BBQ in march

Last night I decided to get the bbq out, needless to say it got dark and cold and I ended up cooking in starlight, then our outdoor lights went out and I was left with only the glowing embers to light me. Oh well, the bbq is going away til june now me thinks. Didnt help that the coals were shite as well.

More pope bashing

Click this link at your own risk, theres a picture of a dick awaiting you.

Evil Bastard.

More Cds

After a couple of months avoiding buying any cds, Ive finally sucumbed. Today I got a couple of discs Ive been waiting to get for ages. Rod MacDonald's 'White Buffalo' and John Gorka's 'Land Of The Bottom Line'. No more buying for another month or so now though, there's far too much to save for this summer. Lots of things on my list though; I was under the impression that staying away from amazon would at list stop my wants list from getting any longer, unfortunately it is growing by the day.

Another post on personal liberties

Interesting post on reddit today. As usual this sort of debate always sparks a war of words from both sides, but some of the arguments laid down there are nicely put and I think I'd like to summarise my favourites here for later heated discussion. I am a fairly hard line libertarian for the most part I suppose, though I wouldn't call myself conservative in any way other than the fact I endorse small government and individual liberty. Without trying to take the best of both worlds, I guess I'd like to see a government based around promoting a society of cooperation and community without inpinging on important liberties such as freedom of speech (which is so often where communism falls flat on it's face).

I particularly find the idea of illegal drugs absurd. I think one should be allowed to say and do whatever they wish as long as they do not compromise others ability to do the same. I do not find this statement to be a 'cop out'. There are many areas where total freedom to do as we wish would damage others social freedom - one example of this would be climate change - I don't consider someone to have an absolute right to have a gas guzzling car for instance. Drugs on the other hand are a completely different issue - and here's why: Every externality that drugs lead to are already illegal! Sure, some drugs may lead to violence and thats why we have laws against physical abuse. Using the logic of those who condemn drugs, we should make alcohol illegal, advertising of any remotely harmful product illegal, football matches should be illegal, short skirts should be illegal, in fact if you want to take away negative effects on society you should start banning any activity which reduces peoples productivity - maybe video games, mobiles and tv? The difference between drugs and other crimes is simple. Violence, for example, has a direct damaging effect on anothers freedom, drugs 'might' lead to an infringement of anothers freedom. If we start making all these 'mights' unlawful, where do we stop? It's a frankly scary and endless road towards complete control of peoples lives.

Having said this I'm not against regulation. Areas such as gun crime in the US is a prime example of where proper regulation of these 'mights' are very important. The idea that anyone could go and buy a machine gun is horrifying to say the least. 

Governments, in my opinion, are there to decide the way forward on large scale issues which cannot be decided on an individual level. I cannot speak for the nation on whether we should join the Euro, I believe that these sorts of decisions are questions best left to our democratically elected experts (not that we can't complain when they make mistakes). Individual issues, such as whether I drink or take drugs, as long as conducted in a responsible manner are none of the governments business in my opinion. If I then go on to commit a crime because of this, sure, you trial someone on that crime, but this should not be an issue if the population are well informed and regulated in an effective way. 

One may say that is easier said than done, yet it seems to work so well in other areas. We dont criminalise skirts because they incite rape? We criminalise rape. Why are drugs any different? It's not as if criminalisation actually has a great deal of effect. I havent discussed some of the positive effects of regualtion over criminalisation, I have been merely focussing on a moral standpoint. By legalising drugs, we would instantly cut the need for criminal enforcement, saving billions and remove the need for criminal organisations on the grand scale that we have now. Regulation removes dangerous cut drugs from the black market, allows better healthcare and education to be afforded to users and creates an opportunity for taxation for the government.

Reading

Well today Ive been doing some reading for my environmental management course; gotthrough a chapter this afternoon. Unfortunately this text has a very poor first chapter. I'm sure that it isnt particularly relevant to the rest of the course, but it doesnt exactly fill me with a great deal of hope that Mr. John Brady has edited the rest of the book to a decent standard. It's basically an introduction, but it is filled with factual inconsistencies (the first line states the the Earth is 10 Billion years old!). It goes on to adopt the same old falacy of arctic ice melt affecting sea level and is far too heavily laced with 'lovelockism's' for my liking. Still, maybe chapter 2 will be better; it is afterall, supposed to be a book on environmental management, not on the sad hopeless future we are all heading for. There must be some light at the end of the tunnel or they wouldn't have bothered with the book, surely?

Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick

Im gradually working my way through the smithsonian folkways catalogue (it may take some time!). Discovery of the week is Rev. Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick. Very bluesy protest folk from the late 60s, with a great voice as well. The guy is a bit of a hero of the civil rights movement, setting up Deacons for Defence and Justice in 1964 to oppose the KKK in the south. Give it a go, the whole album is up on Spotify.

Today Im planning a clear out of my room. List of suprise finds to be posted later.