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general freedom media and media people property rights too much government

Naked Truth Up North

In the U.S., broadcasters and savvy consumers worry about the behavior of the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the electromagnetic spectrum not by defending property rights, but by licensing segments of the spectrum within locales. The FCC even regulates content to some extent, by threat of withdrawing licensure.

But it could be worse. We could be in Canada.

How so? Well, Canadian politicians have long picked at a cultural scab: their identity crisis, their fear of being overshadowed by the U.S. So, up north, regulation of broadcast content centers on the promotion of “Canadian” artistry and talent in place of programming generated elsewhere, chiefly America.

Yes, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has quotas.

And like all quota systems, it has long ago embraced absurdity.

The latest nonsense?

The demand that two Canadian porn channels provide more home-grown pornography. In addition, the channels have been charged with not been providing enough closed captioning. (Just what adult movies need, careful transcription.)

AOV XXX Action Clips and AOV Maleflixxx are on notice, and their respective licenses are under review:

The X-rated specialty channels are supposed to air 35 per cent Canadian programming over the broadcast year and 90 per cent of its content should have captioning.

As part of proposed licence renewals, the commission plans to hear evidence on the apparent non-compliance.

It might be awfully funny to horn in on those hearings, listen to what people will say about upping Canadian porn production to meet standards that encourage, uh, national pride.

But the dirtiest truth is that most regulation of the airwaves is just as ridiculous, if not quite as nakedly so.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
Today

Holiday for Irish Solidarity, March 17

On March 17, 1780, George Washington granted the Continental Army a holiday “as an act of solidarity with the Irish in their fight for independence.”

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Today

Madison born on March 16

On March 16, 1751, James Madison was born. He went on to architect the Constitution of the United States, wrote as “Publius” in The Federalist Papers, and served as the fourth President of the United States, where his administration’s record was marred by the war with Great Britain, in which Washington, DC, suffered conquest and conflagration.

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Thought

Frédéric Bastiat

Not that Political Economy is without its poetry. There is poetry wherever order and harmony exist.

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links

Townhall: Targeting Self-Defense

The foundation of a free society? The rights of the people in that society. Chiefest of these? The right to self-defense.

And that’s under attack these days. For the latest example, check out the column this weekend at Townhall. And then come back here, for more reading.

The third citation, above, briefly and concisely states the classical republican argument about self-defense as the basis of government.

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video

Video: Is Britain Cowardly Caving in to Radical Muslim Bullying?

Pat Condell is a well-known YouTube ranter. He does this very well. One doesn’t have to agree with everything he says to admire his method, and to heed his more persuasive points. In this video he very forthrightly charges his nation with caving in to bullying by the violent amongst the Muslim population in Britain.

It is not quite so bad in America as it appears to be in Britain, but we catch whiffs of it here. Even now, liberals scornfully laugh at conservatives who worry about the establishment in America of Sharia law. But it is simply the case that, in Europe and elsewhere, the Muslims who easily take offense and threaten violence are successfully bullying others into silence and worse. It is something to worry about, and consider:

There are points in the above rant where Mr. Condell lashes out at Islam in general. He talks about “secular Muslims” (whatever they may be) so he is obviously not trying to imply that all Muslims are violent. But that is perhaps too easily inferred by some of his rants. I know that not to be true.

And I find it offensive.

Indeed, caving in to the violent threats and trumped-up umbrage of some Muslims does harm to the vast majority of Muslims who are peaceful. That, alas, is not Condell’s message. But the one he delivers is, still, worth thinking about.

We must not be cowards about our freedoms. And one of the most important is: civilized people have free speech, not ears and eyes protected from any perceived slight by state or private terror. Taking offense is not an excuse to undermine freedom. It is “Harm to others” that gives us standing to consider a lawful process to abridge a person’s freedom; not “offense to others.”

Categories
Today

Ides of March

According to the Roman calendar, today is the Ides of March. Toga parties on this date? Not advised.

On March 15, 1820, Maine became the 23rd U.S. state.

In 1990 on this date, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected as the first President of the Soviet Union, a position he did not long hold — the government was pulled out from under him in late 1991.

Categories
Thought

Antonin Scalia

By the time of the founding, the right to have arms had become fundamental for English subjects.

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Today

March 14, Gold Standard

On March 14, 1900, the Gold Standard Act was ratified, placing United States currency on a gold standard. Thus ended the country’s weird experiments in bimetallism, established in 1792 when Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton urged Congress to fix the ratio of gold and silver at 15:1.

The gold standard itself ended on April 25, 1933, and its last vestiges were scrapped when President Richard Nixon closed the foreign gold exchange window in 1971, thereby ending the Bretton-Woods international monetary system.

Categories
free trade & free markets

Perfect Vision

One prerequisite of solving problems is having problems to solve. That is, first you must realize that there is a problem — an inconvenience or difficulty that you no longer accept as inevitable. Then you can ask questions and try to find answers.

Suppose the problem is that (a) you have imperfect eyesight, and (b) you’re lazy, busy, a shut-in, a cheapskate, or all four. You want to update your prescription without spending the time and money to visit an optometrist. Questions: Any way you can just do this at home for, say, $35? How about over the Internet?

If we ask Mr. Google about “online eye exams,” we find several sites offering tests that aim only to tell you whether it’s time for a visit to the eye doctor. Not good enough! But we also learn from TechCrunch.com about Opternative, a company co-founded by optometrist Steven Lee. Opternative plans to offer professional-grade online eye exams.

“Doing eye testing day in and day out, I thought ‘there has to be a better way to do this,’” Lee says.

Lee still faces regulatory and other hurdles. But I appreciate the ambition — also that we still have enough capitalism in our quasi-capitalist system to make a venture like this potentially profitable. And if Opternative succeeds, we’ll be able to take its prescription to another website and order an inexpensive pair of glasses or contact lenses over the Internet.

I like that vision.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.