates the man. Indeed, to think and create is as human as drawing breath, it differentiates us from animals, it makes our lives worthwhile.

Next the idea is dissected, reduced to component parts, assembled, disassembled tested destroyed rebuilt perfected. This part is often referred to by the creator in such celebrated terms as “a labour of love”. What was that line from the movie “Flash of Genius”? When told that his invention is “just a windshield wiper,” Robert Kearns replies, “To you maybe. To that bartender up there. But to me it's the Mona Lisa.”

Tell me, how do we go from such a life affirming ideal, such a passionate statement to the idea that consuming the products of our creation is a sin?

When the invention is ready the creator enlists the aid of others. Labour is divided to increase our output, to the benefit all the men involved. Those who are hired have their effort rewarded with pay. They in turn support families, they buy other products they need to make their lives better, they consume, they prosper, and they enjoy the fruit of their labour, and the wonders created by other men for their consumption.

What’s wrong with that?

Adbusters would have you believe it is all wrong. They would ask you to not consume, to not enjoy the fruits of your labour, to not celebrate the wonderful time we live in, to toss aside the innovations that have taken mankind from mere existence to a life worth living. They would have you ignore the reality of the economic cycle from create to consume.

Why?

Because we consume too much?

Look at the wealth that our consumer culture has created. Even the poorest person in the so called “West” lives like a king compared to the dark days before our consumerism.

In the end I say if the Adbuster folks wish to preach about austerity and curse our consumerism, they ought to have the decency to do it from the slums of Calcutta. Perhaps while wearing a hair shirt… and no shoes. Of course they’ll have to cut down on their exposure, flashy websites, computers and electricity are just so evil… and you can only reach so many people when you are writing your anti-consumer manifesto out by hand on scrap paper and taping it to lamp posts and mail boxes.

I celebrate Reasons Harvest.


Go thank yourself!!!

Saturday, November 22, 2008

All the history that's fit to ignore

The MSM has been strangely silent on Iraq since the "Surge". The crushing of the insurgency in the "Tikrit triangle", the defeat of the Al-Sadr militia in Basra and the "Anabar Awakening" which drove out the Al Qaeda in Iraq's footholds in that promise were entirely at odds with the MSM narrative of defeat and dispair.

As well, the crushing of the insurgency is a humiliating blow to the US anti war movement and totally overturns the narrative of Senator (now President elect) Barack Obama, who has constantly and consistently been against the Iraq war, and has publicly stated that the "Surge" was not effective and the US would be defeated in Iraq.

How much better if they simply pretend it never happened.

For those of you who do not have a personal memory hole, real reporting of the situation in Iraq has been provided by such independent "blog" journalists as Micheal Yon, and professionals like Robert Kaplan, and can be found on the web.

November 22 should become a new day of celebration for Americans: VI day. Since this conflicts with the "official" narratives and the new Administration, VI day will have to be a private memorial celebrated on November 22 each year by patriotic Americans and their friends throughout the world. Let the Administration and MSM know what you are doing, they may publicly ignore your celebrations but should be hanging their heads in shame (and will if they have any decency left).

Congratulations to the Bush Administration for seeing the conflict through to victory.
Congratulations to the American and Allied servicemembers who made such great sacrifices to bring about victory
Congratulations to the Government and people of Iraq for perservering against all the odds.
Congratulations to the American people who supported their troops during the hard times.

Friday, November 21, 2008

The "Crowd" has spoken as well

I would like to draw your attention to an interesting post. While I posted on the "meta level" that Freidrich Hayek and Ludwig Von Mises had already passed judgement on the Obama Administration, the markets have done so as well. Indeed, the market predicted and reacted to the impending victory of Senator Obama in September, well before the election occured.

From Doug Ross @ Journal:

Barack Obama and The Wisdom of Crowds

In the early twentieth century Francis Galton witnessed a contest at a county fair. Asked to estimate the weight of a prize ox, spectators and cattle experts alike submitted their guesses on paper.After the contest was finished, Galton collected the hundreds of submissions. He painstakingly added them up to determine the average of the crowd's estimates.He was astounded to discover that the crowd's average was closer to the true weight of the ox than any single guess, including those of the "experts".

This anecdote is one of many related in James Surowiecki's bestselling book The Wisdom of Crowds.The book's central assertion is that a diverse collection of individuals, each operating independently, is likely to offer better predictions and decisions than individuals, even so-called "experts".

Intrade.com, the well-known prediction market, selected the winner of every single U.S. Senate race in 2006. No "talking head" pundit was able to match this record.The largest and best known prediction market is the stock market. A 2007 study by Arnerich & Messina illustrated the stock market's efficiency in stark terms. Since 1994 there have been only two years in which more than 50% of professional money managers were able to beat the S&P 500 index. In 1997 only 11% of managers beat the index.

Over the last year most investors in the equity markets have taken horriffic losses. In September -- just a couple of months ago -- the Dow Jones Industrial Average hovered near 12,000. Today it closed at 7,552, a loss of roughly 35%.

What happened in September? Let's look at the Intrade presidential futures market. The blue line represents the Obama futures while red represents McCain.If we zoom into the September-to-November timeframe, we'll see something very enlightening. By late September it was increasingly clear to Intrade.com bettors that Obama was going to win the election. From 9/28 to 9/29 Obama's Intrade price went from 57 to 61, which represented a huge jump.Note what happened to the stock market at nearly the exact same time. Around September 29th the market began its collapse.

Call it a crisis of confidence. Call it a Fannie-inspired meltdown. Call it what you will, but the markets appear to have reacted to Obama's promises of economic "fairness", "spreading the wealth" and raising taxes on the job creators of society.This thinly disguised form of class warfare, the policies of which many have termed socialism (fairly or unfairly), has had a definite impact on the markets.The markets represent the ultimate collective intelligence engine on the planet. The markets have spoken on the stated policies of Barack Obama. Sorry, folks, there are no do-overs.

Linked by: American Thinker, Gateway Pundit and Vanderleun. Thanks!

With that level of confidence, I predict the next four years are going to be very ugly for investors and producers. "Who is John Galt?" indeed....

Travelling At The Speed Of Light

Bob Rae touting his "experience" in running a government under deficit conditions has got to be the most audacious attempt at rebranding in the history of politics.

Mr Rae would have you believe that since his 4 year evisceration of Ontario and his taxpayer assisted political Seppuku in 1995, and after 13 years of being Grand Pooh-Bah in charge of exactly nothing, that his "experience" of running the province of Ontario into the ground will serve Canadians well.

Good thing it doesn't look like anyone is buying.

Looks like there is more of a difference between shit and sunshine than their relative speed of travel after all.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Two Prophetic Passages

Now referring to Ayn Rand as a prophet is sublimely ridiculous to anyone but the most ignorant provocateur, but doing a little light reading last night I came across these two passages in the essay titled "Egalitarianism and Inflation" in her book "Philosophy, Who Needs It?" and though not a prophet, Rand, in championing real, true and unhindered laissez-faire capitalism certainly seems to have glimpsed the troubles we find ourselves drowning in today...

"While the government struggles to save one crumbling enterprise at the expense of the crumbling of another, it accelerates the process of juggling debts, switching losses, piling loans on loans, mortgaging the future and the futures future. As things grow worse, the government protects itself not by contracting this process but by expanding it."

Sound familiar?

How about this?

"It is at a time like this, in the face of an approaching economic collapse, that the intellectuals are preaching egalitarian notions. When the curtailment of government spending is imperative, they demand more welfare projects. When the need for men of productive ability is desperate, they demand more equality for the incompetents. When the country needs the accumulation of capital, they demand that we soak the rich. When the country needs more savings, they demand a "redistribution of income." They demand more jobs and less profits-more jobs and fewer factories-more jobs and no fuel, no oil, no coal, no "pollution"-but above all, more goods for free to more consumers, no matter what happens to jobs, to factories, or to producers."

Those who don't/can't/won't listen to reason are doomed.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Freedom Bridge.

In October this old covered bridge joining the communities of Upper Stone Ridge and Morehouse Corner in New Brunswick was burned to the ground leaving only a treacherous hilly road joining the two. The residents were outraged as it appeared that this old covered bridge, like so many others, had been the victim of arson.

Now the residents of Upper Stone Ridge are outraged once again, the government of the province has decided that the dangerous road link will provide sufficient ingress and egress from the tiny community and the bridge will not be replaced.

Now as petty as the Government of New Brunswick appears to be in this case, $275,000 being a drop in the proverbial budget bucket, what annoys me most is that not a single resident has suggested that the residents or the business's of the town get together to build the bridge themselves.

I grant that in our heavily taxed society that we as citizens ought to be able to expect that government would provide such a necessary link (otherwise why are we paying them so much money), but obviously we can't. The reason is simple political economics, the government doesn't give a rats ass about some tiny backwater village, it won't cost them the election next time around and therefore the wishes and requests of that small minority are unimportant.

Sorry, those are the facts, that is the deal our social contract has become. Big = important, small = ignored.

So what are these people to do? Apparently the choices they have accepted as of now are.
  1. Suck it up
  2. Bitch and moan and in the end suck it up
So what happened to option 3? The one that says when the government won't provide then the private sector or private funding will? Like they used to do it in the old days.

Apparently that idea hasn't crossed anyone's mind. But what if it did...

Could the people of Upper Stone Ridge and Morehouse Corner pool their resources and build their own bridge? Sure, why not it always used to be done that way. In the old days it was the need for the thing that was the impetus to get it done, not the will of government.

So for arguments sake lets say that they did build the bridge, well then they would have to pay for it, and the most sensible method of payment would probably be by toll. Now seeing that the bridge would in fact be private property then no police car, ambulance, fire truck or any other vehicle would be entitled to cross without paying the toll...

Do you see where I'm going with this?

Right. All those agencies which according to the article claimed that "the bridge wouldn't affect the service given to the public" would have to spend more money to go the long and dangerous way around or pay to use the private bridge.

In the end it's up to the people of Upper Stone Ridge and Morehouse Corner to see if the idea is workable, if it is viable or even preferable. But given ownership of some suitable land, the construction of the bridge ought to be the choice of those people affected, and outside of the power of government to dictate.

My advice to the people of Upper Stone Ridge and Morehouse Corner is to build it. Take charge of your own lot in life, and when the government comes calling, when Constable Joe or Postal Worker Jim want to use your bridge tell them to pay up or piss off.

And if you build it... I'll definitely go out of my way the next time I'm in that part of New Brunswick to pay your toll and salute your claim of freedom

Picture courtesy of New Brunswick Covered Bridges Blog

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Some common sense from a politician (for a change)

From the Wall Street Journal. If he represents the "new wave" of Republicans, along with Governor's Palin and Bobby Jindal (among others), then maybe the Republican Party has the nucleus of a new team. Give them until 2012 to clean house internally and build a new platform on "Classical Liberal" principles like freedom of expression, property rights and the Rule of Law (or in the American idiom; "Life, Liberty and the Persuit of Happiness") and they will have a winning combination. The chaos and economic uncertainty of the next four years won't hurt their chances either:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122670755063129989.html?mod=rss_opinion_main

Don't Bail Out My State
South Carolina's governor says more debt isn't the answer.
By MARK SANFORD

I find myself in a lonely position. While many states and local governments are lining up for a bailout from Congress, I went to Washington recently to oppose such bailouts. I may be the only governor to do so.

But I suspect I'm not entirely alone, as there are a lot of taxpayers who aren't pleased with Christmas coming early for politicians. And I hope these taxpayers make their voices heard before Democrats load up the next bailout train for states with budget deficits.

Several questions led me to oppose bailing out the states. They are worth asking, even if you supported bailing out Wall Street.

Who bails out the "bail-outor"?

Washington is short on cash these days and will borrow every dime of the $150 billion to $300 billion for the "stimulus" bill now being worked on. Federal appetites may know no bounds. But the federal government's ability to borrow is not limitless. Already, our nation's unfunded liabilities total $52 trillion -- about $450,000 per household. There's something very strange about issuing debt to solve a problem caused by too much debt.

Do you now have to be a financial "bad boy" to win?

Community bankers tell me that they are now at a competitive disadvantage for being careful about who to lend to, because others that were less disciplined will get a federal bailout. This is also true for states. Those that have been fiscally responsible will pay for or lose out to the big spenders. California increased spending 95% over the past 10 years (federal spending went up 71% over the same period). To bail out California now seems unfair to fiscally prudent states.

Was the economist Herb Stein wrong when he said that if something cannot go on forever, it won't?

Medicaid grew 9.5% annually over the past 10 years. That's unsustainable. But if Congress opens the checkbook now, there will be no reform.

Isn't government intervention supposed to be the last resort and come only when it can make a difference?

In 2008 bailouts became the first resort. Over the past year the federal government has committed itself to $2.3 trillion (including the tax rebate "stimulus" checks of last February) to "improve" the economy. I don't see how another $150 billion now will make a difference in a global slowdown. We've already unloaded truckloads of sugar in a vain attempt to sweeten a lake. Tossing in a Twinkie will not make the difference.

However, there is something Congress can do: free states from federal mandates. South Carolina will spend about $425 million next year meeting federal unfunded mandates. The increase in the minimum wage alone will cost the state $2.6 million and meeting Homeland Security's REAL ID requirements will cost $8.9 million.

Based on what I saw in Washington, the bailout train is being loaded up. Taxpayers will have to speak up now to change its freight, tab or departure.

Mr. Sanford, a Republican, is the governor of South Carolina.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Friedrich A. Hayek and Ludwig von Mises pronounce judgement on the Obama Administration

Should we really prolong the death struggle for those countries, whose ruling intellectual caste is dependent on the resources that the capitalist west provides for its socialist experiments?
Friedrich A. Hayek

That which generates war is the economic philosophy of nationalism: embargoes, trade -- and currency control, devaluing, etc. The philosophy of protectionism is the philosophy of war.
Ludwig von Mises

We will live in interesting times

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Remembrance day

The ancient Greek statesman Pericles gave an oration for the Athenian war dead ("The Funeral Oration"), which is speaks to us today as much as it did to the Athenians in the winter of 441 BC. When he discusses the ideal of citizenship, he speaks across the centuries to the same impulses which drove our citizen soldiers throughout Canada's history:

What I would prefer is you should fix your eyes every day on the greatness of Athens as she really is, and fall in love with her. When you realize her greatness, then reflect what made her great were men with a spirit of adventure, men who knew their duty, men who were ashamed to fall below a certain standard. If they ever failed in an enterprise, they made up their minds that at any rate the city would not find their courage lacking to her, and they gave to her the best contribution that they could. They gave her their lives, to her and to all of us, and for their own selves they won praises that never grow old, the most splendid of sepulchers- not the sepulcher where their body is laid but where their glory remains eternal in men’s minds, always there on the right occasion to stir others to speech or to action.


Lest we forget

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Still Not The Prime Minister

Yes, that means you Jack
"In the first case, it's going to be a speech from the throne that will be a confidence motion, and we've set out today the five fundamentals that we must see ... for us to even consider supporting it."
What part of fourth place don't you understand?

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Un-equalization...

"This reliance on handouts makes governments and voters too dependent on other people's money and less willing to make innovative policy decisions to spark job creation."
Indeed...

Friday, November 7, 2008

Pope Signs Death sentence

Apparently the meaning of the word donation is more important than saving a persons life.

"buying and selling of organs ... would go against the meaning of donation"

In Canada according to this article 46% of patients waiting for a Kidney died in the average 2.4 years they were followed for the study. This is in spite of the fact that a person can live with just one kidney.

The article is chock full of tidbits like this...
"A relatively small proportion of patients received a transplant: 10.6 per cent for those receiving a kidney from a deceased donor and 5.8 per cent for live donors."
I wonder, how many people would voluntarily exchange a kidney for a suitable cash payment...

Meh, it doesn't really matter, because once again, the church proves it is all about suffering, it's more interested in some ethereal piety and altruistic nonsense than it is in you, your life, the ones you love and your/their continued existence.

My hat is off to the propagandists of the church though... That they continue to be able to convince people that it is better to die than to pay for a service is amazing. The two Joe's (Joseph Goebbels and Joseph Stalin) must be prostrating themselves in the grave at the thought of it.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

An Army of Brownshirts?

Senator Obama has proposed a Civilian National Security Force with the same "power and funding" as the Armed Forces. As a student of history, this doesn't sound very comforting; since most totalitarian regimes developed parallel armed forces to the military (think of the Soviet MVD "Ministry of the Interior" troops for a simple example). While creating an army of Brownshirts or Stormtroopers may not be the reason for a Civilian National Security Force, we need to know what, exactly, it is. (I note that we potentially have lots of integration issues considering how our forces are intertwined through NORAD, Northern Command, NATO etc.)

http://www.captainsjournal.com/2008/11/01/civilian-national-security-force/


Civilian National Security Force
BY Herschel Smith

So Obama wants to quit relying on the U.S. military alone to implement U.S. national security objectives. Okay, in contemporary slang, The Captain’s Journal is “down with that.” So he’s going to get the State Department playing on the same side as the military? Er … maybe not.

“Just as powerful, just as strong, and just as well funded.” So the astute observer and deep thinker might reflect for a minute and be compelled to pose several questions (although the MSM won’t).

1. How will this Civilian National Security Force (hereafter CNSF) be just as powerful as men with guns, artillery, ordnance, war ships and aircraft?
2. What will make the CNSF “just as strong” as the U.S. Marine Corps?
3. How will this CNSF implement national security policy?
4. Since the 2009 budget includes just over half a trillion dollars for defense spending (The Captain’s Journal supports this, and calls for even more), and since it is judged that this CNSF be “just as well funded” as the military, where will this half a trillion dollars come from?
5. Finally, if he didn’t really mean that this CNSF would be the beneficiary of half a trillion dollars (to do with we don’t know what), then why did he say so?

At any rate, these questions seem to be compelled by the proposal. The best bet, however, is that the MSM won’t pose a single one of them (but we do get to add another snappy sounding category to our stable of articles - Civilian National Defense Force).