Welcome back, friends; June it is, and the first Monday thereof. Summer begins!
The UK government has published yet more desperate plans of yet further efforts to try to curb binge drinking, part of which is advice they’ll give to parents on when they should allow their kids to drink at home. This reminds me of the painful, widening gap between me and the attitudes of many in my homeland: the binge-drinking culture in which people try to forget about how shit their lives are, the pathetic submission to government in the manner of kids who don’t know what to do themselves and will allow their politicians to tell them how to raise their children, the fact that nobody blinks at the government publishing ‘plans’ about the behaviour of millions of individuals; I can’t stand it. I can only quietly suggest that if the UK government wants to curb the binge drinking culture, then it should get the hell out of the way of the citizens who elected it. Tax less, regulate less, legislate less, police less, nanny less, moralise less. Stop telling them what to do! Start protecting their rights and freedoms. Free people can more easily find happiness, and happy people don’t need to get hammered every weekend.
In other British news, London’s new mayor talks of a “culture of stabbing”, according to an article by Mike Hume on Britain’s problem with knife crime. Doesn’t this confirm the arguments of pro-gun people like me that violent people will use whichever weapons they can find, and that the blame lies therefore not with the tool but with the person using it? Any efforts to ban kitchen knives should be resisted, of course. (Argument 1: How to cut the cheese with no kitchen knives?)
Reason magazine says, “If the recently concluded HBO series The Wire is arguably the most aesthetically accomplished fictional indictment of the decades-long war on drugs, there is no shortage of contenders for the most absurd bit of prohibitionist agitprop…” and then proceeds by taking a tour of those contenders – funny stuff.
“It’s official: food is scarce.” Everyone’s saying it; Gordon Conway adds, “In the west, until recently, our collective consciousness has been preoccupied with rising obesity levels that come with increasingly sedentary lifestyles and the proliferation of unhealthy food choices. Yet we are lucky to have choices at all. In the race to feed the hungry now, and the many millions more hungry of the future, supersizing world food production – not consumption – is our only option.” I couldn’t agree more. But this is nothing new for libertarians: liberty for individuals and for corporations has always been the only way to run an economy, and lack of such liberty the only cause of our latter-day economic issues (with food and fuel in particular). It’s also further proof of the utter bankruptcy of the centre-left in practice.
Speaking of which, the EU stumbles forward into the dream of some of its key players of establishing a ‘United States of Europe’. William Rees-Mogg thinks they should look to Thomas Jefferson for inspiration. And Kim Murphy writes about the Irish reluctance to sign up to the EU constitution. I may have considered them wise in this instance, if only their reluctance was due to a desire to enact something bearing closer resemblance to the US Constitution; alas it is instead due to concerns about 4x4s and “big buildings”. We Irish hate the progress of good economics (it’s very un-Irish). We’d rather have the good old days of the potato famine.
I received two emails from people wondering what I think of the gay marriage ruling here in California and why I haven’t discussed it. Actually, I’ve dedicated a few radio segments to it, and I’m in favour of the court’s decision. There isn’t much more to say: the California Supreme Court ruled against the people in this instance, and in this instance I agree with it. The people voted against allowing gay marriage, and the California Supreme Court overruled their vote on the basis that it was unconstitutional. That’s what a constitution is for, and it is the rightful job of the Supreme Court to overturn any vote of the people which goes against it. Seem wrong? Think about it this way: if the people decided to vote to ban blogs and blogging, the Supreme Court would rightly outlaw the ban and re-legalise blogging on the basis that it flies against the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution. The people have no business asking their government to make laws which run roughshod over the Bill of Rights. Thank God for a government limited by a good, libertarian constitution. I believe gay people should have the same rights as straight people, and so I’m pretty happy about the ruling. (See this LA Times article for further details on how the decision is being received.)
As though libertarians weren’t already regarded as cranks, Project Paulville steps in to confirm everyone’s suspicions. I have to say I’m skeptical about the project’s potential for success (given alone the fact that the blurb is riddled with simple spelling and grammar mistakes) and I doubt many will sign up to be part of it, but I think the intentions are good and they should see skepticism like mine as a challenge rather than a denunciation.
And finally, JJ Abrams’ new thriller series Fringe looks fantastic and I predict it will be the Next Big Thing on TV (the X-Files of the 21st century?). Promotional photograph above.