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Daniel Hannan: When does tax ever get harmonized down?
May 22, 2012 — xanthippa
Of course, some of us believe that a coercive tax system is fundamentally in breech of the principle of self ownership and, as such, an unreasonable breech of our civil liberties. Having individual control over taxation is the only way to keep governments responsive to the wishes of its citizenry.
Recording and photographing on-duty cops is a Constitutional right in the US
May 19, 2012 — xanthippaYes!!!
“Because recording police officers in the public discharge of their duties is protected by the First Amendment, policies should prohibit interference with recording of police activities except in narrowly circumscribed situations,” reads the DoJ’s letter (pdf). “More particularly, policies should instruct officers that, except under limited circumstances, officers must not search or seize a camera or recording device without a warrant. In addition, policies should prohibit more subtle actions that may nonetheless infringe upon individuals’ First Amendment rights. Officers should be advised not to threaten, intimidate, or otherwise discourage an individual from recording police officer enforcement activities or intentionally block or obstruct cameras or recording devices.”
Oh, and citizen journalists – regular people – have as much of a right to record the police as official members of the press!!!
This is good news indeed!
A tiny step in the right direction for Columbia
May 10, 2012 — xanthippaPerhaps it is not a giant leap, but a tiny – yet important – step for Columbia:
‘The Colombian House of Representatives Wednesday passed the first draft of a bill that seeks to legalize illicit crops.’
…
‘Representative Hugo Velasquez Jaramillo, who proposed the bill, explained that although the cultivation of plants would be legal under the new legislation, the processing and trafficking of drugs would remain subject to criminal sentencing.’
It would be unreasonable to expect Columbia to go further than this – for now. The fear of US reaction to even this must be felt…
But, letting the highly destructive US-led prohibitionism dictate the drug policy of many countries has only had disastrous consequences.
Not only is prohibitionism anti-freedom (in a very real sense, it claims greater property right over the citizen’s own body for The State than the citizen’s own claim to self-ownership), it enriches and strengthens organized crime. In some countries, this undermines governance to such a degree that civil liberties cannot be exercised at all!
Obviously, it is in no-one’s interest (except, of course, the organized crime groups and the ever-more-militarized police forces which grow to combat them) to continue with drug prohibition: the evidence is there for all to see. Still, I doubt that most people are willing to look…
But, let’s not spoil the moment: Columbia has taken a step in the right direction. Let’s hope more countries follow – and that this is just a small step in a long march towards eventually abolishing all drug laws!
The Church of Kopimism
May 10, 2012 — xanthippaBelief in the moral goodness of file-sharing is now protected, just like any other religious creed, as the Missionary Church of Kopimism becomes an officially recognized religion.
In Sweden – for starters. From their website:
* All knowledge to all
* The search for knowledge is sacred
* The circulation of knowledge is sacred
* The act of copying is sacred.
(Though not recognized as an official religion in Canada, their Canadian site is here.)
Please, share the video of the first Kopimist wedding:
As big business and big government continue to merge into one corrupt pile of steaming dung, freedom of speech will continue be curbed by commercial laws as much as by any others: it is now that we must recognize that the very concept that ‘ideas’ – in any form – may be ‘owned’ is outrageous, immoral and indefensible. It is precisely in order to protect our freedom of speech that we must fight against any attempt to limit the freedom to spread ideas and information freely.
We do not make up our minds about ‘things’ based on facts – we can only make up our own minds up based on the facts we know – on the information available to us. Without free, unfiltered access to informtion and ideas – all ideas – we are robbed of the very capacity to think freely.
Though I generally see religions (theistic or not) as intrinsically evil, I hope this new religion will be a useful tool in this war!
A Climte Change Conference with an actual debate of the science
May 9, 2012 — xanthippa‘The Heartland Institute’s Seventh International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC-7) will take place in Chicago, Illinois from Monday, May 21 to Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at the Hilton Chicago Hotel, 720 South Michigan Avenue. The event will follow the NATO Summit taking place in Chicago on May 19–21.’
This is one Climate Conference which promises to actually address the science and not just the politically correct rhetoric. It is also likely to address the issues arising from faulty or downright fraudulent science on the topic of Anthropogenic Climate Change:
‘On November 22, 2011, a second batch of emails among scientists working at the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit was released by an unknown whistle-blower. “Climategate II” revealed prominent scientists concealing data, discussing global warming as a political cause rather than a balanced scientific inquiry, and admitting to scientific uncertainties that they denied in their public statements. ‘
Did I mention that Vaclav Klaus, the Czech President, will deliver the first dinner speech, on Monday, May 21st?
Of course, not everyone is planning to be there. Donna Laframboise of NoFrakkingConsensus, for one, has distanced herself from this event over concerns about Heartland’s ethics.
Net Neutrality Becomes the Law in the Netherlands
May 9, 2012 — xanthippa‘In addition, the law includes an anti-wiretapping provision, restricting internet providers from using invasive wiretapping technologies, such as deep packet inspection (DPI). They may only do so under limited circumstances, or with explicit consent of the user, which the user may withdraw at any time. The use of DPI gained much attention when KPN admitted that it analysed the traffic of its users to gather information on the use of certain apps. The law allows for wiretapping with a warrant.’
Bits of Freedom goes on to explain that with passing this law, Netherlands becomes the first country to implement the EU guidelines on Net neutrality.
This comes shortly after we have had a tangentially related – but nonetheless noteworthy – ruling from EU Court of Justice: No Copyright on Computer Functionality or Computer Languages.
Which only makes sense.
BCF is on the trail
May 8, 2012 — xanthippaIn the last few (OK, many) years, the only journalists who seem to be doing their jobs are bloggers.
Not all all bloggers, of course, but there are a few shining stars.
BlazingCatFur (BCF) is one of these.
Here are two connected stories he has been uncovering:
One Islamic school (Madrassa) has been preaching hate-speech directed both at Jews and and Muslims of differing denominations. And not the usual ‘hate speech’ which the Human Rights Commissions are persecuting, which is a thinly weiled code for ‘not politically correct speech’. We are talking REAL hate speech…
And, there is always the money trail: when charities get their tax exempt charitable status, they have to open their books to scrutiny, so that everyone can follow their financial trail. When this trail gets a little muddy, BCF just might be there to clear things up!
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 