DOWN TO THE DOCTOR’S: Geoghegan, global warming and gold

Libz leader Dr Richard McGrath ransacks the newspapers for stories and headlines on issues affecting our freedom.

This week:   Geoghegan, global warming and gold

• OTAGO DAILY TIMES: “MP defends student union bill” - ACT MP Heather Roy defends her private member’s bill requiring voluntary membership of student associations…

THE DOCTOR SAYS: Heather Roy wants to see voluntary membership of student “associations” (read: unions), which after all is consistent with Article 17 of the 1990 NZ Bill of Rights Act reminding us that we are free to associate with whomever we like.
    OUSA president Harriet Geoghegan is fearful however of a drop in income and job losses if students are given the choice to either join her organisation or leave it. Actually, that’s life in the real world, Harriet. If OUSA wants to retain membership, it should give students value for money and start delivering services that its members actually want.
    Harriet thinks “the whole ACT free market thing doesn’t work because we’re not a commercial service.” She’s right. OUSA is a collective with forced membership. Isn’t it funny how socialists don’t like revolution and “people power” when it’s their own tyranny that’s being threatened!    

• OTAGO DAILY TIMES: “Students to attend climate conference” – Twelve young people will attend a conference in Mexico later this month to attend the latest meeting of people who want to enforce global UN sanctions based on a belief in anthropogenic global warming…

THE DOCTOR SAYS: The 2010 Youth Delegation are sending twelve people to a talkfest in Mexico. These twelve, according to their website, want to “reduce our emissions.” Hey, guys, how about setting an example by staying at home and video-conferencing, instead of burning all that jet fuel? Guess that’s not so headline-grabbing, though, is it?
    Poor little muppets, still deluded in their belief that humans contribute significantly to changes in global temperature. In their blinkered parallel universe, these zealots ignore the sun, ignore volcanoes, hell they even ignore termites, whose greenhouse gas emissions dwarf those produced by human activity.
    As a taxpayer, I hope I am not being roped into help pay for these earnest but naive young crusaders.

• CHRISTCHURCH PRESS: “Call for compulsory quad bike helmets” – A Canterbury woman whose partner was brain damaged in a quad bike accident wants helmets made compulsory for every one riding a quad bike…

THE DOCTOR SAYS: It’s always sad when anyone is maimed as a result of trauma. I was going to say an accident, But as most people know, riding a quad bike means taking a HIGHER THAN AVERAGE RISK of sustaining serious injury. There is always a knee-jerk reaction when someone is injured to make sweeping changes and force people to take some extra precaution for their own good.
    Why not make roll cages on quad bikes compulsory? After all, a helmet is hardly going to save you when several hundred kilograms of machinery is compressing your chest.
    Why not advocate a total ban on quad bikes – why tolerate the slightest possibility that someone will be injured while riding one of these vehicles?
    I wonder if Sue Hardy—who now wants to make everyone do what she thinks would be a good thing—had then insisted that her partner wear a helmet? Why not?
    And does she suggest that her partner now be prosecuted for not wearing a helmet?
    Furthermore, how does she know her partner would not have suffered brain injury, or a broken neck, if he had been wearing the helmet she now thinks he should have been.
    Attempts to control people’s peaceful behaviour by law is, in my view, going too far. It’s none of the government’s damn business—or your’s—what I do on my own farm with my quad bike.
    So, please, Sue and others, just butt out and let people learn to take responsibility for their own safety instead of surrendering essential liberties on a whim.

• NZ HERALD: “Economic fears drives gold to new record” – Gold is now $US1400 an ounce, and rising...

THE DOCTOR SAYS: Gee, I wonder who could have predicted that? Peter Schiff, that’s who. Peter points out, among other things, in this interview that had the United States stuck with the gold standard, oil would now be $US3.50 a barrel.  That’s three dollars fifty!
    Peter currently likes silver even more than gold, in terms of potential gain. So, people, get rid of those junk-bond US dollars, and protect your savings, and buy some metal.
    Incidentally, Professor Antal Fekete, refugee from communist totalitarianism and an expert on the gold standard, is speaking on exactly this subject at the Libertarianz Party conference this Saturday.
    Be there!

When the people fear the government, there is tyranny – when
the government fears the people, there is liberty.
- attributed to Thomas Jefferson