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Reporters without Borders has produced a useful handbook for blogging in an unfree environment. We will be adding a sidebar link to this useful resource which has some technical tips that may be of interest to people in places where Big Brother tries to controls everything you read. It can be purchased or downloaded for free from here. 
The guide to dissident blogging September 25th, 2005 | One comment - (Comments are closed)
 Reporters without Borders has produced a useful handbook for blogging in an unfree environment. We will be adding a sidebar link to this useful resource which has some technical tips that may be of interest to people in places where Big Brother tries to controls everything you read. It can be purchased or downloaded for free from here.
The guide to dissident blogging September 25th, 2005 | 4 comments - (Comments are closed)
Just as the NHS is the darling of the British people, it will come as no surprise that its failures are increasingly covered by the tabloids, who have found that the crisis in health provision is a concern to those who have to rely on the state through no fault of their own. High taxes and expensive private health care denies choice to the majority of the population. One of the latest (and incredible) stories to emerge is a lack of mops in Victoria Infirmary in Glasgow:
Only scenes such as these could be caused by a state monopoly of health:
Only the NHS could ration health and mops! September 24th, 2005 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
One of the things blogs do is edit the news, that is, look at lots of it, and point readers to the best stuff. And when it comes to this story – about a jeweller who chased and was then shot at by a robber, and who was struck in the chest by one of the shots – what counts is this picture:  Maybe other organs have this too, but I first found it, after seeing it on the ITV news, at The Sun. Well done them. But hang on. Is it not supposed to be illegal even to carry a gun, let alone to fire it at people? These criminals. No respect for law and order. If the jeweller had been armed, or if he only might have been, the robber would have known it, and this event would probably not have happened. Which in this particular case might have been a shame, because this really is an excellent picture. In general, I hasten to add, I am against armed robbery, which is why I so completely despise the laws here in Britain which ensure that only armed robbers are armed when they unleash their villainy. September 24th, 2005 | 137 comments - (Comments are closed)
As I predicted a few weeks ago, SUV-phobes need not get into a hissy fit. The market is changing people’s driving habits:
Price increases change human behaviour. Who would have thought it? September 24th, 2005 | 26 comments - (Comments are closed)
William Heath has another example that even when governments set out to do a Good Thing, it’s not necessarily worth it.
Predictably enough this was no contest.
Euro-lib sounds a bit sleezy, doesn’t it? Anyway, William then picks on the Euro efforts to develop a search engine called Quaero widely seen as a potential competitor to Google. (!) Oh dear.
We hear you… Note: William has started another Ideal Government project, this time about Europe, Ideal Government Europe. I meant to blog about it and others already beat me to it. In the sidebar blurb William asks:
The answer to his questions is a resounding NO from where I am standing and I am not holding my breath at William’s or anyone’s chance to affect anything to do with the EU, however, can’t blame the man for trying to voice his objections when he gets the opportunity to make them to the EU audience and add the bloggers voices to his own. September 23rd, 2005 | 20 comments - (Comments are closed)
Well, I can not say this bad story came as a total surprise, given the near-total lack of respect for property rights and the rule of law in Africa:
The story goes on to say that the seizure is part of a drive to “redistribute” land to people who lost what was rightfully theirs as a result of the 20th Century apartheid regime. Hmmm. It seems to me that on an abstract level relating to rectification of previous injustices, there is some credibility to this idea. However, the big problem is that the people who will get chunks of this land are unlikely to have much to do with the people who were allegedly robbed of said land in the first place, assuming that such a claim can be validated. (Of course if there are people who could claim that they or their ancestors were robbed of what was rightly theirs, then I have no objection in principle to some restitution). In practice, as we have seen all too clearly in nearby Zimbabwe, the spoils of any assault on white-owned farmland will go to the political hacks and cronies of the governing regime, and likely bring about a serious, possibly catastrophic loss of economic wealth and food in a part of the world, that is not, to put it mildly, greatly endowed with such things. Perhaps the president of South Africa should put this book on his reading list. Or perhaps he should remember to heed his own words. More than anything else, Africa needs stable, enforceable property rights, period, if it is clamber out of its current state. Sir Bob Geldolf and friends, please note. September 23rd, 2005 | 66 comments - (Comments are closed)
The surging interest in cricket in England is having an effect in Australia. The South Australian Cricket Association warned today that the England vs Australia Test due in late 2006 might well be sold out. At least 6,000 English visitors are expected for the match. And they immediately followed that up with yet another demand for government funding to expand the seating capacity of the Adelaide Oval. I am confused. Do I laugh now, or do I cry? September 23rd, 2005 | 4 comments - (Comments are closed)
Some of Britain’s problems right now in Basra are a consequence of the absurdity of Muqtada al Sadr still walking around when killing him last year would have been clearly legitimate and just a damn good idea. At the very least he should be sitting in a prison cell. This is not an election campaign, it is an insurgency and the US missed a big opportunity to ‘retire’ Sadr when his militia previously fought against the allied armies. When I called for ‘no pussyfooting around’, I was just suggesting that when an Iraqi faction shoots at British soldiers or throws petrol bombs at them, the respsonce should not be to just ‘contain’ it or to ‘negotiate’ with the faction responsible (at least not until much later after it has been suitably knocked down to size), no, it should be to use all the force at their disposal to try and cut that faction to pieces. Moreover, it should result in significent reinforcements being sent to give UK forces more options. People like Sadr will use violence only if they think using violence will gain them a political advantage at a tolerable cost… so the trick is to make the cost intolerable. It is crazy to give such people a ‘second chance’ during an active insurgency as clearly all Sadr has done is use the time since he last took on the occupying powers to rebuild his power base. No, just treat the guy like the Islamo-fascist he is, put a bullet through his head and make it clear that hard line Islamists militias will not be tolerated in the Iraq. So if local administration in Basra were truly considering handing British soldiers over to Sadr’s militia, then they need to be dragged into the nearest HQ and told if they plan on growing old, that sort of behaviour is a very bad idea. Far from giving them an apology that those undercover SAS man were free by force, they should be told to ‘get stuffed’ and expect more of the same if they prove by their actions that they are the enemy. September 23rd, 2005 | 18 comments - (Comments are closed)
Rita is starting to look like she is right up there amongst the mothers of all storms. According to the National Weather Service:
…RITA BECOMES THE THIRD MOST INTENSE HURRICANE ON RECORD…
If you are in Rita’s path, please get out. UPDATE: Here is the current (updated hourly) satellite image of Rita. UPDATE: Current Category 4 warning. Note that Lake Ponchartrain and New Orleans are within the danger zone. September 22nd, 2005 | 45 comments - (Comments are closed)
Here are verbatim quotes by Tony Blair from the September 15, 2005 Plenary Session of the Clinton Global Initiative Conference. Tony Blair seems to have let the cat out of the bag on his new energy policy at the Clinton Global Initiative Conference last week. Blair said:
This must be a major disappointment to Kyoto enthusiasts, who say ten more Kyotos are needed for effective reduction of atmospheric CO2. On July 12, 2005, on the subject of the Gleneagles Summit, I wrote the following to a number of colleagues:
Allan M.R. MacRae September 22nd, 2005 | 26 comments - (Comments are closed)
– Making the Law, Hansard Society, 1993. So much for separation of powers in the view of serious British parliamentarians. September 22nd, 2005 | 3 comments - (Comments are closed)
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