statism watch

Corcoran has a point. Can we at least be honest about this – the transition that the Western world is going through, not only in terms of the bailouts, but also the next slate of plans to manipulate the economic system, are socialist, or collectivist if you prefer. Whether or not you agree with them does not change the fact. So let’s get our terms straight.

Flashback: Climate panel presses for federal cap-and-trade system | U.N. ‘Climate Change’ Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy | U.N. Environment Head Wants Global Warming Tax | Scientists warn global warming accelerating | Top Japanese Scientists: Warming Is Not Caused By Human Activity | EU calls for global carbon trading system to fight climate change | IPCC caught with false figures, doubt cast on accuracy of global temperature record | B.C. carbon tax kicks in on Canada Day | Every adult in Britain should be forced to carry ‘carbon ration cards’, say MPs | CEOs call for ‘aggressive’ action on climate change

Terence Corcoran, Financial Post
April 17, 2009

The great economic Sovietologist and state planning expert Michael Ellman, of the University of Amsterdam, once described various types of socialist planning. There’s the “traditional Soviet-type model,” in which the state owns the means of production and the economy operates under dictatorship. That socialist planning system didn’t work, so other presumably more benign versions emerged, including one called the “indirectly bureaucratically controlled model.”

The indirect control model is worth a review these days, since it is where we seem to be heading in Canada. “In this model,” writes Prof. Ellman, “the role of indirect methods (e.g. prices and taxes) of plan implementation is stressed.” He describes it thus:

Bureaucratic regulation remains of central importance in the economic system, but instead of attempting to implement their goals by means of instructions, the authorities attempt to implement their goals by adjusting certain economic regulators (e.g. prices, taxes, the rules governing enterprise behaviour, the rate of exchange, etc). The classic example of the indirectly bureaucratically controlled model is the New Economic Mechanism introduced in Hungary in 1968. The model which the official reformers in the USSR appeared to have in mind in the late 1980s as the goal of reforms initiated under Gorbachev was also of this type.

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Flashback: Israeli military whistleblowers: troops fired on children | Israel admits troops used phosphorus shells in Gaza | Israeli shelling kills dozens at UN school in Gaza

PressTv.ir
April 17, 2009

Israeli forces have shot dead a demonstrator in clashes with Palestinians who were protesting the separation barrier in the West Bank.

Palestinian medics reported Bassam Ibrahim, 30, sustained serious wounds after Israeli troops fired at him during a Friday demonstration in Bil’in and later died at a hospital in Ramallah.

According to Ma’an news agency, the man had previously been listed in serious condition following a direct shot to the stomach from an Israeli fired tear-gas canister.

Witnesses said the projectile was labeled as “40 mm bullet, special/long range” in Hebrew, the same type of weapon that critically injured a foreign activist in Ni’lin on 13 March.

Tristan Anderson — an American national — was shot in the head from a distance of 60 meters.

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It looks as though there is a big fight brewing in the legal community over credit for pre-trial time served. It would certainly be a blow for the backers of ‘anti-terror’ legislation if this young man was set free as soon as he was sentenced due to time served.

Flashback: Judge finds no entrapment of suspects in Toronto ‘terror’ case | Toronto 18 Terror case: RCMP agent Shaikh was instigator who broke law: defence | Globe: “No evidence” of plot in terror conviction, “wide net” cast by strong new laws | Youth found guilty in Toronto terror trial despite RCMP mole’s entrapment role | American Intelligence Contractors Leak Canadian Toronto 18 ‘Terror Training’ Video to Web | Third Mole Surfacing in Toronto Terror Trial? | Canadian ‘Terror Plot’ Begins To Unravel | Police arrest terrorist suspects in Toronto

CBC News
April 17, 2009

The only person convicted so far in the Toronto bomb plot case, who was a youth when he began associating with a militant group, is going to be sentenced as an adult.

The man was found guilty last September of participating in a group that plotted to bomb buildings in downtown Toronto and storm Parliament.

The young man can’t be named because a publication ban remains in force until he is sentenced.

He was 17 when he began his association with what the judge found was a terrorist training camp, but shortly after that turned 18.

He later shoplifted items for the group and dismantled a surveillance camera.

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The plot thickens.

Flashback: Indian Mumbai dossier details gunmen’s calls with handlers | India signs new anti-terror laws in wake of Mumbai attack | India to create national spy agency in wake of Mumbai attacks | Indian Intelligence Provided SIM Cards to Mumbai Gunmen | CIA Foreknowledge of the Mumbai Attacks

AFP
April 17, 2009

The suspected Pakistani gunman on trial in India for last year’s Mumbai attacks will plead not guilty and has accused police of extracting a confession through torture, his lawyer said Friday.

The development came as the prosecution opened its case against Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, calling the November 2008 carnage in the city a product of “institutionalised terrorism” in Pakistan.

Kasab faces a string of charges, including “waging war” on India, murdering 166 people, attempted murder and kidnapping. He faces the death penalty if convicted.

“On his instruction, a retraction application has been filed, retracting the so-called alleged confession,” defence lawyer Abbas Kazmi told reporters outside court.

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Is this a real rise based on economic fundamentals – jobs are still being lost, retail sales are falling – or a Bay St party to celebrate direct injections of cash into Wall St institutions?

CBC News
April 17, 2009

But still down about 4,700 points over past year

The Toronto Stock Exchange finished the week with a good gain, leaving the index higher for the sixth week in a row.

The S&P/TSX composite index added 77 points Friday, up 233 points on the week, at 9,420.74. That’s a 2.5 per cent increase on the week.

The gain in the six weeks since March 6, when it closed at just under 7,600, is about 24 per cent.

“I think we’re due for a pause here,” Laura Wallace of Coleford Investment Management said.

Market activity often slows down going into the summer, she added.

The rise Friday was broadly based, powered by financials, energy issues, real estate and industrials.

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So, the swashbuckling Swedes have taken a body blow. Presumably we’ll be seeing suit brought against Google next, which essentially does the exact same thing. (Unlikely, yes, but just do a Google search for your favourite artist, adding filetype:torrent, and the point will be clear.) The legal argument is that the web site was aiding and abetting copyright infringement, but it seems a bit ridiculous in the context of the Internet, which is designed for transparency of information. Those actually ‘culpable’ of ‘theft’ are the individual kids doing the downloading (though naturally, arresting 13 year olds isn’t as palatable to the industry). What has occured is a massive cultural and structural shift in markets, and charging the Pirate Bay is a bit like charging Gutenberg for inventing the printing press. If people are flooding the Internet looking for content in this day and age, then there is an artificial problem with the markets, a restricted supply that has created pent-up demand.

Technology has made information a cheap commodity. Ideas, like culture and unlike objects, were never objectively owned – you can’t hold an idea or streaming content, only some physical media – a book, a flash drive. The only thing preventing wide dissemination in the past was the resistance introduced by a given distribution network. Theoretically, I could recite a story to you, and you could recite it to the next person you meet, and so on, as people have done throughout history (for free). But what if the story was a copyrighted novel – would this be a violation of copyright? This is all the Internet enables – accurate, virtually endless reproduction of ideas.

This judgement may as well try to confiscate the Internet, photocopiers, pen and paper for all the good it will do: ideas are to people as water is to fish, and the cost of distribution needs to be dramatically rationalized downwards. Any teacher will tell you that intellectual theft is a moral issue – which can be avoided by crediting your sources. Copyright and patent law, while useful, seems it was always a bit of a kludge intended to institutionalize this kind of respect and encourage new creation by giving creators a head start in the distribution process. It seems unlikely it was intended to create any sort of artificial scarcity – that would be counterproductive. But artificial scarcity is apparently the model we’re going with now, and the characters behind The Pirate Bay are probably right to suggest this entire circus is part of the lead-up to the introduction of ACTA, an international treaty to regulate copyright.

Flashback: French legislators reject internet piracy bill | Obama Administration Claims Copyright Treaty Involves State Secrets | Latest Round of Closed-Door ACTA Copyright Negotiations Wrap Up | Digital rights groups sue for access to secret ACTA treaty | Transparency needed on ACTA

Karl Ritter, associated Press
April 17, 2009

Swedish court sentences 4 men who helped Internet users download copyrighted music, movies; group ordered to pay $4.3M in damages

STOCKHOLM – Four men behind popular file-sharing site The Pirate Bay were convicted today of breaking Sweden’s copyright law by helping millions of users freely download music, movies and computer games on the Internet.

In a landmark ruling, the Stockholm district court sentenced Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Carl Lundstrom to one year each in prison.

They were also ordered to pay damages of 30 million kronor (about $4.3 million) to a string of entertainment companies, including Warner Bros, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI and Columbia Pictures.

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Flashback: Toronto’s New Garbage Tracking Bins Delayed for Many | Toronto Mayor delays garbage tax grab for twelve months | Garbage bin fee hike possible before new RFID bins even hit the kerb | Turning Toronto into a nanny state | Toronto Residents Furious Over RFID Garbage Bins | The monster (blue bin) that ate downtown

Allison Hanes, National Post
April 17, 2009

Toronto will soon be refusing to pick up the overflow bottles, cans and newspapers that don’t fit in the city’s new recycling bins – the latest in a series of changes to the curb-side collection program that require the cooperation of befuddled residents.

Bags of pop cans, bales of newspaper and flattened boxes left on the curb are no longer being picked up in east-end neighbourhoods as of two weeks ago, said Rob Orpin, director of collections for Toronto’s Solid Waste Management department.

Nor is material sticking out of the blue bin that prevents the lid from shutting. [Ed. note: Oh noes!]

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