Cutting Your Nose To Spite Your Face

This headline says it all. Science vs. the Bush Administration. When it gets in the way of military projects for the weaponization of space say, or if it is controversial by pointing out patterns of global warming and climate change. Then out come the budget scissors and snip, snip. No more need to censor NASA when you can go for the jugular and put it on basic lifesupport.

Water discovery vs. NASA budget cuts The potential discovery of liquid water on a moon of Saturn is bittersweet for many scientists. The discovery, however, is bittersweet for many scientists. NASA's proposed budget for fiscal 2007 calls for a 50 percent cut in its astrobiology program. Although the program is a tiny piece of the agency's overall spending plan for science, it's a significant source of money for probing fundamental questions of how and why life emerged on Earth and whether life arose elsewhere in the universe. A 50-percent cut "is almost a going-out-of-business-level cut" in a vibrant line of research that stands as one pillar supporting President Bush's vision for space exploration, says planetary scientist Sean Solomon, who heads the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegie Institution of Washington More NASA articles.

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Harper Plays Charest

Harper, Charest do historic lunch
King Stephen the Harpocrite made a historic second visit to Quebec yesterdfay. Where again nothing significant was done, it was all photo op and puff pastery.

But the optics well that's what counts. Did they discuss the health care accord? Non. Post Secondary Education funding? Non. Fiscal Imbalance. Non. It was all about the future. Charest's and Harpers.

They are after all kin, Charest led the Federal PC party before becoming a provincial Liberal. Harper led the Alliance before becoming a born again Conservative.

Harper and Charest need each other. Harper's best hope of growing a minority into a majority lies in Quebec and it can only become reality with the premier's help. Charest's chances of morphing a lacklustre first term into a second turn on winnowing out of Ottawa the latitude and money, in cash or tax points, to pursue Quebec interests in its own ways.

But with discussions on Federal balance of payments being suggested, this draws the Bloc on side as could be seen by BQ MP Richard Marceau's response on Mike Duffy yesterday. Daycare he said is a provincial issue.

Uh oh. Here it comes. The BQ will back the Tories. Daycare should be publicly funded the Bloc will argue, and would be if we didn't have an imbalance of payments from the Feds.

Harper will promise Quebec, not the ROC, to fix their imbalance and the BQ will be happy to vote with the Conservatives.

It's not like they haven't before.CBC News: Conservative, BQ MPs block meat packer fines

Charest's popularity has gone from rock bottom and is increasing after the federal election. A few scores of big bucks from the Feds and all will be forgiven. Its the perfect neo-con job.

Meanwhile the Quebec model of private public healthcare will become the model for the Conservatives revision of healthcare. Still feasible under the CHA, meets the Supreme court challenge and makes Ralph Kleins Third Way the boogie man.
And all will be well in the Harpocrites universe.

NDP Leader Jack Layton said Charest and Harper "seem to be working hand in glove to support the privatization of our health care," noting the topic didn't even come up. "There's some things going in this relationship between Mr. Charest and Mr. Harper that should concern Canadians," Layton said.

Yep, you tell em Jack.

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Brison Affair Dejavu

Oh my gawd!

I just figured out why I kept getting this nagging feeling when I was blogging about Scott Brisons inappropirate email exchange on the Income Trust decision.

He and Martha Stewart both were in the investment business.

She contacted her broker and sold shares on insider information. She lied about it.

He contacted a broker friend and let him in on some inside information on Income Trusts. He lied about it.

She lied to the Feds, he lied to the Globe and Mail.

She knew better, he knew better.

She went to jail. He runs for the Liberal leadership to avoid jail.

She smiles he smiles.

Martha and Scott pees in the pod.

The reckless e-mails that Scott Brison sent

For a cabinet minister, there can be no such thing as idle speculation about future tax policy. Given his earlier investment career, Scott Brison had all the more reason to realize that it was highly indiscreet to predict happier times to a displeased investment banker on the eve of an anticipated tax change.

Mr. Brison compounded his sins this week by claiming that he could not recall his Nov. 22 e-mails about the fate of income trusts -- even though that banter, written when he was still public works minister, provoked a visit from the RCMP two months ago. Then, as more details of his imprudent messages emerged in The Globe and Mail, he protested his innocence. "At the time I was reluctant to discuss what I knew to be the subject of an RCMP investigation," he argued.

Loose lips on the Street came back to bite Brison

Mr. Brison denies he actually knew what was in store for trusts. Fair enough.

Intelligent people would take one look at that e-mail, and know what was coming. "Happier soon" could only mean a boost to the dividend tax credit, and no new levies on trusts. And that's exactly what the Liberals eventually unveiled.

This is the way the trust policy "leaked." The political types were giddy with good news. The Liberals had found a way to make everyone happy, and defuse an unexpected land mine. The impact such a policy might have on capital markets isn't exactly top of mind with politicians and their staff. They're focused on winning a country.

But news that the Street would be "happier soon" was transmitted loud and clear. When that information got into the hands of professional money managers, they knew exactly what to do. Hence the rally in dividend stocks and trusts in the hours before the Finance Minister finally cleared the air.

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American Fascism

This is scary it sounds very familiar.

In his strongest indictment of the tide of fascism he saw rising in America, Wallace added, "They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection."

U.S. VP Henry Wallace, 1944

Also see:
"The Century of the Common Man"

Henry A. Wallace's speech articulating the goals of the war for the allies. From his book The Century of the Common Man. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1943.

A tip o the blog to Blah3 for this. Read the rest of the post there. Plus they have a great graphic. Like this one.

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Proudhon

Found a couple of good posts on Proudhon. One is Proudhon on government over at CLASSical Liberalism. Where Proudhon denounces representative parliamentary democracy as a sham. Considering the election of King Stephen the Haropcrite this passage seems particularly apt.

"It is completely otherwise in democracy, which according to the authors exists fully only at the moment of elections and for the formation of legislative power. This moment once past, democracy retreats; it withdraws into itself again, and begins its anti-democratic work."

"In fact it is not true, in any democracy, that all citizens participate in the formation of the law; that prerogative is reserved to the representatives."

"It is not true that they deliberate on all public affairs, domestic and foreign; this is the perquisite, not even of the representatives, but of the ministers. Citizens discuss affairs, ministers alone deliberate them."

"...According to democratic theory, the 'People' is incapable of governing itself; democracy, like monarchy, after having posed as its principle the sovereignty of the People, ends with a declaration of the incapacity of the People!"

"This is what is meant by the democrats, who once in the government, dream only of consolidating and strengthening the authority in their hands."

The other is on Anarkismo.net.

Time to abondon our concept of Collectivism for a concept of Mutualism?

Proudhon and the 21st Century

As I have said here before the real nature of Proudhonian anarchism is self government, something embraced by Max Stirner and late Nietzsche. As well as by Kropotkin and Emma Goldman.

In self government, the individual is soverign, and no decision can be made without my input. Any decisions over my life must be done by my consent. It is classical liberalism taken to its logical teleology.

And yet the post-modernists who rant on about the teleology of Marxism as being essentialist, accept this of anarchism. Post Modernism is also a teleology of liberalism.

While Anarchy means No Government we can see that the government it denies is Monarchy and representative democracy, parlimentarianism. Instead Prodhoun saw government, as did Kropotkin, as self organized by individuals as community.

That is in community or workplace councils, with revocable delegates going out ot present positions within a larger federation, and coming back from those federations with proposals for approval.

This particular article on Proudhon in the 21st Century introduces Prodhoun to North American readers who may not have heard of him. I present an exerpt of this very interesting paper. Discuss amongst yourselves. Those who would call themselves Libertarian would do well to read their Prodhoun.

A NOTE TO NORTH AMERICAN READERS

Most people in North America are unaware of Proudhon, but he did have an influence here. The newspaper editors Charles Dana and Horace Greely were sympathetic to his ideas and he influenced the American individualists, most especially Benjamin Tucker, who translated and published some of his most important writings. Proudhon's criticisms of the credit and monetary systems were an influence upon the Greenback Party. His concept of mutual associations and the People's Bank were forerunners of the credit union and cooperative movements.

WHAT DID PROUDHON MEAN BY ANARCHY?

The public thinks anarchy means chaos or terrorism. But many people who claim to be anarchists are also confused as to its meaning. Some think anarchism is a doctrine espousing the right to do what ever you want. Others dream that one day a pure anarchist utopia, a kind of earthly Paradise of peace and freedom will come to be. Neither of these conceptions were Proudhon's. "Anarchy" did not mean a pure or absolute state of freedom, for pure anarchism was an ideal or myth.

[Anarchy] ... the ideal of human government... centuries will pass before that ideal is attained, but our law is to go in that direction, to grow unceasingly nearer to that end, and thus I would uphold the principle of federation.[2]
...it is unlikely that all traces of government or authority will disappear...[3]

Proudhon wanted people to minimalize the role of authority, as part of a process, that may or may not lead to anarchy. The end was not so important as the process itself.

By the word [anarchy] I wanted to indicate the extreme limit of political progress. Anarchy is... a form of government or constitution in which public and private consciousness, formed through the development of science and law, is alone sufficient to maintain order and guarantee all liberties... The institutions of the police, preventative and repressive methods officialdom, taxation etc., are reduced to a minimum... monarchy and intensive centralization disappear, to be replaced by federal institutions and a pattern of life based upon the commune.[4] NB. "Commune" means municipality.

In the real world, all actual political constitutions, agreements and forms of government are a result of compromise and balance. Neither of the two terms, Authority and Liberty can be abolished, the goal of anarchy is merely to limit authority to the maximum.

Since the two principles, Authority and Liberty, which underlie all forms organized society, are on the one hand contrary to each other, in a perpetual state of conflict, and on the other can neither eliminate each other nor be resolved, some kind of compromise between the two is necessary. Whatever the system favored, whether it be monarchical, democratic, communist or anarchist, its length of life will depend to the extent to which it has taken the contrary principle into account.[5]

...that monarchy and democracy, communism and anarchy, all of them unable to realize themselves in the purity of their concepts, are obliged to complement one another by mutual borrowings. There is surely something here to dampen the intolerance of fanatics who cannot listen to a contrary opinion... They should learn, then, poor wretches, that they are themselves necessarily disloyal to their principles, that their political creeds are tissues of inconsistencies... contradiction lies at the root of all programs.[6]

In rejecting absolute anarchy and favoring an open-ended process, Proudhon criticized all forms of absolutism and utopianism. He saw that utopianism is dangerous, and was a product of absolutism - the sort of thought which fails to distinguish between concrete reality and the abstract products of the mind. Anarchist theory should be open-ended, or "loose". No hard-edged determinism or "necessary stages of history" for Proudhon.

...writers have mistakenly introduced a political assumption as false as it is dangerous, in failing to distinguish practice from theory, the real, from the ideal... every real government is necessarily mixed...[7]

...few people defend the present state of affairs, but the distaste for utopias is no less widespread.[8]

Not only was utopia a dangerous myth, the working people were too practical and too intelligent to bother with such pipe dreams.

The people indeed are not at all utopian... they have no faith in the absolute and they reject every apriori system...[9]

There was no easy way out - no Terrestrial Paradise, things might improve, but we still have to work. Such was his hard-headed realism in contrast to all the fancy dreaming and system-mongering of the intellectuals. Poverty, by which he meant lack of luxury, not destitution, was the foundation of the good life.

In rejecting absolutism, Proudhon never waffled on the question of freedom. As opposed to the modern left which pits equality against liberty, and demands the restriction of the latter for the sake of the former, Proudhon was a resolute libertarian:

Lois Blanc has gone so far as to reverse the republican motto. He no longer says Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, he says, Equality, Fraternity,
Liberty!... Equality! I had thought that it was the natural fruit of Liberty, which has no need of theory nor constraint.[10] ...the abolition of taxes, of central authority, with great increase of local power. There lies the way of escape from Jacobinism and Communism.[11]

MUTUALISM

Proudhon proposed mutualism as an alternative both to capitalism and socialism. Mutualism was not a scheme, but was based upon his observation of existing mutual aid societies and co-operatives as formed by the workers of Lyon. But the co-operative association in industry was applicable only under certain conditions - large scale production.

...mutualism intends men to associate only insofar as this is required by the demands of production, the cheapness of goods, the needs of consumption and security of the producers themselves, i.e., in those cases where it is not possible for the public to rely upon private industry... Thus no systematized outlook... party spirit or vain sentimentality unites the persons concerned.[27]

In cases in which production requires great division of labour, it is necessary to form an ASSOCIATION among the workers... because without that they would remain isolated as subordinates and superiors, and there would ensue two industrial castes of masters and wage workers, which is repugnant in a free and democratic society. But where the product can be obtained by the action of an individual or a family... there is no opportunity for association.[28]

Proudhon was in favor of private ownership of small-scale property. He opposed individual ownership of large industries because workers would lose their rights and ownership. Property was essential to building a strong democracy and the only way to do this on the large-scale was through co-operative associations.

Where shall we find a power capable of counter-balancing the... State? There is none other than property... The absolute right of the State is in conflict with the absolute right of the property owner. Property is the greatest revolutionary force which exists.[29]

...the more ground the principles of democracy have gained, the more I have seen the working classes interpret these principles favorably to individual ownership.[30]

[Mutualism] ...will make capital and the State subordinate to labor.[31]

Alienation and exploitation in large-scale industry was to be overcome by the introduction of workers' co-operative associations. These associations were to be run on a democratic basis, otherwise workers would find themselves subordinated just as with capitalist industry. A pragmatist, Proudhon thought all positions should be filled according to suitability and pay was to be graduated according to talent and responsibility.

That every individual in the association... has an undivided share in the company... a right to fill any position according to suitability... all positions are elective, and the by-laws subject to approval of the members. That pay is to be proportional to the nature of the position, the importance of the talents, and the extent of responsibility.[32]

Proudhon was an enemy of state capitalism and state socialism. At the very most, government could institute or aid the development of a new enterprise, but never own or control it.

In a free society, the role of the government is essentially that of legislating, instituting, creating, beginning, establishing, as little as possible should it be executive... The state is not an entrepreneur... Once a beginning has been made, the machinery established, the state withdraws, leaving the execution of the task to local authorities and citizens.[33]

[Coinage] ...it is an industry left to the towns. That there should be an inspector to supervise its manufacture I admit, but the role of the state extends no farther than that.[34]

The following quote is a good summary of Proudhon's economic and political ideas:

All my economic ideas, developed over the last 25 years, can be defined in three words, agro-industrial federation; all my political views... political federation or decentralization, all my hopes for the present and future... progressive federation.[35]


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Child Care Not Jobs

That's what the Social Development Minister Diane Finley said on Politics with Don Newman today. "We want to provide child care not jobs".

She was under a lot of pressure from Olivia Chow of the NDP and Carolyn Bennett of the Liberals. Flustered she blurted out the truth. Its not about choice but jobs,that is the Conservatives are opposed to job creation by the State. I am shocked. For them there are two clear cut models of child care, one where children are together supervised by child care workers and the other is where the little woman stays home and takes care of the kids. Thats the Tories real choice for Canadian families.

Stuck with their neo-con ideological blinders on they refuse to see that the private sector does not create child care, it expects the state to do it, in order to shift the burden from the capitalists to the worker/taxpayer. Which is why the provinces and business supported the Liberal plan.

And we know the Tory plan won't create jobs. Cause the Tories have only one plan to give out a baby bonus, which will barely pay for babysitting. Their tax credit plan for business to create day care spaces won't work. Didn't in Ontario under Mike Harris.

But their point is made, they are about choice. Not for working mothers, or for women working in Child Care. Choice for stay at home moms rich enough to afford nannies. For everyone else well leave your kids with baba.

It was ironic that she said this on International Womens Day when Stats Canada identified that Canadian women are still stuck in the pink ghetto, low wages lack of advancement. Like child care workers.Women still paid less, says 10-year study


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Liberal S'Tory

Liberal throws in the towel chortels Tory Thoughts. In Alberta. I am shocked. Not. But what is interesting in this turn of events is that this particular wet behind the ears Liberal/liberal blogger has correctly spotted Jim Dinning as the Liberal/liberal running for leadership of the PC's (Party of Calgary).

I have joined the Progressive Conservative Party and will throw my support behind Jim Dinning.

Dinning is in the Lougheed school of politics. He is Calgary liberal, cosmpolitan, a CEO rather than a country bumpkin (Lyle Oberg) or a right wing ideologue (Ted Morton) who are also conteders for Kleins throne.

Dinning is the Great Liberal Hope of Calgary. The Liberals were out of power after their grand defeat in 1921 at the hands of the Farmer Labour Government which was the UFA. They remained out of power until the eighties when resurected by Nick they finally became a challenge to the Party of Calgary in the early ninties when the battle of the Mayors occurred. Ralph Klein newly elected Leader of the PCs versus Lawernce Decore newly elected Leader of the Liberals. Klein had been Mayor of Calgary, Decore Mayor of Edmonton. Klein ran on Brutal Cuts and Decore ran on Massive Cuts. Both had a deficit cutting agenda. As it was Klein won and Dinning imposed massive and brutal cuts. When the budget balanced he left office a hero of the neo-conservatives Liberal and Tory.

But for twenty years prior the Liberals were nowhere to be seen provinicially. Because Lougheed cobbled together a PC party made up of Liberals in the Calgary establishment and Conservatives. Lougheed also added the more cosmopolitan urban arm of Social Credit, thanks to a back room deal with Ernest Manning who stepped down for a position in a Calgary law Firm leaving the Socreds with a lame duck leader for Premier. And with the three way amalgamation, based on the new power of urban Alberta, swept the election of 1971.

Since that time the Tories knowing their weakness and their base is the old Socred base in rural Alberta, has shored up its seats by geremandering rural districts, and by removing seats from Redmonton, which votes against the PC's, and giving more seats to Calgary.

Today Jim Dinning is forging a Lougheed like alliance between social liberals and fiscal conservatives, and like Lougheed leaving the extreme right wing to its own fractured leadership contenders. There are several. They will split the vote. Dinning has been out of office and connection with the Klein government for a decade. He brings a 'fresh' face to PC politics, and he has the ear of the Calgary and Edmonton business establishment. Friends like former Liberal neo-con Mike Piercy at the U of A. He appeals to the youthful exuperance of up and coming Tories and business graduates.

During the recent Finning strike, he is a member of the board, he took time to meet with striking workers and their union on a couple of occassions. Unheard of in Alberta politics.

If Dinning wins, he is the front runner, he will be a liberal in a roost full of neo-con ideologues and good ol boy Tories. The party will fracture. Internal politics will be played out, and those on the right will have to chose to shut up and be part of the parties turn to the centre or join the emerging tiny right wing rump party the Alberta Alliance.

It will also mean a move by liberals/Liberals into the PC party and the final nail in the coffin of the Liberal party. A party based in Edmonton, and too far left for ebullent well off Calgary liberals. As our former Liberal blogger shows.



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Just The Facts

And here they are, for those of you still using IE change to Firefox quick. Then you will be actually able to read this page.

Firefox Whips Internet Explorer In Vulnerability Tally

Symantec changes the way it tallies potential security gaps in browsers and concludes that Mozilla Firefox has fewer vulnerabilities.


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Live Fast Die Young

And leave a beautiful corpse as the saying goes. Or in this case a record in time from deep space. Here is the earliest know explosion near the begining of the universe and thus the begining of Time. And you can watch it on your computer. I am in awe.

Flash from the Beginning of Time Reveals Strange Event By Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer posted: 08 March 2006 01:00 pm ET

The most distant explosion ever recorded, signaling the birth of a black hole near the beginning of time, was more chaotic and lasted longer than astronomers would have expected.

The event was first reported last fall. Today scientists released new findings and an animation that depicts a strange sequence of events in which the explosion of a massive star first settles down but then fires back up several times toward the end.

Astronomers speculate that the black hole did not form instantly, as theory predicts, but that it was a prolonged process.

ANIMATION: Surprising multiple outbursts during black hole formation.

"This was a massive star that lived fast and died young," said David Burrows, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State and author of one of three papers in the March 9 issue of the journal Nature.

The burst, named GRB 050904, originated 12.8 billion light-years away, which means it occurred 12.8 billion years ago and the light took that long to reach us. It erupted very nearly at the beginning of time—the universe is about 13.7 billion years old.

The event provides the first glimpse of a star when the universe was in its infant stages. Until now, only entire galaxies had been observed so far away.

"Because the burst was brighter than a billion suns, many telescopes could study it even from such a huge distance," Burrows said.

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We Are Still Evolving

Yep that's a headline that should cheer us all up, well with the exception of the creationists. And despite President Bush's vain attempt to prove the contrary on every occasion.

Human selection is alive and kicking

Geneticists track evolutionary forces in three populations.

Michael Hopkin

Written in the genes: researchers can see evidence of recent human evolution. © Getty

Humanity's response to the challenges of the past few millennia, from adapting to different environments to taming crops and animals, are writ large in human society. Now geneticists have shown that they are also writ small - in our DNA.

Researchers at the University of Chicago, Illinois, have identified the regions of our genetic sequence that show the strongest marks of natural selection. Their work highlights the genes that have been most important in adapting to new lifestyles, and could help to identify the genetic factors involved in complex medical conditions such as high blood pressure and alcoholism.

Genes that show the most evidence of recent selection include those involved in milk digestion. Although most mammals drink milk only in infancy, humans seem to have adapted genetically to digest it throughout life.

Genes for skin pigmentation also bear the hallmarks of rapid evolution - highlighting the fact that many populations have become more fair-skinned as they have colonized more extreme latitudes with less sunshine.

But wait we are not alone as recent studies have shown, Great Apes in Zoos are evolving too. And apparently so are Whales.

Sperm whales use fishing boats as floating buffets

Scientists recently realized that sperm whales in the Gulf of Alaska zero in on boat engines to locate miles of fishing lines hung with valuable sablefish.

"That's the whales' cue," said Jan Straley, an assistant professor at the University of Alaska Southeast who since 2002 has helped lead the study.

Sperm whales don't tune in to just any engine noise to track what are essentially miles of sablefish shish kebabs. The endangered whales key in on the engines' sporadic bubbling as fishermen turn them on and off while hauling in longlines, the ongoing study said.

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