I Wish.

I find it really hard to care about Canadian politics these days.

The same old parties are ranting along the same old lines about the same old things. Not a one of them offers or even wants any change to the system. Sure they gripe and moan about how "they" would do it differently, about how "they" are the only ones offering any new this or that, but the fact remains that if you look at it really hard you can see that all you need to do is change the faces, and the rants spewing forth across the house could come from any party at any time.

We don't have political parties we have pragmatic collectives who feed, vampire like off the votes of those who they dupe into their ideological lairs. Conservatives sell their souls in the hope that their particular status-quo will be maintained, Liberal voters pant and repent at the altar of progressive reform while the Dippers don the revolutionary garb and wave the red flag of socialism. All, in the end, get exactly nothing.

Our politicians word is written in water and nailing down any ideal (other than their prime directive of "thou shall get re-elected") is like nailing jello to the side of a battleship in a North Atlantic gale.

The best-worst thing is I can see an end to it, but it relies on the end of the entire system, which is to say a political or social or economic apocalypse the like of which has never been seen.

I imagine an Atlas Shrugged type collapse, a greatest depression, widespread social chaos spread across the entire planet. I see an unstoppable absolute and irretrievable end to the world as we know it and think...

I wish.

Why?

Why is it always a chore to get our government to do the right thing? Why is it that every Tom, Dick and Harry on the street from Toronto to Tuktoyaktuk knows what the right thing is and what should be done but our elected officials don't?

From Letting the Auditor General see MP's expenses to the Afghan Detainee "scandal" how come these people are so damn obtuse?

Are these "issues" some sort of political version of a head-fake? While we are getting the run around on a simple matter of transparency what else is happening?

We need a new way of doing politics in this country, and fast.

Fire. Them. All.

So close...

And yet so far.

This article in the National post begins with a precise and correct statement of principle.

"If you have a language, heritage or sexual orientation you would like to celebrate, good for you. This is Canada: Feel free to stage a march, parade or festival in honour of whatever makes you proud. But, please, do it on your own dime."

but then they go and ruin it by adding...

"As Toronto's Pride Parade and several recent Sikh events have demonstrated, public funds should not be used to underwrite controversial gatherings for niche communities."

Do you see the problem?

It's not that these parades "underwrite controversial gatherings for niche communities." it's the theft of public funds to support any such event. Whether it be the Molson Indy or a boy scouts parade, if there isn't enough voluntary or corporate support in the community then there is no damn way that a government, any government ought to be able to use taxes to put on a show.

This is a fine example of the waste in our public finances. We have millions of dollars of debt at the municipal level, tens of billions of debt at the provincial level and hundreds of billions at the federal level and we are throwing parties?

I don't know about you but when I find myself a little short at the end of a month I don't decide to pay for a friend's kegger.

Truth in Politics

This is ridiculous.

The truth is the best policy. This particular tempest in a teapot could be solved with a single, clear, concise statement from the government to the effect that;

Not all Members of Parliament have the necessary security clearance, or could even obtain the necessary security clearance to be privy to these documents, the re...lease of which could adversely affect our soldiers and our allies in the field, and Canada's National Interests at home and abroad.

The solution to this issue is quite simple, the government will establish a Parliamentary Armed Services Committee which will be a non-partisan committee consisting of government and opposition MP's who take the steps to achieve (and are subsequently awarded) the appropriate security clearances.

This committee will not be able to speak of or make public any information so classified but should any impropriety occur they can bring that matter before a similarly qualified and security cleared auditor or judge.

So why won't the government do it? Because if you tell the simple truth people will come to expect it and then this government (and every other government Canada is likely to have) is screwed.

Exactly What We Don't Need

This, from Lawrence Martin, is exactly what we don't need. Note in his praise of the once and future king that it isn't because of anything he has actually done, but more because he is "young, articulate in both languages, dashing, magnetic."

I would rather that Lawrence Martin had come out in favour of principle, diligence, trustworthiness, honour or loyalty... Certainly any one of these things is more important, more telling of the nature of a man and his worth as a politician than good looks, the gift of gab, flamboyance or enamouring qualities.

As long as the people look for the qualities Mr. Martin extols we will lurch from bad government to worse, from one duplicitous self-serving politician to the next.

I don't care about a politicians age, I care about his ideas and ideals and none of the ones we have currently have either in abundant supply or good condition.

Acting Surprised

Why is this a surprise?

We have built a system where we expect our politicians to hand out money for everything from road construction to health care, where the electorate's call to action sounds more like the old refrain "what have you done for me lately" and then suddenly when our politicians spend the money we give them to buy our votes like we asked them to during their campaigns we claim it is violating some sacred trust?

What hypocrites we are.

This problem is easily solved though, limit government to one task, the protection of inalienable rights; life, liberty and property.

Take away the power of politicians, the ability to engage in influence peddling, to stifle business and to legislate on a whim. Take away the power of the politician to declare illegality for anything other than the initiation of force or fraud and remove their ability to manipulate the market in any way shape of form.

But don't stop there, you can't stop there...

Educate the electorate to the point where it consistently and rightly realizes, that the power to tax is the power to enslave. So that they look to business to provide solutions not the tyrannical hand of government. Where they realize the truth in the old adage that to be free themselves they must allow others to be free, where the only thing rightly viewed as anyones else's business is the initiation of force or fraud upon another human being.

Until this happens, all of you out there bitching about some peoples ability to be more equal than others, the signatures on cheques, the crass politicization of economic panic, the buyouts and bailouts should just stop acting surprised, because the system is working exactly the way you designed it to work.

To Vote... Yet Not To Vote

The Liberal's say they are going to "pull the plug" on the Conservatives minority government (they really, really, really, really, really mean it this time).

Now in most places on the planet when an election is held there are only a couple of reasons for doing so. Either the term of the sitting government is over and by law there has to be an election, or in a multi-party democracy a sitting minority government looses the support of the parliament (or what-have-you) over some real or politically important (imagined) issue.

My question is this... What is the issue (I'll even accept a "politically important" one at this point)? What is the reason that the Liberals have decided suddenly to stop supporting the Conservatives as they have done for the last 303 days? What is the point of spending another $300,000,000 to hold an election that no one outside of the Liberal and NDP spin factories even want?

What would the Liberals do differently? The Conservatives are already governing like Liberals anyway.

The Conservatives have completely divorced themselves from any sort of fiscal responsibility, they have shunned their small government conservative ideals, and they have bent over backwards to pay their way into the hearts and minds of anyone and everyone who they think might even remotely have a chance of voting for them. Sounds just like the Liberals to me.

PM Harper and his boys and girls have behaved like nothing more than Liberal dopplegangers so why should we Canadians have our time and our money wasted on a vote to replace one conjoined twin with the other?

What if they held an election and nobody showed up to vote? What if we were able to get less than 50% of the people of this country to show up for that 5 minutes of "civic duty"? Or better yet what if the usual number of people showed up but didn't mark their ballots, or wrote a personal note to government instead of choosing one empty suit over another.

You could write something small on a ballot, something like "Get to work..." or "Stop stealing from me..."

Politicians often make comments about elections sending them a "message from the voters" well lets send them all a message to smarten the %&@# up and stop wasting our time and money.

Canada's Pragmatic Politics: Standing For Nothing

Lawrence Martin spends this article praising the mushy middle of politics. The progressive, the pragmatic, the popular position.

Now while I'm not interested in praising the Conservatives for their pragmatism I will note that many political pundits in the last few years, since the fall of the Liberal hegemony in Canada have made much noise, type and hype out of lambasting that party for its lack of direction. They have resoundingly skewered the Liberal party for its whim-driven adherence to, well, nothing more substantial than the power they sought and the votes that would get them there... So, fast forward and suddenly this same course of progressive pragmatism is the course of action for the Conservatives?

Personally I could care less at this point. After a number of years of supporting the Conservatives I now realize that as far as the 4 main parties* in Canada are concerned the average voters choice is bad, worse, disastrous and irrelevant.

What I really want to get at is the notion that pragmatism in politics is somehow a good thing.

Pragmatism is defined as; "A way of approaching situations or solving problems that emphasizes practical applications and consequences." now on the surface that doesn't sound too bad, but the problem is that as it is applied in politics the practical applications and consequences part is lost and the definition more closely adheres to "A way of approaching political situations or solving social problems that emphasizes majority rule regardless of principal."

Gone is the idea that the solution must work or that it must be practical. Consequences are only considered, if at all, as something to be dealt with or "spun" at the next election.

But even if the actual definition was closely followed there is a major problem... Where are the beliefs, the ideals, the principles upon which decisions will be made?

When being in charge, as the leader of a nation you have to be able to enunciate that there are things in which you believe. The foundations of any society are the things that are accepted and believed by the individuals within it, for right or wrong for good or ill.

Obviously we've gotten away from anything so hide-bound as principals as far as politics are concerned in this country. It no longer seems to matter what a political party, or you as a politician believe, the important thing is how many people you can convince that you believe the same thing they do. That's pragmatism, and that is the thing which Mr. Martin extols in his article.

So the pragmatic virtue of the Conservative party is the ability of the party to say on the eve of the recession that they do not believe that bailouts are the solution only to pragmatically bail out any and all takers less than a month later!

The truth is pragmatism is little more than political newspeak for the sentence "We are going to lie to you."

What ever happened to ideas and ideals? Where did the principled politicians go? Why do so few people ask this question?

Who is John Galt?

* I do not include the Bloc because they can not and will not run candidates in any province other than Quebec

Are We There Yet?

“The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.”
Ayn Rand

If you read the news today or have been reading it for the last while you are virtually assaulted by the systemic use of tax money to bail out here, or subsidize there. The workers cry out for it, the Unions beg for it, the businessmen complain that they can not survive without it and the politicians dole it out.

When this is done a majority of consumers sagely nod their heads, Unions and businessmen grimly set their jaws and make a show of “getting to work” and Politicians on the left and on the right preach the gospel of regulation, control and “social responsibility”.

It’s systemic, invasive, pervasive and sickening.

So, as the title of this post asks… Are we there yet? Is it necessary for honest rights respecting folks to be criminals in order to live their lives as men?

Getting away from it all: more about sea steading, micronations and finding a physical Galt's Gulch

The discussion on Libertarian seasteads, space colonies and micronations is opening up again on the blog "Next Big Future" This link is to only one of the articles, others exist here and here.

The basic argument is how could freedom loving people escape from the current mess of redistributive politics? Simply up and leaving civilization isn't much of an option, every piece of the land area of Earth has been claimed by one State entity or another, and even the open oceans are patrolled by navies eager to exert the sovereign power of the State wherever resources and trade routes exist that can benefit the State.

While it is possible to find some very out of the way area that has essentially been abandoned by central State control, there are probably good reasons for this, including relative inaccessibility, lack of resources and the presence of competing non state actors attempting to create their own areas of control. The determined freedom seeker would have to be extremely tough, resourceful and willing to battle it out with FARC, the Taliban or similar groups, as well as doing without hot and cold running water.

I suspect only the very smallest minority of readers fall into this category, so joining the John Galt strike and making provisions to disconnect yourself from the grid through some form of urban homesteading is probably the most realistic path open to the majority of readers.

There is the delicious irony of turning the various memes of the Progressives against them while becoming a successful citizen of  the distributed or virtual "Galt's Gulch". Generating your own energy and home schooling your children to "reduce your carbon footprint", growing your own produce to "only eat food from within 100 km" and other activities that increase your standard of living while reducing your tax contributions to the State; now we are starting not only to join John Galt, but also his confederate Ragnar Danneskjöld, who recovers wealth from the looters.

For people determined to build real as opposed to virtual or distributed Galt's Gulches, there are a few possible options left. A billionaire or corporation with libertarian inclinations might choose to "buy" a small city or create the physical infrastructure of a self contained city within a city (something along the lines of the classical Arcology concept). Encouraging migration of like minded people to single geographic areas might also work to build a voting block which could swing elections, and this moment in history could make it possible, considering the collapse of housing values in many parts of the United States. (The downside is most of the collapse is in the Democrat controlled "Blue States", so even fully libertarian municipalities would be held hostage by intrusive State governments).

The timeline to create a Galt's Gulch is very tight, with an apocalyptic financial crisis looming in the relatively near future. US Medicare is projected to go bankrupt in 2016, and Social Security soon after. The increase of the annual deficits by the Obama administration to almost 2 trillion a year means the United States itself could exhaust the accumulated stock of American wealth in under 25 years, much sooner once the unfunded liabilites are factored in. Certainly the surviving institutions of the State will take extreme measures to maintain their hold on power as the economy crumbles under them, and we need to get ready not only to survive and repel the agents of the State desperate to seize our wealth for their own survival, but also the chaos that will follow the collapse.

Charter cities in the desert, sea steads, urban homesteads and other nodes of civilization need to be prepared, and more importantly, people need to be prepared and educated to survive the new realities. Every attempt to meld anti-politics (i.e. the John Galt Strike combined with creating the best Galt's gulch that is physically possible) with local political action to reduce the power and effects of the State from intruding into your lives will serve to soften the blow when it does come.

Freedom is a self help project!

The on line world, cont.

As readers know, my interests have been along the lines of how Objectivism and Libertarianism have become social rather than political movements, and how to migrate to a virtual "Galt's Gulch" in order to live, work and dream in privacy without the busybodies of the State interfering with our lives. (Far better the agents of the State were to concentrate on their real jobs of protecting our lives and property from theft and fraud...).

Next Big Future has an interesting post here on the idea of transhumanism as applied to libertarian thought. For those of you who havn't come across this idea before, many futurists, science fiction writers and others maintain that advances in technology and biology will allow the human race to trancend current limits and achieve a physical utopia free of current problems and wants.

Ideas such as nanotechnology, highly advanced computers and artificial intelligence and genetic engineering do have the potential to eliminate scarcity and poverty in the world, and allow ordinary people access to the sorts of tools that are currently only in the reach of governments today. This is a two edged sword, of course. Being able to fabricate a spaceship and go to the asteroid belt is a positive, but the same technologies also allow you to build an ICBM and take personal action against a foreign regime you may not like.

It occurs to me that much of what we see in politics is a reaction to this sort of thinking (however diffused and unorganized). Politics is defined in organizational theory as a means of allocating limited resources. In the transhumanist libertarian universe, there are no limited resources (besides natural limits set by physics), hence there is no need for politics as usually defined. Why do we need a CRTC to allocate limited bandwidth, when there is effectively unlimited bandwidth through the Internet? The world produces more than enough agricultural produce to feed everyone, famines are caused by government actions that distort markets or actively embargo food distribution for military or ideological purposes. Other examples can be thought of by the preceptive reader.

What we are seeing is a process of limiting access to resources by political entities in order to maintain control. Bureaucratic entities like the CRTC float trial balloons to limit the sorts of information available on the Internet in a very public way. Other groups act like "Brownshirts" and attempt to drive competing ideas from the public square, as this example shows. "Cap and Trade" and associated "Climate Change" hysteria is designed to frighten people and make inexpensive access to energy, manufactured goods and services too expensive to afford for the masses.

So how do we respond?

Transhumanism is a very high tech idea and would require the resources of innovative corporations and the mass market to develop quickly and effectively. However, lots of low to mid tech resources exist in the here and now that allow the determined person to partake of relative abundance in the comfort of their own households. Everything from hydroponic gardening to using rain barrels to catch unmetered water, investing in high efficiency appliances to schooling yourself to turn off and unplug "instant on" devices reduces you dependance on outside resources and agencies without necessarily depriving you of a lifestyle of relative abundance.

Busybodies of the State will still attempt to harass you, for example citing zoning laws or launching complaints to take up your valuable time.  This is where you can become involved in the political process, and at a level that you, the reader have much influence. I am suggesting that applying anti-politics to your lives and engaging in the political process at the municipal level will provide the means to break down the overwhelming control of the State.

Anti politics (removing or reducing your dependance on the municipal grid and services) reduces the tax revenues of the State, provides an example for your friends and neighbours to follow and even co-ops some of the memes that the Statists use to attempt to control your lives.

Being active in municipal politics is doable for the majority of people, and the results can be imediate and very gratifying (rolling back intrusive bylaws and ordinances, for example).

Perhaps this is not as much fun as prospecting in the rings of Saturn or sea steading in the Earth's oceans, but it is doable, and it is possible for all of us, today.

Freedom is a self help project!

Still seeking "Galt's gulch"

Right now, I am still thinking about how a "virtual" Galt's Gulch would work, since we are living in an era that does resemble the collapse of American free enterprise in Atlas Shrugged. While it is very nice to stand and declare your beliefs, most readers can see there is an ever increasing trend towards State intervention in everything, and State oppression is pretty close at hand (if not there already, see the CHRC or the American Congress openly considering a bill of attender against AIG executives...).

Being able to disappear from the view of State censors or other Brownshirt thugs will be a real survival mechanism for anyone who wants to keep liberty alive in these conditions. I am also not so confident that civilization can be rebuilt on Classical Liberal principles as easily as making the sign of the dollar in the air; I am thinking in the worst case we actually need to consider a sort of Irish Monastery project  (although this could also just be natural paranoia peeking through).

Sadly, a physical Galt's Gulch is probably not practical or feasible in the here and now (at least not if we like hot and cold running water), and attempts to stake out a physical space in the oceans or deserts is probably doomed to failure in the face of State competition (and the reason we have "States" is because they were the best form of organization for creating and controlling military power ever devised). Unless someone comes up with inexpensive access to space so communities can be established on the Moon, asteroids and moons of the gas giant planets far away from current State competition, then we are stuck with the virtual world.

I am still heartened by ideas that the Libertarian Revolution is actually a social rather than political movement, and Objectivism is certainly part of this movement. The T.E.A. party movement shows there is a groundswell of opinion against the current political and social situation, but no one has managed to capture it just yet, and of course there is always the danger that the T.E.A. party could either devolve into irrelevance or be captured by "the man on the white horse".

Of course, hunkering down in a real or virtual bunker against the impending Apocalypse is pretty defeatist. As Jerry Pournelle reminds readers of his blog "Chaos Manor"; Despair is a Sin. We need to move outwards in all kinds of unexpected directions, small furry mammals in the Jurassic political park. 

-Using virtual tools to create and operate in an underground economy

-Going Ragnar Danneskjöld and applying for government grants equal to the taxes you have paid

- Boycotting companies and media that actively promote or support statist views and policy (GM anyone?)

- Supporting political candidates of the Freedom Party or Libertarian Party (a small "c" conservative party if there are no representatives of the first two parties available).

- Working at the municipal level against statist policies

- Becoming energy self sufficient and getting off the grid. Minimizing the use of other centralized services as much as possible or practical is also encouraged.

As you can see, there are lots of possible options, and not every one is possible for every person. You will have to decide which ones work for you, and then execute the plan. The individual actions of thousands or millions of people will have a huge impact, and you can vote with your dollars and your actions every single day.

Freedom is a self help project!

Obama's Smackdown

Thank you Anne Wortham.

H/T mpt's Web Site

NEWSFLASH!!!

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A RIGHT TO A JOB!

People whine and bitch about the contractually assured bonuses of CEO's and the government eggs them on... then there's this.

From the article:

“What makes me glum about it all is that it's extremely difficult to get around the political necessity of subsidizing employment at an extraordinarily high cost per job..."

WTF is there to 'get around'? How about the concept that government is not, was not, and was never intended to ensure anyone, at any time, for any reason, was employed! It's not their job!

I'll say it again... There is no such thing as a right to a job! The only thing government should be ensuring is individual rights and that isn't on the list.

$1.5 million per job holy freaking deficits Batman! We would actually save money by just giving each and every GM employee a million dollars!

This isn't capitalism, this isn't conservatism, this isn't even rational.

Politics Without Philosophy

I don't give a rats ass about Michael Ignatieff being out of Canada for 34 years, what I care about is his ideas on running the country. And seriously, to call a person an intellectual and to mean that as a slur, well you might as well be praising a village idiot for his ability to drool on himself.

Why is our government spending 13 million dollars to prosecute a Prime Ministerial has been like Brian Mulroney? Over what? An admitted payment of $225,000? Only in political circles could a negative return of 57,777% be considered worthwhile.

All of the major parties in Canada are bankrupt in ideas, ideals and ideology. None of them is looking out for you, they are all just looking to screw their opponents. Leading the nation is an afterthought at best.

If we as citizens elect our public officials to govern our nation only to have them spend more of their time trying to discredit the opposition or dream up new ways of spending our money on their interests then I say democracy is dead.

And what killed it? Politics without philosophy.

ALL levels of government have too much power. Government in Canada is not constrained in any shape or form. From provincial governments banning pesticides on lawns* because it's not safe for "the environment" (yet allowing the same pesticides to be used on our food). To the Federal Government stealing our tax money to prop up companies that should have been allowed to fail in the 1970's (do they seriously believe that ANYONE with more than two brain cells to rub together is going to buy a car from a company that is only being kept afloat by stolen taxes?). We, the taxpayers, the rubes that elect these dolts are paying the price.

Our governments are completely out of control. They have lost sight of the reason they were elected (to govern, not to smear) and all of them hold to the idea that they are entitled to decide how to divide up your money.

What this country needs is a properly limited government, and to achieve that we need a political party built on philosophical principals, which is not the same thing as having a political philosophy.

Politics is only one branch of philosophy and is as useless as a screen door on a submarine without the more important branches of metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics.

The reason our political parties are so driven by partisanship is because they have no underlying rational philosophy. The reason they flip and flop is because the only thing of importance to them is getting elected, all positions, policies and proposals are pragmatic easily discarded lies the day after the election.

Ask a liberal, socialist or a conservative where he stands on the concept of rights and they will give you an equivocal answer. Give them more information and their position will change.

The rights to life, liberty and property are constrained at whim by the liberal acting for the "just society", by the socialist seeking the "greater good" or the conservative imposing standards of "morality".

This is where politics leads without philosophy to ground it.

Robbing Harper - Steals From You to Give To Them

So now my money is going to be given out to Kids in the Caribbean so that they can go to university in Canada paid for by my taxes?

WTF?

I might sound insensitive here but perhaps these countries should be putting their own students through fricking university and my money should be left in my pocket so I can put MY two kids through university.

I find myself looking forward to the next election, and wondering if these guys have a candidate in my riding...

Run up the Black Flag!

Although the Liberals, Bloc and NDP may have pulled one over on the Canadian electorate with their coalition stunt, there are some actions we can take as free Canadians. I outlined a few on Sunday, and now I am going to propose piracy against a putative coalition government.

By piracy, I am following the example of Ragnar Danneskjöld, and will grab for my share of the $30 billion inflationary stimulus package. Like Ragnar, I will calculate my income tax from 1993 to 2006, and also add the GST paid for the purchase of a number of cars and two homes during that period. That is the figure I propose to use when claiming any government "stimulus" grants, which will probably be handed out in indecent haste and with the sort of oversight that allowed the HRDC to perpetrate the "Billion Dollar Boondoggle".

As a free and responsible citizen, I want you to carefully consider doing the same; calculate the taxes you paid from 1993-2006, add any GST for major purchases like houses or cars, then put together a business proposal to hire a few people and apply for a grant of that amount. This is only a self refund of the monies that were taken from you to support the extortionate and ineffectual government schemes that crippled Canada's economy and political culture, and reduced us to a shadow on the global stage.

It seems only right that we use the perpetrators of the last round of extortion to provide the refund now.

The Progressive "Surge"

Progressives of all stripes are discovering that insurgencies can be waged with ideas as well as guns and IED's. Progressives have taken effective control of the MSM, educational institutions, government bureaucracies and even a large portion of the market, but those nasty Classical Liberals (who often go by names like the Conservatives or Republicans, depending on where you live) still seem to be ahead of the game.

In Canada, Classical Liberals have become the governing party (and may possibly win a majority government mandate on Oct 14, 2008). Classical Liberals are also in charge of Alberta and Saskatchewan, two of the wealthiest and fastest growing provinces in Canada, and seem to be making inroads elsewhere.

In the United States, Senator Barack Obama is either tied or only marginally ahead of his Republican rival, despite the adulation of the press and a finance machine that can raise and spend cash at an astronomical rate, far beyond any rivals. Indeed, Senator Obama only defeated Senator Clinton by a small margin, despite having much the same advantage over her.

The reaction of the Progressives is quite illuminating. Consider how open the bias of the MSM has become against any manifestation of Classical Liberalism, its proponents or works. War reporting is astonishingly one sided. Victories are never reported, either spectacular events like the retaking of Anabar province in Iraq, or the small, incrimental gains that the Canadians make every day in Afghanistan. Political reporting is similarly hypocritical; think of the cone of silence which surrounds scandals like John Edward's illicit affair (while his wife is dying of cancer, to boot), the relationships between Democratic party congressmen and senators and "Freddie and Fannie", the two GSE's implicate in the current financial crisis, Elizabeth May's participation in a pro Hezbollah, anti Isreal rally or the almost open collusion between the Canadian Green and Liberal parties; then look at how political figures on the Classical Liberal side of the political spectrum are treated. Govenor Sarah Palin is constantly smeared or belittled in the MSM; a reader is much more likely to find her characterized as a "porn star" rather than the only candidate among the Presidential contenders to have executive experience (and in a large, wealthy and demanding state at that). Prime Minister Stephan Harper is compared to political figures like Hitler or George W Bush (although perhaps the Bush comparison can be seen as a compliment by the Classical Liberal side) and all manner of "Gotcha" journalistic tricks are brought into play rather than examining issues (although to be fair, the Conservative Party of Canada does this as well against their opponents).

Progressives see the ground being cut out from under their feet, and are mounting a surge from their commanding heights to block or limit the Classical Liberals from gaining or retaining power. All manner of dirty tricks are in play: In Canada, "Human Rights Comissions" target Bloggers and journalists who support Classical Liberal principles. In the United States, members of the Obama campaign threaten to prosecute people or organizations who present any contrary view of fact about Senator Obama, possibly fearing a "Swiftboating" of the Senator through revelations about his unsavoury mentors, his connections with the financiers involved in the financial crisis or even just the totally ineffectual nature of his "community organizing". Selective and manipulative press coverage is a given. Discussions in institutions of higher learning or even elementary and high schools are blatent indoctrination (and in many Universities, Orwellian "Speech codes" are employed to silence students and facilty).

It will be difficult to fight against the surge; the Progressives have the power and resources of the State behind them. They still control many of the largest and most important channels of communication, and the mechanisms of the Law are available to be used selectively in favour of the Progressive cause. Still the fight is of critical importance to each and every one of us. Only by standing for our rights can we maintain them. Blogging is perhaps the most notable weapon we have, but even if we are reduced to passing messages by Samisdat we should still make the attempt.

Our ultimate advantage lies in the fact that Progressiveism is a parisitical concept; if they are denied access to State power, they begin to wither on the vine. As usual, Ayn Rand has provided the template; Ellsworth Toohey may have been a "power" with his newspaper column, but once the newspaper chain folded, Toohey's power was gone; he did not create, but was only a parisite upon the creators.

A Tale of Two Links

Read this.

Now read this.

Anyone else noticing a disconnect between what the Band claims about its community to the Government and what it says about it on the web?

Famine? Pestilence? In 1877 maybe, but if there is famine and pestilence then how come Edmonton, Calgary, Wetaskiwin, Leduc and Red Deer aren't suffering?

Oil, Gas, farmland? These freaking people should be buying Alberta, not begging for more money from the Government teat.

Cut them off, now... Freedom in our Time

So Many Names For Evil

Pogey, UI, Employment Insurance, Welfare…

I was talking to a friend of mine today. We’ll call him Lloyd.

Lloyd lives in Nova Scotia and after years of faithful service to the Canadian Forces he has moved on, and moved on in a big way.

He owns land (as much as you can in a country without property rights), trains horses, makes tack & saddles, grows blueberries and is a volunteer firefighter. Lloyd’s somewhat schizophrenic industriousness has led him to the point where he needs help. Hired help…

And in a province with an unemployment rate of 7.2%, 1.1% higher than the Canadian average guess what… he can’t find any.

No, it’s not that there is no one who “needs the work”, just that there are no workers. There are wastrels aplenty sitting in Timmies complaining about the government and a “lack of good jobs”, but mention a good, easy job packing blueberries in an air conditioned building for over minimum wage and heads drop, silence reigns and coffee cups seem to have taken on a deeper meaning.

Lloyd, and I are of like mind as to the reason why. It’s the system. The euphemistically named Employment Insurance system, it makes sloth a profitable condition and work a bad word.

The chronic users of the system are little more than junkies, hooked on our tax money, getting high on a life where they only work sporadically, when they must to get their next EI fix, and laziness is its own reward.

We, the people who do work 5/7 (or more) for whatever wage we can, call them the unemployed or if we are particularly dismayed, welfare bums. Lloyd calls them BFI, which stands for Bone Fucking Idle… Lloyd was never given over to the niceties; he’d rather a name a spade than use verbal potpourri to hide the odour of his displeasure.

So, since Lloyd is one of my kind of people, I’m going to make a campaign like promise here in Anti Politics (cuz that’s what I’ve learned from watching those other people, you promise things to the people you like and hope that there are enough of them at the end of the day to get you THE JOB)… I’m going to scrap the whole messy thing.

No pogey, no EI, no UI, no Dole, no free rides.

***HIJACK*** Hmmm… Government free rides. This is an anti-concept. Free for whom? What about it is free? Why do we have the distinct impression that the Government is giving us something? Are they?

No, of course not. Every time you work, the government takes some of your money for EI and innumerable other things that they think are good for you. The only thing that’s free about any of them is that your money is ‘freed’ from your possession and use of it… Oh goodie! ***/HIJACK***

I’m going to scrap it all. Now the socialists peeking out from under their rocks begin screaming on cue;

“What happens when someone looses their job!!!”

Well, had they been paying attention they would see that I’ve said I’ll scrap it all. That means that none of us would be paying into the elaborate shell/con game of EI, and that means that all the money the government would have taken to ensure EI earnings for the person who had lost his job would have been his and his alone…

I suggest then that if he did not use his money effectively and if he did not save for a rainy day, as my mom used to caution, then quite frankly that problem is (as it always should have been) his. It’s a little thing called self-reliance and just like work, it isn’t a dirty word, and we need people willing to use and do a little more of each in their own best interest these days.

Scrap it all… for freedom in our time!