Only By Permission #7

"A right is the sanction of independent action.
Only a slave acts on permission."
Ayn Rand

Where you have freedom of speech, as long as you say things we want to hear.

Only by Permision #6

"A right is the sanction of independent action.
Only a slave acts on permission."
Ayn Rand

Where appreciation of industrial design leads to "Your papers please."

Two Wolves and a Sheep

In parliament this week a long overdue bid to scrap Canada's long gun registry failed. This failure highlights the flaws in rational thinking on the part of Canadians just as much as the inherent abuses possible in a democratic system.

The greatest threat and failure of Democracy is the ability of 51% to vote away the rights of the other 49%. J.S. Mill and other heavy thinkers called this the tyranny of the majority. With the final vote on the registry tallied at 153 to 151, 50.3% of parliamentarians have indeed managed to dominate the other 49.7%.

The vote also shows the duplicity of politicians and the undue power political parties have in our system. MP's like NDP Peter Stoffer (Sackville-Eastern Shore) who promised to oppose the registry in accordance with his constituents wishes but who devolved into a partisan jellyfish at the threat of party disapproval. Then there are the countless Liberal MP's who were under orders from their leader Michael Ignatieff to vote the party line. It is hard to know how many of them voted in favour of their party and against their constituents but Ignatieff's praise of party unity ought to send a cold shiver down the spine of anyone who is interested in the preservation of political freedom and liberty in this country.

This isn't only a political failure though, it's a failure in critical thinking on the part of a lot of people.

Cast a critical eye at the original article. The inclusion of Elaine Lumley's story about her son Aidan's death is designed to pull at the heartstrings, but look at the facts. Aidan Lumley was shot and killed by an unknown assailant using a pistol in downtown Montreal. Pistols in this country have been restricted and registered weapons since 1935. This registry is for long guns only, the kinds of guns found predominately in the hands of law abiding farmers and hunters.

The Governments own statistics demonstrate just how wasteful this program has been. In 2009 all the murders committed in Canada in that year accounted for just 0.025% of crimes committed, and of that number only 1/3 were committed with a firearm. Due to the statistical information it is impossible to know how many were from long guns as opposed to pistols but I am willing to bet it was less than 1/3 of that total, so a little quick math has the homicide rate by long gun approximately at 0.0027 % of all crime in this country.

Even with the statistics above showing the almost infinitesimal percentage of crime committed with long guns the most salient point is that no crime has ever been prevented by demanding that the weapon used be registered. What do people think, that a criminal will say to himself... "Well I was going to kill the guy, but then I realized that my gun was registered so I thought I'd better not..." ridiculous!

Although rather tongue in cheek, this is something one should think of too...

Objectivist Round Up

Kelly has the 167th Objectivist Round Up under way at Reepicheep's Coracle. Are you a man or a mouse... Check it out!

Objectivist Round Up

The 166th Round Up is live over at Erosophia, and it is dead sexy!

Check it out!

Tolerance

This article led to a conversation about tolerance. The person I was talking to claimed that she would "hate to have to tell my children I lost my job/car/house because I had no tolerance for another's belief and burned their holy book."

Tolerance is an anti-concept. It is designed to imply that something (like religion, social norms or traditions) just because of their nature, are deserving of a free ride, literally of being tolerated... Tolerance is defined as "to allow the ...existence, presence, practice, or act of without prohibition or hindrance" or "to endure without repugnance; put up with"

Now that concept might be applicable to a boisterous child running slightly amok in the kitchen but do you think we really ought to tolerate an ideology that demands homosexuals to be hanged, women to be stoned to death for the crime of being rapped, where it is written that a man can take a child as his bride, where it demands the death of every single living person who doesn't believe what is written in some megalomaniac's piece of delirious, misogynistic hateful homophobic fiction?

Is this really what we want to tolerate?

No.

Only by Permission #5

"A right is the sanction of independent action.
Only a slave acts on permission."
Ayn Rand

Where the scientific method is observable, empirical, measurable and political.

NB - This is a direct result of abdicating scientific research to government. As anyone with half a clue realizes, if you can control the money you can control the message, the information, and ultimately (for a while) the truth.

Funding for science is not a proper role for a liberal western government precisely because supporting or censoring ideas is an indicator of demagoguery not freedom.

Only by Permission #4

"A right is the sanction of independent action.
Only a slave acts on permission."
Ayn Rand

Where the only business permitted is business as usual.

Objectivist Round Up

Jenn has the 165th edition of the round up over at Rational Jenn.

It would be silly to not take a look!

Only By Permission #3

"A right is the sanction of independent action.
Only a slave acts on permission."
Ayn Rand

Where watching what your kids eat is something the state does for you...

NOTE TO FILE

The United States has long been one of, if not the freest country in the world.

Now I'm not measuring or basing that opinion on some UN inspired leftist notion of equality of outcomes or so called social equity. No my yardstick is much simpler, it is ones right to life, liberty and property. You know, real individual rights, not the wet dreams of some social engineer or cloistered communist academic.

But I can't help but notice that the Americans - largely unaided by their current government - are leading the charge toward the ultimate inversion. From Home Owners Associations restricting everything from the colour of doors to flag flying with fascist zeal, to the passing of plebiscites restricting this or that based on the campaigns of vocal minorities, Americans are legislating themselves (and their neighbours) into servitude with startling precision and regularity.

Am I completely mistaken in thinking that the American "live and let live" attitude has been replaced by "Do as I do...or else."?

Guest Blogging

My first ever guest blogger post "The Atheist Conclusion" is up over at Atheist Evolution. Check it out.

Thanks again Jay for the opportunity.

The Objectivist Ethics

Over and over again as an Objectivist you hear people say things like "How can selfishness lead to moral action?" or "How can you be moral if your morals are made up, if they don't come from God or the community, or society?"

I would respond in kind and ask how one can act morally without being selfish, or without coming to moral principles on one's own through thought and introspection.

Learn how & why... The Objectivist Ethics