Wednesday 18 March 2009

DOWN TO THE DOCTOR’S: Failing all ‘round

richardmcgrathLibertarianz leader Richard McGrath digests, consumes and evacuates some of this week’s news …

  1. Conference to look at causes of crime – The Gummint is to hold a talkfest on crime and the causes thereof next month. What’s the bet you won’t hear mention of the following as possible causes:
    • the lack of constitutional and legal support for property rights in this country;
    • a welfare system that encourages solo parenthood by financially rewarding broken families;
    • an education system that acts as de facto jailer for thousands of angry, bored teenagers;
    • lenient sentencing for child murder and other horrific crimes; and
    • active discouragement of innovation and the penalizing of private enterprise.
  2. National Front targeting kids – Race relations commissar Joris de Bres says the right-wing National Front xenophobes are trying to recruit schoolchildren into their ranks. Well, I guess the fringe element should be allowed to enjoy freedom of speech and expression; but policies based on racial separatism, opposition to immigration and other economically destructive absurdities have very limited appeal to rational New Zealanders.
       I say Mr de Bres should resist calls to gag these right-wing imbeciles, and simply let them self-destruct. 
  3. PM recommends SIS stops monitoring MPs – Did he say stop monitoring MPs! On the contrary, there should be an open dossier on every MP, updated regularly, in the public domain. Any MP that oversteps the strict boundaries of our constitution should be asked to explain their actions, and prosecuted where breaches have occurred. Of course, this assumes that New Zealand had a decent constitution, such as the one here.
  4. Heroin eating away at nationThe Russian government’s answer to a growing heroin problem has a familiar failed ring to it:
        * first, allow police to access the details of drug addicts who seek help for their
           problem so they can then be arrested;
        * second, ban methadone treatment for the addicts;
        * third, drive drug users further underground by staking out needle exchange centres.
    Sound like a prescription for success to you? Prohibition didn’t work in 1919 – why do the Russians think it would it work in 2009?
  5. Strict German gun laws fail to prevent school shooting – A common sense headline, and from the left-wing Guardian, no less!
        The obvious conclusion to draw from the recent school shootings is that licensing firearms is a waste of time. Worse still, banning firearms from schools is a guarantee that any deranged would-be mass murderer can fire at will, unopposed, on disarmed sacrificial lambs.
        When people are not allowed to defend themselves against armed criminals, tragedies such as this are inevitable.
  6. Socialist red eclipses Coke’s hue – Hugo Chavez continues his all-out assault on individual rights. The President-for-life has accelerated his seizure of private property: three factories belonging to U.S and Venezuelan businesses, and a plantation owned by an Irish paper company. A former central bank director says: “Frankly, I don’t see why anyone would invest in Venezuela.” Zimbabwe all over again.
  7. Bernanke forecasts ‘an end to the recession’ – Ben Bernanke is the 500 pound elephant in the room that the leftist media ignore when they blame the current economic correction on the free market. They forget that central bankers don’t exist in a free market.
        Those Americans angry that their Red President, the Community Organiser, has thrown billions of their dollars at dysfunctional insurance companies, car companies and banks should remember that this would not have occurred in a free market. In a free market, companies like GM, AIG and Citibank would have been allowed to fail, as a warning to others not to go down the same road. By rescuing these delinquent corporations, the American government is encouraging more of the same misbehaviour.
        Bernanke claims the Bolshevik Bailouts and forcing banks to lend money – which was part of the recipe for the current problems - will “probably” mean an end to the recession within nine months.
        Pull the other one, Ben.

See y’all next week!
Dr Richard McGrath

9 comments:

Clunking Fist said...

Regarding last weeks post:
Doc, you may have missed this:

http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/national/mnr/morning_rural_news151

or

http://tinyurl.com/bc2h7p

Spark has agreed to rape taxpayers in order to fund 6 professional sheep shearers to the tune of $10k per year and $5k performance bonus. I was so angry I coughed up my lungs. The relevent bit is at about 2min 55 seconds.

StephenR said...

You would actually consider the National Front to be 'right wing'?

Anonymous said...

Re the National Front, Richard, I agree. They're certainly not my cup of tea. Mind you, neither's Sue Bradford, but free speech applies to all and that's that.

I heard de Bres bemoan the NF's 'recruitment' of schoolkids, too. Although he didn't elaborate as to their methods.

Funny how he doesn't seem to mind (let alone decry) the ultra-left -- in its many guises -- doing the same thing, eh? ;)

Anonymous said...

Even funnier - when pressed by a reporter, de Bres admitted he didn't actually have any examples or evidence of the NF doing anything of the sort. Sounds like it was all made up.

Richard McGrath said...

Clunking Fist - thanks for the link. The involuntary taxpayer sponsorship was related to the World Shearing Champs I think, rather than the Golden Shears.

StephenR - Yes, I would label the NF right wing. They want to deport or exterminate homosexuals. Libz, on the other hand, believe gay people have the same rights as everyone else.

Sus - I was also struck by the irony of the Race Relations Commissar's comments. A lot of people are selective at their oppposition to some forms of collectivism (e.g. racism) while tolerating other forms (e.g. socialism).

StephenR said...

I was under the mistaken impression that the Libz were right-wing, but not so, obviously. Now that I think of it, that might be a hoary old chestnut I bring up- cue the eye-rolling.

Annie Fox! said...

StephenR: Yes the 'right-wing' label is a 'horny old' issue, but you now realise your mistake, so all is forgiven.

Richard McGrath said...

StephenR - Libz would agree with SOME policy platforms of the Right - e.g. low taxes, the right to keep and bear arms; but absolutely oppose them on other policies - e.g. state interference in the economy, mixing state and religion, outlawing abortion, punishing homosexuals, drug prohibition, etc.

Just as we agree with the left on some issues - free speech and expression, drug legalisation, ending corporate welfare; but oppose them on others e.g. income and other taxation, state interference in welfare and education.

The common thread, Stephen, is maximising FREEDOM. More freedom, less government. Let people live their lives as they see fit, not the way you or anyone else thinks they should - as long as they don't cause objective harm to others. And if they do cause harm, they are then made to compensate the injured party with the government there to use retaliatory force on behalf of the victim(s), if necessary.

Libertarians don't really have a place on the outdated left-right spectrum of statist politics.

StephenR said...

Thanks for the clarification Richard.

Many thanks too, Annie ;-)