Recent Comments
RSS feed
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!
Lilley and Levant on freedom of speech, hate-crimes and Toronto’s Madrassah
May 18, 2012 — xanthippa
While I do agree with their major points – freedom of speech, even ‘hate speech’ – just not on taxpayer’s dime, I do disagree with them when it comes to actions which abrogate the religious freedoms of children: just as no parent has the right to sexually abuse their child, no parent has the right to curb their child’s freedom of religion through childhood religious indoctrination.
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!
…lost shipments of bubonic plague…
May 9, 2012 — xanthippaWho needs bio-terrorists with immunology researchers like we have?
‘But many epidemiologists and public health experts say poor handling inside laboratories, rather than bioterror, is the real threat. More than 100 accidents in high-security labs took place between 2003 and 2009, involving everything from flu-infected ferret bites to dropped vials of encephalitis, slips with Ebola needles and lost shipments of bubonic plague. The 1977 “Russian flu” epidemic may have involved a lab escape. Less accidentally, anthrax used in the 2001 attacks almost certainly originated in U.S. military laboratories.’
Of course, there have been a lot of questions about the origins of some recent epidemics: say, from Mexican neighbourhoods right next to immunology research facilities….
In the mainstream media, we have – of course – not heard enough to put the pieces together, and only those epidemics for which there were already developed vaccines got any press at all, even though some much more virulent and deadly epidemics occurred. (Example: 4 strains of hemorrhagic fever epidemic occurred almost simultaneously at one such Mexican neighbourhood a few years ago…thousands got sick, hundreds died – but most press has not deemed this news-worthy.)
From when, in my student days, I had an opportunity to peek into immunology labs, I have been a strong critic of their lack of rigorous adherence to proper scientific procedures and their flawed governance. But, if I start ranting on that topic, I will be typing for days and never post this…
Let me just say that it was sufficient to make me highly skeptical of the scientific validity of any claims to come out of specifically ‘medical’ laboratories. Most people working there have such an inflated sense of purpose that they don’t think that regular rules of proper science apply to anyone of such exulted status as theirs.
On a related note…
Have you ever read a novel where some rogue group develops a deadly virus in a dastardly plot to kill everyone but the chosen few, whom they protect with a vaccine?
No immunologist would go for this!
Why?
Because vaccines just aren’t that effective.
The best estimates are that the efficacy rate (how they actually protect people in the real-world) of vaccinations is less than half their effectiveness as measured under laboratory conditions. In Canada, vaccines with as low efficacy rates as 17% have been approved. (Yes, I cannot support these numbers, but know this directly from an immunologist who resigned in disgust over the approval…and who is still active in the field, so it is imperative that I protect this source.)
That means that less out of 10 people vaccinated, between 2 and 5 will actually derive any protection as a result of having been vaccinated. (Since the efficacy rate is about half the rate in labs, so even the best vaccine will not give any protection to half the people who receive it.)
Remember, the purpose of vaccination is sufficient ‘herd immunity‘ to slow down transmission, not individual protection!
While even many run-of-the-mill MD’s are unaware of these statistics, most immunologists are. So, the novels with the ‘vaccinate ‘our people’ and release a deadly virus’ would not be carried out by any immunologist, because they understand the limitations of vaccination.
Which, really, is something we should all be educated about.
After all, if we think we are protected from a disease, we will not take the same precautions against catching it as if we were aware that we may – or may not – be protected…a very important distinction with real-life consequences.
Don’t get me wrong: I am convinced that vaccines are a very powerful tool. I just think that any tool, if used improperly, has a potential to do more harm than good. Vaccines are no different!
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.
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 