Friday, July 13, 2007

Free Speech and Fire in a Theater

Colby Cosh burns down ye old “you can’t yell fire in a crowded theater” retort utilized by individuals who desire to restrict the free speech rights of hate mongerers and other such ilk.

For 20 years I’ve been arguing with Canadians against our impoverished accepted doctrine of expressive freedom, and in favour of the strong First Amendment-style approach implied in the actual language of the Charter of Rights. Ordinarily I am told that in arguing for near-absolute free speech I am reciting a blind, unreasoning formula that is ill-adapted to contemporary times. It is never more than two minutes before the person arguing against stale old-fashioned ideas is trotting out the 88-year-old “fire in a theatre” cliche. You could set your watch by it.

Colby’s piece is titled Sounding clever isn’t persuasive. Burn through it all.

Posted by John Venlet on 07/13 at 01:42 PM
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Free Markets and Freedom

Very interesting interview with Dr. John Lott at FrontPageMag.com. The interview is somewhat of a promotional plug for his new book Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don’t, but even so, the interview has some very interesting points to ponder.  For example, the following question and answer regarding the effect women have had on the expansion of the state.

BC: You mention in your book that women’s suffrage led to a massive increase in the size of government, why is this the case?

Dr. John Lott: When I originally started working on this my wife begged me not to do the research.

Two reasons. I think that women are generally more risk averse then men are and they see government as one way of providing insurance against life’s vagaries. I also think that divorced women with kids particularly turn towards government for protection. Simply giving women the right to vote explained at least a third of the growth in government for about 45 years.

The effect on state governments was pretty dramatic, and I think that it not only explains a lot of the government’s growth in the US but also the rest of the world over the last century. When states gave women the right to vote, government spending and tax revenue, even after adjusting for inflation and population, went from not growing at all to more than doubling in ten years. As women gradually made up a greater and greater share of the electorate, the size of government kept on increasing. This continued for 45 years as a lot of older women who hadn’t been used to voting when suffrage first passed were gradually replaced by younger women.

After you get to the 1960s, the continued growth in government is driven by higher divorce rates. Divorce causes women with children to turn much more to government programs. Of course, changes in the divorce laws from “at fault” to “no fault” helped cause some of this change. As I discuss in the book, the liberalization of abortion also led to more single parent families.

That’ll put a bee in some women’s bonnets.

I’ll be voluntarily trading some of my dollars for Lott’s book.

Linked via Alan K. Henderson.

Posted by John Venlet on 07/13 at 10:56 AM
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The Perseids Are Coming

I enjoy viewing a good meteor shower, and predictions for this year’s Perseids, which will peak between August 12th and 13th, hold promise.

It’s going to be a great show,” said Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. “The Moon is new on August 12, which means no moonlight, dark skies and plenty of meteors."

Head out to the boonies and catch the show.

August Meteor Shower Will Be ‘A Great Show’

Posted by John Venlet on 07/13 at 05:34 AM
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There is No Such Thing as Free Money

From the New York Times editors.

It isn’t every day that the federal government offers New York half-a-billion dollars in free money,...

The above statement kicks off an editorial from the NYT titled Sneezing at $500 Million, which excoriates New York’s Assembly for not ending their vacations to ensure New York receives a cut of the booty taken from Americans by the federal government.

I find it disturbing that so many individuals consider money received from governments, whether at the federal, state or local level, as “free money,” because there is no such thing as free money.  Each and every dollar the state hands out has been taken from an individual by force.  The state may hand out these monies as if it is free, but these monies have been enslaved under threat of prosecution.

Posted by John Venlet on 07/13 at 05:10 AM
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Dogmatism

In his book, A Common Faith, John Dewey made a distinction between religion and the religious.  Specifically, Dewey noted this.

To be somewhat more explicit, a religion (and as I have just said there is no such thing as religion in general) always signifies a special body of beliefs and practices having some kind of institutional organization, loose or tight.  In contrast, the adjective “religious” denotes nothing in the way of a specifiable entity, either institutional or as a system of beliefs.

John Dewey, A Common Faith, I. Religion Versus the Religious, pg. 9

I thought of this notion of Dewey’s after reading the following.

THE Vatican has described the Protestant and Orthodox faiths as “not proper churches” in a document issued with the full authority of the Pope...The document said the Orthodox Church suffered from a “wound” because it did not recognise the primacy of the Pope. The wound was “still more profound” in Protestant denominations, it added.

It was “difficult to see how the title of ‘Church’ could possibly be attributed to them”, said the statement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Roman Catholicism was “the one true Church of Christ”.

I think that Pope Benedict XVI’s assertion, here, deserves to be criticized, even denounced, as vehemently as the cult of death Islamists are denounced who desire to bring their “one true faith” to the world via terrorism.

It’s not the religious we need concern ourselves with, it is religion, especially when a religion desires to claim itself as the one true faith or church.

Vatican calls Roman Catholic religion ‘one true faith’

Posted by John Venlet on 07/13 at 04:24 AM
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Old Testament Fact Check

The historical accuracy of the Bible is often questioned, and rightfully so, considering some individuals’ desire to interpret the Biblical story of creation as providing proof that the world is only six thousand or so years old.

So it was with interest that I read the following.

THE British Museum yesterday hailed a discovery within a clay tablet in its collection as a breakthrough for biblical archeology - proof of the accuracy of the Old Testament.

The cuneiform inscription in a tablet dating from 595BC has been deciphered for the first time - revealing a reference to an official at the court of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, that proves the historical existence of a figure mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah.

It is rare evidence in a non-biblical source of a real person, other than kings, featured in the Bible.

Just something interesting to note.

Old Testament figure named on 2600-year-old tablet

Via Dissecting Leftism.

Posted by John Venlet on 07/13 at 04:13 AM
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Thursday, July 12, 2007

Guns Are Not Toys, But Toy Guns are Still Toys

New Jersey Senator Nicholas P. Scutari (D) is proposing new legislation to

...make it illegal to sell or give to anyone under age 18 toy guns that look so realistic they can be mistaken for a real firearm.

Let’s review Scutari’s muddled reasoning for this.

"The margin between a child’s stupid mistake and a tragic ending is far too thin,” said Sen. Nicholas Scutari.

Note, please, that Scutari places the blame for a child possibly being shot by a law enforcement agent, because they are in possession of a toy gun, squarely on a child’s shoulders, rather than on the shoulders of law enforcement whose sound judgment in performing their duties continually seem to be eroding.

Additionally, Scutari states the following as supposed reasonable justification for enacting such a law.

Scutari said the bill would help police and school officials figure out whether a firearm is either fake or real,...

So, if I understand the above correctly, banning the sale of toy guns to children under the age of 18 will miracuously “help police and school officials figure out whether a firearm is either fake or real.” Evidently, Scutari feels that after such legislation is enacted, if indeed it is enacted, any child with what appears to be a gun would not have a toy gun, but would automatically be considered to be carrying a fully functioning, bullet spewing firearm, thus enabling police and school officials to further shuck sound judgment and automatically consider any child who may have a toy gun as a lethal weapon carrying crazed killer.

Scutari does make one statement that indeed makes reasoned sense.

"We need to stress to our children that guns are not toys, but deadly weapons which should always be regarded with extreme caution and handled with respect,” Scutari said.

The above is true, but the method for instilling that into children is, as my brother the Wizard states, through training by parents who are involved in their children’s lives.

N.J. senator proposes toy gun ban

Posted by John Venlet on 07/12 at 08:18 AM
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Brown Shirting An Old Woman for a Brown Lawn

Zealousness can be channelled to achieve positive results.  Unfortunately, in many cases, zealousness often leads to abuses, even when it comes to an individual’s lawn.

Betty Perry’s dry, desolate lawn has put her in a spotlight that extends from coast to coast and even across two oceans.

The 70-year-old Orem woman was arrested and injured on Friday after a police officer tried to ticket her for not watering her front lawn. By Monday, the media frenzy had spread as far as Great Britain and New Zealand.

Newspapers from across the United States told Perry’s story, and Fox News interviewed her on Monday morning. The London-based British Broadcasting Corporation included the story about the incident on its Web site, as did sites in New Zealand and the Netherlands. Countless blogs also ran the story, along with headlines that criticized the arresting officer and the city.

“After what they did to me I want everybody in the world to know,” Perry said on Monday.

The incident began when a police officer assigned to Orem’s Neighborhood Preservation Unit knocked on Perry’s door Friday morning and said he was giving her a citation for her brown, barren lawn. Perry refused to give the officer her name and insisted on going inside her house first to call her son and ask his advice on the situation.

When Perry refused to give the officer her name, he decided to place her under arrest. Police said Perry pulled away from the officer as he tried to handcuff her and Perry said she “tried to sit down to get away from him.” In the ensuing struggle, Perry fell to the ground, bruising her elbows, knees and legs. She also said she was hit in the face with a handcuff, causing a prominent bruise on her nose.

"I want people to know that this is not American to handcuff and put somebody in jail because their lawn is brown. ... They could’ve given me a ticket or done something else,” Perry said. (bold added by Ed.)

As if arresting Betty Perry wasn’t rotten enough, check this statement uttered by one Lt. Doug Edwards, who is the spokesman for the cops.

"That’s where I think that we made a tactical error in that there were other options available as opposed to taking physical custody,” Edwards said.

Edwards said while the situation could have been handled differently, the officer’s actions were well within the law, which requires people to identify themselves to an officer who is issuing a citation. She was arrested, he said, because she refused to identify herself.

“What happened was not the way that we prefer to do business,” Edwards said. “But clearly she did some things that were wrong too in not just saying her name."

A “tactical error,” “arrested, he said, because she refused to identify herself,” “not the way we prefer to do business.”

There seem to be alot of tactical errors by local police departments these days.  Is this because so many police departments think every call they respond to or initiate is a matter of national security, or are the cops trying to justify all of the dollars they’ve pocketed from the Department of Homeland Insecurity?  And, why is it a crime to refuse to give a cop your name?  As for the cops stating that they prefer not to do business they way they did their buisness with Betty Perry, did you note that the statement does not say they will not do business that way in the future?

All this for a brown lawn.  Rotten.

Woman arrested in lawn incident meets the national press

Posted by John Venlet on 07/12 at 04:26 AM
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Les Paul Is, Without a Doubt, An American Master

Yesterday evening I viewed a PBS production of American Masters on Les Paul.  The show was titled Les Paul:Chasing Sound and it was definitely worthwhile.  The man has had a huge hand in the development of electronic sound, and his early forays into electrifying sound are astoundingly original, American made.

If it comes on again in your viewing area, I highly recommend it.

Les, at 92 years of age, is still jamming on Monday nights at the Iridium in New York City, and I salute him.

Here’s a YouTube clip of the show.

Posted by John Venlet on 07/12 at 03:55 AM
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Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Put Your Money Where Your Ethanol Mouth Is

The other day, I noted a New York Times piece that reported that few individuals were investing in alternative energy.

After arriving home earlier today, I paged through the past couple of days of the Grand Rapids Press and noted this article.

Wanted: Investors in ethanol plant near Ithaca

So, here’s your chance, all you “ethanol is the solution to freedom from Middle East oil dependency yammerers,” if ethanol is the answer, pony up your dollars, and get this thing off the ground.

The company is Liberty Renewable Fuels LLC, which is located in the economically tanking State of Michigan, it has full SEC approval, complete with prospectus, and all Liberty Renewable Fuels LLC needs, to become a viable going concern, is your investment dollars.  For a mere 20K, you can get in on the ground floor of this operation and reap the golden egg that ethanol supposedly will become, thanks to federally mandated growth targets.  Doesn’t that make it a sure thing?

I think I’ll keep my 20K and await the opportunity to invest in the colonization of Mars.

Posted by John Venlet on 07/11 at 12:43 PM
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Monday, July 09, 2007

Back in Three

Three days of business to attend to in Northern Michigan.  Back Wednesday night, Thursday A.M. at the latest.

Posted by John Venlet on 07/09 at 03:12 AM
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Like a Band-aid On a Brain Tumor

From the New York Times editors.

Congress returns this week, with its approval ratings plummeting among constituents. Time is short for House Democrats to fully deliver on their campaign promise to turn around the “culture of corruption” in the Capitol. Progress was made in the January crackdown on free gifts, travel and meals from influence brokers. But now comes the hard part — facing up to the need for a new Congressional integrity office to help the moribund ethics committee enforce anticorruption rules.

Calling for a “new Congressional integrity office” is like putting a band-aid on brain tumor.

Beyond Posturing on House Ethics

Posted by John Venlet on 07/09 at 02:37 AM
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Sunday, July 08, 2007

Smoking Ban Effects

Smoking bans are spreading across Amerika faster than the invasive species purple loosestrife.

While the politicos would have us believe the spreading smoking bans are for our own good, these bans appear to be having as negative an effect on local economies as the purple loosestrife has on local native ecosystems.

Bar and restaurant owners interviewed by Hawaii Reporter say their business is down between 10 percent and 25 percent since the 2006 smoking ban…

Gov. Linda Lingle, who signed the smoking ban legislation into law, acknowledged after returning from a trip to Japan this past June that Japanese tourism has been impacted.

There is a 10.3 percent decrease in Japanese visitors here in May 2007 over May 2006, according to a state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism report – part of a continuing trend downward. Convention and corporate meeting business from Japan declined between 28 percent and 57 percent in the first give months of 2007 when compared with the same 5 months in 2006; and Japanese tour groups saw a 17 percent drop during this same period.

Individuals should be battling the invasive smoking bans with the same vigor applied in the battle against invasive purple loosestrife.

Defiance – One Puff at a Time

Via The Dougout.

Posted by John Venlet on 07/08 at 07:38 AM
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Abdicated Reasoning and Common Sense

Schools’ zero tolerance rules have a tendency to relieve teachers and administrators from utilizing their reasoning skills, and their common sense. 

While I can understand sending a kid packing if he, or she for that matter, carries a handgun into a school, some of the other reasons schools send kids packing, or enact draconian punishments for, as part of their zero tolerance policies, border on the absurd.

Writing “I love Alex” on a school gymnasium wall brought a 12-year-old the same punishment as if she had made terrorist threats.

The Katy Independent School District rated the message, written with a baby blue marker by sixth-grader Shelby Sendelbach, as a Level 4 infraction — the same as for threats, drug possession and assault.

Only murder, gun possession, sexual assault and arson are considered more severe by the suburban Houston district.

Young Miss Sendelbach’s parents are fighting back against the school, and I wish them success, but they also appear to be disconnected from their reasoning and common sense.

"We are shocked that the school district rules as they are written make no distinction between what Shelby is accused of and what a gang member does with a can of black spray paint,” Stu Sendelbach said.

The school administrators are simply foolish for sending young Miss Sendelbach off to an alternative school for four months for her misuse of a magic market, and their fall back for applying this punishment, “just following a state law,” exhibits the same lack of judgment young Miss Sendelbach exhibited when she penned her enamoration of Alex on the school wall.

A more reasoned punishment for young Miss Sendelbach would have seen her scrubbing her love missive off the wall, followed by applying a new coat of paint.

As for young Miss Sendelbach’s father’s assertion that the punishment applied to her is reasonable for a gang member with a can of black spray paint, but not to his daughter, exhibits the same lack of reasoning and common sense that the school administrators exhibited.  The same reasoned punishment I mention above for Miss Sendelbach, should be applied to any kid defacing a school wall, whether they’re a gang member or a little twelve year old girl.

School rates ‘I love Alex’ graffiti as bad as drugs, suspends 6th-grader for 4 months

Posted by John Venlet on 07/08 at 06:45 AM
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Handicapped by Roosevelt

Many individuals are enamored of Roosevelt and his New Deal, which may not be surprising because the deal gave many something, for nothing, via misappropriation.

But Roosevelt’s legacy is not the New Deal, but the development of a culture of dependence on the state.

George Will notes this in a piece titled Declaration of Dependence that is worth a read.

Posted by John Venlet on 07/08 at 05:07 AM
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