Opinion | Oct. 5: Digital billboards dangerous, Ontario’s heartless government and other letters to the editor – TheSpec.com

Who are the real Nazis here?

Election

I attended the Bernier/PPC event at Mohawk College on Sunday. I wanted to see if they really were a far right party as many have claimed. And to be honest, I thought it might be fun to watch the circus.

Inside the theatre, I listened carefully to the panellists and my neighbours in the audience and did not hear any hate speech.

Outside was a different story. Antifa (who are opposed to Bernier's party) were roaming around in packs picking on those walking alone, the elderly, the infirm or their favourite targets women. They prevented their victims from moving forward, blew cigarette smoke into their faces while screaming "Nazi scum, off our streets." It's ironic they should call others Nazis because Hitler's storm troopers began exactly the same way disrupting political events by using intimidation and harassment. Whether they are on the left or the right is irrelevant this behaviour should not be tolerated.

Fred Cranston, Hamilton

Andrew Scheer's boring fantasies

Election

An insurance broker? That's the best fake Andrew Scheer can conjure? Not astronaut, ninja warrior or heart surgeon?

At least if he's going to invent things he's done, he could have picked something more interesting. The man is too boring to lead.

Jeanette Morgan, Burlington

No such thing as absolute freedom

Public safety

The current controversy regarding "the rights" of anti-vaxxers and parents who believe in alternative medicine at the peril of their children's lives brings into glaring relief the misunderstanding of the concept of freedom and individual rights in this era.

Absolute freedom does not exist in nature or society. Reality restricts the possibility in nature and the benefits availed by living in a society preclude absolute freedom. Concessions must be made. Individual freedom/rights are tempered by the needs/benefits of the whole. That's what is known as "The Social Contract."

Gerard Shkuda, Burlington

Ayn Rand had most things dead wrong

Ayn Rand had it right on the economy (Sept. 25)

"A free mind and a free market are corollaries." Sorry, Ayn Rand had it wrong.

Let's add Pinochet to the list of notable figures the writer cites; he needed a bloody military coup to impose Milton Friedman's free-market policies in Chile, leading to the death and disappearance of thousands. The result was a crisis of corruption and debt so severe that the dictator was forced to nationalize several large deregulated financial institutions, producing more government intervention than there had been before the elected socialist government was ousted.

CEO Eddie Lampert tried restructuring Sears according to Rand's principles, breaking it into more than 30 individual units, each with its own management and measured separately for profit and loss, assuming competition would lead to higher profits. Where's Sears now? Thousands of free minded people ended up with no jobs and no pensions.

What would have happened in the 2008 collapse without government intervention and the bailouts of free-market institutions and corporations deemed too big to fail? Where would the wealthy be without the government enforced property and contract laws that work in their favour?

Support for unregulated free markets is support for homelessness and exploitative labour practices: 19th century laws to restrict child labour were opposed on the grounds they interfered with the operation of the market. Cooperation and compassion work better than unregulated self-interest.

Mark Dineen, Hamilton

Linc billboards a driver distraction

Distracted driving

In this era of distracted driving and accidents, I wonder who the bright light at City Hall is who thought that 8-by-40-foot illuminated billboards on the Linc, that change messages every 10 seconds, was a good idea?

Let's hope that the revenue generated is enough to offset the insurance claims when drivers get distracted and cause accidents.

Maybe it's a pilot project and we will soon see many more. And then, using technology, we can allow drivers access to the screens and they can stream their favourite programs as they drive.

Lee Fairbanks, Hamilton

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Opinion | Oct. 5: Digital billboards dangerous, Ontario's heartless government and other letters to the editor - TheSpec.com