Waiting for the train this evening, I noticed a poster warning businesses that they’d better get their act together by October 1st, Or Else. You see:

On 1 October 2004 the final stage of the Part III provisions of the DDA will come into force. The new duties require anyone providing goods, services or facilities to the public to make reasonable adjustments to physical features that make it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to access their goods, services or facilities.

In other words, if I decide to invest my hard earned money opening a shop, some complete stranger may come along and threaten me until I build a wheelchair access ramp. This law represents yet further erosion of the concept of private property. But of course, in the age of altruism such values as respect for private property do not matter: they can be abandoned as long as the right people benefit.

I have no problem with campaigning and debating and boycotting businesses over the issue of equal access for disabled people, but legislating for equality crosses a line. To legislate is to invoke the force of the state. To use force against someone to coerce them into providing for the needs of others is slavery.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Civil Liberties at 11:52 PM EDT

7 Comments »

The difference between media coverage of events in Iraq and reports from Iraqis and soldiers can be quite astonishing.

This from the BBC:

But correspondents report a mood of bitterness in the battle-scarred city after the elation that accompanied the end of the stand-off.

“How did all this killing benefit the people of Najaf?” asked father-of-five Abu Noor, speaking to Reuters news agency.

“What is the difference between [Iyad] Allawi’s government and Saddam Hussein? They both pound us,” the man added.

This from an army Major:

Before the battles, the residents of the city were afraid to walk the streets. Al Sadr’s enforcers would seize people and bring them to his Islamic court where sentence was passed for religious or other violations. Long before the battles people were looking for their lost loved ones who had been taken to “court” and never seen again. Now Najafians can and do walk their streets in safety. Commerce has returned and the city is being rebuilt. Iraqi security forces and US troops are welcomed and smiled upon. That city was liberated again.

This from Mohammed, an Iraqi blogger:

Isn’t it amazing that many people in the west and some Americans blame the American army and administration for the life losses and mess in Najaf, while Najafies are strongly blaming Sadr in their latest demonstration without a word to condemn the American army!? Aren’t people, even seemingly simple people, smarter than what some media elite thinkers and reporters want us to believe!?

[…]

I’ve always felt insulted by the anti-war and human shields who came to Iraq before the war telling me that they were here to protect me! That was very insulting to my intelligence, my dignity and humanity. Protect me from what? Freedom and having a dignified and honorable life?!

Related article: Good News From Iraq

Posted by Rob Fisher as News at 10:41 PM EDT

1 Comment »

I’m currently travelling around California, hence the quietness around here. I’m completely out of date with what’s happening back home, but ThePresentOccupier sent this:

We’ve had a number of surveys in the past couple of days, all
advocating increased state control of virtually everything going:

“Over 80% of people say the government should subsidise the cost of
fruit and vegetables to encourage healthy eating, a BBC survey has
shown. ”

“Public backs alcohol crackdown“… “A minority - 15% - felt people
could be discouraged from excessive drinking by moving towards making
alcohol an illegal drug, with twice as many people in social classes
DE backing the idea than in AB. ”

“More than one in three people would support moves to make tobacco
illegal, according to the findings of a BBC survey. ”

Bunch of bloody Nazis!

Oddly, there’s not as much of this kind of thing here in America. I can’t wait to get home…

Posted by Rob Fisher as News at 5:43 PM EDT

1 Comment »

I’m very excited by news that much smaller planets are being discovered. These new planets are smaller than Saturn and Jupiter. This means it is quite likely that Earth-sized planets are commonplace.

I hope to live to see the discovery of an Earth-like planet — once such a discovery is made colonisation will only be a matter of time.

Posted by Rob Fisher as News at 5:31 AM EDT

1 Comment »

For my stay in the USA I have a Sirius satellite radio receiver in my rental car. I usually listen to a comedy station called Raw Dog on my way to work. The other day I heard a comedian describe the choice in the last election between George Bush and Al Gore as “like having to decide whether you want your leg cut off above or below the knee!”

He’s hit on something that has often struck me when I listen to political debate, particularly in the USA where there actually seem to be opposing viewpoints (in the UK phrases like “small government” and “cutbacks” just aren’t in the vocabulary; political debate is just about how to allocate your money).

The two mainstream parties and thus the main thread of debate are entirely about left and right. Sirius even carries two adjacent talk radio stations, Talk Left and Talk Right. It’s obvious that this is a false dichotomy. In the USA the left is all about bigger and better government services and a “fairer” society brought about by a welfare system. The right is vaguely about economic freedom and low taxes but mostly about Family Values, for which read heterosexual-only marriage, anti-abortion choice and anti-stem cell research.

Clearly the question “do you want low taxes *or* gay marriage?” is ridiculous. And yet the upcoming elections here seem to ask just that. What I find most astonishing is that more people don’t seem to notice; they’re happy to label themselves Republican or Democrat and leave it at that.

To find out where you are on a political spectrum with more than one dimension, take the world’s smallest political quiz.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Introspection at 5:22 AM EDT

3 Comments »