A year after having read Atlas Shrugged, two good articles comparing the events in the book to real life events in this current financial crisis:
'Atlas Shrugged': From Fact to Fiction in 52 Years
Britain, by Ayn Rand
Too sad.
As things start to wind down for the year, this will be my last post of the year, and reflect on a very successful year. As my ClusterMap down the right shows, this blog has received more visitors from all different parts of the globe this year than last. I have had more people talk, email, and post on or about the Libertarian Front, and my SOLO-Youth Press Releases (all of which were posted originally here) have appeared widely throughout the internet.
So, to all the people who have posted, read, and discussed this blog from all corners from the globe: merry Christmas to you all, and a happy 2009!
As of today, the Libertarian Front is officially two years old -started on December 5, 2006.
Since then, well over 20,000 visits have been paid to this blog. Those visits have come from obvious places such as New Zealand and the United States, and also from countries such as Georgia, Suriname, and even Greenland and Palestine. The top 20 countries go as follows:
| United States | 2,664 |
| New Zealand | 2,620 |
| United Kingdom | 597 |
| Canada | 304 |
| Australia | 244 |
| India | 90 |
| Germany | 86 |
| Netherlands | 81 |
| Italy | 58 |
| France | 55 |
| Brazil | 54 |
| Malaysia | 44 |
| Spain | 40 |
| Philippines | 32 |
| United Arab Emirates | 32 |
| Poland | 31 |
| Sweden | 30 |
| Indonesia | 30 |
| Mexico | 29 |
| Japan | 27 |
The top 10 on the ACT Party List for the 2008 election goes as follows:
1) Rodney Hide
2) Heather Roy
3) Roger Douglas
4) John Boscawen
5) Undecided
6) Hilary Calvert
7) Peter Tashcoff
8) John Ormond
9) Colin du Plessis
10) Shawn Tan
Recognize #10? Probably not. (In fact, you should be congratulated if you recognize anyone from the entire second half of that list.) However, if you're in the Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union, you'll definitely know him: he's Shawn Tan, and he's made big news in the Union recently.
As well as working for, as the ACT website says, three different Unions, he's also been involved in organizations such as the "Students for Justice in Palestine", a group that is, officially, "organized on democratic principles to promote justice, human rights, liberation and self-determination for the Palestinian people, with goals that include "the full decolonisation of all illegally held Palestinian lands, the end of the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem; the implementation of the right of return and repatriation of all Palestinian refugees to their original homes and properties, as well as an end to the apartheid system of discrimination against the Palestinian population". In other words, another anti-Israel group that is, because of its support of Israel, anti-United States.
Don't forget that he's also just come over from the Green Party.
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So, what about the other candidates on that list? Obviously, Rodney Hide and Heather Roy are at the top. Then, there's Roger Douglas and John Boscawen -not bad choices. As for numbers 6-9: well, there's a guy who's written a Maori novel. Another candidate's biggest political challenge is opposing the Trans-Tasman Therapeutics Bill. There isn't a lot to say about the others.
Also, consider who you don't see on the list. The people you see above you have replaced outstanding candidates such as Lindsay Mitchell, who is one of New Zealand's leading crusaders against Nanny State. Which is a damn shame -if ACT does get into Parliament, it would be nice to see her there.
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Some debate has also been occuring over the EPMU's course of action regarding it's new ACT Candidate; Whaleoil calls it "disgusting". However, I beg to differ; the Union, as a private entity, has the right to hire and fire whoever it wants -which is part of Libertarianism. However, it is very hypocritical that a Union should be doing so -considering that Unions originally pushed for the banning of such practices.
Elijah Lineberry, Auckland Libertarian, has a new blog. You can find it at nzcapitalist.blogspot.com.
I've come across some very interesting statistics from a new blog I've started reading, Kramjam Reiterates, by Mark in OC ("OC" being Orange County, a nice area of 3 million people south of LA and where Disneyland is located). He says:
"A little over one year ago:
1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;
2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
3) The unemployment rate was 4.5%.
Since voting in a Democratic Congress in 2006 we have seen:
1) Consumer confidence plummet;
2) The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $3.50 a gallon;
3) Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase);
4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity value evaporate (stock and mutual fund losses);
5) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion dollars;
6) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.
America voted for change in 2006, and we got it!
Remember, it's Congress that makes law not the President."
Which I find very interesting. Although two years is a rather short amount of time, few of the economic problems facing America -and the rest of the world- existed before the Democrats got into power in Congress.
A warning to America: don't be fooled by talk of "change" -often, it's change for the worst.
If you don't already, I suggest you start reading the NZ blog rankings over at Tumeke. During the election year, the people over at Tumeke will be displaying the ups and downs in traffic, posts, etc, updating every month.
I'm at #97 this month, and slowly going up. If you're lucky, you'll be the proud owner of a blog somewhat higher than that!
The Electoral Finance Bill/Act came into effect two days ago, meaning that any voices who oppose the government can effectively be silenced by the power of the gun, the government deciding who's fit to receive money to campaign and who isn't, and who is allowed to donate money and who isn't (all the while supporting the ideas of those who they don't support with their own tax money).
The first casualty on this war on free speech, ironically, is Helen Clark. At the start of the new year, a group called "People Power" threw a rock through the window of her electoral office in Mount Albert, to protest the act. It wouldn't be the first time someone has vandalized Helen Clark's electoral office; the first time, however, the offender was charged with sedition (!).
Tim Shadbolt, the usually Labour-leaning and provocative mayor of New Zealand's southernmost city Invercargill is now touting the opposition to the Act, telling his citizens and those of the entire country to not vote Labour.
To protest this act further, Cameron Slater of Whale Oil and Andy Moore of The Section 59 Blog have started up www.dontvotelabour.org.nz, and they could be the first people brought to court under the new law.
...but where's their $1200 that supports claim that the Act will stop? Maybe they should realize that the $1200 cap on personal anonymous donations is truly pitiful compared to the $4.8 million of public money Labour spent on election campaigning in 2005. But which party received the most anonynous funding last year? ACT!
Or perhaps you'd like to do a Chris Trotter, getting quickly off the actual issues to do a bit of scaremongering non-existent concepts in his twisted, Marxist view of reality.
I'm pleased to report, that not long after my one year anniversary, I've meet another milestone: my 200th post mark, which is my post right below this one. That means that, on average, just under two posts have been posted here each day. Once again, not a bad mark considering Rick's challenge. :-)
~Callum
I'm happy to report that "The Libertarian Front" turned one year old on December 4 - a year of being on the front lines for liberty on the internet. Said Rick Giles in response to my very first post:
"9/10 bloggers burn out in their first 2 months."
"We'll see."
Not me, Rick. And to celebrate, I'm restarting my series on skyscrapers, starting out with the Sears Tower.
~Callum
PC has on his blog pictures of the Auckland march against the Electoral Finance Bill, which 2000 people attended in the interest of preserving freedom. He also has an excellent article on the EFB-surely the most dictatorial bill ever to be thought up in supposedly Western New Zealand.
Let's see if the Wellington march will be better!
It turns out there are, in fact, no gays in Iran. From the New Zeal blog:
..."over 4,000 lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979. Altogether, an estimated 100,000 Iranians have been put to death over the last 26 years of clerical rule". Lovely man, Ahmedinejad.
There is a new activist site dedicated to destroying Nanny State that everybody in NZ who cares for our future should get behind: Back Off!
The people at Back Off! concern themselves with activism in the name of freedom in NZ. Right now, they are planning a march in Wellington, against Nanny State and any organization who wants more power and control over NZers.
"First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left
to speak up for me."
...And the people at Back Off!, just like freedom lovers all over NZ, are determined to stop that.
http://backoffnz.blogspot.com/
I've set up a new blog over at SOLO. Much of the stuff over there will be from this site, but there will be the odd occasion when there's an exception, so keep your eyes peeled there, as well.
~Callum
In America, as all over the world-and New Zealand, as all the blogs on the subject here would suggest, political blogs are the latest force in the political realm.
In San Diego, CA, 50 notable bloggers along with the 400 mainstream media are going to attend the 2007 California State Democratic Convention. One political commentator in San Francisco had this to say about the rise of so-called "PoliBloggers":
"With the 2008 presidential election just 556 days away, political parties and candidates understand that bloggers have become a critical part of the commentary on political developments "on a scale that is absolutely astounding," he said.
Many of them have passionate followers, people who are crazy about politics," Leyden said. And if you legitimize them, and bring them into inner circles ... they will get a huge new segment of folks energized that aren't necessarily reading newspapers and aren't involved in politics."
Political Bloggers are not just a small dish on the side; they're evolving into a major force in political debate today. With that inevitability, the same question has to be asked: What does this mean for free speech, democracy and freedom in general?Fellow Libertarian/Objectivist blog-writer Kane Bunce has written a few expansions on my original post. I suggest you read them, especially if you aren't pro-Capitalist.
You can find them on his blog, Capitalist Writer.
Yes, thats right; after a short test at the Great Firewall of China, I've found out that my blog has finally been banned in China.
It seems that the Chinese Officials didn't read listen to my advice, as I predicted. sigh.
A new blog has been set up called "Marxwords". It's all about things that Marx and fellow cronies like Lenin said that, as it says on the top of the page, "Marxists hope you never hear about". Although more of the quotes require a bit of intellect to understand, it's an interesting read if you get some spare time (and Easter will be perfect). I suggest that you pass it on to as many Marxists as possible.
Sad news. The new CYFSwatch site has just been deleted again. It looks like the Ministry of Societal Deprivation finally got their way.
I'm not quite sure of whether it's another dictatorial action by Helen Stalin, and her Liarbour party parasites, but I do know that it's a sad day for free speech in NZ; such days are becoming awfully common.
Edit: Bernard has provided me with the link to the third (and easily the best!) CYFSwatch site. So, once again, here it is.
