Garden Update

The lettuce is coming along very nicely. The strawberry plants are doing O-K, and the snow peas are still growing rather quickly. Still no sign of cucumbers.

A Weekend Home

Sarah and I spent the weekend in Shinimicas with Mom and Dad.

This is a slide show of some random photos I took:



These are pictures I took down at North Port Beach this morning:



And these are a series of black and white photos I took over the weekend:



Enjoy.

Ayn Rand on Voluntary Relationships

"In a capitalist society, all human relationships are voluntary. Men ar efree to cooperate or not, to deal with one another or not, as their own individual judgments, convictions, and interests dictate. They can deal with one another only in terms of and by means of reason, i.e., by means of discussion, persuasion, and contractual agreement, by voluntary choice to mutual benefit. The right to agree with others is not a problem in any society; it is the right to disagree that is crucial. It is the institution of private property that protects and implements the right to disagree - and thus keeps the road open to man's most valuable attribute (valuable personally, socially, and objectively): the creative mind."

Ayn Rand, What is Capitalism?, 1965.

Auto-Tune The News

An awesome musical interpretation of the news.

Ayn Rand on Inflating Rights

"Just as in the material realm the plundering of a country's wealth is accomplished by inflating the currency - so today one may witness the process of inflation being applied to the realm of rights. The process entails such a growth of newly promulgated "rights" that people do not notice the fact that the meaning of the concept is being reversed. Just as bad money drives out good money, so these "printing-press rights" negate authentic rights."

Ayn Rand, Man's Rights

Ayn Rand on Individual Rights

"The principle of man's individual rights represented the extension of morality into the social system - as a limitation on the power of the state, as man's protection against the brute force of the collective, as the subordination of might to right. The United States was the first moral society in history.

All previous systems had regarded man as a sacrificial means to the ends of others, and society as an end in itself. The United States regarded man as an end in himself, and society as a means to the peaceful, orderly, voluntary coexistence of individuals. All previous systems had held that man's life belongs to society, that any freedom he enjoys is his only by favor, by the permission of society, which may be revoked at any time. The United States held that man's life is his by right (which means: by moral principle and by his nature), that a right is the property of an individual, that society as such has no rights, and that the only moral purpose of a government is the protection of individual rights."

Ayn Rand, Man's Rights

Red Bull, Coca, And Some Over Zealous German Regulators

According to Time, the German government is going nuts because they found approximately 0.13 micrograms of cocaine per can of Red Bull Cola. The German government has become so upset with the situation, Red Bull Cola has been banned in six states and the government could enforce the ban nation wide.

According to the Time article, a person would need to drink 12,000L of Red Bull Cola in order to feel any negative affects from that much cocaine. Thankfully, the German government is making sure that will never happen.

Now, I only drink 10,000L of Red Bull Cola a day, so I'm sure I'm pretty safe. Though, I think Canada needs to follow the steps of the righteous German government. I might wake up tomorrow and decide to drink that extra 2,000L of Red Bull Cola and then I might be inadvertently affected by the cocaine levels in the drink, which would be a whopping .004g of cocaine.

Now, some people might lose their jobs because of the ban, and others who would still be willing to buy their drink will be told its not in their best interest (what do they know?) and will be forced away from buying it, but its in the best interest of society as whole for me to be prevented from inadvertently consuming .004g of cocaine if I happen to consumer 12,000L of Red Bull Cola while getting my fix of the 1,048,235 grams of sugar my body needs, and would otherwise be allowed to consume had there not been a strain of cocaine in my most favourite drink.

Thank you German government for continuing to prove the usefulness of government regulation and thank you for your ability to continually show the whole world how un-absurd the efforts of government regulation to keep us safe from ourselves truly are. Unrestrained democracies are grand!

N. Stephan Kinsella on Trademarks

Suppose some Lachmannian changes the name of his failing hamburger chain from LachmannBurgers to Rothbard Burgers, which is already the name of another hamburger chain. I, as a consumer, am hungry for a RothbardBurger. I see one of the fake RothbardBurger joints run by the stealthy Lachmannian, and I buy a burger. Under current law, Rothbard, the "owner" of the RothbardBurgers trademark, can prevent the Lachmannian from using the mark RothbardBurgers to sell burgers because it is "confusingly similar" to his own trademark. That is, it is likely to mislead consumers as to the true source of the goods purchased. The law, then, gives a right to the trademark holder against the trademark infringer.

In my view, it is the consumers whose rights are violated, not the trademark holder's. In the foregoing example, I (the consumer) thought I was buying a RothbardBurger, but instead got a crummy LachmannBurger with its weird kaleidoscopic sauce. I should have a right to sue the Lachmannian for fraud and breach of contract (not to mention intentional infliction of emotional distress and misrepresentation of praxeological truths). However, it is difficult to see how this act of fraud, perpetrated by the Lachmannian on me, violates Rothbard's rights. The Lachmannian's actions do not physically invade Rothbard's property.

N. Stephen Kinsella, Against Intellectual Property

Murray Rothbard on Patents

It is by no means self-evident that patents encourage an increased absolute quantity of research expenditures. But certainly patents distort the type of research expenditure being conducted. . . . Research expenditures are therefore overstimulated in the early stages before anyone has a patent, and they are unduly restricted in the period after the patent is received. In addition, some inventions are considered patentable, while others are not. The patent system then has the further effect of artificially stimulating research expenditures in the patentable areas, while artificially restricting research in the nonpatentable areas.

Murray Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State.

"The Americanization Of Emily"

Peter Schiff @ Google Authors

Garden Update

The strawberry plants still seem to be doing okay. I see new growth on most of the plants. The ones in the front are always breaking stems from the wind though, so they're never growing larger. The lettuce that has survived is starting to come along a little bit. I put in some organic fertilizer spikes. I'm opting not to use Miracle-Gro and am just going to let the lettuce grow as it does.

The snow peas are doing great, as far as I can tell. Everyday they seem to be getting taller and taller. If nothing else, I'll be more than happy if I do well enough to get some snow peas this summer. I planted some cucumber in a larger container last weekend, however I've yet to see sprouts.

The Consistent Peter Schiff

Maddow Rips Obama

Thank you Rachel Maddow.

Milk and Marijuana Are Both Gateway Drugs...lol

Murray Rothbard The Prophet

"The important point here is a basic charge that has occurred in the psychology of the market and of the public. In contrast to the naive and unquestioning faith of yester-year, everyone now realizes at least the possibility of collapse of the FDIC. At some point in the possibly near future, perhaps in the next recession and the next spate of bad bank loans, it might dawn upon the public that 1.5 percent is not very safe either, and that no such level can guard against the irresistible holocaust of the bank run. At that point, ignoring the usual mendacious assurances and soothing-syrup of the Establishment, the commercial banks might be plunged into their ultimate crisis. The United States authorities would then be faced with two stark choices. One would be to allow the entire banking system to collapse, along with virtually all the deposits and depositors in that system. Since, given the mind-set of American politicians, and their evident philosophy of "too big to fail," it is certain that they would be forced to embrace the second alternative: massive, hyper-inflationary printing of enough cash to pay off all the bank liabilities. The redeposit of such cash in the banking system would bring about an immediate runaway inflation and massive flight from the dollar."

This was written by Murray Rothbard September of 1991 in a preface for his essay The Case For A 100 Percent Gold Dollar. We have seen the US government printing trillions of dollars to cover the bad loans, and we now await to see if the United States will suffer from hyper-inflation. A flight from the US dollar is in the works. The US Dollar index hit a high of 89.292 on March 9th and has since dropped to 80.262, a drop of 10% in two months.

FaceBook: Front For CIA?

Oh well.

Rodney MacDonald = Deutsch Bag

Nova Scotia is currently having a provincial election, if you didn't know, and the currently presiding Progressive Conservatives are facing a big boot out the door.

So in a lame attempt to gain votes from, I don't know, old people? Rodney MacDonald yesterday said that if he was elected, he would institute a province wide curfew for teenagers 16 and younger.

If our police found kids out after 1 am, the parents would be fined $100.

I used to think Rodney MacDonald was an O-K guy, but during this election, every time he opens his mouth he does himself harm. This is a shame only because it will lead to the election of blow-hard Darrell Dexter who is either a big liar or is going to bankrupt our province during his first term. He's probably both.

US Government Assists In Plot To Bomb NY Synagogue

All over the headlines you will see that 4 individuals have been charged with plotting to bomb a synagogue in New York. Here's a link to the article about it in the New York Times.

They were caught planting what they "believed to be bombs" outside the synagogue. Apparently according to the FBI, the bombs were obtained with the "help of an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation". In any other situation, the entity which assisted with obtaining these materials would be charged as an accessory.

This is tough. Obviously these men are filled with hatred, and are willing to be violent. According to information and the New York Times, one of the terrorists said his "parents had lived in Afghanistan before his birth, he had told the informant that he was upset about the war in Afghanistan and that he wanted to do 'something to America.'"

So here we have a man whose family and homeland has been threatened. Who wouldn't wish to be violent toward the entity that makes the threat? Then, that entity plants an informant that provides a medium through which the angry man has the ability to act on his emotions.

Is this justice?

These men didn't plant real bombs. The materials were provided by the federal government.

SO they're being arrested because the FBI tricked them into believing they were planting real bombs that were provided by the FBI?

Seems to me these men are being taken advantage of for the sake of a headline.

Murray Rothbard on Money Part Two

"The international gold standard provided an automatic market mechanism for checking the inflationary potential of government. It also provided an automatic mechanism for keeping the balance of payments of each country in equilibrium. As the philosopher and economist David Hume pointed out in the mid-eighteenth century, if one nation, say France, inflates its supply of paper francs, its prices rise; the increasing incomes in paper francs stimulate imports from abroad, which are also spurred by the fact that prices of imports are now relatively cheaper than prices at home. At the same time, the higher prices at home discourage exports abroad; the result is a deficit in the balance of payments, which must be paid for by foreign countries cashing in francs for gold. The gold outflow means that France must eventually contract its inflated paper francs in order to prevent a loss of all of its gold. If the inflation has taken the form of bank deposits, then the French banks have to contract their loans and deposits in order to avoid bankruptcy as foreigners call upon the French banks to redeem their deposits in gold. The contraction lowers prices at home, and generates an export surplus, thereby reversing the gold outflow, until the prices levels are equalized in France and in other countries."

This was written by Murray Rothbard in 1963 in his book What Has Government Done To Our Money? We don't use gold anymore, so how does the given situation apply to us? As we inflate our currency, instead of seeing and outflow of gold to countries who import to us, we've simply lost jobs, productivity, and capital to these countries, such as China. This affect has been amplified because the Chinese keep their currency artificially pegged at an undervalued rate to the US dollar. If they allowed their currency to freely float against foreign currencies, the purchasing power of the Chinese would increase, the price of their imports would increase, and we wouldn't see the same loss of jobs, productivity, and capital in the West.

Not that I am in favour of ordering the Chinese on how to manage their currency. This situation could simply be resolved if the Bank of Canada and the Fed kept a tighter monetary policy, or even better, allowed the free market to determine our currency.

Partido Movimiento Libertario

Costa Rica is having an election in February of 2010. One of the more surprising developments in the political world of Costa Rica over the past decade has been the growth of their own Libertarian party. It has continually increased its delegation and portion of the popular vote through each election since it was founded. You can read about it on its Wikipedia page.

Policy Positions (from Wikipedia):

-Break up of all of the state-owned monopolies and eliminate legal barriers on private economic activities

-Provide a low flat tax for the income produced within the country, eliminate many of the current taxes

-Free trade -- eliminate tariffs and barriers to the entry of goods

-Freedom to choose the currency that consenting individuals want

-Freedom to choose your own doctor within the social security system

-Strengthen individual pension accounts

-Freedom of parents to choose schools through vouchers

-Respect for private property

-Reduction of the participation of government in the economy

-Freedom of speech and press

-Respect for the sexual preferences of the people

-Respect for the religious beliefs (or lack thereof) of the people

-Defense of the right to own guns to defend private property and life

-Transfer of responsibility from central government to local governments

Current Conditions or Just A Bad Dream

Murray Rothbard on Money

"Many people believe that the free market, despite some admitted advantages, is a picture of disorder and chaos. Nothing is "planned," everything is haphazard. Government dictation, on the other hand, seems simple and orderly; decrees are handed down and they are obeyed. In no area of the economy is this myth more prevalent than in the field of money. Seemingly, money, at least, must come under stringent government control. But money is the lifeblood of the economy; it is the medium for all transactions. If government dictates over money, it has already captured a vital command post for control over the economy, and has secured a stepping-stone for full socialism. We have seen that a free market in money, contrary to common assumption, would not be chaotic; that, in fact, it would be a model for order and efficiency.

Murray Rothbard, What Has Government Done To Our Money?, 1963.

Ron Paul: States Have Right to Legalize Marijuana

Ron Paul: States Have Right to Legalize Marijuana

Ron Paul was interviewed on the very liberal, left-wing Air America Radio. Click the above link to listen.

Ventura vs. Hasselback

That Which Is Right With The Republican Party

The Problem With The Republican Party

You have to wonder why an established Republican Senator is attacking a lowly, insignificant Congressman from Texas.

Daily Dr. Paul Quote - Corporate Welfare

"Enron provides a perfect example of the dangers of corporate subsidies. The company was (and is) one of the biggest beneficiaries of Export-Import Bank subsidies. The Ex-Im bank, a program that Congress continues to fund with your tax dollars, essentially makes risky loans to foreign governments and businesses for projects involving American companies. The Bank, which purports to help developing nations, really acts as a naked subsidy for certain politically-favored American corporations- especially corporations like Enron that lobbied hard and gave huge amounts of cash to both political parties. Its reward was more that $600 million in cash via six different Ex-Im financed projects.

One such project, a power plant in India, played a big part in Enron's demise. The company had trouble selling the power to local officials, adding to its huge $618 million loss for the third quarter of 2001. Former president Clinton worked hard to secure the India deal for Enron in the mid-90s; not surprisingly, his 1996 campaign received $100,000 from the company. Yet the media makes no mention of this favoritism. Clinton may claim he was "protecting" tax dollars, but those tax dollars should never have been sent to India in the first place.

Enron similarly benefitted from another federal boondoggle, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. OPIC operates much like the Ex-Im Bank, providing taxpayer-funded loan guarantees for overseas projects, often in countries with shaky governments and economies. An OPIC spokesman claims the organization paid more than one billion dollars for 12 projects involving Enron, dollars that now may never be repaid. Once again, corporate welfare benefits certain interests at the expense of taxpayers.

The point is that Enron was intimately involved with the federal government. While most in Washington are busy devising ways to "save" investors with more government, we should be viewing the Enron mess as an argument for less government. It is precisely because government is so big and so thoroughly involved in every aspect of business that Enron felt the need to seek influence through campaign money. It is precisely because corporate welfare is so extensive that Enron cozied up to Congress and the Clinton administration. It's a game every big corporation plays in our heavily regulated economy, because they must when the government, rather than the marketplace, distributes the spoils."

Ron Paul, The Collapse of Enron, February 4, 2002

Television vs Hi-Def Television

As someone who doesn't subscribe to cable, I thought this was funny. Found here.

The Struggle

Recently it was suggested to me that it was a bit amusing to see right-wing, conservative capitalists create a fraction between those who support central banking and those who don’t; those who support big government and government intervention for their own benefit, and those who don’t support big government at all. The thought is that the crony capitalism we see dominating the US right now is simply an inevitable result of free markets. Free markets allow successful people to gain too much power and it is completely unavoidable that they go to government for protection from their own poor performance and government willingly protects them. Free-markets allow this corruption to flourish and further support of such an ideology will only continue to lead to much pain of the same pain, supposedly. The left argue that proper government control, regulations, and transparency will prevent this.

The fraction that is trying to break itself off, trying to differentiate itself from the cronies, aggressively make the argument that the corruption we see is the result of too much government. They say that the Federal Reserve banking system is used as a tool by the elite to maintain their power and wealth, therefore robbing the rest of the country; that the Federal Reserve is used to regulate interest rates under the guise of proper government control while instigating these business cycles and bubbles we suffer through. Of course, the left-wing establishment would never acknowledge that the Federal Reserve is a problem as it allows for heavy government spending without the transparency of its true cost that would be provided by an honest currency as government would be forced to tax the people more for every dollar is spends, as opposed to printing it.

This is why I find it ironic to see the same fractioning occur on the left. While the free-marketeers I associate myself with label the current Republican establishment for being too pro-big government and too pro-big spending (therefore left-wing), there is a fraction of the left that is starting to attack Obama and the Democratic establishment for being too pro-business, pro-war, and overly lax on government transparency, supporting civil liberties, and left-wing social issues such as abortion. They blame Obama, his administration, and the leaders of the Democratic Party for being right-wing and too Republican.
Isn’t it odd that no matter who is in power, the grass-roots of each political wing always complain that the actions of their respected establishment representatives embody all that they hate of the opposing political establishment? People are waking up and realizing this as times become more dire and government intervention hits home.

The fact is, no matter who is in power the government continues to be poor on that which is most important:

- Neither side is fiscally responsible
- Both sides are pro-war, pro-empire
- Both sides are protecting those who tortured and allowed torture
- Both are poor in civil liberties
- Both lie, constantly

It is the lying that bothers me the most. It is the lying that allows those in power to get away with everything that they do that they know their constituents would not support if they told the truth.

The roots of both the left and the right in the US do not support most of policies pursued by the United States government, but they are always apologetic for their respective establishment when they are in power. The reality is that the apologies need to stop. The pain won’t cease, the criminals leading this mob will not be brought to justice, rationality will not be brought to government until the roots of the left and the right put their ideological beliefs to the side and come together to focus on those ideals that are most important during these most precarious times.

My point being, for example, while the left believes in a woman’s right to choose and the right believes life should be protected from conception forward, none of that will matter one bit if the government establishments are allowed to destroy the middle-classes of the West and further impoverish our Civilization with their backward economic policies.

This is not a left versus right battle. This is a struggle which has been an institution of humanity for our entire history. This is a struggle between those people who wish to have power over others and those people who wish to be free.

Ron Paul Called The Housing Collapse In 2003

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

If Joe had done more reading he'd know Ron Paul actually started talking about the housing bubble in 1999, but the given statement was probably his most prophetic.

I Thought We Would Be Fighting Less Wars

Busting the Myth of Green Jobs

Dr. Rand Paul On Rachel Maddow

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Obama's Youth

Not to be sensational by alluding to Hitler's youth, but this is very disturbing. I support learning self-defense and survival techniques, but training the youth to be agents on the state. . .

Southern Avenger: Ron Paul Republicans

My Garden

The garden is coming along. The snow peas are finally sprouting and I've got my very first strawberry! The lettuce has been having a hard go of it. I keep planting new seeds so hopefully it'll end up okay. The little sprouts are Dianthus (dianthae?). This weekend we're going to purchase a big pot and plant cucumbers.

Obama Illegally Threatens the UK To NOT Release Torture Information

I just a very depressing article by Glenn Greenwald from Salon.com.

One must truly wonder what is wrong with humanity today.

Binyam Mohamed was imprisoned and tortured in Guantanamo Bay. For 6 years he has been trying to obtain justice for these criminal. A recent lawsuit against the company that assisted in "rendering" him was tossed out of British court. The court originally ruled that there was credible evidence that Mohamed had been tortured and was entitled to obtain documents from the British government that detailed the CIA's treatment of him. The ruling was reversed after threats made by President Obama to the British government.

The following are excerpts of a letter authored by the Obama administration to the British government:





Given these threats, here is an excerpt from the reversal ruling:


Obama should be thrown in prison.

Getting High On Cheerios

Well, maybe not that kind of drug, but the US Food and Drug Administration in the United States had determined that Cheerios is a drug and needs to be regulated as such because General Mills uses the health benefits of Cheerios as a marketing tactic.

Seriously?

The FDA is going to force General Mills to apply Cheerios for approval as a new drug?

What food wouldn't have to apply for approval as a new drug under this precedent? Cookies?

Ron Paul On Torture

EU Fines Intel For Being Competitive

Last year the European Union fined Microsoft for being competitive, and now they've gone after Intel. The EU has just fined Intel $1.4 billion US. This is a record fine, and rather unfortunate as this is money that would probably be put toward resource and development and the creation of jobs.

Someone in Europe seems to think that the business world isn't about having the best strategy, but more about subsidizing failure. I suppose the idea is ensure the consumer has more choice. This just confuses me because when one company succeeds, its usually because the consumer is making a choice (unless its due to a subsidy from government).

You can read the GlobeandMail's article about it here.

The most hilarious part of this fine is that the European Union is ordering Intel to cease and desist some sales practices, but couldn't name the practices they wish to end. This is obviously a money-grab by a government that must be feeling the pain from the recent economic turmoil. We saw an example of this in Canada when the Ontario Securities Commission issued a record fine to Research In Motion recently for around $70 million for some poor accounting practices which they audited and fixed on their own 5 years ago. Be prepared to see much more such fines around the West as people wake up from their illusion of wealth and discover the rug has been pulled out from underneath them.

AMD's Europe president Giuliano Meroni made a hilarious joke when he said that the EU order “will shift the power from an abusive monopolist to computer makers, retailers and above all PC consumers.” I'm sorry, I though the market did that, and maybe you're just a little pissed they didn't pick you.

We need to ask ourselves, do we really want to live in a world where success is punished and failure is subsidized?

Pastor Pulled From Car and Tasered

"Note well that the tasers were out before Anderson had time to put up any violent resistance. This provides an example of yet another crime routinely committed by police nation-wide: The use of the Taser as a "pain compliance" instrument (that is, an implement of electro-shock torture), rather than a less-lethal alternative to a firearm. The pitiful screams of the unresisting Baptist pastor attest to the Taser's barbarous effectiveness in that role.

It's interesting and appropriate that the last part of the video is set to the strains of the Christian hymn Be Still My Soul, which takes its melody from Finlandia, composed by the heroic Jan Sibelius. At once patriotic and proudly subversive, the Finlandia Hymn was a protest against the political repression of the Finns by the Russian Empire.

We've clearly reached the point at which any authentic American patriot is going to be treated as a subversive by the armed enforcers of Washington's empire."

Video and text sourced from LewRockwell.com.

Ron Paul @ Wake Forest University Part 2

Lincoln Saved the Union

But at what cost?

On March 2, 1861, the United States Senate passed a proposed 13th Amendment with the following text:

ARTICLE THIRTEEN

No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State.

Two days later, President Lincoln gave his first inaugural address in which he said the following in regard to the proposed 13th Amendment:

I understand a proposed amendment to the Constitution . . . has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose, not to speak of particular amendments, so far as to say that, holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable.

Further, in a letter written by President Lincoln on August 22, 1862 to the editor of the New York Tribune, Horace Greeley:

My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and it is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union.

Do not be mistaken, slavery was a large issue, and there was significant pressure from the North on the South to abolish it. The states in the south may have even used the slavery issue as the main purpose to secede from the Union. But abolishing slavery was the not the purpose of Lincoln's orders to march troops into the south, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the destruction of cities.

Politics Backwards In Nova Scotia

First, yesterday there was a move by the NDP, previously mentioned, that seemed to be directly anti-labor.

Now, today, upon opening the Chronicle Herald I see this text:

NDP, Liberals would scrap roadside lobster permits

Nova Scotian lobsterman have been having a hard time selling their catches to distributors in the US at a price they can live on. Because of this, a lot of lobstermen have opted to sell their catches on the side of the road where they can get a higher price. The fake-Conservatives are apparently not a big fan of this, as they have passed legislation forcing these lobstermen to purchase permits (permission) from the provincial government.

How odd is it that the Liberals and NDP come out in favor of eliminating this permit? I would have thought their natural response would be to regulate and tax it. . .weird.

As well, Stephen McNeil, the leader of the Liberals, has advertisements running promoting a tax cut from 5% down to 1% for small businesses.

The Liberals are behaving incredibly classical lately.

YAL Profile: HR 1207 - Federal Reserve Transparency Act

The Left Is Pro-Labour? Not in Nova Scotia

I learned something interesting today. The front page of the Chronicle Herald was the provincial New Democrat leader Darrell Dexter proclaiming he's not in favour of unions. Seems a little bit odd, doesn't it? I thought the NDP was all about protecting workers.

You can read the little blurb here.

Now, he didn't actually say he's not in favour of unions, but actions or lack there-of, are more important than words. In 1979, for some strange reason, the province passed a law that prevented Michelin's employees from forming a union, unless it was across all of its plants. So employees at an individual plant are not able to unionize against their employer. Today in Halifax, in regard to this legislation, Dexter said,"I have no interest in fighting battles that took place ... 30 years ago."

Does anyone else here want to elect someone that is not willing to work at repealing poor legislation simply because of its age? Does anyone else want to elect someone that is supporting legislation that restrict workers' ability to unionize?

This legislation directly benefits the employer over the employee, so you would think it would be getting more support from the fake-Conservatives in our province.

As per normal, though, even those who play to the wants and needs of the impoverished and the middle class are really in the pocket of corporate interests; even on the provincial level.

My list of reasons for not supporting the NDP grows longer and longer. . .

Daily Dr. Paul Quote - Income Gaps and GDP Figures

"Before the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system, CEO income was about 30 times the average worker's pay. Today, it's closer to 500 times. It's hard to explain this simply by market forces and increases in productivity. One Wall Street firm last year gave out bonuses totaling $16.5 billion. There's little evidence that this represents free market capitalism.

In 2006 dollars, the minimum wage was $9.50 before the 1971 breakdown of Bretton Woods. Today that dollar is worth $5.15. Congress congratulates itself for raising the minimum wage by mandate, but in reality it has lowered the minimum wage by allowing the Fed to devalue the dollar. We must consider how the growing inequalities created by our monetary system will lead to social discord.

GDP purportedly is now growing at 3.5%, and everyone seems pleased. What we fail to understand is how much government entitlement spending contributes to the increase in the GDP. Rebuilding infrastructure destroyed by hurricanes, which simply gets us back to even, is considered part of GDP growth. Wall Street profits and salaries, pumped up by the Fed's increase in money, also contribute to GDP statistical growth. Just buying military weapons that contribute nothing to the well being of our citizens, sending money down a rat hole, contributes to GDP growth! Simple price increases caused by Fed monetary inflation contribute to nominal GDP growth. None of these factors represent any kind of real increases in economic output. So we should not carelessly cite misleading GDP figures which don't truly reflect what is happening in the economy. Bogus GDP figures explain in part why so many people are feeling squeezed despite our supposedly booming economy."

Ron Paul, Monetary Policy and the State of the Economy, February 15, 2007

Daily Dr. Paul Quote - Inflation

"In the short run, the current system gives us a free ride, our paper buys cheap goods from overseas, and foreigners risk all by financing our extravagance. But in the long run, we will surely pay for living beyond our means. Debt will be paid for one way or another. An inflated currency always comes back to haunt those who enjoyed the “benefits” of inflation. Although this process is extremely dangerous, many economists and politicians do not see it as a currency problem and are only too willing to find a villain to attack. Surprisingly the villain is often the foreigner who foolishly takes our paper for useful goods and accommodates us by loaning the proceeds back to us. It’s true that the system encourages exportation of jobs as we buy more and more foreign goods. But nobody understands the Fed role in this, so the cries go out to punish the competition with tariffs. Protectionism is a predictable consequence of paper-money inflation, just as is the impoverishment of an entire middle class. It should surprise no one that even in the boom phase of the 1990s, there were still many people who became poorer. Yet all we hear are calls for more government mischief to correct the problems with tariffs, increased welfare for the poor, increased unemployment benefits, deficit spending, and special interest tax reduction, none of which can solve the problems ingrained in a system that operates with paper money and a central bank."

Ron Paul, Paper Money and Tyranny, September 5, 2003

Judge Napolitano On Prosecuting Bush

Peter Schiff On The Current State Of The Economy

Quote - 18th Century French Economist A.J.R. Turgot On Regulation

I'm finding a bunch of good quotes today, but this one from French aristocrat-economist A.J.R. Turgot on regulation is fantastic!

The general freedom of buying and selling is therefore the only means of assuring, on the one hand, the seller of a price sufficient to encourage production, and on the other hand, the consumer, of the best merchandise at the lowest price. This is not to say that in particular instances we may not find a cheating merchant and a duped consumer; but the cheated consumer will learn by experience and will cease to frequent the cheating merchant, who will fall into discredit and thus will be punished for his fraudulence; and this will never happen very often, because generally men will be enlightened upon their evident self-interest.

To expect the government to prevent such fraud from ever occurring would be like wanting it to provide cushions for all the children who might fall. To assume it to be possible to prevent successfully, by regulation, all possible malpractices of this kind, is to sacrifice to a chimerical perfection the whole progress of industry; it is to restrict the imagination of artificers to the narrow limits of the familiar; it is to forbid them all new experiments; it is to renounce even the hope of competing with the foreigners in the making of the new products which they invent daily, since, as they do not conform to our regulations, our workmen cannot imitate these articles without first having obtained permission from the government, that is to say, often after the foreign factories, having profited by the first eagerness of the consumer for this novelty, have already replaced it with something else. It means forgetting that the execution of these regulations is always entrusted to men who may have all the more interest in fraud or in conniving at fraud since the fraud which they might commit would be covered in some way by the seal of public authority and by the confidence which this seal inspires, in the consumers. It is also to forget that these regulations, these inspectors, these offices for inspection and marking, always involve expenses, and that these expenses are always a tax on the merchandise, and as a result overcharge the domestic consumer and discourage the foreign buyer. Thus, with obvious injustice, commerce, and consequently the nation, are charged with a heavy burden to save a few idle people the trouble of instructing themselves or of making enquiries to avoid being cheated. To suppose all consumers to be dupes, and all merchants and manufacturers to be cheats, has the effect of authorizing them to be so, and of degrading all the working members of the community.

Quote - Thomas Jefferson

"But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual."

Thomas Jefferson

Daily Dr. Paul Quote - Honest Money

Legal tender laws disadvantage ordinary citizens by forcing them to use money that is vulnerable to vast depreciation. As Stephen T. Byington wrote in the September 1895 issue of the American Federationist: "No legal tender law is ever needed to make men take good money; its only use is to make them take bad money. Kick it out!" Similarly, the American Federation of Labor asked: "If money is good and would be preferred by the people, then why are legal tender laws necessary? And, if money is not good and would not be preferred by people, then why in a democracy should they be forced to use it?"

The American Federation of Labor understood how the erosion of the value of money cheated working people. Further, honest money, i.e., specie, was one of the three issues that encouraged ordinary people to organize into unions when the union movement began in the U.S. circa 1830.

Ron Paul, Congressional Record - U.S. House of Representatives, July 25, 2003.

The Real Reason The Dems Will Not Go After Torturers

Because they knew and that makes them responsible. They knew, they were briefed, and they didn't object. They are criminally responsible, and an honest, independent investigation would probably end up indicting half (probably a bit of exaggeration) of the US government.

From ABC news:

The report, submitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee and other Capitol Hill officials Wednesday, appears to contradict Pelosi’s statement last month that she was never told about the use of waterboarding or other special interrogation tactics. Instead, she has said, she was told only that the Bush administration had legal opinions that would have supported the use of such techniques.

I like some democrats. Kucinich is ok. But unfortunately the good ones aren't in charge. The ones that have allowed and will continue to allow war criminals to get away without punishment, thus setting a horribly dangerous precedent, and allowing them to walk freely among the rest of us.

A responsible representative of the people would have made this knowledge public instead of hiding it. She should have used it to put forth motions of an investigation at the time. It probably would have lead to an impeachment as it should have. Unfortunately, Pelosi wasn't responsible and now she's an accessory to a war crime.

On others who knew:

The report also details dozens of other meetings with members of Congress -- though not with Pelosi present -- where the use of waterboarding and other interrogation techniques was described.

The Senate intelligence committee’s chairman and ranking member, Bob Graham and Richard Shelby, were given a briefing similar to the one with Pelosi and Goss on Sept. 27, 2002, according to the report.

On Feb. 4, 2003, a briefing on “enhanced interrogation techniques” for Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, D-W.Va., revealed that interrogations of Abu Zubaydah and Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri were taped.

In addition, that briefing “described in considerable details” the techniques used, including “how the water board was used.”

A similar briefing the following day included Goss and Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., who by that time had become the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, when Pelosi moved on to become minority leader.

Quote - Alan Greenspan

In the absence of the gold standard there is no way to protect the savings from the confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value without gold. This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the hidden confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process that stands as a protector of property rights.

Alan Greenspan, as quoted by Ron Paul in the Financial Services Committee Congressional Record on July 17, 2002 from Greenspan's Gold and Economic Freedom

Latest Obama Atrocity (Murder)

Star Wars' Libertarian Deleted Scene

Is Britain Becoming A "Soft Totalitarian State"?

Hal G. P. Colebatch from The Australian seems to think so. You can read his piece, "Thought Police Muscle Up In Britain". Here's an excerpt:

The Government is pushing ahead with legislation that will criminalise politically incorrect jokes, with a maximum punishment of up to seven years' prison. The House of Lords tried to insert a free-speech amendment, but Justice Secretary Jack Straw knocked it out. It was Straw who previously called for a redefinition of Englishness and suggested the "global baggage of empire" was linked to soccer violence by "racist and xenophobic white males". He claimed the English "propensity for violence" was used to subjugate Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and that the English as a race were "potentially very aggressive".

Making Lasagna

Tonight I made lasagna for my first time. I used a recipe from a cookbook Sarah and I received as a gift from my Aunt Diane. It was very good and it made lots. I'm probably going to be eating a lot of lasagna the next few days. . .

Trip To The Lake

Last weekend Sarah and I went to Woodstock to use some gift certificates we received from the wedding to a local store there.

While we were up, I took a few photos. I know nothing about taking photos and simply point and click. Here a few of the better ones.

Why HR1207 Is Important To The World

I have previously posted about Ron Paul's Audit the Fed bill here and here. To date, it has 124 cosponsors in the United States Congress.

Again, this is important to people around the world, including us Canadians, because the Dollar is used as the reserve currency around the world.

Tuesday, Representative Alan Grayson, a Democrat from Florida who has not signed on to cosponsor HR1207 yet, had an interesting and eye-opening interaction with the Federal Reserve Inspector General:

Georgian College Student Saves Lives

I must always preface my pro-gun posts with a statement that I do not own a gun or have any particular love for guns. I have thought about investigating the purchase of one, however, the idea is against my nature and therefore will probably never do so.

However, for those who feel the need, I completely believe that individuals have the right to arm themselves. It is not for me to dictate to another how to protect him or herself, and thankfully one student in Georgia had armed himself. If he had not, himself and the students who were with him might not be alive today. You can read about it here.

These instances are not the sole reason I believe in the right to bare arms, but they do serve as a reminder of why we have this right and why our government should protect it, not attack it.

For those who do believe in gun-control, I'm sure the criminals wouldn't of had guns to commit this crime if only you could write your perfect gun-control law and if only those stupid red-necks in states like Georgia would let you pass it. . .right. . .

Hedge Funds Fight Back At Obama

Recently, Obama has called out the hedge funds which hold $1 billion in Chrysler bonds for refusing a government buy-out which would require them to take 30 cents on the dollar.

Cliff Asness, who is a hedge fund leader but does not manage any funds which own the Chrysler bonds, wrote a poignant letter to the president explaining that the hedge funds are beholden to their investors, not the government. If the hedge funds took the deal the White House tried to bully them into, they would be essentially stealing their investors money. Here are the main points of the letter, as outlined by Yahoo!.

# "Let’s be clear, it is the job and obligation of all investment managers, including hedge fund managers, to get their clients the most return they can. They are allowed to be charitable with their own money, and many are spectacularly so, but if they give away their clients’ money to share in the “sacrifice”, they are stealing."
# "The President screaming that the hedge funds are looking for an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout is the big lie writ large. Find me a hedge fund that has been bailed out. Find me a hedge fund, even a failed one, that has asked for one. In fact, it was only because hedge funds have not taken government funds that they could stand up to this bullying. The TARP recipients had no choice but to go along."
# "The President's attempted diktat takes money from bondholders and gives it to a labor union that delivers money and votes for him. Why is he not calling on his party to "sacrifice" some campaign contributions, and votes, for the greater good? Shaking down lenders for the benefit of political donors is recycled corruption and abuse of power."

Ron Paul On Rachel Maddow

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Rachel Maddow is certainly a liberal, and a much better one than her colleague blow-hard and hypocrite Keith Olbermann. This is the second time she has given air time to Ron Paul and its respectable of her to give a very different perspective time on her show. She never interrupts and allows him to talk as much as he wants; Dr. Paul almost seems like he's trying to get in every single one of his political and philosophical stances as quickly as possible in this video.

Terrorism in 1776

Terrorism is something that will always persist and it is a result of and a response to people being ruled over against their will: tyranny.

Ron Paul and Ben Bernanke

In Spain: 1 Green Jobs Destroys 2.2 Jobs Elsewhere

Patriot Act Completely Constitutional (Updated)

Update: Apparently the mother is lying in this video. The government did not require the use of the Patriot Act to arrest her son for bomb threats. Read here.

Daily Dr. Paul Quote - The Recession

This is the expansion or the bubble part of the business cycle, which then sets the stage for the next recession. So people can talk about how to get out of the next recession when the next recession hits and they can talk about what caused it, but the next recession has already been scheduled. It has been scheduled by the expansion of the money supply and the spending and the borrowing and the deficits that we have accumulated here over the last six to eight years. And so, therefore, we can anticipate, and we in the Congress will have to deal with it, we anticipate for the next recession

But unfortunately, because we do not look at the fundamentals of what we have done and the spending and the deficits, the next stage will be what we have done before. That is, if unemployment is going up, the government has to spend more money, there has to be more unemployment insurance. We cannot let people suffer. So the deficits will go up, revenues will go down and as we spend more money to try to bail ourselves out of the next recession, we will obviously just compound the problems because that is what we have been doing for the past 50 years. We have not solved these problems.

As a matter of fact, what has happened, because we eventually get the economy going again, what we do is we continue to build this huge financial bubble which exists today. It is a much bigger bubble than ever existed in the 1920s, it is international in scope and it is something never experienced in the history of mankind. Yet we have to face up to this, because when that time comes, we have to do the right things.

Congressman Ron Paul, Federal Reserve has Monopoly over Money and Credit in United States, April 28, 1997

Quote - Herbert Hoover

I would be blind to the responsibilities that mark this fateful hour if I did not caution the wage-earners of America that mounting wages and decreased production can lead only to industrial and economic ruin.

Herbert Hoover, 1920, during a speech given when receiving the nomination as the Republican Presidential nominee. He presided over the steepest and shortest US recession of the past 100 years.

A decade later Hoover and Roosevelt failed to heed these words and led the US into a depression while implementing similar policies as we see Obama and Harper implementing today.