statism watch

Flashback: Quebec’s photo radar starts ticketing | Plan to add Toronto red-light cameras on hold | Red light cameras not going up fast enough for Toronto budget | Tough new penalties proposed for motorists who run red lights | West Virginia: Bill Turns Traffic Cameras into Spy Cameras | Ontario cities can install red-light cameras

Washington Post
November 5, 2009

Rise of the stealthy traffic camera fuels drivers’ disgust

You rip open the envelope and there it is: Another darned photo-enforcement traffic ticket.

The photograph, the zoom-in on the tag, it’s you, baby. Your car. Two weeks ago. Forty-one in a 30-mph zone.

It’s from your favorite municipality. You can pay $40 now or $80 later. You can also contest it, the infraction letter says, and that’s a laugh. You remember seeing that the folks who went down to fight their automated tickets in Montgomery County got convicted 99.7 percent of the time. Like a Soviet election, you think, a sham, a joke, and you, the chump in the parade.

There’s something that doesn’t smell right about these tickets, but you’re not quite sure what.

Is it the huge profits the government and their cohorts, the camera manufacturers, make on them? The District doubling the number of tickets it issued just two years ago, raking in $36 million last fiscal year? The fact that Redflex, one of the big manufacturers of these cameras, posted a 48 percent jump in revenue last year while the rest of the economy tanked?

People get worked up. Put these cyborgs on a ballot, and the voters beat them to the pavement.

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The Post’s blurb on the following speech reads: Václav Klaus is the President of the Czech Republic. On Nov. 4, the Washington Times hosted a briefing, “Advancing the Global Debate over Climate Change Policy” at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. These remarks were given at the last panel of that event. When Klaus refers to ‘[the people] who had always wanted to control, regulate and mastermind us’ and provides a list of other global crisis that have been leveraged for that end, he very likely has in the back of his mind the Club of Rome’s report entitled ‘The First Global Revolution’, dated 1993. In this report, we can find the following passage: “The common enemy of humanity is man. In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill … All these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself.” Searching? … for a new enemy to unite us? Well, at least they’re honest. More information on the way that the environmental movement has been co-opted by globalists may be found on this page: The Green Agenda.

Flashback: Friends of the Earth attacks carbon trading as banker scam | Oil Companies Support Global Warming Alarmists, Not Skeptics | Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth sequel stresses spiritual argument on climate, downgrades CO2 threat | EU agrees to pay developing countries ‘climate aid’ to pass Copenhagen | Copenhagen’s Plans for a New ‘Government’ are Scary | Copenhagen, carbon, and the global corporate agenda | Lord Nicholas Stern: The world’s future is being decided this weekend | Thatcher science adviser: Copenhagen goal is world government | German Scientists Call for ‘World Climate Bank’ | G8 Summit: Rich nations to pay green tab | US Congress Passes the 1,200-page Climate Bill that it was not allowed to read | Climate Cops To Fine “Wasteful” Homeowners & Businesses | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | Obama to stake reputation on fast-tracked climate bill | The great carbon credit con: Why are we paying the Third World to poison its environment? | Ontario unveils cap-and-trade legislation | Economic stabilization may rely on carbon economy, economist says | Climate panel presses for federal cap-and-trade system | NRTEE Carbon Market Panel is ‘Round Table on Socialist Planning’ | Obama, Gore, tied to Chicago carbon exchange | U.N. ‘Climate Change’ Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy | U.N. Environment Head Wants Global Warming Tax | Time to emulate Roosevelt’s New Deal and create green jobs | EU calls for global carbon trading system to fight climate change

Václav Klaus, National Post
November 5, 2009

Despite huge spending, it has not been proved that the human effect on the climate is significant

Many thanks for the invitation and for the courage to organize such an important gathering in the moment when political correctness tells you not to do it.

We are meeting one month before the Climate Change Copenhagen Summit and several weeks before the U.S. Senate hearing regarding the cap-and-trade scheme. For these reasons, today’s meeting can’t be an academic conference, even though the topic still needs academic discussion. There is no consensus — neither in science, nor in economic analysis or politics.

I have already been at a UN Summit in Copenhagen before. It was in 1995 at the so-called Social Summit. At that time, the Summit was attended by then U.S. Vice President Al Gore who — so it seems — will be there again this year. I did also attend, as Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, but I don’t plan to go there now. I don’t see any chance to influence the results or to be listened to.

In 1995, there were huge demonstrations organized by all kinds of anti-establishment groupings – from socialists and greens to anarchists and anti-globalizationists. I have never seen such clashes between demonstrators and police and army forces before. The difference is that I don’t expect any demonstrations in Copenhagen now. The anti-establishment people have in the meantime become insiders and will be sitting in the main hall. This is a shift with far-reaching consequences.

My views on the doctrine of global warming and especially on the role of man in it are relatively known. My book with the title Blue Planet in Green Shackles has been already published in 12 languages and, two and a half years after its original publication, I don’t have any urgent need to rewrite it.

We should not forget how the doctrine of global warming came into being. In a normal case, everything starts with an empirical observation, with the discovery of evident trends or tendencies. Then follow scientific hypotheses and their testing. When they are not refuted, they begin to influence politicians. The whole process finally leads to some policy measures. None of this was the case with the global warming doctrine.

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It would be simple to laugh at the theist in this case, as has been done to the Alberta Hutterites, who attempted to reject the new RFID-equipped drivers licenses. They were roundly, and this journal believes, unfairly mocked in the comment board of various news articles by the public, at least the part of the public that trolls the media’s comment boards. (This sort of treatment was what the Hutterites came to Canada to escape). But faith may simply be regarded as ideas, originally philosophic ideas, that have hardened into dogma – and Revelations, for all its apocalyptic symbolism, is simply a coded retelling of an ancient story of imperial aggression, dissent, and the desire for the good king’s return. (J.R.R. Tolkein’s masterpiece, written mostly during WWII, is on the same themes). So let’s look at the facts – with all of the biometric and tracking chip technology that’s being put in place alongside calls for a new electronic currency, is it really fair to blame these people if they fear they won’t be allowed to buy or sell without a ‘mark’? Note that the UK is implementing strict laws around childcare workers as well, and fingerprinting the children on top of it. Is this the correct approach – treating everyone like a criminal? Do we desire a state that, under the pretext of controlling every risk no matter how small, micromanages and tracks our lives?

Flashback: UK: Parents need license to play with children in public | Hutterite driver’s licence photo appeal rejected | UK: Now Big Brother targets helpful parents – 1 in 4 Britons vetted for giant new child protection database | Hutterites press fight vs. licence photos | Alberta Hutterites need enhanced driver’s licence photos: top court | US: REALID tracking chip ID card resurrected by PASS initiative | India to issue all 1.2 billion citizens with biometric ID cards | UK: Passport details to be kept on ID register despite card U-turn | Moratorium sought on RFID driver’s licenses | Has your child been CAFed? How the Government plans to record intimate information on every child in Britain | Do Swiss parents need a childrearing licence? | RFID passport security defeated in minutes | Saskatchewan adopting US-mandated ID card, to include RFID chip, facial recognition | Drivers licences with chips spark heated debate | UK Parents Need Government Permission to Kiss Children | Ontario Privacy Czar Worried about High-Tech Licences | North American ID card in the works through SPP

David Kravets, Wired.com
November 5, 2009

A 22-year veteran kindergarten teacher in the Texas Bible Belt could lose her job for refusing, on religious grounds, to give fingerprints under a state law requiring them.

The evangelical Christian, Pam McLaurin, is fighting a looming suspension, claiming that fingerprinting amounts to the “Mark of the Beast,” and hence is a violation of her First Amendment right to practice her religion. Her case is similar to a lawsuit by a group of Michigan farmers, some of them Amish, challenging rules requiring the tagging of livestock with RFID chips, saying the devices are also the devil’s mark.

The latest case is the first in which a teacher is refusing fingerprinting on religious grounds, the woman’s lawyer said. The U.S. Supreme Court has yet to decide whether the First Amendment is implicated in fingerprinting, especially at a time when states, local governments and civic organizations are increasingly making them mandatory for anyone wanting to drive a car or coach a youth basketball team.

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Think you have a right to know what your government is doing in detail? Apparently they differ.

Flashback: Ottawa won’t budge on secrecy laws | Security guards stop MPs, students from distributing fair use flyers at Toronto copyright townhall | Canadian Parliament Threatens People For Posting Video Of Proceedings Online

Michael Geist, MichaelGeist.ca
November 5, 2009

Crown copyright concerns were raised repeatedly during this summer’s copyright consultation as many groups expressed the view that government works should be treated as public domain. The issue generated some surprise from Industry Minister Tony Clement, who asked for examples about why crown copyright was a problem. This morning, the Auditor General provided a helpful example as her office has sent takedown demands to the Globe and Mail and Scribd for posting one chapter from her report (Globe article, Scribd post). The office argues that crown copyright applies and that a written request for permission on a case-by-case basis is required. Leaving aside the fact that this is arguably fair dealing – it is news reporting and consists of one chapter from a much larger report – the very notion that Canadians need advance permission to post a portion of government report runs counter to the Auditor General’s own efforts at government transparency and efficiency. The Auditor General should be encouraging broad dissemination of her work, not sending legal demand letters to shut down Internet postings.

This incident highlights yet again why the Canadian government needs a far more progressive approach to its own copyright policy. It should be leading by example by: (1) dropping crown copyright and (2) adopting Creative Commons licences on its work and sites to promote the use of government documents without permission (see this list for similar examples from around the world).

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Pregnant women are about the last group that ought to be taking an untested, mercury-filled flu shot, but if for some reason you feel compelled (by the media fearmongering, perhaps) to risk it, then at least ask for the non-adjuvanted version. Why? Well, the adjuvant ’squalene’ has been linked to neurological disease and Gulf War syndrome. The German government saw fit to make a special order of non-adjuvanted vaccines for members of parliament and the military. Adjuvants cause an increased immune response which may have been responsible for the heart attacks experienced by the few reported cases of death linked to the vaccine so far. In the end, though, it comes down to questions of trust and relative risk. Do you trust Health Canada to advocate for these vaccines when they’re partially funded by the pharmacuetical industry? Do you trust reports and studies that provide evidence that seasonal flu kills as many or more people a year than H1N1? Do you trust the media to present you with an unbiased viewpoint? Apparently these issues are enough of a concern that doctors, nurses, and pregnant women are staying away from the vaccine in droves in the UK. Given that 93% of pregnant women are going to experience the symptoms of cold or flu under ordinary circumstances, and the vanishingly small risk of death from H1N1 – from 0.007 percent to 0.045 percent of infections – then what’s the point, really?

Flashback: Elite Council Recording Suggests Creating False Scarcity To Drive Up Demand For H1N1 Vaccine | WHO pandemic definition too broad, doctor contends | Vaccine scarcity claims don’t add up | ‘No reason’ to delay seasonal flu shots, global health panel says | Flu Season Has Already Peaked in US, Little Benefit to H1N1 Jab: Study | Flu vaccine shortage expected to last a week | Washington Man Paralyzed After Routine Flu Vaccination | Mass Rejection Of Swine Flu Vaccine Continues Throughout Europe | GlaxoSmithKline profit rises on flu drug | Swine Flu Scam Reaches New Heights With Obama’s Emergency Declaration | Deaths Associated With Swine Flu Vaccine Reported In Europe | US Government Hijacks Kids TV To Propagandize For Swine Flu Shots | Swine flu vaccine approved in Canada | German Government to get special swine flu vaccine | Harper’s hedge on H1N1 shot sparks confusion | Higher instance of severe H1N1 cases in natives, women | UK: National Health Service frontline staff shun H1N1 vaccine | US: Hospitals fear ‘Flumist’ H1N1 nasal vaccine could spread swine flu | New swine-flu wave hits GTA: Provincial Health Official | Canadian taxpayers on hook for any H1N1 vaccine damages | Second wave of swine flu pandemic begins to hit US | Seasonal flu shots delayed for non-seniors on fears of increased H1N1 risk | Seasonal flu shot may increase H1N1 risk | Swine flu death rate similar to seasonal flu: expert | Swine flu unlikely to become superbug | UK: Half of all pregnant women will refuse swine flu jab, poll reveals | Flu vaccine plan will be too slow: CMAJ | Swine flu jab link to killer nerve disease: Leaked letter reveals concern of neurologists over 25 deaths in America | Canada to order 50.4 million H1N1 vaccine doses – with adjuvant additive | Genetically modified Swine Flu hybrid may provide vaccine yield solution | Washington Post: Swine Flu Vaccine Will Contain Mercury | UK Government Swine Flu Advisor On Vaccine Maker Payroll | Fast-tracked swine flu vaccine will be safe, officials insist | Swine flu: How scared should we be? | Top Epidemiologist Slams Swine Flu Fearmongering | Legal immunity set for swine flu vaccine makers | Swine flu ‘related’ to 1918 pandemic virus – survivors exhibit resistance | Did leak from a laboratory cause swine flu pandemic? | Swine Flu May Be Human Error; WHO Investigates Claim | Lessons of 1976: swine flu, fear, mass vaccinations, wasted millions | ‘Accidental’ Contamination Of Vaccine With Live Avian Flu Virus Virtually Impossible | Officials investigate how bird flu contaminated vaccines in Europe | Researchers unlock secrets of 1918 flu pandemic

Joanna Smith, Toronto Star
November 5, 2009

OTTAWA – The version of the swine flu vaccine that does not contain a chemical additive to stretch supply and boost immunity is now available for pregnant women across the country.

“If you are an expectant mother, the unadjuvanted vaccine is now available,” Chief Public Health Officer Dr. David Butler-Jones told reporters Thursday.

This particular supply of 200,000 doses was purchased from Australia because the domestic version was taking too long.

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said she would be signing an interim order to approve the adjuvant-free vaccine produced domestically by GlaxoSmithKline Inc., which is manufacturing Canada’s 50.4 million doses at its plant in Ste-Foy, Que.

Expectant families have faced a series of confusing and changing messages from public health authorities.

The World Health Organization said earlier this year that pregnant women should receive an adjuvant-free version if available because there was virtually no clinical data on the effect of the adjuvant on expectant mothers.

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This is, at least symbolically, a good day for the rights of Canadians. But only symbolically, since although the bill in question would remove the legal/criminal requirement to enumerate an inventory of one’s rifles and long guns, it would still require gun owners to be registered, and the suggestion remains that failure to register weapons may result in administrative fines. But let’s focus on the positive here, though it be thin gruel. Despite the fact that the urban population of this nation views guns as an intrinsic evil, anathema to all that is sweet, good, and progressive, the right to own one’s own means of self defence is an important counterweight to centralized state power. Tyrants throughout history have seen the necessity to disarm any populace they wished to enslave, disable, or annihilate, and most particularly the members of oppressed outgroups. Ex-slaves in America. Jews, Gypsies, and homosexuals in Germany. Armenians in Turkey. The lists of genocides enabled by disarmament goes on and on, all justified in the name of public security.

“The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty.” – Adolph Hitler, April 11, 1942, quoted in Hitler’s Table Talk 1941-44: His Private Conversations, Second Edition (1973), Pg. 425-426.

Flashback: Tories move closer to killing gun registry | UK: Paramilitary police placed on routine foot patrol for first time | Toronto police seize 400 guns in ’safety push’ | Handgun bans and the world of make-believe | No vote scheduled on Tory bill to kill gun registry | Americans stick to their guns as firearms sales surge | Secret Homeland Security Threat Assessment Labels Gun Owners Potential Terrorists | Harper urges supporters to fight long gun registry | Police-run gun amnesties in trouble across country | 1,900 Guns Traded for Cameras in Toronto | Toronto Police offer gun owners shiny new camera, home visit to disarm themselves | Layton promises urban gun control | Ont. premier calls for Canada-wide ban on handguns | Citizens Witness Gunplay, Black Uniforms as ‘Flashpoint’ Shoots Drama in Heart of Toronto | A historic gun club’s final days | Chicago, awash in gun violence, gives Toronto advice: You need a gun ban like ours | Illinois governor suggests National Guard help with Chicago gun crime | Armed Police to Roam Toronto High Schools | My gun, my right. We’ll see | Municipalities Join Miller in Calling for Final Citizen Disarmament | Pistol Pendant Causes Airport Holdup | Miller wants shooting ranges shut down | Machine Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway

Tonda MacCharles, Toronto Star
November 5, 2009

OTTAWA–In a surprising softening of Liberal policy, party leader Michael Ignatieff says penalties for violating requirements of the long-gun registry could be “decriminalized” as part of an effort to broaden its legitimacy in the eyes of rural Canadians.

Ignatieff’s statement set the stage for a vote hours later in the House of Commons in which a majority of MPs voted, for the first time in 14 years, to give “approval in principle” to a bill to kill the long-gun registry.

In a 164-137 vote, MPs – including 12 New Democrats, eight Liberals, and one independent – agreed to give second reading to a private member’s bill sponsored by Conservative Candice Hoeppner (Portage-Lisgar).

That means the bill goes to committee for more study and explosive debate more than a decade after the gun registry’s creation, before coming back for a final decision by the Commons and the Senate.

The bill’s critics and its supporters view the Commons vote as a big step toward the registry’s elimination, especially as the Conservatives will have a majority in the Senate within a couple of months.

Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe said the result was “worrying” and goes against a consensus in Quebec that long-gun registration is a crucial public safety tool.

Hoeppner’s bill would repeal legal requirements to register long-barrelled rifles and shotguns, but it would maintain registration for restricted and prohibited weapons, such as handguns, sawed-off shotguns, and semi-automatic and automatic weapons.

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‘Quantitative easing’ = jargon for printing money out of thin air = inflation = reduced purchasing power for you. Inflation is the cruelest tax, a hidden tax that can beggar a generation.

Flashback: Plentiful paper currency buffing gold’s shine | Central bank of Canada stands ready to inflate currency in response to strong loonie | Bank of England to pump another £50bn into economy | Central Bank of Canada ‘considering’ regulatory changes, ‘continuous private liquidity creation’ | With interest rates at zero, Fed looks at going negative | Bank of Canada poised to print money to buy bonds | IMF poised to print billions of dollars in ‘global quantitative easing’ | UK Central Bank begins using ‘new’ money | Central bank tactics pushed to brink | Bank of England cloaks books, fears of monetary manipulation arise | Maybe we should look at Zimbabwe before trying to print our way out of a money crisis | Analysts Predict Hyper-Inflation To Push Gold To $2000, Oil to $300 | IMF may need to “print money”, act as “world’s central bank” as crisis spreads | Bank of Canada greases financial system with $12B in new cash

Larry Elliot, The Guardian
November 5, 2009

Bank warned that UK banks are still failing to provide enough credit to businesses and households as it held interest rates at 0.5%

The Bank of England will expand its programme of money creation by £25bn over the next three months to boost Britain’s recession-hit economy, Threadneedle Street announced today as it left interest rates unchanged again.

Warning that UK banks are still failing to provide enough credit to businesses and households, the Bank said it would increase the size of quantitative easing (QE) to £200bn.

The Bank’s nine-strong monetary policy committee also pegged bank rate at its record low level of 0.5%, where it has been since March. It said cheap borrowing and QE were needed to prevent inflation falling below its 2% target.

In a statement, the Bank said: “On balance, the committee believes that the prospect is for slow recovery in the level of economic activity, so that a substantial margin of under-utilised resources persists.”

Although the Bank said there were signs of recovery in the world economy, it added that output in the UK had dropped by 6% since the start of a recession that has now lasted for six quarters, the longest period of decline since records began in 1955. “Households have reduced their spending substantially and businesses investment has fallen especially sharply,” the statement said.

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This is surprising, and heartening, and all true. Much less so their followup call for direct carbon taxation. Watch the Guardian video of the FOE spokesperson here.

Flashback: Oil Companies Support Global Warming Alarmists, Not Skeptics | Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth sequel stresses spiritual argument on climate, downgrades CO2 threat | EU agrees to pay developing countries ‘climate aid’ to pass Copenhagen | Copenhagen’s Plans for a New ‘Government’ are Scary | Copenhagen, carbon, and the global corporate agenda | Lord Nicholas Stern: The world’s future is being decided this weekend | Thatcher science adviser: Copenhagen goal is world government | German Scientists Call for ‘World Climate Bank’ | G8 Summit: Rich nations to pay green tab | US Congress Passes the 1,200-page Climate Bill that it was not allowed to read | Climate Cops To Fine “Wasteful” Homeowners & Businesses | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | Obama to stake reputation on fast-tracked climate bill| The great carbon credit con: Why are we paying the Third World to poison its environment? | Ontario unveils cap-and-trade legislation | Economic stabilization may rely on carbon economy, economist says | Climate panel presses for federal cap-and-trade system | NRTEE Carbon Market Panel is ‘Round Table on Socialist Planning’ | Obama, Gore, tied to Chicago carbon exchange | U.N. ‘Climate Change’ Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy | U.N. Environment Head Wants Global Warming Tax | Time to emulate Roosevelt’s New Deal and create green jobs | EU calls for global carbon trading system to fight climate change

Ashley Seager, The Guardian
November 5, 2009

The world’s carbon trading markets growing complexity threatens another “sub-prime” style financial crisis that could again destabilise the global economy, campaigners warn today.

In a new report, Friends of the Earth says that to date “cap and trade” carbon markets have done almost nothing to reduce emissions but have been plagued by inefficiency and corruption that render them unfit for purpose.

As the world heads towards the Copenhagen climate summit, Britain and other developed countries want to see carbon trading expanded worldwide. The carbon market, mainly based in Europe, was worth $126bn in 2008 and is predicted to mushroom to $3.1tn by 2020 if a global carbon market takes off.

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