E Pluribus Unum

Posted on Monday, 2nd May 2011 by Ozboy

Change, my precious, cha-aaaannnge!

We’re now at about the time when candidates for next year’s U.S. presidential election start positioning themselves for a run. The incumbent has indicated he’ll have another go, plus that odd-looking real estate guy who’s got his own reality TV program. So I’ll throw the floor open today and ask, a) who’s going to run, b) who would you like to see running, c) who will win the Republican nomination (or Democratic, if you think anyone other than the current guy is a possibility), and d) who will win in November next year?

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Posted in United States of America | 68 Comments

The Firm

Posted on Friday, 29th April 2011 by Ozboy

He’s getting hitched in a few hours. And I’m supposed to be excited.

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Posted in Australia, Commonwealth of Nations, UK | 26 Comments

Thrice Denied

Posted on Friday, 29th April 2011 by Ozboy

Gosh—I’m a denier!

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Posted in AGW | 2 Comments

The Price Of Freedom

Posted on Monday, 25th April 2011 by Ozboy

Today, April 25th, marks the ninety-sixth anniversary of the landing of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, or ANZACs, on the shores of Gallipoli in the Turkish Dardanelles, on a stony beach of a bay now re-named Anzac Cove. Each year on this day, Australians and New Zealanders stop to remember the sacrifices made on foreign fields of war by our forebears in the name of Freedom. That we today are able to express our opinions freely and without fear on electronic media like this, is a direct result of the sacrifices made by those who came before us, many indeed who made the ultimate sacrifice.

On this day, in dawn services around our nations, and every day of the year in servicemen’s clubs at six in the evening, we stand and recite Laurence Binyon’s words of the Ode of Remembrance:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
We will remember them.

Lest we forget.

I’ll be back on deck tomorrow.

Posted in Australia, Commonwealth of Nations, Libertarianism | 5 Comments

Or I’ll Huff, And I’ll Puff…

Posted on Saturday, 23rd April 2011 by Ozboy

Unlike immigration, which as I said is a complicated issue with no simple, pat, one-line solution, the issue of smoking from a Libertarian viewpoint is pretty cut-and dried (pun discovered only after proof-reading). So this will be a much shorter post.

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Posted in Libertarianism | 13 Comments

Libertarianism And Immigration

Posted on Friday, 22nd April 2011 by Ozboy

I was going to wait a while before tackling this issue, but it has become topical in so many countries, including those of most of you reading this, that it’s appropriate we look at it today. It isn’t a cut and dried issue, and there is no one-sentence solution that is at once practical, possible, just and Libertarian. But let’s have a look and see where the first principles of Liberty take us here.

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Posted in Australia, Libertarianism, Rights | 29 Comments

The Missing Fifty Million

Posted on Sunday, 17th April 2011 by Ozboy

Fifty million people—the equivalent population of Burma, South Korea, Spain or South Africa—they’ve gone. Vanished. Or perhaps, more precisely, they’ve been disappeared.

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Posted in AGW | 21 Comments

Gaia Rights

Posted on Friday, 15th April 2011 by Ozboy

For those of you wondering why I expend so many words banging on about rights, here’s a story which illustrates the point nicely.

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Posted in Libertarianism, Rights | 8 Comments

Carbonomics

Posted on Wednesday, 13th April 2011 by Ozboy

I promised myself that I’d stay away from Global Warming, at least until some new wrinkle turned up that promised some sort of interesting discussion. But seeing as GE is away, surfing apparently (you’ll forgive my antipodean snickering as I try to visualize this), I thought I’d look at the common approach to the issue that seems popular among left-leaning western democracies these days: the Carbon Tax.

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Posted in AGW, Australia | 13 Comments

Liberté, Égalité, Sororité

Posted on Monday, 11th April 2011 by Ozboy

Today marks the official introduction of France’s new law banning the burqua and niqab in public places. Under it, gendarmes encountering a person wearing this garment are forbidden to forcibly remove it, but if she refuses their request to lift her veil and submit to an identity check, she can be arrested and taken to a police station. If she continues to refuse to remove her veil, she (or he?) faces a fine of up to €150, and can additionally be forced to attend what are ominously referred to as re-education classes.

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Posted in Libertarianism, Religion, Rights | 16 Comments