Free Republic

Funny how the environmental objectives of the "Save the Planet from the Flying Global Warming Monster" squad and that of Marxism line up so neatly. Of course you shouldn't have personal autonomy or private property. It's bad for the 'planet'. And by the planet, we mean the red planet. So it's no surprise that The Nation, where the synergy of the red and the green meet, should roll out a story like this, "If we want to keep cities safe in the face of climate change, we need to seriously question the ideal of private homeownership." ... And give up...

I remember our daily food always coming from a long, long line at the end of which was a loaf of bread, a liter of milk, a stick of butter, a bottle of murky cooking oil, or a kilo of bones with traces of meat and fat on them. [...] If we wanted to eat, we learned at a very young age that we had to stand in long lines every day, often in bitter cold at 4 a.m. in hopes that the store would not run out of bread or milk by the time we made it to the...

At a book signing event in Washington on Tuesday, First Lady Michelle Obama urged her fans to "buy away" for Mother's Day. "It's coming up," she said, adding that "American Grown" is a "great gift." The book tells the story of the White House garden -- and others around the country. "It's not just the story of the White House Kitchen Garden; it's the story of community gardens all across this country, because the truth is, the idea of the White House garden is not unique. Community gardens are a mainstay in so many communities across this country, from rural...

Venezuelan Government Seizes Land for Farming Cooperatives By VOA News26 March 2007 The Venezuelan government has seized about 330,000 hectares of land it considers idle from 16 estates for use as collective farms. Hugo Chavez President Hugo Chavez announced the seizures Sunday on his weekly Hello, President television show.He said the land will be mostly used to raise cattle for meat and milk production.He did not elaborate on how the collectivization of the property would work, but said the land belongs to everyone and will benefit everyone.Mr. Chavez said the move is part of a program to do away...

I have been arranging my extensive CD collection which lead me to play some of those long forgotten CD. This afternoon it was Mendelssohn "Reformation" Symphony. This might not be the best symphony of this rather underrated composer. The 5th popularity has suffered from being a "heftier" work, more intellectual, less crafted and vital than the "Italian". As if trying to encompass the reformation movement in music were possible. Still, the last movement opening is one of the most stirring moments of the repertoire, and a powerful musical image of the liberation of the spirit, no matter what religious connotation...

One: Convince the have nots that the haves are evil. Two: Decry the evils of foreigners. Three: Manipulate an election. Four: Nationalize all media sources. And the fifth stage: Expropriations. Looks like fidel castro's dream has finally been realized. He has managed to export his revolution. Hugo Chavez has gone by the book in beginning the end of Venezuela. Although I must confess that I have not followed the events in that country meticulously - I haven't been able to stomach the destruction of another country by way of Cuba's example - Venezuela is slowly sinking down the hell hole...

The war to the death against big estates decreed by President Chávez in the Poliedro put paid to the illusions held by many who still believed that the government was going to act rationally and within the confines of the law. ... This Commission will have a “constitutional mandate” to incorporate the land it considers “idle, abandoned or underused” into “the productive process of the country,” according to the Decree on the Reorganization of the Ownership and Use of Land Suitable for Agricultural Use. The land so considered will be handed over to groups of the population and organized communities...

The land-grabbing ranch expropriators in Venezuela are doing their stealing of lands in Che Guevara tee shirts! Che's not just a nostalgic relic of the past, he is the live image of the recrudescence of communism in action. The Financial Times of the U.K. is doing by far the best job of covering the descent of Venezuela into a Marxist hell. The United States media seemingly couldn't care less about the fate of a very important neighbor. Their performance so far mocks any claim to serve the public with necessary information.

Countries the world over jockey hard to attract foreign investment. They care about it enough to make it a national priority, to send spies against their competitors, to build infrastructure, and to change laws to make their investment climate attractive. Most know of the economy-developing potential of foreign capital. The United States itself was developed this way, largely on British capital which built its great railroads, mining ventures, universities and corporations. China is now the giant of this game opf attractring foreign investment, aptly offering favorable business conditions and great opportunities to businesses the world over. But it's not just...

Land interventions in Cojedes State will continue next Wednesday. In this way, the decree issued by Cojedes Governor Johnny Yánez Rangel with regard to 16 estates will be enforced. Following the effective intervention of El Charcote farm last Saturday, regional authorities plan to seize several properties of the Boulton family in Cojedes, such as Gavinero, Yaguara, San José and La Flecha. Rafael Alemán, the Cojedes State Secretary-General, said under this schedule of interventions, Paraima and Piñero -both properties of the Branger family- will be intervened next January 13th and 14th, respectively.

The Government of Cojedes state took over as proimised the British owned cattle ranch Hato El Charcote. The Goveror stil claims they are respecing private property, but "it is not absolute" whatever that means. You can read more about it here, here and here. The people at the bottom are not part of the intervention, they are the invaders of the ranch, who are protesting because the Government apparently is not going to give them the intervened land, but it will be handed over to 28 cooperatives of farmers.

I have mentioned Carlos Machado Allison in this blog before. He is retired from Universidad Central de Venezuela, was President of the Venezuelan National Fund for Agrarian Research .... He is just finishing a book called “Agriculture in Venezuela”. Today he is interviewed in page 3 of El Nacional ... here are some excerpts: “The agricultural states are the poorest of the country” On the state being the biggest landowner: “This is true; it has so much that it does not even know what it has. Some say it has 8 million hectares, other say 20 million. But there is...

08.01.05 | Various sources report that El Charcote ranch, owned by British Vestey group, was seized this morning by Venezuelan authorities and the army. This is the first illegal seizure that the Chavez regime conducts against private property owned by foreign groups. With this precedent, will anyone be intrepid enough to invest in Venezuela?

The Marxist government of Venezuela expropriated its first cattle ranch this morning, a productive 32,000-hectare estate owned by a British company. This is to be the first in a series of seizures to end in collectivization. The move echoes the seizures of lush farms of Zimbabwe by the Mugabe government, where it's now barren and people are starving. The Financial Times of the U.K. has picked up on the story, because the ranch in question is owned by a British aristocrat, who is a close friend of Prince Charles, and a tycoon in the meat industry. Lord Vestey, charmingly, is...

The government of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez will expropriate its first farm, taking Venezuela straight down Zimbabwe road. The grab was announced this morning and will happen Saturday. The chavistas' first target is a British-owned cattle ranch. The move is a bold beginning for the chavista communists who will roll out both military and police forces for the seizure, beginning the first in a series. The communists' mendacious rationale is that a British company, Vestey Group, did not have proper title to 3000 hectares of its 13,000-hectare cattle ranch. So they are taking it all. But the owners of the...

Imagine a country within the Western world, in which elections are rigged like in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, private enterprises are expropriated as a matter of routine, land is farmed collectively, like in the days of medieval serfdom, and every workplace has been recently mandated to hold government-approved “ideological seminars.” Sounds like Orwellian fiction? Not quite. Or an all-dominating Stalinist behemoth? Closer, but still seventy years away. This country exists today, adjacent to the prosperous liberalizing lands of New Europe. It is Belarus, and it is governed by Europe’s last despot, Alexander Lukashenko. Following its separation from the Soviet Union in 1991,...