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Bahamas Chamber of Commerce promoting trade with Cuba

Rick Lowe

Representatives from The Bahamas Chamber of Commerce recently returned from Cuba singing praises about the opportunities available for Bahamians that might wish to take a chance to trade with the Castro regime.

I say take a chance to trade because one does not have property rights nor access to the rule of law as we know it.

Furthermore, your employees are provided by the state. An employer cannot hire Cubans directly.

Lessons in Freedom: Education and Philosophical versus Political Correctness

Tibor R. Machan

"Of course in all of history, wherever there have been human inhabitants, such pretentious ruses and the accompanying distortions of language have been ubiquitous."

You will know what I am after here when I tell you how much I dislike it when people talk of "her majesty" or "his highness" as they talk of various pretenders to heads of countries around the globe and throughout human history. For me such terms are like ones out of fairies tales because, well, there are no kings or queens or any such thing except in myths. In other words kings are really not what they pretend to be, namely, God's chosen leaders here on earth. As with all in-born status that places some above others not in height or even talent but in political authority--some may rule and others will be ruled--the whole monarchical idea is a lie. Yet even now one can encounter references to these pretenders, right here in the United States of America, as if they were the real Mccoy! Poppycock, I say. Was it not the American Founders who participated in the revolution that demoted these pretenders, who showed that world that no one is by nature the ruler of someone else?

Barbados Free Press on lack of human rights in Cuba

Rick Lowe

Near 23rd Street, just at the Avenida de los Presidentes roundabout, we saw a black car, made in China, pull up with three heavily built strangers. ‘Yoani, get in the car,’ one told me while grabbing me forcefully by the wrist. The other two surrounded Claudia Cadelo, Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, and a friend who was accompanying us to the march against violence. [More...]

Does it bother you that so few people speak out about these things in our region?

Is there a political solution to our problems here in The Bahamas?

Rick Lowe

Back in 1998 I came across a wonderful little 143 page book by Henry Hazlitt, entitled Is Politics Insoluble? and is edited by Felix Livingstone.

I was reminded about this book by comments left at this recent post, where it was proffered that we need a new political party to solve our myriad of issues in The Bahamas.

My questions is, why is it that so many of us tend to believe there is a political solution?

From my perspective the answer is smaller government where politics plays a less significant role in our lives. Not more government or nationalism etc.

If we had four political parties, the objective of the political class remains the same. Get elected.

To get elected you have to compromise your principles. Once your principles are compromised, voila! You're back to square one.

Here's a short and simplified example from personal experience:

Lessons in Freedom: One Size Fits All--Not Really

Tibor Machan

"So as to make this palatable, these folks will insist that what they are after is in the public interest, not anything for the benefit of private individuals or special interest groups."

The current--May 23, 2009--issue of Science News is celebrating astronomy and the 400 years of the telescope.  And they are all very enthusiastic about it over there at the magazine, so much so that a guest editorial by David H. DeVorkin, senior curator for astronomy and the space sciences at the National Air and Space Museum, is featured seriously promoting the idea that “every person on Earth should look at the night sky through a telescope in 2009, as Galileo did 400 years earlier.” This was a declaration put forth back in 2006, in all earnestness, by Rick Fienberg, former editor of Sky & Telescope magazine.

Sting - Song of the week - November 9, 2009 - Love Is the Seventh Wave

Rick Lowe

An amazing talent, Sting needs no introduction.

I heard Love is the Seventh Wave on the radio recently and it brought back great memories of that fabulous CD of his The Dream of the Blue Turtles.

Visit his web site here... and buy his new CD, or any of his old ones. You'll find many gems in there.

The inevitable outcome with farm subsidies?

Rick Lowe

A friend sent the following e-mail that is making the rounds. I have no idea if it's true or not, but the obvious point being made is what is important.

Subsidies of any kind are harmful and it's not clear to me why most people don't understand this not so subtle point.

Hat tip to JER for sending it along.

Enjoy the humour but know there are others out here that understand the damage being wrought.

Twisted Justice in the Bahamas, A Need to Amend the Bail Act!

Jerome Pinder

I write this Blog to share with the readers of this site, two recent cases before our Courts and their initial outcomes.

1. A gentleman was caught at LPIA departing the Bahamas for the United States with over USD$10,000, which he had not declared. He was arrested, turned over to local authorities and charged. In order to secure his release from jail, someone had to sign a $10,000 bail.
2. Two young thugs shoot a reserve police officer and security guard at the Atlantis resort. No matter their age this is attempted murder. Their bail was $15,000 each.

The readers may decide for themselves what this says about our Court System, current laws, and the need for change................................. 

Peter Robinson of Uncommon Knowledge interviews Dambisa Moyo on Africa's development

Rick Lowe

Well worth watching...

Lessons in Freedom: Invitation to Altruism (Again)

Tibor R. Machan

"Cass Sunstein, the Harvard Law professor who used to have Mr. Obama as a part time colleague at the University of Chicago and now heads up the regulatory regime of the new pres, advocates that we have no rights by virtue of our human nature but only because the government grants us some."

It was when I was in college at Claremont Men's (now McKenna) College that John F. Kennedy got elected president.  Very handsome guy, really Camelot in spades, no denying that!  But something seemed rotten underneath all that democratic royalty, at least to me. As time went by, Kennedy started to loose the halo around his scull, what with his infidelities and his rather inept political maneuverings, not to mention his detestable holier than though statism. Had he not been so tragically assassinated and thus, like a martyr, gained much unearned adoration from a great number of sympathetic American citizens, he would very likely have turned out to be a politician kind of like Gary Hart--lots of flash but little substance.