Just desserts for an ex-AG

Seems that Alberto Gonzales can’t get a job in the private sector:

• Alberto Gonzales Having Trouble Finding Work (Donklephant.com)

It couldn’t have happened to a nicer Statist.

Free speech is too damn American

Canadian Human Rights Commission investigator Dean Steacy has provided an elegant example of what I most despise about the Canadian cultural gestalt:

“Freedom of speech is an American concept, so I don’t give it any value.”

(source: Jonathan Kay: “A disaster for Canada’s Human Rights Commission”)
(hat tip: The Liberty Papers)

Perhaps half a dozen typically Canadian traits put my dick in a knot, but none pulls that knot tighter — then slathers it with Loctite — than our tendency to define ourselves as “not American”. American is (not)Canadian, and therefore must be bad. There are plenty of good reasons to dislike, say, some aspects of American foreign policy, or American government, but America — as a noun, not an adjective; as a national ideal — is one of the best things going. A nearly pathological focus on liberty and the unfettered potential of the individual; separation of church and state; checks and balances against unchecked government abuse (remember, this is the ideal, not the reality): these are all good things.

Freedom of speech is a good thing. (Even if it is “American”.)

Hell yeah!

Good things do happen every once in a while:

• Vancouver girl fends off would-be abductor (CBC.ca)

More specifically:

A quick-thinking 12-year-old girl used her umbrella to fight off a man she says tried to grab her as she walked home Tuesday afternoon on Vancouver’s west side.

The girl broke free and ran home to safety.

Sounds like she did everything right:

1. Fight back
2. Fight back with a weapon
3. Don’t stick around to duke it out; get safe

Bravissima!

The straw man burns his house

If I told you that a too-strong government bent upon “social renewal” might lead to six-figure inflation, rigged elections, widespread state brutality, and (eventually) an iron-fisted tyrant leading an impoverished police state, you’d probably accuse me of making a straw-man argument. You’d be wrong: I would be describing Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe.

Zimbabwe recently went through an election cycle, which Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party reportedly lost.

• Zimbabwe’s Mugabe has conceded defeat: report (Reuters)

Mugabe lost control of parliament for the first time since independence in 1980 and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said he had also been defeated in a presidential election last Saturday and should concede defeat.

Business Day said Mugabe had privately conceded defeat and was deciding if he should contest a run-off vote needed because MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai failed to secure a clear majority.

[...]

In final results of the election for parliament’s lower house, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won 99 seats, while Mugabe’s ZANU-PF won 97 seats and a breakaway MDC faction won 10. One independent candidate won a seat.

So far, so good, right? Not so much. Those of you who’ve read my previous posts on the subject (or who, you know, actually give a shit about Africa rather than simply paying lip service to the notion) will recall that Mr. Mugabe is somewhat irritated with the rest of the world — particularly with “the West”. (It’s our fault that Zimbabwe’s economy has fallen through the floor, you see. Never mind that even dilettante historians could have predicted — and did — that Mugabe’s nationalization of much of the nation’s farmland would end in famine. Never mind that even dilettante economists could have predicted — and did — that Mugabe’s more recent price controls would end in shortages and hyperinflation. It’s all a conspiracy.)

With that sort of attitude, it should surprise no-one that government forces are rounding up reporters:

• Riot police raid Harare hotels used by opposition, reporters (CBC.ca)

About 30 police in riot gear entered a hotel used by foreign reporters in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. Police later said they had arrested two foreign journalists for “practising without accreditation,” said Reuters.

Police said they would identify the reporters on Friday, but the New York Times confirmed its reporter Barry Bearak was one of those taken into custody.

Yeah, that’s a bad sign. So’s this:

• Opposition party’s offices ransacked (Washington Times)

Intruders ransacked offices of the main opposition party and police detained foreign journalists yesterday in a sign that President Robert Mugabe might turn to intimidation and violence in trying to stave off an electoral threat to his 28-year rule.
Earlier, Mr. Mugabe, 84, apparently launched his campaign for an expected runoff presidential ballot even before the official results of Saturday’s election were announced, with state media portraying the opposition as divided.

Five days after the vote, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission still had not released results of the presidential election despite increasing international pressure, including from former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, who recently mediated an end to Kenya’s postelection violence.

Sorry… this is “a sign that [Mugabe] might turn to intimidation and violence”?   Golly, that’s never happened before.

As I’ve said before: the primary motivation of politicians is to maintain and extend their power.  Mugabe provides an extreme but by no means an isolated example of that phenomenon.  Anyone who insists that “it’ll never happen here” is missing the point.