I have mixed feelings about this year. My attention got hijacked by the believers. Immigration, terrorism, law-fare was the subject of half of the posts I wrote in 2015. I left them for the end of this list.
Tag Archives: Zork (the) Hun
The triage of money – the cost of free
American Democrats, Canadian liberals and socialists all over the world like to get righteously indignant when conservatives of any stripe use the expression “Death panels.” Yet, in Canada today there is a case in front of the Supreme Court about just that. They will decide who can decide over matters of life and death. Relatives, doctors or ‘independent’ (i.e.: government) organizations such as the “Consent and Capacity Board” of Ontario. All you leftists please note, that this is NOT a death panel. This is absolutely clear from the fact that it is not called that way.
What the Supreme Court will have to make a decision about is whether the doctors or the CCB can have the power to overrule the wishes of the patient or their representatives.
Welcome to the Big Fat Greek Revolution!
Welcome to the Big Fat Greek Revolution Election!
I did not think that this stupid election will hit me this hard. I was outright depressed and desperate as I watched America committing suicide in front of my eyes.
I believe we are at a pivotal moment in history.
The Ryan miss, the Biden sleaze and the hypocrite’s dilemma
I watched the vice presidential debates.
I have to admit to my ignorance, I have no idea what is going on in a presidential or vice-presidential debate preparation. I assume they get prepared for the arguments and also the expected low blows, yet when a standard liberal cliché low-blow came from Biden, Ryan was not prepared to handle it. (look for it at around 30:00 minutes into the debate)
Seven questions for a believer
What makes a good question? It is said that a good lawyer will never ask a question in a courtroom to which he does not already know the answer. To them, a good question is the one that can have only one answer, the one they want to hear.
For some, the good questions are the gotcha questions. The ones that stomp the opponent. The ones they cannot immediately answer. The ones that make them winners by default.
For some, it is the loaded question, the one that is so heavy with assumptions that the opponent cannot answer it in any way without making himself look bad or stupid.
To me, a good question is the least obvious one. The one with the lowest level of assumptions. The one that forces the other side to think about his assumptions, his premises. A good question is a question on the margin. The one your opponent has not thought of before.
All too often debates happen around core ideas colliding head on, both parties reinforcing their own beliefs, walking away in the end more convinced that the other side is wrong.
Do not believe me
Believe it or not, I do not want to be an anti-Muslim crusader. I consider Islam to be a serious threat to the survival of our civilization which I fear is on the verge of collapse and Muslims are the new barbarians to bring it about but I would love to think and talk about other things (and this you should believe).
On the crossroads of pathologies
I saw a documentary the other day “My brother, the islamist” raising questions without offering answers.
It is not a remarkable documentary, but it is worth watching. It starts as a puzzle and ends as one. We can see what is happening, but we are not given much help to understand why.
I saw several short Youtube videos about Sweden, also recalling a Pat Condell commentary on it. I will not pick any video; just search Youtube for Islam in Sweden to get an idea what Muslims are doing to it.
Then I watched parts of Barack Hussein Obama’s and Mohamed Morsi’s UN speeches.
All of this (especially the documentary) left me with a number of questions:
What it means to be an immigrant
I am an immigrant to Canada. I escaped communist Hungary because I did not want to live in a Communist country. I detested the religion-like ideology. I DID NOT come to Canada for a larger slice of bread, I came here for freedom. Definitely not to export communism.
Isn’t it time to get offended?
Coming home from our vacation we were driving the 401 from Montreal to Toronto. We ran into a bunch of Muslims twice. The forward pointing bearded types who always look angry.
At the time of the second encounter the sun was about to set. The En-Route place was not too busy, but it wasn’t exactly empty either. The weather was nice, there was even a grassy area outside but these Muslims were looking for a place inside for their praying. They found a corner with a view, pushed some chairs around to make room for their carpets and started their praying.
I found the whole circus deeply offensive.
Islam and the Golden rule
The Wikipedia article about the Golden rule gives a fair description of the subject as does this encyclopedia entry. The golden rule seems to be a truly universal principle. Except for what it misses, of course. Consideration for cultural goals and individual intent. The golden rule is so foundational to our culture that we do not question its basic assumptions of benevolence and positive self-gratification. The notion that we all want to feel good and want only good things happen to us. The notion that we know what a good thing is, while the Golden Rule is actually nothing more than an expressed preference for reciprocity. All the rest we read into it is just a bunch of cultural assumptions.
The harm government services cause
The following is a reply to this comment that just grew too long. (Chris is a Canadian ex-pat living in the US)
Chris,
I love this conversation. We very quickly got to the heart of the big libertarian question. I do not think that I will be able to answer it for you in this comment, but I hope I will get there at some point.
All I can do here and now is answering the easy questions and asking some difficult ones.
Justice health
I was asked to edit this post on this day of 2012-09-28. I will comment on the request and its implications later, once I finished my series of posts on Islam. [xxxx] denotes the change
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I am not an anarcho-capitalist libertarian. I would define myself as a culturalist social-libertarian.
I will explain at some point what I mean by that and I would love to debate the nuances with a true anarcho-capitalist libertarian such as Stefan Molyneux but the point that matters here is the answer to the question: where do you draw the line? What are the legitimate functions of the state?
For a true anarcho-capitalist the answer is none. The state is by definition a monopolistic and therefore coercive entity and has no legitimate function in a free society. Next step from that view is the one saying that the three legitimate function of the state are the military, the justice system and the police, basically protecting society from violence from the outside, from the inside and arbitration of conflicts.
I more or less subscribe to this view, but today I have to argue against it.
Obama’s heroism – Osama’s martyrdom
I am fed up with Obama’s ‘heroism’ and Biden’s clownery. Continue reading →
What prisons should be about
I spent 3 months and 20 days in police custody and jail, 5 months and 10 days in a real prison. The ‘big-timers’ said I only went in to look around. They were right. I am not a criminologist, I only glimpsed into the system, but seen enough to have clear ideas about it. Continue reading →
My story. Finally.
I had no compelling reason to tell this story before, but I got to a point now, when there are several things I cannot appropriately address in this blog without referring to it. Most of what I think about criminal justice and law enforcement is influenced by my own jail experience.
On March 15th 1972 when I was 19 years old, I was arrested, charged and convicted of the crime of “continuously and publicly perpetrated sedition against the established order of the Hungarian People’s Republic.” I was sentenced to one year in a maximum security prison; I was paroled after serving nine months. Continue reading →