You MIGHT be an Anarcho-Capitalist

From FEE, the Foundation For Economic Education....

Suppose that there is a household on the border between the United States and Canada. Currently, this household is a part of the United States and is thus subject to all of its laws, regulations, and tax obligations. After years of being subject to U.S. law, this household is finally fed up (perhaps as a result of some recent policy initiative that passed through Congress). Rather than simply accepting the fact that they must live under a new regime they do not like, they phone up the Canadian government and inquire about the costs and benefits of being subject to Canadian law instead.

After careful deliberation, this household decides that it would be much happier as a Canadian household than as an American household. And after similarly careful consideration, the Canadian government decides that they would rather have this household as a citizen of Canada than not. As a result, this household purchases its governance from Canada instead of the United States.

This much, at least, should not be terribly contentious: Governments sell governance and citizens purchase this governance in the form of paying taxes. All that is different in this case is that the border between the United States and Canada is not exogenously defined and, instead, is determined by people shopping for their government without having to move. If this doesn't sound contentious, then you might be an anarcho-capitalist.

Next, assume that the household is someplace in Virginia!! 

Go here to read the whole thing.  It's greatness. 

 

Canada has a lottery to determine who gets to see the local doctor

Here's some good stuff about Canada's healthcare system, and I can't believe that Republicans didn't make more of it during the ObamaCare enactment tragedy of several years ago. 

All of the "civilized" nations have universal healthcare, right? 

It seems that Canada has a doctor shortage.  Canada's healthcare system is run by the government. 

To quote the great Milton Friedman,  "If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there'd be a shortage of sand."  That probably applies on both sides of the U.S. northern border. 

There are places in Canada that have a freakin' lottery to determine who gets to have a family doctor. 

There are places in Canada that have a freakin' lottery to determine who gets to have a family doctor.

There are places in Canada that have a freakin' lottery to determine who gets to have a family doctor.

There are places in Canada that have a freakin' lottery to determine who gets to have a family doctor.

Ok, that's out of my system.  Why a lottery?

As of 2007, there were 12,000 Canadian docs practicing in the USA. 

In 2006, 1 in 9 Canadian-educated physicians practised in the United States. If physicians who were born in the United States are excluded, this number is reduced to 1 in 12. This accounts for just over half of the net loss of physicians from the Canadian-trained physician workforce. Collectively, this is equivalent to having 2 average-sized Canadian medical schools dedicated to producing physicians for the United States. Canada is the second largest source of immigrant physicians to the United States, second only to India.

People go where they can get a better return for their labor.  Doctors do it, I do it, and you do it. 

No one smart enough to get through medical school wants to be at the mercy of some charismatic, photogenic idiot who managed to get elected by claiming that a doctor's time and labor is a basic human right. 

So Canada now has a doctor shortage, especially in rural areas.  So do they turn healthcare over to the free market? 

No.  That wouldn't be "fair". 

Do they open more medical schools and train more doctors?  Do they allow nurses to handle more of the medical treatment load (which every nurse I've ever known claims that she could do....)? 

No.  That would be giving up central control. 

Canada has a lottery to see who gets a family doctor. 



Within 20 years, the USA will have a lottery system for family doctors. 

Enjoy the decline! 

Hong Kong vs Detroit

Here's a Canadian writer lamenting the high sales tax in The Frozen Tundra, as compared to that of Hong Kong.  (50 years ago, Hong Kong was a 3rd world slum, but was later set up to have the smallest government possible.) 

“I did a little calculation yesterday,” says Stuart Iliffe, a Canadian working in Hong Kong as chief financial officer of publishing house PPP Co. Ltd.


“If I earned $100,000 [all figures Canadian unless noted] in Canada, after tax I would keep $54,000. If I earned $100,000 in Hong Kong, and made use of the married man’s tax allowance, I would keep $90,100.”“Hong Kong keeps it very simple. There’s no capital gains tax, there’s no dividend tax, there’s no tax on interest, and you are only taxed on income earned in Hong Kong – not overseas. The system here makes people more entrepreneurial. Maximum personal tax is 15 per cent, but there are lots of allowances to get it lower, and corporate tax is set at 16.5 per cent – so people are not spending half their time trying to avoid or evade. You have money in your pocket and you do things with it. You invest. You buy shares or you start second businesses,” he says.

Ayesha Lau, partner in charge of Hong Kong tax at KPMG China, broadly agrees with Mr. Iliffe, but takes the view that low and simple taxation is one among a number of factors that make the city competitive. “Others are the rule of law, respect for private property, freedom from corruption in the business environment, efficient government, the free flow of capital – we have no exchange controls – protection of intellectual property rights, and the strategic location as a SAR which is part of China,” she says.

“You need to be able to make a profit before you pay tax, so the entrepreneurial culture is not driven by tax alone.”

Sounds like a good place to be, right? 

Let's compare that to Detroit. 

[The] per capita tax burden on City residents is the highest in Michigan. This tax burden is particularly severe because it is imposed on a population that has relatively low levels of per capita income.


The City’s income tax… is the highest in Michigan.

Detroit residents pay the highest total property tax rates (inclusive of property taxes paid to all overlapping jurisdictions; e.g., the City, the State, Wayne County) of those paid by residents of Michigan cities having a population over 50,000.

Detroit is the only city in Michigan that levies an excise tax on utility users (at a rate of 5%).

I've heard on the radio that they have the 3rd highest overall tax rates in the USA, but can't find documentation....but I did find this:

A study by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy looked at effective property tax rates in the 50 largest U.S. cities in 2011. Detroit had the highest property tax rates of all 50 cities on homes, apartment buildings, commercial buildings, and industrial buildings.

What to make of all this? 
Here's a picture of Hong Kong. 

 Here's a picture of Detroit. 

The defense rests.  Keep the thieves from taking the income of the producers, and you'll have a much better chance at prosperity. 

Go here to purchase a coffee table book that documents the effects of letting Statists run your city for 3 generations.  It's called "The Ruins Of Detroit".  Incredible photography.  Treats the bombed-out shell of a city like most artists would treat ancient Rome or Athens. 

A ruling on the tariffs of Canadian sundials and birdbaths

I hope we can agree on the following statements.

1) The most fair trade of all is free trade.  All fair trade is free, and vice-versa.  If a certain industry or product line gets an exemption, the trade is no longer "fair".
2) Protecting industries from foreign competition merely rewards industry owners.  The net harm to purchasers is greater than the net gain by fat cats and their employees.
3) Congress gets itself elected by selling exemptions to the tax code.  Some of these are to reward contributors, while others are put in place to punish competitors.  Many of these exemptions can still be found, long after the original bribes contributions were paid, lingering around in the U.S. Harmonized Tariff Schedule.  Nobody remembers why hamster wheels have a different import tariff rate than coffin handles.  You could turn a team of librarians loose in the Congressional Record for years, and they would fail to discover why javelins and jump ropes enter the country at different tax rates.

Go here and behold some of the tiny subdivisions that these Civil Service Lifers have invented to keep themselves busy and their contributors happy.  Can you imagine any rational excuse for Canadian sundials and Canadian birdbaths to be taxed at a different rate?

This is just one of the hundreds of thousands of queries and rulings that government trolls, hobbits, pygmies and elves churn out every day.  Enjoy.  And then lobby for a flat tariff.  1.5% should work nicely.  Think of the labor savings.  First person to lobby for an exemption gets crucified on the 50 yard line during the next Super Bowl halftime.

******

December 3, 1993

CLA-2-83:S:N:N3:113 892510

CATEGORY: CLASSIFICATION

TARIFF NO.: 8306.29.0000; 9403.20.0010

Ms. Patricia A. Bielaski
Tower Group International, Inc.
128 Dearborn Street
Buffalo, NY 14207-3198

RE: The tariff classification of sundials, plant stands and birdbaths from Canada

Dear Ms. Bielaski:

In your letter dated November 16, 1993, on behalf of Metalcraft Spinning and Stamping, Ltd., you requested a tariff classification ruling.

The merchandise consists of painted aluminum articles on pedestal bases that will be displayed primarily on lawns and in gardens. Three samples were submitted with your request. One is a green sundial measuring approximately 21 inches high with an 11-inch diameter top and a 9-inch diameter base. The sundial is clearly ornamental in nature. The other two samples are plant stands which can be used inside or outside the home. They are designed to rest upon a floor or lawn, and meet the definition of furniture for classification purposes. One stand is green and the other is white. Both measure approximately 27 inches high with a 15 1/2-inch diameter top and a 12-inch diameter base. The plant stand can also function outdoors as a birdbath.

The applicable subheading for the sundial will be 8306.29.0000, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS), which provides for statuettes and other ornaments, of base metal. The rate of duty will be 5 percent ad valorem.

Goods classifiable under subheading 8306.29.0000, which have originated in the territory of Canada, will be entitled to a 2.5 rate of duty under the United States-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA) upon compliance with all applicable regulations.

The applicable subheading for the plant stand and birdbath will be 9403.20.0010, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS), which provides for other metal furniture, household. The rate of duty will be 4 percent ad valorem. Goods classifiable under subheading 9403.20.0010, HTS, which have originated in the territory of Canada, will be entitled to a free rate of duty under the United States-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA) upon compliance with all applicable regulations.

This ruling is being issued under the provisions of Section 177 of the Customs Regulations (19 C.F.R. 177).

A copy of this ruling letter should be attached to the entry documents filed at the time this merchandise is imported. If the documents have been filed without a copy, this ruling should be brought to the attention of the Customs officer handling the transaction.

Sincerely,

Jean F. Maguire
Area Director

*******

We are paying people to interpret this shit.
Have a good weekend!!

From a northern neighbor

I found this comment under a brilliant Fisking of a New York Times non-story about government giveaways:

Most Americans don't see where this is going. Here in Canada we have universal health care, which is just another way of saying that you're forbidden to use a private doctor.

After a decade or two, society loses all memory of private care and starts to see the govt as the only source of comfort. The choices in elections come down between more spending on govt health care and a lot more.

Usually it's a lot more because Canadians are waiting several months to see specialists, wait over a year for surgeries and are sometimes lucky to have a GP.

But we don't remember what private health care can do, and besides, the care is free at point of use, so most Canadians think it's just free, even as health care costs are rising just as fast as in the US and health spending now eats up half of our provincial budgets. (Ontario, our biggest province btw, has a per capita deficit and debt larger than California's).

So big govt is now like cancer of the brain stem. It's attached at the cellular level can cannot be removed. It can only grow and that unrestrained growth will eventually kill us. But that's okay, because there are no other choices.

The chart of Canadian Waiting Room Times came from here.  (I love this guy, BTW.  The tagline to his blog is "Think Globally, Act Locally, Demand Handouts.")  Here's the video that always comes to mind when the issue of total dependency arises. 

Gary Johnson on ending Prohibition

Our border with Mexico is looking like our border with Canada during the alcohol Prohibition Era.

No one travels across the border without fear, the bodies are piling up (40,000 Mexicans drug war deaths in the last five years), politicians are offered daily corruption opportunities, gangsters are making fortunes, and despite fences, naval patrols,  and indignant speeches about "sealing the border", the border still leaks like, well, something that leaks a lot. 

Alcohol prohibition lasted from 1920 to 1933. 

I'm writing this post at the Barnes and Noble near Northeast Mall in Fort Worth.  I looked for the companion volume to the recent Ken Burns TV series on Prohibition, but couldn't find it. 

Instead, I found this one: "Prohibition - Thirteen years that changed America". 

I'm not going to quote from it, or try to summarize the book.  Just look at the cover, from top left to bottom right. 

You have a picture of a vice officer taking an axe to a keg of beer, a picture of Al Capone, a girl with a leg flask in a speakeasy, a prohibition protest sign, a beer advertisement, and a group of well-to-do folks either violating the prohibition laws or celebrating their end.  

Just from the cover, one gets the impression that alcohol prohibition was a disaster. 

The other title I found was "The Lawless Decade: Bullets, Broads and Bathtub Gin"

Famed bootlegger/gangster Al Capone is not on the front cover of this one.  His picture is only on the back cover. 
I won't summarize this book, or try to pull some quotes from it.  But Paul Sann has written a book on the Prohibition Era called "The Lawless Decade". 

We legalized alcohol and the violence slowly ended.  Here's John D. Rockefeller Jr. on the failed experiment:

When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognized. I have slowly and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has generally increased; the speakeasy has replaced the saloon; a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared; many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened; and crime has increased to a level never seen before.

Here's a brief excerpt from an interview with Gary Johnson, potential Libertarian candidate for President of the U.S.

Interviewer: Your many opponents believe that legalization would exacerbate the problem. First, they say more people would do drugs if they were legal.

Johnson: Kids who have been surveyed say it's easier to get illegal drugs than beer. The evidence shows that more people won't do drugs if they're legal. Holland, where marijuana is decriminalized and controlled, has 60% of the drug use--both hard drugs and marijuana--the US has. They have a quarter the crime rate, a quarter the homicide rate, a quarter the violent crime rate and a tenth the incarceration rate. It suggests that more people don't do drugs because they're legal. But let's just say that the number of users would go up: I still would say it was worthwhile. Look at the trade-off.


Interviewer: What trade-off?


Johnson: Half of all crime is drug-related. Half. Half of what we spend--on law enforcement, on the courts, on prisons--is drug-related. If we legalized drugs, we would destroy the environment that allows and even encourages all those crimes.

*********

These moments make me question the wisdom of teaching history. 
Have we ever learned anything from it? 

Mama Tried

From Reason magazine's "Daily Brickbats" feature.  I don't recommend going there very often, because you'll spend the rest of your day praying for the damnation of the human race. 

In Canada, Shirley Anderson abandoned her son Ken when he was just 15. Over the next 31 years, he says the only times he spoke to her was when she called asking for money. Now, Shirley, 71 is suing Ken and four of his siblings under British Columbia law that requires children to support dependent parents. A court has already awarded her a payment of $10 a month from each child, but she is now seeking $300 to $350 a month from each of them.

Here's The Calgary Herald:

When Ken Anderson was just 15, his mother, Shirley, made it clear: She didn't want him anymore.
Ken's father, a long-haul trucker, had been transferred from Osoyoos, B.C., to the province's Kootenay region. Although their marriage was rocky, Shirley followed, taking second-youngest son Darryl with her.

Ken was left behind. He had plenty of time to think about it as he wiped bug splatter off car windshields and pumped gas at the local station to make a buck. He says he can't even remember how many couches he slept on, or how he kept himself going. He just knows he never got to go to a prom, finish high school or even think about college.

The way he sees it, he never really had a mother.

On Aug. 3 and 4, Ken, now 46, will face off in B.C. Supreme Court against the woman who gave birth to him.

Now there's a family that puts the funk back in dysfunctional. 
The Whited Mama has made it very clear to her children that they will inherit little or nothing.  Whenever she reads of someone "dying penniless", she sees it as a case of perfect timing. 
We've made it clear to The Whited Mama that if she gets to feeble to take care of herself, she can stay in an extra bedroom with 5 dachshunds, a yellow lab, and whatever reptiles The Aggie has brought in. 
So far, she claims to be healthy. 


Here's Mighty Merle Haggard doing "Mama Tried":

Glenn Beck on Gay Marriage

Here's Glenn Beck, in a recent interview on gay marriage.  If Beck has figured it out, can the rest of America be far behind ?

O’REILLY: But let’s take the gay marriage deal. Big ruling in California. You really didn’t cover that much, right?
BECK: Nope.
O’REILLY: Why?
BECK: Because honestly I think we have bigger fish to fry. You can argue about abortion or gay marriage or whatever –
O’REILLY: Do you believe — do you believe that gay marriage is a threat to the country in any way?
BECK: A threat to the country?
O’REILLY: Yeah, it going to harm the country?
BECK: No, I don’t. Will the gays come and get us?
O’REILLY: OK. Is it going to harm the country in any way?
BECK: I believe — I believe what Thomas Jefferson said. If it neither breaks my leg nor picks my pocket, what difference is it to me?
O’REILLY: OK, so you don’t. That’s interesting. Because I don’t think a lot of people understand that about you.
BECK: As long as we — as long as we are not going down the road of Canada, where it now is a problem for churches to have free speech. If they can still say, hey, we –
O’REILLY: Oppose it –
BECK: — we oppose it –
O’REILLY: Right.
Here they're talking about Canadian ministers who get in trouble with their Human Rights Commissions for using "hate speech" in opposing gay/lesbian marriage.  BECK: — but we’re not trying to kill anybody or trying to –
O’REILLY: In Sweden they have that too. OK, so gay marriage to you, not a big a threat to the nation.

But that's not the best part.  Here's a chart showing approval/disapproval for same-sex marriage.  All of this is from the "Beyond The Beltway" blog, BTW:

Note the bulge in the otherwise smooth line as things come to a head around the 2004 elections, the wide, wide base in 1988, and of course, the tip where things come together in 2010. 
My, my, my, what a big long trendline on gay marriage.   

Death Panels force Canadian to the U.S. for treatment

Here's someone named Mark Bonokoski, writing in The Toronto Sun, on Canada's healthcare system:

Kent Pankow lives in Edmonton, in a province and a country that is trying to either kill him or bankrupt him.

No sense mincing words.
Suffering from brain cancer, Kent Pankow was literally forced to go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. for lifesaving surgery — at a cost to family and friends of $106,000 — after the health-care system in Alberta left him hanging in bureaucratic limbo for 16 crucial days, his tumour meanwhile migrating to an unreachable part of the brain, while it dithered over his case file, ultimately deciding he was not surgery worthy.
Now, with the Mayo Clinic having done what the Alberta Cancer Board wouldn’t authorize or even explain, but with the tumour unable to be totally removed, the province will now not fund the expensive drug, Avastin, that the Mayo prescribed to keep him alive and keep the remaining tumour from increasing in size — despite the costs of the drug being totally funded by the province for other forms of cancer.
Kent Pankow, as it turns out, has the right disease but he has it in the wrong place.
Had he lung cancer, breast cancer, or colon cancer, then the cost of the drug — $4,555 per treatment, two times a month — would be totally covered by Alberta’s version of OHIP.

But he doesn’t.

And so he is not only a victim of brain cancer, he is also a victim of arbitrary discrimination.
Full disclosure. Kent Pankow, a 40-year-old Red Seal sous chef, is a son of the man who married the spouse of my late brother. And it was while vacationing with them at their winter home in Los Cabos, Mexico, recently that this story began to unfold back in their home province of Alberta.
But do not think, even for a moment, that this could never happen in Toronto or other parts of Ontario.

Our supposedly universal federal health care system, the pride of most Canadians and the political struggle of America, is only as good as the length of the waiting line and whether you have the right disease at the right time.

Here's some info on the Kent Pankow Trust Fund.  (Note to other Bow Hunters - watch this clip !)



There you have it. 
"Socialized medicine: solving no problems, but giving government more of the money." 

To Danny Williams, the Canadian Premier who came to the U.S. for surgery: We'll leave the light on for you ! !

From the Mackinac Center For Public Policy, on Danny Williams, the Canadian politician whose life obviously depends on getting the hell out of Canada. 

Recent news reports that the Canadian premier of Newfoundland and Labrador would obtain heart surgery at an American hospital occasioned teeth-grinding by supporters of a government-run health care system like Canada's, and snickers from those opposed to the Congressional plan to impose a system with many of the same features here.

The news that a Canadian government official sought care in this country was no surprise to those who watched the Mackinac Center's popular YouTube videos posted last fall documenting the pain and suffering that Canada's health care rationing imposes on individual citizens (more than 800,000 Canadians are on a waiting list for care at any given moment).
BTW, the premier's surgery was a success.

Here's something that's engraved onto the Statue Of Liberty's pedestal.  

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

That lamp in the poem is the light of Liberty.  The right to do whatever you want, as long as it doesn't harm others.  You can own property, own guns, eat unhealthy food, get drunk, or get heart surgeries.  Just don't hurt somebody else.  Lady Liberty's welcome should apply to everyone from lowly Haitian earthquake refugees all the way up to Canadian politicians trying to escape the horrific consequences of their own Healthcare policies. 

Get well soon, Premier Williams ! !   Tell everyone in Canada how much you liked it here.  We need more medical tourism from the truly socialist countries.  We'll leave the light on for you ! 

Paul Krugman tries for a Teachable Moment and fails

Here's the White House pet economist Paul Krugman, learning the hard way about statistical polling samples:



Whoops.

What were we expecting to happen?

From The Associated Press:

WHISTLER, British Columbia (AP) — Canadian mayors have passed a resolution that would potentially shut out U.S. bidders from local city contracts.
The resolution is in retaliation to "Buy American" provisions in President Barack Obama's stimulus bill. Mayors voted 189-175 to approve the resolution at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in Whistler, British Columbia.
The resolution says the federation should support cities that adopt policies that allow them to buy only from companies whose home countries do not impose trade restrictions against Canadian goods.
The mayors also voted to hold off on any action for 120 days while Canada is negotiating a possible compromise with the U.S. government.

Canada's reaction to the "Buy American" provisions in the porkulus plan is, of course, an irrational response to our stupidity. Economies prosper when consumers are protected, not producers.
But still.... what kind of response was our Doofus In Chief expecting?
Hit the Protectionism label below if you want to read several dozen rants on the same topic.

The Descent Into Tribalism

This is how it begins. Here's The Washington Post:

Ordered by Congress to "buy American" when spending money from the $787 billion stimulus package, the town of Peru, Ind., stunned its Canadian supplier by rejecting sewage pumps made outside of Toronto. After a Navy official spotted Canadian pipe fittings in a construction project at Camp Pendleton, Calif., they were hauled out of the ground and replaced with American versions. In recent weeks, other Canadian manufacturers doing business with U.S. state and local governments say they have been besieged with requests to sign affidavits pledging that they will only supply materials made in the USA.

I try to explain this in online debates. I labor in vain to explain it at parties. I blog about it at least every two weeks. I point back to the causes of The Great Depression.

I get nowhere.

Let's try again....

A "Buy American" provision in a piece of legislation is no different than a "Boycott Foreigners" provision.

This pisses off the foreigners, and they pressure their governments to retaliate.

Outrage spread in Canada, with the Toronto Star last week bemoaning "a plague of protectionist measures in the U.S." and Canadian companies openly fretting about having to shift jobs to the United States to meet made-in-the-USA requirements. This week, the Canadians fired back. A number of Ontario towns, with a collective population of nearly 500,000, retaliated with measures effectively barring U.S. companies from their municipal contracts -- the first shot in a larger campaign that could shut U.S. companies out of billions of dollars worth of Canadian projects.

But wait, there's more ! !

Take, for instance, Duferco Farrell Corp., a Swiss-Russian partnership that took over a previously bankrupt U.S. steel plant near Pittsburgh in the 1990s and employed 600 people there.
The new buy American provisions, the company said, are being so broadly interpreted that Duferco Farrell is on the verge of shutting down. Part of an increasingly global supply chain that seeks efficiencies by spreading production among multiple nations, it manufactures coils at its Pennsylvania plant using imported steel slabs that are generally not sold commercially in the United States. The partially foreign production process means the company's coils do not fit the current definition of made in the USA -- a designation that the stimulus law requires for thousands of public works projects across the nation.

There are only two reasons we could have ignored this much history to do something this destructive.

Pick one: 1) the Swiss and the Russian owners of this company can't contribute to election campaigns, or 2) Barack Obama is a drooling idiot.

Neither choice reflects well on us.

In recent weeks, its largest client -- a steel pipemaker located one mile down the road -- notified Duferco Farrell that it would be canceling orders. Instead, the client is buying from companies with 100 percent U.S. production to meet the new stimulus regulations. Duferco has had to furlough 80 percent of its workforce.

"You need to tell me how inhibiting business between two companies located one mile apart is going to save American jobs," said Bob Miller, Duferco Farrell's executive vice president. "I've got 600 United Steel Workers out there who are going to lose their jobs because of this. And you tell me this is good for America?"

Bob, your largest client purchased cold-rolled or hot-rolled steel from you because you had the best product for the best price. This created a substantial savings for the end users, whether they were purchasing cars, knives, lawnmowers, scissors or road signs. And what did we consumers do with these savings?

We went to parties. We had fun with our children. We saw movies, lectures, Tennessee Williams plays, Verdi operas, Rogers & Hammerstin musicals, Bob Dylan concerts, and NASCAR races.

People are incredibly creative, and I'm not just talking about Tennessee Williams, Verdi, or Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

I'm talking about Russian and Swiss steel manufacturers. Canadian pop-rivet suppliers. Israeli electronics distributors, They've all allowed us to save time and money. They've allowed us to come down from the trees, take advantage of their wonderful inventions, and profit from them. And you shouldn't have to be from Russia, Switzerland, Canada, or Israel to benefit from their work.

Here's one of my favorite NickM quotes. (Nick's "Counting Cats" site is down today for some reason. Perhaps the British Blog embargo is already underway.... Otherwise, I'd link it.)

"We emerged from tribalism and through the PC mob we are returning to tribalism."

If there's a better way to explain what we're now seeing, I'm all ears.

Idiot picture from here. A tiresome prophecy where I predicted all of this can be found here. You can visit the Duferco Farrell website by clicking here. For daily updates verifying that Barack Obama is an idiot, click here.

Doctors Against Sharp Pieces Of Metal That Don't Have A Blunt Round Nose, Part 2

A few weeks ago, I posted something about British doctors lobbying to eliminate kitchen knives.

Here's an excerpt from the BBC article:

One idea, first proposed in 2005, is a response to a grisly mundane truth expressed by Met chief Ian Blair this week - that "the most common knife involved in these deaths is a knife from a kitchen".
The proposal came from three emergency medicine specialists, and it's a simple one: getting rid of the points on the ends of longer kitchen knives.

Now, since the grisly beheading of a Greyhound bus passenger, the Canadians are making similar proposals. (Even if you know all about the beheading, go ahead and hit that link. I bet you didn't know that God allowed the beheading to take place because Canada has legalized same-sex marriage, did you?)

According to The Toronto Sun....

Some of our parliamentarians have been getting a bit too much sun during their summer holidays.
That's the only explanation for the discussion by some opposition MPs about the possible introduction of a knife registry, following the gruesome, fatal attack on a Greyhound bus passenger late last month.

You've got to ask yourself this question: What the hell are they thinking? There are millions and millions of knives in Canada. Canadians go hunting. Canadians cook things. Canadians cut ropes. Canadians are ready and able to cut just about anything but their ties to England. (Sometimes I think they would've done that years ago, if it wouldn't mean a victory for the French-Canadians.)

Here's Kerry Thompson again, writing for the Toronto Sun:

A knife registry? Really? What would I have to declare, paring knives, a bread knife, the plastic knife I used to put tuna on crackers while I was having lunch at work the other day?
Most knives are sharp. That helps them serve their purpose, you know, to cut things. There would be no way to single out knives that are used for hunting and ones used to cut chicken for that stir-fry you're making for dinner. Or ones used to, say, kill people?

Now we get to the good part. Doesn't Canada already have a gun registry? Here's Thompson again:

I'm not going to say the gun registry has turned out well, but I think there's a need to register firearms. But knives? In terms of dollars, if you think the gun registry went over budget (ballooning to $1 billion from an estimated $2 million), try to imagine the cost to register millions of knives (how many come in each new set of flatware from Ikea alone?) in this country.

The freakin' gun registry budget went from $2,000,000 all the way up to $1,000,000,000 ? How often do people get budgets wrong by that many orders of magnitude? Have you ever taken your car to in for repairs, gotten a $200 dollar estimate, and then gotten a bill for $10,000 ? (I think I got those ratios right.)

Here's more Kerry Thompson, who stated above that there's a need to register firearms, even if "the gun registry has not turned out well". This is the second thing that Thompson gets wrong:

This is clearly a problem of some politicians failing to think before they speak, something they're known to do from time to time. In this case, the summer sun obviously got to them.

No, Mr. or Ms. Thompson, your politicians knew exactly what they were doing. They once sold you a two million dollar gun registry, and charged you a billion dollars for it. You, for one, obviously bent over and took it. You're a journalist who can't find a way to speak out against your country's Victim Disarmament Laws.

Now, they're coming back for another billion. Yes, billion. And we're talking about valuable Canadian currency, not the USA play dollars that are already devalued from being overcommitted to political schemes like this one.

This is about expanded government control and expanded government revenue, nothing more.

And if you need to have something cut, mail it to me.

It's Mark Steyn, not Mark Stein, filling in for Rush Limbaugh

It's Mark Steyn, not Mark Stein, filling in for Rush Limbaugh.
Here's what you need to know about the guy:

1) He writes for MacLean's, a Canadian newsmagazine that is pure greatness. Some of his warnings about organized Muslim hyper-sensitivity got him and the magazine hauled in front of the Alberta Human Rights Commission - a group that makes kangaroo courts appear to have The Wisdom of Solomon. From a free speech point of view, these Human Rights Commissions are beneath contempt. End of story. If you're interested, check out this thread about a Canadian blogger named Ezra Levant.

2) Mark Steyn (not Mark Stein) began his career as a musical theatre critic.

3) He recently published the book "America Alone", about the U.S. being the last bastion of Liberal Tolerance. I'm only halfway through it, but the general theme is that a curtain of intolerance toward traditional liberal values - Free Speech, Women's Rights, Equality Under The Law - is descending over much of Europe and Canada.

4) The book seems somewhat alarmist until you realize that Canada now has the dreaded "rights" tribunals, England is drifting toward an acknowledgement of Sharia law, and, for the crime of pointing out this intolerance, Steyn's book will soon be banned in Canada. Because it is intolerant.

5) Hmmmm.

6) He's very funny. More of a Libertarian than a Conservative. Here's his website. Enjoy.

The Banality of Evil, Ezra Levant, The Alberta Human Rights Commission, and unh.... Iowahawk???

A political correctness tribunal called "The Alberta Human Rights Commission" has made the mistake of hauling in a blogger named Ezra Levant. Click here for my bewildered ravings about an organization like the Alberta HRC existing in the 21st century.
Levant's crime?
Speaking against Islam.

Criticizing The Religion of Peace carries the death penalty in some places, but Ezra Levant obviously doesn't regret his actions. But the bureaucratic twit who is presiding over Levant's hearing definitely regrets coming to work the day of Levant's hearing.

Iowahawk has done a great service to humanity by linking video excerpts from the hearings (already on YouTube) and other info on Levant. If you watch one of the videos, you're going to watch all the others. And then Iowahawk asks himself...."What is the bureaucratic twit writing on her legal pad?" It's the best satire of this century.

One of the many people who've linked to the Iowahawk posting made reference to "The Banality of Evil".

Here's a concise definition of the concept, from Information Clearinghouse:

The concept of the banality of evil came into prominence following the publication of Hannah Arendt's 1963 book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, which was based on the trial of Adolph Eichmann in Jerusalem. Arendt's thesis was that people who carry out unspeakable crimes, like Eichmann, a top administrator in the machinery of the Nazi death camps, may not be crazy fanatics at all, but rather ordinary individuals who simply accept the premises of their state and participate in any ongoing enterprise with the energy of good bureaucrats.

Is the woman in the videos a Nazi? A crazy fanatic? Of course not. Is she "evil", based on the definition above? You decide.

But is she "a rather ordinary individual who simply accepts the premises of her state and participates in the enterprise with the energy of a good bureaucrat?" In other words, is she just doing her job?

Absolutely.

Ezra Levant, Hero

Free Speech advocate Ezra Levant is a Canadian publisher, blogger, and free speech advocate. (I've been in Canada for about a week, and there's plenty to write about up there. This should be out of my system soon....)

Mr. Levant has been hauled before The Thought Police The Alberta Human Rights Commission because he dared to re-publish the controversial Danish cartoons of Mohammed.

This address to his Kangaroo Court is the most devastating speech I've ever read. I can't imagine what the politically correct Guardians of Sensitivity must have felt like when this was over. Click here for a link to Ezra Levant's site, and the full text of his address.

Click here for the Samizdata post on Ezra Levant. I can't remember, or find where I read about this first, but Samizdata was all over it.

Click here to see all of the Mohammed cartoons.

Updates from January 15th: "Big City Lib" has an interesting summary of additional links here.

And here's Barbara Amiel, of Maclean's, recounting her experience with the Ontario Human Rights Commission. (This was in my bedtime reading, where I was plowing through the remainder of everything I purchased to read on the plane home from Canada. Learning about these Canadian Human Rights Commissions has been almost like learning a new word. Everytime I read something now, there they are....) She writes "Whether stupid or prejudiced, true of false, suppressing opinion is always bad. Seven of my columns are used as examples of Islamophobia in the report. I want to sue the authors myself for defamation, but my view of their view would not be actionable. One would think most Canadians intelligent enough to grasp that freedom doesn't mean you are only free to express nice thoughts. Freedom is not a maple-syrup nut cake to be sliced up: you cannot have some freedom of speech, or freedom of speech only for those people you like. By definition, freedom is indivisible."