May 19
Even the Associated Press has begun to notice the collapse of Venezuela just 15 years after the country adopted socialism:
Vigilante violence against people accused of stealing has become commonplace in this crime-ridden country of 30 million, once one of the richest and safest in Latin America. The revenge attacks underscore how far Venezuela has fallen, with the lights flickering out daily, and food shortages fueling supermarket lines that snake around for blocks.
May 18
Socialism is a curse that no one should wish for–unless one wishes it on a hated enemy.
Any society that adopts socialism will inevitably become sick and weak over time.
Venezuela went hard-line socialist in 2000. Sociology professors in the U.S. cheered the Latin American country on.
But just 16 years later, Venezuelans are starving and dying in the streets.
Venezuelan GDP fell 3.9 percent in 2014, and 5.7 percent in 2015.
In 1999 there were 13,000 Venezuelan companies. By 2016 that number had fallen to 4,000. See here.
May 18
A terrifying spectacle of hate has become front-page news in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and the Billings Gazette.
For the past 2 days, both papers have focused on a story of some fun-loving (but foolish) Canadian tourists who allegedly strayed off the government boardwalk at Yellowstone National Park’s Prismatic Spring geothermal area. The young men apparently sought a few moments of excitement, and defied National Park Service signs warning visitors not to walk out on the surface of the hot bubbly mud. See here, and here.
Hundreds, if not thousands of people have done the same thing.
But the Canadians posted video on social media. See here.
Chronicle and Gazette writers have led a torrent of hatred against the hapless young men, detailing how the Canadians violated various rules of the Park Service. “Yellowstone park rules explicitly prohibit tourists from traveling off boardwalks or designated trails in hydrothermal areas,” the Chronicle wrote.
Astoundingly, the Chronicle even reported the NPS’s blatantly unconstitutional anti-filming regulation–WITHOUT SO MUCH AS MENTIONING THE POSSIBILITY THAT THE REGULATION MAY VIOLATE THE FIRST AMENDMENT.
Additionally, park policy prohibits filming from the social trails above Grand Prismatic Spring.
The park requires film permits for commercial, nonprofit, documentary, promotional or educational filming, including entertainment broadcasts and some student projects.
Rachel Cudmore, who works in the film office at Yellowstone National Park, told the Chronicle in an email that no permits were on file for High On Life or any of the four men associated with the project. She added that the project “would have required a commercial film permit.”
“Typically, anyone that is filming or photographing for reasons other than personal enjoyment should contact the Film Office to inquire about a special use permit for these activities,” Cudmore said.
The Chronicle even expressed astonishment that
Filming without a permit was not one of the charges listed in the criminal complaint filed Tuesday, though Reid said it was possible that charge could arise later on.
Cudmore said filming without a permit was a misdemeanor crime with a maximum prison term of six months and a maximum fine of $5,000.
May 16
Reason Magazine’s cartoonist Peter Bagge recently took a 4-day trip to Cuba.
(Cuba has recently opened itself somewhat to American tourism.)
Bagge reports that Cuba is a filthy island with littered beaches and smoke-filled air. The air pollution is so bad there that Cuba’s weather reports sometimes simply say: “Smoky.”
There are rolling blackouts and bad plumbing. Evidence of racial discrimination, according to Bagge, is everywhere, even while Cuban socialists proclaim their society to be racism-freeSee here.
Bagge reports that the most highly educated Cubans make more money catering to western tourists than they would practicing their professions.
May 15
In 2016, Lysander Spooner University will embark on a series of research trips aimed at studying glacier in Montana and the greater Yellowstone region.
Join us this coming Saturday at the sidewalk in front of the ‘MT Cup’ coffee shop in Livingston, Montana at around 8:00 a.m..
After introductions, we will caravan to the nearby Crazy Mountains (estimated drive around 30 miles) where we will begin trekking in search of the Crazy Range’s mountain snowfields.
Be warned: it is early season and there is plenty of snow to navigate through. Bring crampons, snowshoes or skis.
AN ANSWER TO ‘CHASING ICE’?
Several people have pointed us to a film and lecture series called “Chasing Ice” by nature photographer James Balog and Jeff Orlowski. The 2012 film is visually impressive and quite stimulating. It depicts the well-funded ‘Extreme Ice Survey’ project, in which Balog and other activists don expensive state-of-the-art gear and take sequential footage of glacier melts in Greenland, Iceland and elsewhere, in an effort to promote fear over alleged manmade global warming.
“Chasing Ice,” of course, has been met with rave reviews almost everywhere. Critics like Tony Heller, however, point out that what Balog and Orlowski attribute to manmade carbon emissions has actually been happening FOR CENTURIES, meaning that fossil fuels cannot be blamed for all the world’s reduced glaciers.
Blalog will show some pictures from 100 years ago, and compare them to modern pictures, to prove that global warming is making the glaciers disappear. What he won’t tell them is that everything he documents has been going on for centuries, and has nothing to do with human activity.
Lysander Spooner University’s research project is much less well funded and less ambitious. We aim to capture photographs of local Montana and/or Wyoming glaciers from the same vantage points year after year on the same calendar dates.
Join us next weekend!
May 15
See this story from Yahoo News.
Every government that ever existed ultimately came for all freedom, all property, all money, and to kill all who resist.
Frequently, governments accuse anti-government speakers of such crimes as treason, sedition, undermining the morale of the military, conspiracy to overthrow the government, or plotting terrorism.
Defense lawyers have pointed out that many of those arrested in Egypt were simply grabbed randomly from cafes, stores and sidewalks, in a show of force by the state.
May 14
Two decades ago, Venezuela was a vibrant but struggling, up-and-coming democracy.
The voters overwhelmingly approved of Hugo Chavez and took the country in a big-government, socialist direction.
Venezuela drove out private businesses, censored the press, and imprisoned dissidents. You know, . . . to help the poor.
Now the poor are poorer than ever.
Mobs in Venezuela have stolen flour, chicken and even underwear this week as looting increases.
Many basic products have run short. See here.
May 12
Again and again, data analyst Tony Heller has caught government agencies doctoring temperature data records to make the past seem colder (and the present, therefore, warmer in comparison).
Now Heller has noticed the official NOAA data set for Boulder, Colorado. In one case, the government agency has lowered past temperatures AS MUCH AS 7.8 DEGREES! See here.
NOAA lowered the average temperature for December 1957 by 7.8F, and made the average temperature minimum nearly as cold as the lowest temperature for the month.
“Almost every day of the month was above the adjusted average.”
May 12
Like Venezuela, Brazil has been on a government-growing binge. Government “workers” have been given increasingly favorable pension and payment packages. Many retire young and live as barons at taxpayer expense. See here.
But the socialist trend of the past 15 years is now producing negative returns in Brazil. The economy is collapsing. See here.
Now the legislature is impeaching the country’s powermad socialist president. See here.
May 11
Government colleges such as the University of Oregon are supposed to be subject to the Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment’s protection of free speech and free assembly.
But the universities have mostly become dens of Orwellian pro-government thought control, where dissenting opinions and criticisms of government are not only shunned but punished.
Look at this description of the University of Oregon’s elaborate thought-police network. A team of dozens of paid government officials are in place to investigate and punish all suggestions of political correctness.
Today when one walks away from a government college campus he immediately enters a freer, friendlier, less-expensive world.
