Freedom - it takes one (2)

Antonius	Could we have won, Spartacus? Could we ever have won?
Spartacus	Just by fighting them, we won something. When just one man says, "No, I won't"... Rome begins to fear. And we were tens of thousands who said no. That was the wonder of it.

excerto do argumento do filme Spartacus (1960)

Freedom - it takes one

Freedom (Libertad) - Bruno Bozzetto

Sociedade de criminosos

A Society of Criminals por Ben O'Neill:

What then do I mean when I say that we live in a society of criminals? I mean simply that the vast majority of people in our society are supportive of criminal acts committed against others. These so-called law-abiding citizens support robbery, assault, trespass, and sometimes even murder when these crimes are disguised in the respectable cloak of "public policy."

The scorn with which they view common criminals is truly laughable when one examines the mass criminality that they do support.

In fact, the vast majority of members of the public feel perfectly entitled to the property of others. They demand that the property of others be taken away through the tax system and other "public policies," or forcibly interfered with through "regulation" as a matter of routine.

da má-educação de discutir política em ocasiões sociais

Esta convenção terá surgido porque as pessoas tendem a exaltar-se quando falam de política. O mesmo acontece com a religião, ou com a moralidade. Naquilo que é exclusivamente privado, não há grande discussão. A sociedade é avessa ao conflito. A política, pelo contrário, é conflito. E é conflituoso - e produto de uma educação carente de princípios - querer alargar ao domínio político aquilo que deve ser privado.

The Life of Ludwig Von Mises

FOX News: The Life of Ludwig Von Mises - 9/30/2009

Liberais e o uso do Estado

You Are a Rotten Kid, Walter Block sobre liberais que usam os serviços do Estado:

The points I make in defense of libertarians such as you and I who "take advantage" of government programs while opposing them on philosophical grounds is this. First, they steal from us the money necessary to build these institutions, and then they accuse us of acting incompatibly with our principles for treating them as the thieves they are. The state is not the proper owner of schools, roads, currency, libraries, museums, ball fields, parks, etc. In using them, we are thus not violating our non-aggression principles.

Time for next eco-scare already?

Time for next eco-scare already?! As Global Warming Movement Collapses, Activists Already ‘Test-Marketing’ the Next Eco-Fear! ‘Laughing Gas’ Crisis? Oxygen Crisis? Plastics? por Marc Morano:

Some forward thinking green activists and even the UN climate Chief have already taken up the task of test-marketing the next eco-scares to replace man-made global warming.

• nitrous oxide (a.k.a. “laughing gas”)
• plastics
• oxygen crisis
• overpopulation fears
• Amazon Rainforest scare

Como escrevia Reisman em Capitalism,

The only difference I can see between the green movement of the environmentalists and the old red movement of the Communists and socialists is the superficial one of the specific reasons for which they want to violate individual liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The Reds claimed that the individual could not be left free because the result would be such things as "exploitation," "monopoly," and depressions. The Greens claim that the individual cannot be left free because the result will be such things as destruction of the ozone layer, acid rain, and global warming.

Both claim that centralized government control over economic activity is essential. The Reds wanted it for the alleged sake of achieving human prosperity. The Greens want it for the alleged sake of avoiding environmental damage.

Global Warming Meltdown

Global Warming The Meltdown
parte 1 | parte 2 | parte 3 | parte 4 | parte 5 | parte 6 | parte 7

How to create pain for Keynesian professors

How a College Student Can Safely Create Pain for a Professor Who Is Misusing His Bully Pulpit por Gary North:

The key to an offensive strategy if you are a student is to feign ignorance and beg for clarification. Do this in a way that gains the sympathy of the other students. If the professor pulls rank on you, he's dead in the water in class. If he stonewalls, he loses face. If he says he will help you after class, go to stage two. He is playing nice guy. Your task to undermine the brighter student's trust in what he is teaching.

.... you can slice him up, piece by piece, day by day, after each lecture. This is not kneecapping. This is death by a thousand cuts.

Nigel Farage, talking truth to power

Nigel Farage harangues EU President Herman van Rompuy

Como as instituições minam as condições de prosperidade

Fleeting Youth, Fading Creativity:

Scientific revolutions are often led by the youngest scientists. Isaac Newton was 23 when he began inventing calculus; Albert Einstein published several of his most important papers at the tender age of 26; Werner Heisenberg pioneered quantum mechanics in his mid-20s. At the time, these men were all inexperienced and immature, and yet they managed to transform their fields.

Such innovation could be at risk in modern science, as the number of successful young scientists dramatically shrinks.

Another possible factor in the decline of successful young scientists is the institutions and funding mechanisms that discourage the sort of risky research that produces major innovations. Tyler Cowen, an economist at George Mason University who has studied the funding bodies that support the arts, such as the National Endowment for the Arts, notes that these institutions frequently become more risk-averse over time. "They become more beholden to special interests and fall under greater political scrutiny,"

Também sobre este tema, e altamente recomendado, o livro Calculated Chaos de Buttler Shaffer.

autosuficiência agrícola

Paulo Rangel fala em autosuficiencia agrícola como se não fosse algo profundamente irracional. As cidades, por exemplo, não são autosuficientes, e são polos de desenvolvimento. As cidades beneficiam com o campo, e o campo beneficia com as cidades.

Cabe na cabeça de alguém que as cidades estourem recursos a tornarem-se "autosuficientes"? Não há prosperidade ou segurança sem interdependência económica. Compreende-se que seja eurochic dizer disparates socialistas, mas é indigno de um partido que ainda se diz de centro-direita (embora timidamente).

ai e tal copiar é o mesmo que roubar

instinto de sobrevivência

Muita gente já se demarca do Primeiro-Ministro e do Governo, não só por higiene moral, mas também por calculismo político. O próximo Governo pode ser de coligação PS-PSD, e interessa participar da partilha dos despojos. Por um "centro" rosa-laranja indistinto, amorfo, e sedento de poder.

Nem com Soares presidente

Nem com Soares presidente esteve tão podre o governo ao fim de um ano de mandato. Contrariamente ao que Soares escreve, nenhuma campanha negra fez cair o Governo - em desgraça, por agora. Não foram os media, não foi uma Oposição incompetente, não foi um Presidente gaguejante à procura de reeleição. Foram acções ilegítimas do Governo, que provavelmente só não foi mais além porque o PS não teve maioria absoluta.

Cavaquismo, guterrismo e o Sócrates

É opinião pública que Cavaco e Guterres nem eram maus primeiro-ministros. Em ambos os casos o problema terá sido do aparelho que os rodeava. Daí o "cavaquismo" e o "guterrismo". Nunca passará "o socratismo". No vocabulário popular ficará mesmo "o Sócrates".

henchmen

Alega-se que os administradores delegados da PT por parte do Estado teriam agido por livre iniciativa, sem conhecimento do Primeiro Ministro, ou de qualquer pessoa remotamente chegada ao Partido Socialista. É péssima desculpa. Em qualquer sociedade demasiado estatizada a arraia-miúda age impunemente. A PT e demais empresas participadas do Estado só não estão privatizadas porque é para arraia-miúda que existe o aparelho político do Estado.

Climategate: No global warming since 1995; science not settled

Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995 (Daily Mail):

Professor Jones has been in the spotlight since he stepped down as director of the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit after the leaking of emails that sceptics claim show scientists were manipulating data.

The admissions will be seized on by sceptics as fresh evidence that there are serious flaws at the heart of the science of climate change and the orthodoxy that recent rises in temperature are largely man-made.

Q&A: Professor Phil Jones (BBC):

N - When scientists say "the debate on climate change is over", what exactly do they mean - and what don't they mean?

It would be supposition on my behalf to know whether all scientists who say the debate is over are saying that for the same reason. I don't believe the vast majority of climate scientists think this. This is not my view. There is still much that needs to be undertaken to reduce uncertainties, not just for the future, but for the instrumental (and especially the palaeoclimatic) past as well.

Não

The Most Liberating Word por William Norman Grigg:

To maintain the illusion of consent, the State promotes the fiction of "representative government." In such a system some people can supposedly "consent" to the theft of property belonging to other people, and sanctify the plunder as an act of "mutual" consent.

Exactly the same claim can be made by any other robber band. Of course, this comparison is unfair, since private criminals rarely treat their victims to sanctimonious lectures about their lack of "public-spiritedness." This is one reason, among many, why democracy is the most insidious form of tyranny.

Dissociar o PM do Governo e do Partido

Clama-se pela cabeça de Sócrates, mas ressalva-se que o Partido Socialista tem toda a "legitimidade democrática" para propor outro primeiro-ministro. Regra de bolso, tudo o que seja sustentado na "legitimidade democrática" provavelmente é profundamente imoral. Mas joguemos o jogo. Sócrates foi escolhido pelo Partido Socialista e goza, dentro do Partido, de "toda a legitimidade democrática". E foi o que se viu, sempre para gáudio do partido, cúmplice político e participante das benesses distribuídas pelas cúpulas do poder. O Partido não tem qualquer moralidade para governar. O que devia ser claro é que não há tal coisa como "legitimidade democrática". Uma maioria não pode impor governantes imorais a terceiros. A "legitimidade democrática" acaba quando eu, ou qualquer outro indivíduo, diz que acaba. E já é altura de muitos eus dizerem "não".

Fé na Partidocracia

O sistema político português depende dos partidos políticos, que são das organizações mais disfuncionais alguma vez engendradas. São o arquétipo de instituições que vivem de conflitos entre os indivíduos (porque os indivíduos são todos diferentes), e da supressão da individualidade (porque os indivíduos são todos diferentes). E acha-se bem que uma nação de indivíduos ainda mais diferentes do que aqueles que se congregam em partidos políticos seja governada por semelhante sistema.

BCE

Das duas uma, ou os ministros das finanças da UE elegeram para vice-presidente do Banco Central Europeu um aparatchik político conveniente, ou desconhecem a incompetência técnica de Vitor Constâncio à frente do Banco de Portugal. O BCE é a típica instituição de governo central com poder e sem autoridade; e sem responsabilidades outras que a ministérios cinzentos e distantes. Tanta falta de escrutínio público à volta da política monetária "europeia" só pode acabar mal.

IPCC começa a cair em desgraça

IPCC Boss Unhinged As Greenpeace Demands Resignation:

Pachauri has become one of the primary targets following the Climategate revelations, and his reputation was further demolished last week when it was revealed that he is a total hypocrite when it comes to the “green” credentials he thinks everyone else should embrace.

But it’s Pachauri’s involvement in what has been dubbed “Glaciergate” that has led to calls for his resignation, a mantra joined today by Greenpeace, whose director John Sauven said that Pachauri’s refusal to step down had tarnished the credibility of the IPCC.

India to 'pull out of IPCC':

The Indian government's move is a snub to both the IPCC and Dr Pachauri as he battles to defend his reputation following the revelation that his most recent climate change report included false claims that most of the Himalayan glaciers would melt away by 2035. Scientists believe it could take more than 300 years for the glaciers to disappear.

"There is a fine line between climate science and climate evangelism. I am for climate science. I think people misused [the] IPCC report ... [the] IPCC doesn't do the original research which is one of the weaknesses ... they just take published literature and then they derive assessments, so we had goof-ups on Amazon forest, glaciers, snow peaks.