WeblogBahamas.com

What is the Bahamas Government's benchmark for murder?

by Sidney Sweeting, DDS (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

Bahamians have reached the point that the main topic of conversation is crime and particularly the number of murders. As of August 22, 2009 there were 53 murders recorded for the year.

Finally, the Minister of National Security Tommy Turnquest announced that the Royal Bahamas Police Force has launched a new crime reduction strategy (the Tribune August 29/2009) which will target "prolific offenders" and "criminal hot spots".

This raises the question of whether this is another public relations exercise or did it have to reach the point where members of the public are constantly looking over their shoulders or did the rate of murders, rapes and robberies have to pass a certain benchmark before anything is done or has it taken this long to learn who the offenders are and the location of the hot spots?

Lessons in Freedom: TANSTAAFHC

by Tibor R. Machan (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

"But saying something is "free" will not make it so. Among the few free goods and provisions in the world health care is certainly not one."

TANSTAAFL is an acronym for "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch," popularized, according to Wikipedia, "by science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein." But the saying caught on mostly with classical liberals and libertarians who have a philosophical commitment to tell the truth about public policy matters. The current version should, however, be changed to TANSTAAFHC, meaning "There Ain't no Such Thing As Free Health Care" despite what Obama Care champions pretend.

Okkervil River - Song of the week - August 30, 2009 - Plus Ones

by Rick Lowe (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

Here's an interesting new band.

I'm not sure how I stumbled on their new CD the Stage Names, but I'm sure glad I did.

Hope you enjoy Plus Ones below.

Check out their intriguing video of Lost Coastlines.

Visit their web site here... and buy their cd.

Socialism, Free Enterprise, and the Common Good: Father Sirico at Hillsdale College

by Rick Lowe (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

Father Robert Sirico of the Acton Institute gave an eloquent address (as usual) at Hillsdale College a couple years back, and it's worth reading again.

"In chapter 21 of St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus proposes a moral dilemma in the form of a parable: A man asks his two sons to go to work for him in his vineyard. The first son declines, but later ends up going. The second son tells his father he will go, but never does. “Who,” Jesus asks, “did the will of his father?” Although I am loath to argue that Jesus’s point in this parable was an economic one, we may nonetheless derive from it a moral lesson with which to evaluate economic systems in terms of achieving the common good."

"Modern history presents us with two divergent models of economic arrangement: socialism and capitalism. One of these appears preoccupied with the common good and social betterment, the other with profits and production. But let us keep the parable in mind as we take a brief tour of economic history." [More...]

There's no doubt in my mind that economic freedom or capitalism has brought more people out of poverty than any other system conceived to date.

Has manufacturing declined in the US?

by Rick Lowe (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

If one spends a lot of time listening to many of talking heads or reading a number of the "progressive" columnists about US manufacturing, you would believe that it is spiraling downward, out of control.

What could the Bahamas Government be thinking?

by Rick Lowe (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

The Bahamas is facing its worst recession in many years with businesses having to down size and families having to cut back where ever possible to make ends meet.

Lessons in Freedom: Torture and Pragmatism

by Tibor R. Machan (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

Torturing someone involves inflicting pain and misery on the victim in the hope of obtaining something he or she is unwilling to give up. The purpose can vary from simple cruelty, as when youngsters on the playground torture one of their kind to see the reaction, to seeking information from the victim that may save the life of some innocent person. The current concern with, for example, water boarding falls within the second category.

Another one from the Caribbean that doesn't get it

by Rick Lowe (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

A friend sent this article from the Jamaica Observer with the author lamenting the fact that his country now has to pay the piper (IMF), and of course the fault does not lie with the Jamaican government.

That's pure hog wash of course, but I guess most of us need a scapegoat when our actions finally catch up with us. The writer even blames Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Ayn Rand for Jamaica's economic failure!

The third paragraph of the article is confirmation that the article is not common sense as the by line is called. The writer says:

Progressivism in The Bahamas

by Rick Lowe (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

Back on August 13, 2009 I posted this blog challenging a columnist called "Simon" about a couple of the ideas s/he expressed in a missive about the education problems in The Bahamas.

I referred to statists and have been challenged in a private e-mail exchange about calling people names. Of course my immediate response is maybe I shouldn't react when people call me an extremist or right wing etc instead of referring to me as a classical liberal, but we all want to defend our integrity I guess.

Lessons in Freedom: “Tempered by Government?”

by Tibor R. Machan (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

...cheerleaders, the likes of Paul Krugman, Louis Uchitelle and many, many others who probably sit and wait so as to get the nice government job of running other people’s economic lives!

There must be some enormous carrot stimulating the proponents of a closely monitored and extensively regulated American economy. I reach this conclusion because day after day I run into essays, columns, commentaries on TV and radio, in which there is a constantly repeated and concerted effort to discredit free market capitalism.