I’ve been asked a few times now over the past few days how I can justify a purist libertarian outlook when a private corporation is in the process of ruining an entire ocean.  “How” I am asked, “can you advocate for limited or even non-existent government when a corporation is responsible for destroying such a significant portion of the world commons?”  The answer is that it’s easy to do and I can often start with a counter question.

I a world where government regulation has failed so miserably to hold private corporations to account and in a world where a private corporation is the in the process of destroying an entire ocean under the eyes of a government in the United States that has never been larger in its entire history than it is today, how can you advocate for a stronger state and increased regulations?

It’s very important to respond to people who explain that this is a result of deregulation.  This is not a case of deregulation causing disaster.  This is both a cause of regulatory incompetence within government and a complete lack of corporate accountability and responsibility within BP’s corporate structure.  The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was set into motion when a government organization (the US Mineral Management Service) took BP on its word that this project was safe and was assured to happen when BP decided that expediting the process of completing the well was more important than acknowledging red flags that had indicated a decreased level of safety.  Really, the MMS didn’t have much of a reason to believe that BP and Transocean weren’t capable of drilling safely but this is how government regulation works the larger government gets.  More and more, as a complicated bureaucratic structure grows, the less potent it becomes.  I contend that the American bureaucratic is so complex, that it’s impossible for itself to remain accountable and effective.  In short, I don’t think the American government is actually capable of keeping an eye on itself and certainly, the American people are either unable or uninterested in doing same.

Those who advocate for further regulation often fail to recognize that regulation is often already in place and impotent.  Despite regulation coming up again and again as completely ineffective in preventing major disasters, there are those who continue to think that more regulation is the answer.  No one in this position has ever told me how it is that they plan to ensure that a government with a rule for everything will be able to enforce the rules.  The best I can get is that a government just has to work right and if you ask me, that’s a fairy tale kind of expectation.

So if further regulation isn’t the answer, how should BP have been handled or be handled now?

The answer isn’t simple.  BP is a large organization and the common space that is being destroyed is gigantic!  Millions of people are effected directly by this ecological disaster and hundreds of millions if not billions around the world will feel the impact of this some how.  BP (as a result of government regulation) will be entirely protected from going bankrupt over this and will continue to be allowed to operate in jurisdictions around the globe.  In a situation where government rules did not protect corporations like BP from bankruptcy, a company that is responsible for ruining a portion of the planet would, I think, cease to exist as a potent force in the business world.

A libertarian outlook requires, demands and necessitates that the population be so much more engaged and passionate about issues that effect them than people generally are today.  I’m not confident that BP would suffer as much as it should in today’s world if it suddenly became devoid of government force but BP certainly won’t suffer even as much as it could in today’s regulatory structure either.  In a libertarian world where government is largely hands off and the population more self reliant, a company like BP would be reviled by the population at large and forced to either put up or shut down or do both in sequence.

People don’t seem to understand that libertarians don’t simply advocate for a technical kind of method of governance; we advocate for public passion in the political realm.  We advocate that people become self dependant, responsible and that we all learn how to stop delegating responsibility for our personal lives to elected representatives.  Again, libertarianism is not simply a method with which to govern, it’s an adopted attitude toward all things political.

There should be no laws in place that allow a company to sue a worker for telling the press about safety concerns on an oil platform.  There should be no law limiting the liability of a corporation in causing a major disaster.  That’s what privately provided insurance is for if any insurer will insure your company.  there should be no government organization that gives legitimacy to safety plans for big oil platforms at sea because those organizations inevitably become ineffective and give us a false sense of security.  There should be no limit placed on the citizenry’s ability to lash out at a company for destroying a portion of our planet on which we all live and depend.

A libertarian world is not about letting companies do what they wish, it’s about holding companies and people to account for the choices they make and doing so independently.  A libertarian will never be satisfied with delegating those responsibilities to a government that claims legitimate authority over a population that largely doesn’t care about it until destructive decisions have already been made.  A libertarian will do their best to take personal interest in problems that plague our society and advocates that others do the same rather than electing some one else to care for them.

In my opinion, BP should be driven into non-existence and all its resources used to cap the leaking oil well by any means and clean up the Gulf of Mexico.  How are we to do that though when the government of the day has rules that protect that corporation from liability and is unwilling to act drastically as the situation demands?  You would think that an oil spill destroying an ocean would demand an emergency meeting of legislators passing new laws to ruin BP and clean up the gulf but no; government is ineffective and unable to solve these problems.

People need to get more in tune with geopolitical problems and take more responsibility is helping to solve them and I don’t think that involuntary government is the answer to that need for cooperative responsible action.

Saskboy is the first blogger I thought of when I saw this at Sunday Onanism.  When I first glanced at the picture, I thought I was about to start reading something regarding Hobbits but no.  The following my friends, is a picture of a home that is completely sustainable and built by people who have no officially recognized skills pertaining to carpentry or small scale architecture.

SO…COOL!

Clicking on the second of the four links above will take you to the website of the home builder who built this house with about £3,000, approximately 1,500 hours of labour and 4 months of fun.

The walls are made of hay bales plastered with a lime render.  The floor is insulated with straw and covered with beautiful hard wood.  Apparently this makes for an enjoyable slight “springy effect” according to the builder and natural feeling slightly uneven floors which he is exceptionally satisfied with.

The fridge is cooled from air that travels under the floor and heat is provided by a wood burning stove.  All that and the landscaping is flippin’ amazing if you ask me.  The entire home is built into a small hill partially for aesthetic value.

There are some incredible things about this home that really stand out to me aside from the sustainability factor.

The relative cost is really my biggest interest in this particular case.  If the fellow’s estimates are correct and it did take him about 1,500 hours of labour to build the home along with the £3,000 he put into materials, that means the house had an approximate building cost of approximately $26,000 CAD and it is entirely self sustaining requiring no connection to an electrical grid.  I would personally want to add a connection to a municipal water source if I were to undertake such a project however.

The $26,000 figure was arrived at by valuing £3,000 at about $5,500 and pricing labour at $14/hr.  Doing most all of the work yourself or at least helping a hired hand would cut the cost of labour either in half or down to practically nothing.  I’ll bet with a project like this, you could get a few volunteers to help you out of sheer interest bringing the cost of the project down to the $5,500 in capital funds and your precious time.

Looking at something like this makes me think a capable and creative duo could turn a tidy profit by building and selling these homes for a living or just building these homes on a customer’s property for a set amount of cash.  using this construction method, you can even make two story homes without sacrificing structural integrity so long as you do it properly.

I don’t know about you but things like this actually make me drool.

It’s all the rage lately, reporting on the fall of gas prices.  Did you know that prices are hovering around 85 cents per litre in Toronto?  heaven’s to murgatroid, time to break out the champale.  Crack that credit card and get yourself some caviar, gas is plumetting.  Whoo hoo!

It is actually a nice reprieve to be paying less for gas seeing as it’s come off a high of almost $1.50/litre.  people generally have no idea what brings gas prices up or down though.  A number of people were frustrated with how oil prices were dropping but the price at the pump seemed to lag a lot.  What people didn’t consider was that oil is priced in US Dollars.  Since the Canadian Dollar was on the decline at the time, cheaper barrels of oil were being bought with a weaker canadian dollar and so, our prices didn’t see a dramatic change.  As the Canadian Dollar increases in strength currently, we have greater buying power when it comes to purchasing oil and so can buy more for less on the world markets.

The Canadian Dollar currently trades for about 85 cents against the American greenback.  The price of oil per barrel currently stands at about $65.  The more the dollar gains and the lessvaluable a barrel of oil becomes on the world markets, the cheaper gas in canada will be.

Just remember, oil markets suck.  It would be better to see the oil market populated by chirping crickets as investors saw greater potential and profit in things like solar power, wind and tidal energy generation.

This is why I’m a libertarian.  I believe new ideas should be free to flourish and that private enterprise and individuals can prosper without having to worry about the “compassionate” hand of government descending from the sky to give em a good wallop.

If you haven’t heard of pick up pal before, you really should check out www.pickuppal.com and offer to take me to Florida for $50 and other unmentionable conditions.  It’s a heck of a neat idea.  The way it works is super simple and thinking of it requires you to place yourself in one of two roles.  now you can skip the next paragraph and watch the cool video that explains it or you can read my blurb.  Remember, I’m prone to suddenly noticing random squirrels or other wildlife so option two may be a good bet.

Basically you’re either a passenger or a driver.  As a driver who is already planning to go from one end of the city to the other, you can offer an empty seat in your vehicle to some one else who needs a ride in the same general direction.  As a passenger, you are simply able to find people who are going to be going the same way you’re going and you can pay them a token of appreciation for doing so.  Simple and neat right?  Here’s that video if I didn’t explain it pr…OHH!  A squirrel!

Now the Ontario government is considering fixing the legislation that essentially makes Pickup Pal illegal and that’s just fine and dandy.  It’s really stupid that the legislation exists in the first place though isn’t it?

Now I know the argument here.  This legislation is supposed to “protect” us from drivers who are not licensed to passenger people around in their vehicles for payment.  Sure they can operate a van full of passengers for free if they want but if even one of them offers up payment and the driver accepts…that’s illegal and unsafe apparently.

Look, I don’t even really care about the whole emission savings deal.  Pickup Pal’s driving theme was reducing the carbon foot print of drivers everywhere and that’s not a bad idea, but in terms of what’s legal and illegal, who cares about that?  The thing that really irks me here is that some one came up with a great idea and people who may lose some business because they are not as imaginative are using the government to squash this incredible cool innovation.

Frankly, if I want to accept payment for taking a passenger in my car to some other location, it’s none of the government’s business.  I’ve always thought taxi licenses were a farce to begin with.  Using the government to kill an innovation like Pickup Pal is stupid.  In this case, Trentway-Wagar Inc (operator of Coach Canada) is simply not imaginative enough to compete with those who have taken advantage of the Pickup Pal website.

Some people have even set up shuttle vans along popular travel routs.  Imagine the tenacity of these people to get a large vehicle, drive back and forth along one rout, get passengers to pay for being transported and all of it’s being done without a special license.  The horror.  I don’t mind taxi companies, bus companies or other private enterprise being competitive, but using government to kill the competition is something else entirely.

I think Pickup Pal is a great demonstration of why monopolies do not typically exist without government laws that enable their survival.  Who could hope to maintain large unwieldy behemoths of business when any individual could cause you such competitive consternation?

I found the most incredible thing yesterday, a tree nursery.  Now hold on, I know that doesn’t sound all that exciting at face value.  I mean after all, there are huge greenhouses that call themselves nurseries that provide a wide array of pretty plants and bushes and whatnot and they can be found all over the place; so what’s the big deal?  Why have I decided to blog about the Little Tree Nursery in Martensville Saskatchewan?  Well I’ll TELL ya why pardner.

The Little Tree Nursery is home to three incredible things.  Firstly, it’s home to this wonderful woman pictured below.  Her name is Dee and she is perhaps one of the friendliest people I have ever met.  she is also a tree growing encyclopedia on legs.  The other two squinters being beaten on by the sun are future plum consumers and current lovers of ice cream.

Secondly, all the trees you see behind her here and in the pictures that are to follow were grown right there at the Little Trees Nursery in Martensville.  I know that might not sound special but consider that large walmartized big box nurseries order something like 90% of their stock from the states.  Consider that those “nurseries” don’t even grow any of their own stuff with some rare exceptions.  While you’re out shopping for a nice tree to plant on your property, you might be getting something from Wichita Kansas for all you know.  At the Little Trees nursery, you’re getting plants that have been wintered right there in Martensville.

We decided to purchase a few plum trees at the end of the day and through our conversation with Dee, came to realize that not only had the trees been grown at LTN, (At which time we were told all of their stock is grown there) but that they had been developed at the University of Saskatchewan.  even more fascinating than that, LTN is a heritage nursery and has become the home of some truly incredible plants.  Dee was telling us about a particular type of Saskatchewan hardy raspberry for example that she got her hands on and in a few years, she may have a few of these plants available for sale to the public…specifically for our back yard.  Cue the evil grin…I love raspberries.

I would at this point say “thirdly…blah blah blah blah” but I’m already covering number three.  As a heritage nursery focusing on plants developed for growing in Saskatchewan and preserving plants native to Saskatchewan, LTN has an incredibly intense local feel to it that I couldn’t fully appreciate while we were there.  I tried my best but honestly the gooey goodness that I felt toward this place was almost overwhelming.  Talking to Dee and finding out so much about the rich heritage of Saskatchewan plants, I came to understand how important this type of work is to our little region of the planet.  Were it not for the work of people like Dee and those who work with her, Saskatchewan consumers would be stuck with buying trees from the USA with no consideration given to the local needs of horticulturists or heck…just someone like us who wants to grow a plum tree in our front yard.  Three of them actually but more on that later.

Whether it be raspberry bushes, the start of a strawberry patch or a variety of trees that you would like, LTN has it all and it’s all bred for toughing it out in Saskatchewan.  I was so happy to find LTN that I had to had to blog about it.  If you need any trees, plants for low level landscaping, shrubs, bushes, fruit bushes/trees, or some incredibly good advice from friendly people who know what they’re doing, I would say that LTN has to be your first stop.  After finding out what I found out about larger garden super centres, I’ll never settle for anything less than a true nursery like LTN.  And before I move on to what we did with what we bought from LTN, here are a few more pictures to enjoy.

THE LANDSCAPING PROJECT:

So after speaking to Dee and looking around, we got what we went to the nursery for.  As we told Dee, we were looking for a couple of plum trees to plant in our front yard.  So we ended up purchasing two Green Elf plum trees which have an incredibly tasty kind of yellow round plum on them.  As an added kind of “warm and fuzzy” bonus, they were developed at the University of Saskatchewan.  Little did we know that we would need a couple of pollinator trees as well though, so we had to buy a Ptitson plum tree too.  Being the kindly gal she is, Dee even threw in a Sand Cherry Bush free of charge to make sure we had the right mix of plant life in our front yard.

When we got home, we couldn’t wait to plant the Green Elf trees and put them right out in front by the sidewalk.

We’re looking forward to a few years from now when the trees will be able to shade the grass so we won’t have that brown corner.  The tree closest in that picture is planted on the north east corner of our front lawn about 2 feet from the sidewalk.  Given about 5-8 years, we’ll have great plums and nice trees to provide shade and some obstruction from the street.  Planting these two trees was easy and we even put the Sand Cherry bush in the middle…the little cherries that grow on that bush by the way?  Vile…nice lookin’ but good gawd…we could make jam out of them or something if we used a 20 lb bag of sugar maybe.  not that I don’t like the bush…It’s quite nice looking and heck, it could even be a slight theft deterrent for those would just walk by and pick our fruit.  Who wants to steal fruit that taste like a wet carpet?

Sorry I don’t have a picture of that for you.  I’m honestly too tired to go outside and take another snapshot.

Anyhow, after planting the Green Elf trees and the Sand Cherry bush, we had to make a spot for the Ptitson.  We couldn’t forget the “dessert” plum right?  Unfortunately, right where we wanted to plant the Ptitson, there was this half dead bush in the way.  we would have liked to keep it, but it was dieing for some reason and we thought it best to get rid of it.

…WITH A SKILL SAW!

Which actually worked quite well.  That and my sweetie had a blast with it.

getting rid of the root structure was the hard part.

But after a lot of hard work, (I ended up whacking the heck out of the dirt with an axe for half an hour or so) we managed to get rid of the roots and replace it with our nice little Ptitson.

Viola.

So now we have a front yard that shows heaps of promise…promise of plums.  Right about the time that the kids move out, we’ll have fully grown plum trees to enjoy.  It’ll be like a reward for putting up with…erm…all that love and affection.  It can be tough to deal with sometimes.

I wanted to end off here by saying that I really feel that Little Tree Nursery is an incredible small business that should be supported.  I have never encountered a business that is so focused on local needs and local development.  Aside from maintaining a focus on Saskatchewan’s incredible variety of beautiful plant life, (Which I knew nothing about before now) these people maintain a real connection with the community.  Visiting today, I even came to understand that LTN is putting up a bunch of boulevard trees in an area of Martensville that could use some sprucing up…sprucing up!  HA!  Get it?  Almost just like real comedy!

Drop by for a visit if you’re anywhere near Martensville Saskatchewan.  It’s well worth your time to look around and have a chat to find out how important and amazing this nursery is.  If I were offered payment for blogging about these guys, I would probably return the cheque…that’s how much I like em.  I mean…I would accept it initially because I would want to feel it…maybe even frame it and hang it up on the wall for a couple of days…but I wouldn’t cash it!