Human progress is based on the copy, the ideas materialized emulation by others in the past, improving competitive creations of others, on the combinations of various ideas with its own original contribution minimal.

ll, before you can view the DVD we had rented at the video library on the corner, we have endured this message Authorities us hammering the message that copying a movie would be robbery as ugly prying her handbag at a little old. This defense simplistic, bordering on immaturity, intellectual property is based on a false intuition and pass a basic, yet critical distinction in this debate: the tangible property are to exclusive use (if someone takes away my phone portal I can not call), while intangibles like music, inventions or ideas in general are not (a copy of a CD does not listen to it).

Basically, the function of property rights is to avoid conflicts that may arise in connection with the use of an asset or resource. According to the liberal principle of ownership, the right to decide on the use of the property belongs exclusively to one who has the fairest claim on it, that is to say who gave him the usefulness first or who has received a legitimate third.

In this framework, intellectual property has no coherence. Go back further in time and observe the man of antiquity occupy a parcel of land and start cultivating difficulty depending on local rainfall, becoming de facto owner of the land. Now let the other side of the country where the peasant has never set foot, someone who has developed an irrigation system. The implicit logic of intellectual property would entitle the latter to prevent our farmers to use irrigation technology development and then claim royalties for each use. But we immediately understand that by doing so, the developer of the irrigation system violates the property rights of peasants by forbidding it to do what he wants on the parcel of land it occupied first. Under what the peasant could not copy and use this irrigation technique on his plot?

Depending on context, copy can be inelegant or even dishonorable. It is embarrassing that we take advantage of us and it is logical to try to avoid that. But there are many legal ways to take advantage of people, from adultery to the false promise through emotional blackmail or despotism to a subordinate. The laws are there to punish crimes, not to impose good manners and protect us from our naivete innocent.

Ultimately, why raise a hue and cry on the ass on the copy? This fact, however much a part of life, we copy the behavior and continuously take the ideas of others without feeling remorse or design the quirky idea that people would feel so abused. Human progress is based on the copy, the ideas materialized emulation by others in the past, improving competitive creations of others, on the combinations of various ideas with its own original contribution minimal.

One can understand the irritation of an artist who sees his music downloaded from Internet or copied several times in succession. But if today we had to pay royalties to the heirs of the inventor of the supermarket, light bulb or the telephone, the artist would defend it or criticize it for the fact enjoy legal privileges at the expense of other competitors and the rest of society? This artist would he think that the legislation should be amended to “protect” against the copy a style of dress, a new architectural structure, a new mathematical formula or a new dance step?

Throughout the last two centuries, the United States, the trend has been to extend the time limits of copyright with the evident intention of artificially prolonged legal monopolies very profitable for certain businesses (14 years, there has been any the life of the author plus 70 years). The patent law is so far from his stated goal that emerged are the companies “trolls” who are solely dedicated to patent “inventions” and get royalties without ever producing anything or, to put it another way, to extort businesses that they produce on the basis of these ideas.

There is no “right to culture” and therefore it is perfectly legitimate that artists employ various modes of exclusion which makes it more difficult to copy – as in his time, kept jealously secret Sistine Chapel partition the Miserere of Allegri, Mozart again until this work of memory. But they have no right to appeal to the state to protect their interests at the expense of consumers’ freedom and taxing the sale of CDs or continuing users as criminals who unload the music made available by d others on the Internet. Not to mention the fact that if we paid for everything that we “copy it” routinely, we would be ruined at the end of the day.

http://www.contrepoints.org/Copier-n-est-pas-voler.html

“Copier n’est pas voler”

French…. so beautiful!

Home Educators in the UK have a new tool to help them keep violent busybodies out of their lives.

It is called The Home Education Database, and all over the country, the violent aparatchicks in Local Authorities are mortified that they are going to be subjected to a class of tool that they themselves use to index and harass people.

Already, in the ‘Hall of Shame‘ we get a glimpse of what this will mean:

“Her name is Marion Solomon. She is the EHE officer for Caerphilly council Caerphilly council’s website explicitly states that they do not like the law- as there is little they can do if people ‘choose’ not to allow visits. I wont allow visits to my children because she is a member of “Inclusion serices” the department who also deal with SEN provision and they engaged in an antagonistic campaign which included threats of telling social services we were abusing the children in order to get me to drop a SENDIST tribunal.I did not- and we won.

However when we withdrew the two younger children from school we were ‘doorstepped’ by an officer sent by Marion Solomon, she insisted she be allowed entry, her boss said she had to come in and complete a form about the children. I asked her to show me the form and I would complete it/decide whether to allow it to be completed. She informed me that I would not be allowed sight of the form nor the information collected about the children. This is obviously a breach of the data protection act. There then folllowed a series of breaches, including correspondence routinely copied to the head of the primary school that the children had attended, who used to refer us to social services for spurious reasons and eventually was told by the social services to stop as they were not concerned about my children.

I also recieved a phone call from my GP demanding that I bring my daughter for a medical examination. She would not give me a medical reason for this but said she wished to discuss my daughters recent casualty admissions. I said I was more than willing to discuss these by phone and then when trying to discuss and obtain the reason for her enquiry she became evasive and started to question me about my family circumstances and included the words “can I ask why you are home educating when you have so much on your plate”. I can only assume that Marion Solomon referred the case to the GP. Social services had already stated they were not concerned and presumably they wanted the GP to check my child over for signs of abuse.

Caerphilly council also require two sets of visits be carried out, one by either Marion Solomon or one of her colleagues from the education welfare department and also one by ESIS who are their school inspectors and Inset providers. These people arrange 6 monthly visits to the home where the children are tested by their inspector and a report completed. It took repeated letters to both Marion Solomon and ESIS to get them to accept the evidence I wished to provide in writing.

From the start, the tone of their letters was aggressive and misleading in terms of the law. I was not offered any alternative to visits and had to refer to case law and Welsh Assembly guidance in repeated letters to both ESIS and Marion solomon reminding them of their responsibilities and powers before they finally conceded that there remit was education and that a report of provision would cover all their responsibilities and remit.”

[…]

http://www.theartofsurvival.co.uk/homeeducation/staff.php?id=24

oooooohhhhh!!!

Fred Mowbray – Surrey LA is a very dubious character. Some of my favourite things said by Fred are:

“The reason we need to see these (HE) children is because of the Fritzl case (Josef Fritzl) That could very easily happen to home educated children over here.” Say what?!

“Home educating one child when others are at school never works, in my experience” – And that would be what, Fred?

“In my experience, single parent families can’t home educate.” Bearing in mind that he’s been in the job for 3 years maximum and when he joined SCC he sparked an imposter scare as no one (including the call centre staff and main reception) had a clue who he was, his “experience” seems somewhat questionable.

He also takes along his slippers to home visits (ie your floors are too dirty for my socks) and lies effortlessly even when confronted cold hard evidence.

He doorsteps people on a regular basis and yet for all this, can’t understand why people don’t want him to visit?!

As a group we have tried on many different occasions to open lines of communication with Surrey EHE dept. At a meeting in 07 they made various promises as the line mgr at the time was very pro HE, however since then nothing has changed and the only reason we were “allowed” to see the draft policy was because someone FOI’d it. At one of the meetings we were told we weren’t allowed to see it until it had been passed by a committee despite the dept agreeing the year before to consult with local HE’er on it.

Although Surrey aren’t one of the worst LA’s out there, they are one of the most devious and deceitful.

[…]

http://www.theartofsurvival.co.uk/homeeducation/staff.php?id=37

ROTFLMAO!

How long do you think it will take before one of the LAs listed on this great tool hires a lawyer to take it down? No doubt the LA intruders and potential paedophiles will bristle with resentment at being put into a tool like this against their will. That is what it feels like to be violated in this way you scum, suck it up and enjoy it, and be thankful that it was not made private and secret with access only to Home Educators; after all, that is the way that ContactPoint works, everyone except the people who are catalogued on it have access. Absolutely disgusting!

If everyone contributes to this tool, there will not be a single person an LA can send out whose behaviour, tactics and demeanour will not have been well documented, rated and catalogued.

The responses of the submitters will be neatly collated so that contributors know what to do and what to expect.

Priceless.

Now all that is missing is an attack dog legal firm to put the fear of God into these vicious, ignorant and profoundly immoral people.

File under ‘don’t get mad, get even’.

Very VERY well done!

Possibly the only Good Thing in teh Grauniad;

Disappearing acts. Real people making real things. You can pay for them.

January 2010; visual answers to small questions.

Mini Ferarri.

You’ll be different in the Spring, you’re a seasonal beast.

The bigger they come.

Percussive organists.

A small corner of Wales.

Easy as 1 2 3.

What would Jesus do?.

Glorious.

Going underground.

Light as a feather, from 1.24.

Punch drukn.

“They hit themselves with spoons!”.

Bird song.

PM starts fight.

The Original and The Best:

The Copenhagen Accord is based on a proposal tabled on Friday by a US-led group of five nations – including China, India, Brazil and South Africa – that President Barack Obama called a “meaningful agreement”.

The accord includes a recognition to limit temperature rises to less than 2C (3.6F)

Canute the politician

“Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings. For there is none worthy of the name but God, whom heaven, earth and sea obey”.

So spoke King Canute the Great, the legend says, seated on his throne on the seashore, waves lapping round his feet. Canute had learned that his flattering courtiers claimed he was “So great, he could command the tides of the sea to go back”. Now Canute was not only a religious man, but also a clever politician. He knew his limitations – even if his courtiers did not – so he had his throne carried to the seashore and sat on it as the tide came in, commanding the waves to advance no further. When they didn’t, he had made his point that, though the deeds of kings might appear ‘great’ in the minds of men, they were as nothing in the face of God’s power. […]

The Trilogy Tapes: Nippon Folk, Japan Blues

Cassette, limited to 100 copies.

I paid for it.

Original (without artistic intervention from flickr).

Ali P pumps her foot on the grindstone with her cutlass oiled and becoming more sharp by the second:

Tories consider splitting DCSF
“Sector leaders” have expressed alarm at the potential break-up of the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) under a Tory government after it emerged the shadow children’s secretary was in favour of an independent education department.

Michael Gove said “schools have lost their principal purpose and been saddled with a host of supplementary roles since the creation of the DCSF”. He added: “What we do not have – and what we desperately need – is a department at the heart of government championing the cause of education.”

Schools, he claimed, have become “less places of learning and more community hubs from which a host of services can be delivered”.

Naturally the vultures don’t like it as they’ve got fat on failed Labour policies. But the money is running out, thanks to that nasty big economic crisis, and cuts glorious cuts are coming.

But Kim Bromley-Derry, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, warned that central government must reflect councils’ integrated approach to children’s services. He said joined-up policy-making is vital to improving outcomes for children. “Services will always have the greatest impact when they are delivered coherently, consistently and through the pursuit of shared priorities identified at the highest level,” he said.

Some of us don’t share these “priorities”, of course.

Andrew Cozens, strategic adviser for children, adults and health services at the Improvement and Development Agency, said dismantling the DCSF would be a “backward step”. “There is interplay between so many aspects of children’s lives,” he said. “It’s very difficult to separate their needs at school from their wider family life.”

Children’s most basic needs at school (if parents send them there) are secondary to keeping the big monster machine running for its own benefit. Bullying us endemic and so is denial. And we all managed incredibly well without an Improvement and Development Agency in the past. Who needs it?

And wait up, here’s our very own Select Committee chairman, Labour MP Barry Sheerman, with a predictable view on the matter

“The principle behind the DCSF is a good one. I would just like to see a government that doesn’t change departments or ministers so often.”

Deferred gratification is overrated. I’d like to see Gordon’s anti family army thrown out now and not have to wait until May.

http://www.home-education.biz/forum/media/8822-tories-consider-splitting-dcsf.html

“I would just like to see a government that doesn’t change departments or ministers so often.” You mean like a one party state, with a ‘president’ for life?

What a telling statement.

It is not the proper role of government to provide schools for people. Period. When ‘Kim Bromley-Derry’ talks about an ‘integrated approach’ to ‘children’s services’ what he is talking about is the replacement of the parent by the state and nothing less.

All of the quangos, departments and apparatus swarming around the provision of ‘services’ to children should be abolished. Lets just look at two:

The ‘Improvement and Development Agency’ does this:

The IDeA supports improvement and innovation in local government, focusing on the issues that are important to councils and using tried and tested ways of working.

We work with councils in developing good practice, supporting them in their partnerships. We do this through networks, online communities of practice and web resources, and through the support and challenge provided by councillor and officer peers.

We also help develop councillors in key positions through our leadership programmes. Regional Associates work closely with councils in their areas and support the regional improvement and efficiency partnerships (RIEPs).

Unbelievable. I wonder what the budget of this department is? Whatever it is, the money for it was stolen.

Now for ‘The Department for Children, Schools and Families’.

There is no need for a government department that deals specifically with children. Children are the responsibility of parents, not the state. Even if it were the responsibility of the state in some dystopian parallel universe, it would be far more efficient to distribute the responsibility (it’s called DELEGATION) to all the people who are the ‘biological initiators of the nation’s youth’. But that is another story.

There is no need for a government department responsible for families. The family is an entirely private arrangement between individuals who are either married or not, who decide to have children or not and none of it, how they are married, under what terms or how they breed, is the business of the state. Mormons choose polygamy. Others monogamy. Some people share their children, others do not. There are as many ways to organise a family as there are people, but they all have one aspect in common; they are PRIVATE associations that have nothing to do with the state.

There is no need for a government department that is responsible for schools. Parents who pool resources to provide an education for their children in a single place (a school) are not the concern of the state. And that is how schools should be provided for. The state should not be in the business of setting curricula, or any standard of any kind when it comes to education. Education is not a right, it is a good, and it is not the business of government.

Those are only two of the many absurdly named and money sapping state feeders that bleed the public dry whilst violating their rights and literally destroying the country by unleashing an army of uneducated monsters on the land, brainwashing the unfortunate children trapped in state schools with their state mandated pseudo religious programming…. and actually poisoning and killing them with noxious, needless ‘medicines’.

But you know this.

Once the Tories split the DCSF, it will be easier to close its broken down parts… if that is even an issue in the future.

Ali P is correct about the economic crisis. A perfect storm is brewing; you can feel the low pressure and the winds picking up. Several elements are going to combine to wipe out this totalitarian state. People are beyond the end of their tolerance and any single outrage could trigger a significant event; the expenses ‘scandal’ is a good example, and if it were not for the widely anticipated and expected total death of Labour, the streets would already have been taken. The Tories are for sure coming in at the next election and will completely wipe out Labour. The biggest driver of this cataclysmic storm however, will be the destruction of the dollar and the death of the pound (which is backed by the dollar).

As this slow motion train wreck starts to happen, all of these arguments and positions will cease to be the important things. Everyone will be scrambling around to preserve their savings and to keep food on the table.

This is the best possible thing that could happen. There will be a wiping out of the system; a cleaning of the slate. It will take them decades to return to this level of police statism, if at all.

The question will then be who controls the money, and this is absolutely crucial to our liberty. If the replacement for the pound is anything other than a 100% gold sterling standard, where the population holds the physical coins, then future governments will be able to print the new money and finance a new legion of departments, quangos and vendor driven police state apparatus to enslave everyone.

By all means, read about it yourself.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. It is also a once in a generation event, like the Bolshevik revolution, or the fall of the Soviet Union, or the… $insert_world_changing_event.

Whether it is by choice or by force, the Tories are going to be at the helm dismantling the apparatus very shortly.

In light of the death of a teenage girl in the UK following HPV vaccination* and the outrageously rapid PR campaign to take blame away from the vaccine [“The postmortem examination was carried out with unprecedented speed. That and the unusual step taken by Grainger in making a public announcement of the early results, not much more than a day after Natalie’s death, are a clear indication of the anxiety among public health officials over the potential threat to the national teenage vaccination programme.“], and the ongoing push towards H1N1 mass vaccinations, the following article is now essential reading. Before posting selected excerpts, please note that with regard to HPV vaccines –

1. There is no evidence that HPV vaccination protects against cervical cancer.
2. There is no evidence that the protection against HPV infection from vaccination lasts more than 6 years
3. There is concern that mass vaccination costing billions per annum will have no effect on cervical cancer rates or mortality
4. There is concern that women will reduce their Papanicolaou (smear) testing frequency once vaccinated, possibly increasing cancer rates
5. Vaccinating against HPV16 and HPV18 may leave a pathological niche which will be rapidly filled by other HPV strains to unknown effect.

These are not my opinions, they are those of the highest qualified physicians writing in the editorials of the best jourmals about HPV vaccine.

In this context, read the full article “Marketing HPV Vaccine: Implications for adolescent health and Medical Professionalism” at JAMA, one of the very highest rated medical journals in the world.  Here are some highlights:

This HPV vaccine was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2006,² and worldwide sales in 2008 were $1.4 billion.³ In the United States, 25% of girls aged 13 to17 years have received at least 1 of 3 recommended doses.⁴ […] This HPV vaccine […] was identified by a trade name, Gardasil, and promoted primarily to “guard” not against HPV viruses or sexually transmitted diseases but against cervical cancer.⁵ The marketing campaign that followed, according to Merck’s chief executive officer, proceeded “flawlessly.”⁶ In 2006, Gardasil was named the pharmaceutical “brand of the year” for building “a market out of thin air.”⁶

Merck developed and tested an HPV-16 vaccine […]. Because of “ethical and scientific” concerns,⁵ investigators did not make cervical cancer their end point, substituting, as a “reasonable surrogate,”⁵ persistent HPV infection. Still, they concluded that “[i]mmunizing HPV-16-negative women may reduce their risk of cervical cancer.”⁵

Accompanying editorials were more circumspect. The vaccine appeared most effective against the least dangerous cellular changes and not protective or therapeutic for women with prior infections. Although HPV-16 and HPV-18 were most frequently associated with cellular changes, “the contribution of non-vaccine HPV types . . . was sizeable.”¹⁶ Another editorial suggested that “[t]he new treatment raises many scientific, medical, economic, and sociological questions.”¹⁷

“We still lack sufficient evidence of an effective vaccine against cervical cancer.”²¹ No data were available to establish the duration of efficacy, possible adverse effects on natural immunity, whether vaccinated women will forgo Papanicolaou tests, and whether after suppressing HPV-16 and HPV-18, “other strains may emerge as significant oncogenic serotypes.”²¹ Accordingly, the editorial concluded, “With so many essential questions still unanswered, there is good reason to be cautious about introducing large-scale vaccination programs.”²¹

The manufacturer’s marketing strategy […]: avoid limiting the vaccine to high-risk populations, promote it for all women, and secure government reimbursement and mandates. To these ends, Merck funded established PMAs including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and smaller groups, including the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (ASCCP), the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists (SGO), and the American College Health Association (ACHA).

The [Merck-provided] Speaker Lecture Kit encourages speakers and their audiences to help in “convincing states and federal agencies to pay for the vaccine, convincing insurance to pay for it [and] encouraging state mandates for use” (slide 131).¹⁰ “All of us who are involved with cervical disease are going to need [to] work at the state and local levels to assure that the HPV vaccines are funded” (notes, slide 128).¹⁰

Society of Gynecologic Oncologists. […] Determined to increase industry funding, the SGO in 2006 established what was in effect an HPV vaccine speakers’ bureau.³⁹ Funded by Merck, along with GlaxoSmithKline, Cytyc, and Myriad, […]. Panel members, some with financial ties to Merck, composed the curriculum and, initially, delivered the talks (34 speakers in 16 states).^41–42

The SGO teaching materials omitted cautionary qualifications. The frequently asked questions section, for example, opened with “Why is this vaccine important?” The answer repeated the manufacturer’s explanation: “This is the first vaccine directed against a cancer.”⁴³ […] It did not include data on disparities in cervical cancer incidence and outcomes. This section also failed to include questions such as “Do I still need Papanicolaou tests?” “How long will efficacy last?” “How long has the vaccine been used?” and “Might risks outweigh benefits?”

American College Health Association. […] With funding from this vaccine manufacturer, the ACHA created an HPV Vaccine Toolkit for clinicians, including talking points, sample e-mail messages to students and parents, sample press releases, and public service announcements.⁴⁶ If a female student responded “no” when asked if she was sexually active, clinicians were supposed to explain that the HPV vaccine is most effective for her.⁴⁶ If she was sexually active, clinicians were instructed to say that she probably had not been infected with all 4 viruses.⁴⁶

A sample letter/e-mail to students announced a new vaccine “that protects against HPV—and it could help save your life.”⁴⁶ It listed college students’ everyday worries—dates, examinations, roommates—and declared, “Well now there’s something you don’t have to worry about anymore. And this worry is a big one. Why worry about cervical cancer?”⁴⁶ Sample public service announcements reiterated the message: “Hey ladies. You worry about tests. . . . You worry about your next date. Well now there’s something you don’t have to worry about any more—and it could help save your life.”⁴⁶ Sample letters to parents included the following: “Will she get good grades? Will she call home often? The last thing you want her to worry about is cervical cancer. . . . Encourage your daughter to ‘Be Smarter and Get Vaccinated’ at the Student Health Service—it could help save her life.”⁴⁶ In none of these cases was Merck funding mentioned.

As marketing of this HPV vaccine demonstrates, pharmaceutical company campaigns can undercut the most cost-effective and appropriate use of new agents to the detriment of adolescent health. By making this vaccine’s target disease cervical cancer, the sexual transmission of HPV was minimized, the threat of cervical cancer to all adolescents maximized, and the subpopulations most at risk practically ignored.

My emphasis at end. This is a beautiful piece of well-considered, fully-referenced writing that has undergone the peer-review process and whose authors fully declare their competing interests (none) and funding sources (charity). Next time you read about HPV, chickenpox, MMR, HBV, swine flu or any other new and ‘essential’ vaccine, this article provides the context in which it should be evaluated.

*Addendum: It is worth noting that dying from a ‘serious underlying medical condition’ post-vaccination is now considered an excuse for having no concern about HPV vaccine. In the case of swine flu, the vast majority of the (relatively few) deaths were in indiviuals with ‘serious underlying medical conditions’, yet each death was treated as yet another warning as to how deadly and vicious this virus was/is to the general population. Horses for vaccination courses, n’est pas?

A while back we wrote a piece about Gavin Webb, who wrote about Home Education. Gavin Webb was a Liberal Democrat councillor at Stoke on Trent. He called himself a ‘Libertarian Liberal Democrat‘, which of course, makes no sense at all:

[…] Are you a Libertarian, or are you a Liberal Democrat? How can you possibly remain a member of a party that explicitly wants to eradicate the rights of people to run their families as they choose? […]

http://irdial.com/blogdial/?p=1901

We wrote. Now, Mr Webb has dumped the Liberal Democrats and joined the Libertarian Party. This is significant because:

“Whilst we have a number of Parish and Town Councillors, Gavin is the first City Councillor that has crossed the floor to a truly Radical Party, one that wants to change the relationship between State and the Individual to the point where the State is subordinate to the will of the people, not the people subordinate to the will of the State.

And here is the full announcement:

PRESS RELEASE COUNCILLOR GAVIN WEBB OF STOKE ON TRENT CITY COUNCIL RESIGNS FROM THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS AND JOINS THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY (LPUK)

Gavin Webb, who was selected as the Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for Burton in 2008 and elected as a Lib Dem councillor on Stoke-on-Trent City Council in 2007, has today announced that he has resigned from the Liberal Democrats.

He says: “I have made a good many friends in my fourteen years of activism in the Liberal Democrats and I hope that those friendships will continue, but regretfully I have decided to resign from the Liberal Democrats.

“The party, like the Conservative and Labour parties, has become a party of the establishment. It has unfortunately firmly wedded itself to the belief that there are primarily government solutions to the problems facing our country, and in the process, they are adopting policies that undermine our rights and freedoms as individuals.

“As far as I can see, most political parties in the UK appear to trust individuals when it comes to voting for councillors, MPs and MEPs, but once comfortably in power they are reluctant to trust individuals when it comes to them making choices about their own lives.

“There is however one political party – the Libertarian Party – that believes in giving responsibility back to individuals over their own lives and their own finances; and it is this party that I have now decided to join.

“We are on the road of authoritarianism, where government is our ruler rather than us being the ruler of our government. It is time for each and every single one of us to make a stand against government and those who feed off it, and demand the reduction of its size and scope.

“From what I’ve seen from many Lib Dem parliamentarians and councillors I don’t believe the Liberal Democrat Party has the inclination to argue for smaller government in defence of our individual rights.

“Though there are some good classical liberal and libertarian types in the party, with whom I hope to continue to have a good relationship, their voices are crowded out by people who believe it perfectly okay to dictate to people how they should live their lives. I don’t wish any longer to be a part of that.

[…]

http://bastardoldholborn.blogspot.com/

All good.

And for the record:

[…]

There is another vital tactical reason for cleaving to pure principle. It is true that day-to-day social and political events are the resultants of many pressures, the often unsatisfactory outcome of the push-and-pull of conflicting ideologies and interests. But if only for that reason, it is all the more important for the libertarian to keep upping the ante. The call for a two percent tax reduction may achieve only the slight moderation of a projected tax increase; a call for a drastic tax cut may indeed achieve a substantial reduction. And, over the years, it is precisely the strategic role of the “extremist” to keep pushing the matrix of day-to-day action further and further in his direction. The socialists have been particularly adept at this strategy. If we look at the socialist program advanced sixty, or even thirty years ago, it will be evident that measures considered dangerously socialistic a generation or two ago are now considered an indispensable part of the “mainstream” of the American heritage. In this way, the day-to-day compromises of supposedly “practical” politics get pulled inexorably in the collectivist direction. There is no reason why the libertarian cannot accomplish the same result. In fact, one of the reasons that the conservative opposition to collectivism has been so weak is that conservatism, by its very nature, offers not a consistent political philosophy but only a “practical” defense of the existing status quo, enshrined as embodiments of the American “tradition.” Yet, as statism grows and accretes, it becomes, by definition, increasingly entrenched and therefore “traditional”; conservatism can then find no intellectual weapons to accomplish its overthrow.

Cleaving to principle means something more than holding high and not contradicting the ultimate libertarian ideal. It also means striving to achieve that ultimate goal as rapidly as is physically possible. In short, the libertarian must never advocate or prefer a gradual, as opposed to an immediate and rapid, approach to his goal. For by doing so, he undercuts the overriding importance of his own goals and principles. And if he himself values his own goals so lightly, how highly will others value them?

In short, to really pursue the goal of liberty, the libertarian must desire it attained by the most effective and speediest means available. It was in this spirit that the classical liberal Leonard E. Read, advocating immediate and total abolition of price and wage controls after World War II, declared in a speech, “If there were a button on this rostrum, the pressing of which would release all wage and price controls instantaneously, I would put my finger on it and push!”2

The libertarian, then, should be a person who would push the button, if it existed, for the instantaneous abolition of all invasions of liberty. Of course, he knows, too, that such a magic button does not exist, but his fundamental preference colors and shapes his entire strategic perspective.

2 Leonard E. Read, I’d Push the Button (New York: Joseph D. McGuire, 1946), p. 3.

[…]

Murray Rothbard For A New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto

Oh dear me. Before I had ever heard of any of these people, I declared that I would push the button.

So many times, in front of so many people, and for so many different things!

There are people out there who ‘do not like Libertarians’. For certain, Mr Webb will encounter these people. What needs to be done is that the proper name needs to be given to them when they are discussed or confronted; they are VIOLENT PEOPLE.

Collectivists are VIOLENT PEOPLE who advocate using VIOLENCE on others so that their philosophy is followed. No doubt these not so insightful people will strongly deny they are violent, but the fact remains the same; behind every one of their policies lies the threat of violence that will be done to those who do not obey.

That is the reality behind the well meaning ideas and eloquent words of these people; brutal, immoral and unjustifiable VIOLENCE.

Since the esteemed climatologist Al Gore declared that “the debate is over,” it seems the number of scientists denying both this fact and the accuracy of the Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) hypothesis has continuously increased. Perhaps the “skeptics” have found the courage to speak out at this point when AGW has become universal religion and the movement’s leaders are calling for “global governance.” The threat from this movement is much clearer now and the ultimate goal of the AGW prophets is finally spelled out, which of course has nothing to do with environment or climate.

The “global warming” movement is now calling for enormous “investments” in certain public policies and new political institutions to supervise people’s and firms’ emissions of CO2. To most scientists in climatology this change in the movement’s agenda is most likely unexpected; if you are not used to the political game you are not prepared when your opponent makes his politically obvious (in normal situations denoted “irrational”) move.

Of course, the debate is not primarily between scientists even though such debates do exist. The literature in peer-reviewed journals in the relevant scientific disciplines have since long disproved the politicized Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios. It has even been established that the global warming according to reliable data sources ended in 2001, despite the fact that CO2 emissions are greater than ever and continue to increase.

The AGW hypothesis with man-made climate change through emissions of CO2 and other “greenhouse” gasses lives on, however, as politicians and the media find in it an extremely powerful thesis that makes people feel both vulnerable and defenseless and desperate for “help.” Politicians need a threat to increase their realm of power and make the masses cling to their belief in government, and the media needs disasters to attract readers and viewers (selling real news is a long-gone idea in mainstream media). To be honest, climate change is the perfect issue for the fascist state – it is a win-win game for powerful politicians, their buddies in the media, and big business.

Yet more people seem to realize that things don’t add up and that there is another side to the story, which is not generally allowed to be told. Even though most people still believe “we” are to blame, a thesis we are fed from cradle to grave by our all-too-mighty government through public schooling and media outlets, the number of people doubting the truthfulness of the theory is growing. This is why the mainstream posse needed to increase the level of blame in the overall blame game; people doubting man-made global warming were compared with holocaust deniers. People with no connection whatsoever with the study of weather and climate did not hesitate to join their fellow state worshipers, like the ignorant-of-economics-economist Professor Krugman.

Most of us laymen AGW skeptics have been dismissed with the proclaimed truth that “scientists all agree” (which really means “talking heads all agree”), but a lot of people are nevertheless beginning to doubt. We may be approaching a tipping point, at which politicians will be desperate to find another made-up disaster to rally support for their destructive policies. In other words, this may be an opportunity to not only get rid of the climate change scare – but also force the “noble” savages back to their Platonic caves.

One way of doing so is to be ready for and engage in the discussion – and do so wisely. This is the purpose, I believe, of Joanne Nova’s comic-book-style The Skeptic’s Handbook (PDF), in which she describes how to “[r]ise above the mud-slinging of the Global Warming debate.” The book shows how to use the existing and scientific facts properly and how not to accept non-answers such as referring to authority or cheap ad hominems. It also supplies the facts and the only points that matter. It is a short manual for constructively pursuing debates with AGWers and in that sense it is truly a “skeptic’s handbook.”

Perhaps Newton was right in that “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction” and that this is applicable to public political discourse. There is just a slight delay between the action and the reaction, just like there is a proven time lapse between increase in temperature to increase in CO2.

by Per Bylund

From Lew Rockwell.com

I was reminded of this the other day.

Traci Bunkers…I like it.

I have been pointed to the Renegade Parent blog, as something worthwhile. It is:

Can you live my life for me, please?

by Renegadeparent

It was G’s birthday yesterday, and we enjoyed some well-earned family time together. I am wondering if in the not-too-distant future we might have to submit a timesheet to the DCSF in order to demonstrate the daily “positive activities” we’ve undertaken, thus warding off the over-zealous local authority workers who will no doubt be adding us to the at risk list for branding their endless interventions as UNNECESSARY, DUPLICATIVE NONSENSE of which we want no part, thank you very much.

As part of the celebratory fun, I bought a donkey piñata; I suppose it’s only a matter of time before they are banned for encouraging violence towards animals. I am not joking: Asda’s policy on teaspoons has recently been brought to my attention. In order to buy these items one must now produce valid ID. Because, apparently, someone has been murdered with a teaspoon. So lock up your cutlery drawers folks!

In a similar vein, JuliaM has written about the paramedic who was refused service by Tesco because he happened to be in uniform. Despite being heavily pregnant, I regularly buy alcohol from our local supermarket – perhaps, soon, I too will be refused – in order to protect my unborn child from the possibility of me downing a bottle of Grey Goose in the car park. In which case, I might take a leaf out of the paramedic’s book and confront them wearing nothing but a thong and a pair of socks.  As I am now the size of a young adult hippopotamus, it might shock them into compliance, if nothing else.

H/T Ambush Predator and Nanny Knows Best

[…]

http://www.renegadeparent.net/

See what I mean?

My kind of blogger, and my kind of parent!

Who Sampled is a fascinating site; when they start documenting the ‘DNA’ of House Music and all its decedents, it will be…just incredible!

http://www.whosampled.com/

Sites like this are under threat from the Intellectual Monopolists. This tool, if applied to all music could eventually show us where every musical idea came from…its just BRILLIANT!

And while we are at it, take a look at this heart squeezing comparison. Here is the instrumental.

It is sweet perfection.

That which is seen …. if you have the right equipment.

That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen

If you have the right equipment.