Human Rights Commissions vs Freedom of speech
050 – Free Dominion | Connie Fournier and Mark Fournier
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Apr 172008
046 – The heat is on, despite the cold, on global warming
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Mar 202008
Affluence represents the solution to environmental challenges rather than the problem. We confront daily the absurdity of a global warming cult that demonizes prosperity while excusing the greater pollution of poverty and subsistence living. Mysticism replaces science as ancient dances and emotional appeals substitute for evidence, all while natural forces like the sun receive no credit for climate variation. Wealth creation through technology and industry offers the genuine path to a healthier planet, yet envy drives calls to punish success and regress to need-based existence.
This same impulse manifests in anti-war protests that demand troop withdrawals without addressing the realities of confronting violence or achieving lasting peace. Protectionist arguments against free trade similarly ignore how open markets and capital investment elevate living standards for all, including labor. Unions and politicians peddle restrictions that ultimately harm the very workers they claim to champion by undermining the prosperity that depends on voluntary exchange and accumulated capital.
Locally, schemes to license landlords expose government overreach, transforming property rights into privileges granted by the state and burdening tenants with hidden taxes. Ownership demands the freedom to rent, lease, or use one’s property without permission-seeking.
When reason and individual rights prevail over envy, control, and collectivism, the direction taken stands Just Right.
044 – Sherlock Holmes: Elementary, Symbolic, Representative…
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Mar 062008
Polls expose a curious public confusion between fact and fiction. Many in Britain insist Sherlock Holmes walked the streets of London as flesh and blood, while dismissing Winston Churchill as mere legend. Such blurring of reality and myth reveals how powerfully stories shape perception long after events fade.
We see the same dynamic play out in contemporary policy debates. Canadians celebrate an MRI scan that costs only a parking fee after seven months of waiting, as if this represents some triumph rather than a rationed system’s quiet cruelty. The satisfaction with mediocrity masks the invisible costs borne by others denied timely care.
Political figures receive similar mythic treatment. John Tory garners praise as the ideal conservative leader despite a record of equivocation and electoral failure. Talk of principles clashes with actions that mirror liberal instincts, leaving voters with no clear choice.
Meanwhile, advocates for human rights commissions invoke ‘hatred kills’ to justify speech restrictions, citing tragic cases while omitting inconvenient details like the ideological motives behind certain crimes. The impulse to control expression under the guise of protection echoes ancient myths used to maintain power.
Ideas endure far longer than the individuals or events that spawn them, whether drawn from ancient legends or modern political narratives. Distinguishing the symbolic from the factual remains essential in every age. Only in this way do we discover what is Just Right.
041 – Love: Its history and philosophy
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Feb 142008
Our philosophical journey through love reveals its ancient power as both cosmic unifier and destroyer of reason. From Hesiod’s primordial eros that unnerves gods and men to Plato’s heavenly and earthly forms, where the lover—not the beloved—gains virtue through pursuit of ideal beauty, love emerges as a force that shapes religions, institutions, and governments. Aristotle grounds it ethically and psychologically while linking it to the unmoved mover that later influences Christian concepts of divinity. Judaism and Christianity shift love from irrational passion to a voluntary attitude that can coexist with reason, yet the tension persists: emotion versus rational control.
These insights sharpen our view of today’s battles. Human Rights Commissions weaponize “hate” to silence debate, as seen in complaints against Maclean’s for publishing Mark Steyn, demanding forced publication rather than open rebuttal. City Hall pushes symbolic gestures like Earth Hour, low-flush toilets, and sustainable-energy surveys that treat conservation as virtue while ignoring the need for production, property rights, and expanded energy to meet rising demand. Sentencing inconsistencies expose a justice system more concerned with deterrence messages than individual fairness.
A listener’s thoughtful email on religion and virtue prompts reflection: morality springs from rational codes of behavior, not mere belief or professed faith, echoing Richard Dawkins’ point that religion deserves no special immunity from criticism. Comedy clips and external voices underscore the absurdities without becoming endorsements.
Reason prevails when passions earn their place and facts trump fear. That balance is Just Right.
038 – Crimes and Punishments: The rule of law?
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Jan 242008
Contradictions plague justice as we confront the Marc Emery extradition battle, where selling marijuana seeds to consenting adults draws potential decades in American prison while co-accused face varying fates. Hypocrisy runs deep in drug prohibition, especially when medical users gain freedoms even as enforcement crushes activists.
Sentences expose deeper flaws. A remorseful first-time offender like Rob Ramage receives years for a fatal accident, yet Karla Homolka walks free after unspeakable crimes against multiple victims. Marc Emery risks severe punishment for voluntary transactions. We insist true justice demands judging the individual’s character and context, not rigid crime equivalence or message-sending.
Public ownership proves equally illusory. Activists and politicians push municipal control of utilities or public-private partnerships, but these mask force disguised as collaboration. Private property rights ground reality; government “ownership” fiction leads to arbitrary power and lost freedoms. Even personal spaces face invasion when landlords swap light bulbs under energy edicts, eroding privacy in one’s home.
Rational principles cut through these confusions, affirming individual rights over collectivist myths. Freedom emerges as the genuine common interest. It all fits together just right.
037 – Slanted journalism / Guest: Karen Selick on Marc Emery’s extradition / Atheism / Religion and Virtue
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Jan 172008
Media distortions demand our scrutiny, particularly when a London Free Press headline touts a teen activist’s dedication to peace while the story reveals a campaign against military recruitment lacking balance or substance. Such coverage polarizes falsely, conceals counterarguments, and leaves readers chasing details online.
Marc Emery’s defiance against prohibition laws grips our attention amid his tentative plea with American authorities. Karen Selick analyzes the pressures, jurisdictional puzzles, and his targeting for effective activism rather than mere commerce. His candor stands in stark contrast to the underground trade, raising questions of political persecution and heroic resolve in challenging state power.
Critics assail the new atheism of figures like Richard Dawkins as intellectual totalitarianism, yet overlook how books advance ideas through persuasion alone. Surveys claiming believers embrace virtues more deeply invite examination, for many qualities listed represent values or even potential vices absent true moral anchors like justice and reason. Atheism signals absence, not dogma, underscoring rationality’s role.
These explorations of media, activism, faith and morality expose vital tensions in liberty and thought that strike just right.
034 – Pope vs individual salvation
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Dec 132007
Reality anchors thinking far more securely than chasing abstract truth ever could. Philosophers from Plato onward demonstrate how easily fixed doctrines detach from evidence, producing rigid positions that ignore contradictory facts. John Macmurray’s insight captures this perfectly: real thought welcomes revision as experience demands it.
Government overreach reveals similar unreality in public debates. Taser controversies fixate on the device’s “safety” rather than proper use and policy. Car regulations escalate the pattern—bans on smoking with children, mandatory seatbelts, even airbag mandates that carry hidden lethal risks in certain crashes. Statistics show airbags save lives yet also claim others, particularly when deployed improperly. Mandating such devices overrides personal choice under the guise of protection.
Pope Benedict’s encyclical challenges modern Christianity’s emphasis on individual salvation, contrasting it with earlier communal approaches. This critique echoes collectivist themes that downplay independent reason. Hope, too, comes under scrutiny—when it substitutes for action, it paralyzes rather than empowers.
Japan’s robotics surge offers a forward-looking contrast, with Toyota and Honda developing humanoid machines for everyday assistance. These innovations highlight economic and technological shifts worth watching closely.
Exploring these intersections of philosophy, policy, and progress proves consistently illuminating and just right.