First Ramble for a new year

 

Welcome to the new year’s very first Ramble! (The political year must really have started up down under.)

I had plenty of things I wanted to talk about over the break, and found lots of stuff to show you, but with the help of the drinks cabinet I managed to restrain myself until now. Much of what I had to talk was oddly enough about one man and his activities, and reactions to him and them (can you guess who it is?) whose reign does and will continue to offer multiple opportunities to learn – on all fronts!

So here are just a few of those many links:

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“66 per cent of NZers surveyed “support [voluntary] euthanasia as a legal means of ending the lives of people with painful, incurable diseases.”
Most Kiwis support euthanasia for those with painful, incurable diseases – STUFF

“But Uber et al are not taxi 2.0. The real story is about ridesharing and its ability to increase vehicle occupancy rates and reduce congestion… If there was a way that the government could costlessly beat [the threat of traffic congestion and ever-larger traffic corridors], it would be a good (and popular) thing for a government to do, right?” Wrong, apparently.
Who to blame for appalling road congestion? Start with National’s feeble attitude to ridesharing – David Seymour, THE SPINOFF

Law of Unintended Consequences, Lesson #5473: Commerce Commission issues draft decision blocking Fairfax/NZME merger on basis it creates a monopoly. Analysts tell Fairfax it must withdraw from NZ if it doesn’t merge, creating the same alleged monopoly.
Credit Suisse believes Fairfax will leave NZ 'one way or another' if merger rejected – STUFF

Actually, a good transitional solution to something better, if a better solution to affordable housing isn’t possible: 1) Take Cities Out of the Resource Management Act; 2) Share GST Revenue to Build Infrastructure; 3) Compulsory Insurance for New Buildings. But, yes, it wouldn’t be ACT if it didn’t involve compulsion.
The House Price Problem (and a Solution) – David Seymour, ACT
Germany may hold the key to solving New Zealand's housing woes – Oliver Hartwich, STUFF

The National Party is just Labour without the identity politics. Some in Labour want to end that point of difference. “The identity politics debate is like a cancer eating out the strength and heart of the centre-left,” they say, “and it doesn’t have to be like this.”
The identity politics debate has become cancerous for the centre-left. One Labour MP showed how to join the dots – Simon Wilson, THE SPINOFF

COME HEAR MORE ABOUT THIS NEXT WEDNESDAY IN AUCKLAND!
“Libertarians in Brazil have built a burgeoning movement. Unlike Olavo de Carvalho’s conservative movement, the libertarians lacked a central ideological leader and have achieved very impressive results in a relatively short period of time. Today, libertarianism is growing faster in Brazil than in any other country.”
Why Brazilians Are Demanding "Menos Marx, Mais Mises" – Adriano Gianturco & Luciana Lopes, FEE
Adriano Melo - Brazilian Journey to Liberty – AUCKLAND LIBERTY ON THE ROCKS

Direct from Lebanon, Karl Sharro trolls America.
America, You Look Like an Arab Country Right Now: Welcome to the club – Karl Sharro, POLITICO

“People everywhere are biting their nails this election season, wondering how the damage could be limited. But let’s take a step back and ask whether it has to be this way. What if the power of government were so limited that it didn’t matter who occupied the White House? Wouldn't that be a vast improvement?”
It Shouldn't Matter Who the President Is – Jeffrey Tucker, FEE

"This also explains why [Obama-worshipping left-liberals] are so deeply traumatised by the rise of Trump and have now suddenly discovered the virtues of faux ‘resistance.’ They worked hard to amass all this power, only to have it fall into the hands of such a colossal boor. Funny how that works."
Donald Trump Is Not My President, and That’s Just Fine – Robert Tracinksi, THE TRACINSKI LETTER
Trump will have vast powers. He can thank Democrats for them. – Glenn Greenwald, AGAINST CRONY CAPITALISM
Obama’s Legacy? The Imperial Presidency That He Passes On To Trump – DAILY BEAST
What’s scarier than Trump? The elite revolt against him – SPIKED

“There is just one big problem with Trump’s plan to make America great again: Big government, which is what brings countries down rather than lift them up. The big spending, the constant wars, the socialism, the regulation, the interventionism, the taxation, and the inflation ultimately cause a country to implode…
   “Trump and his fellow conservatives have it all wrong. As America’s Founding Fathers understood so well, a great nation is one that that has a very small and weak government with very limited powers.”
Trump Will Not Make America Great Again -  Jacob Hornberger, FFF

“Trump has fashioned himself as anti-establishment, a classic populist. You might think that has something to do with being anti-government, but you would be terribly wrong.”
Trump’s Economic Plan: Higher Taxes, Higher Inflation, and Higher Minimum Wage – Jeffrey Tucker, FEE

“There are three forms of journalism today: outright lying, biased advocacy / propaganda, and unbiased reporting… In reality, people hear the advocates. And they are the jurors. And, as long as both sides of an issue have competent advocates, with no side being shut down, the truth, and therefore justice, will normally prevail. The people are smart jurors.”
A New Paradigm for Journalism – Vinay Kolhatkar, FACEBOOK

 

“So instead of going Galt it
seems the GOP is going alt.”
~ Ben Shapiro

 

“Donald Trump tore up the broad consensus on international free trade with a miserable, protectionist inaugural speech on Friday. So explicit was his outlook that those of us who had become complacent about his economic impact – the “how bad can he be?” crowd – have had to sit up and reassess.”
Trump is wrong: Protectionism leads to misery, not prosperity – Ryan Bourne, CITY A.M.
Withdrawing from TPP was a Senseless Act of Wanton Destruction – Daniel Ikenson, CATO
Why Trade Restrictions Always Backfire – Lawrence Reed, FEE
International Trade Thuggery – Walter Williams, TOWN HALL
The False Promise of "Buy American" – Daniel Ikenson, CATO
“Buy American” Is Un-American – Harry Binswanger, CAPITALISM MAGAZINE

Free speech in America?
Four more journalists get felony charges after covering inauguration unrest – GUARDIAN

Turns out, apparently, that the best offence against postmodernism was being a buffoon. (The author, it seems, has never heard of a Pyrrhic Victory.)
Donald Trump Is The First President To Turn Postmodernism Against Itself – David Ernst, THE FEDERALIST

“It's almost as if the Clinton Foundation was a scam set up to sell public service to private bidders.”
The Clinton Foundation Shuts Down Clinton Global Initiative – OBSERVER

 

“You're not for "women's rights" if you're
silent about Islam's war on women.”
~ Bosch Fawstin

 

The great Thomas Sowell is retiring from commentary just when his brand of commentary has never been more needed.
Farewell, Dr. Sowell – GUS VAN HORN

Even without the inevitable cockups, The Wall will cost multiple billions (as one comparison, a very good chunk of NZ’s GDP), will take years (possibly not even finished before Trump’s term ends), and guess which country will probably supply most of the labour, and how the construction itself will make the border more permeable, not less.
A Wall Is an Impractical, Expensive, and Ineffective Border Plan – David Bier, CATO
Here's how much Trump's border wall will cost - CNN

Make American manufacturing great again? Open the borders.
Help American Manufacturing With Open Borders – OPEN BORDERS: THE CASE

“"The measure of an economy’s health isn’t the quantity of physical stuff it produces, but rather the value that it produces. And value comes in a variety of forms."
Yes, America Still Makes Stuff, and It Wouldn’t Matter if We Didn’t – Steven Horwitz, FEE

“We will never know how many Andras Grofs were lost to the West because, for foreign nationals, the right to earn a living and stay indefinitely, let alone vote and hold public office, has always been tightly controlled by the State. Such policies have been justified on the basis that the glue that holds a nation-state together is the commonality of history, language, tradition, culture, and religion…
    “The question before us is whether a nation-state that secures individual rights for its citizens can disregard the unity offered by cultural traditions, language, race, and religion.”
Must a Moral Nation Have Limitless Immigration? – Vinay Kolhatkar, SAVVY STREET

“Again, I agree with Mazlish and others that our country is in cultural free-fall. Still, I don’t think an ideological screening of immigrants (or anyone else) is the solution.”
A Response to Ed Mazlish’s Call for Ideological Screening of Immigrants – Amy Peikoff, DON’T LET IT GO
Open Borders: The Case – OPEN BORDERS

“The Syrian #refugees are warmly welcomed because the sponsorship is privately funded by Canadian churches, non-profits, charities, and bands of individuals who extend compassion at their own expense, rather than use tax dollars. In short, the refugees are wanted and not an economic burden.”
Canada's Private Refugee System Fosters Generosity, Acceptance, Kindness – Wendy McElroy, FEE

A couple of fundamental reminders about what government is for, and why. (They couldn’t be more topical.)
Man's Rights; The Nature of Government – Ayn Rand, AYN RAND INSTITUTE

 

"Nothing that is morally wrong
can be politically right."
William E. Gladstone

 

“Snow in the Sahara Desert? The climate is always changing. Another reason why we need cheap, reliable, and abundant energy to help us flourish in the face of this change.”
A metre of snow falls in the Sahara desert – TELEGRAPH

“A couple of questions…. Can you build a wind turbine, or start a wind turbine, without fossil fuels? The answer is no and no, you cannot.”
Wind farms use fossil fuels for construction and operation – Gary Johns, THE AUSTRALIAN

“’Science’ is perhaps the most abused word in the English language.”
How Climate Science Became A Religion – Alex Epstein, FORBES

So it’s the warmest something for some somethings. Or something.
Science Without Numbers – Robert Tracinksi, THE TRACINSKI LETTER
You Ought to Have a Look: 2016 Temperatures, Business-as-Usual at the UN, and the Cost of Regulations – Patrick Michaels, CATO

“When egalitarians like Oxfam say some people are ‘worse off,’ they really mean those people are getting rich more slowly than some others.”
Inequality Doesn't Create Poverty – Ryan McMaken, MISES.ORG
The world's richest billionaires aren't stealing from the world's poorest – IB TIMES

“Quick run-down on those "8 richest people" that Oxfam's condemning in this year's fund-raising drive. The common thread is they made stuff cheaper and better, effectively donating trillions to random strangers.”
Their wealth is the prize money that drives innovation ... – Peter St Onge, FACEBOOK

“Popular perceptions of Classical Liberalism are riddled with straw man fallacies… Classical Liberals study and debate within a broad individualist tradition that concerns the whole of civilisation… Too many people know nothing about the depth of Classical Liberal thought. As a result, three myths about Classical Liberalism reflect the straw men of what I call Comic Book Liberalism.”
Neither trickle-down, nor Galt’s Gulch, nor Right Wing: notes on Comic Book Liberalism vs. Classical Liberalism. – David Magram, STEPHEN HICKS

“Social justice is the anti-concept that employs the concept of ‘justice’ in order to gain moral credibility—and then obliterates that concept in people’s minds and replaces it with the idea that the forcible redistribution of wealth is moral.”
“Social Justice” is an Assault on Justice – Craig Biddle, OBJECTIVE STANDARD

“For most of recent history, the choice facing electorates has been binary: you could support the “Left” or the “Right” tribe, Conservatives or Labour, Democrats or Republicans. You could vote for a third party, of course, but only as a protest. This system worked well on one level: it allowed moments of profound change, as in 1979 or 1997, and ensured the peaceful transfer of power.
    “But it was a crude way of translating voters’ preferences into action, especially in a heterogenous society that cannot any longer be divided into distinct economic classes …; when the central issues become questions of identity, immigration or self-government, superimposed on conflicting, nuanced views about taxation and spending, the tensions can no longer be contained.”
Voters used to Netflix have no time for Left and Right. We are entering the age of pick-and-mix politics – Allister Heath, TELEGRAPH

“And it works, of course, with equal fallaciousness in the other direction.”
The Oldest Rhetorical Trick in the Book – Don Boudreaux, FEE

 

“The scene comes as the landlord, Schneider (Todd Grinnell), enters the apartment with a Che Guevara shirt on. It elicits response of disgust from the various family members; Penelope (Justina Machado), the mother yells at Schneider, 'Do you have any idea what this come mierda (commonly interpreted as dumb-ass) did?' 'Grew an awesome beard and modeled for t-shirts?' the man cluelessly says. The family explained that Guevara was not Cuban, but was Castro’s right-hand man. The daughter, Elena (Isabella Gonzalez), further explains why Cuban-Americans hated him so much. 'He burned books, he personally banned music, he personally oversaw executions, he’s a mass murderer,' she exclaims..."
Netflix Show Calls Out People Who Wear Che Guevara Shirts – LIBERTARIAN REPUBLIC

Aaron Haspel: “If you're going to read only one thing about superintelligence -- and unless you're a professional, I strongly recommend no more than that -- then this should be that thing.”
Superintelligence: The Idea That Eats Smart People – IDLE WORDS

“The Myth: We tried free banking and the result was constant bank runs and panics. The Federal Reserve was created to make the system stable and it succeeded.
”The Reality: America’s recurrent panics were the product of financial control, and there is no evidence the Federal Reserve has made things better.”
Banking Panics and the Creation of the Federal Reserve – Don Watkins, VOICES FOR REASON

 

“Long before Google and Facebook built their high-tech campuses, Frank Lloyd Wright designed this futuristic building (above) for the The Lenkurt Electric Company in Silicon Valley.”
Check Out This Gorgeous, Unbuilt Tech Firm That Frank Lloyd Wright Designed For Silicon Valley – S.F.LIST.COM

For those unfamiliar with the great man and his music …
Brian Eno – 10 of the best – GUARDIAN

“The long journey that turned Shayne Carter, one of New Zealand’s great guitar heroes, into a classical music fan… All I had to do was listen.”
‘All I had to do was listen’: Shayne Carter on how he fell deeply in love with classical music – THE SPINOFF
Finding Refuge in the Extraordinary: Romantic Music as Fuel to Set the Soul on Fire – Michelle Dunk, A SPARK OF PASSION
The intelligent truckdriver’s classical music starter pack [now with playlist!] – NOT PC

 

And finally, it’s Mozart’s birthday, one of Shayne’s favourites, and we’re the ones who get to celebrate!

 

 

 

 

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Friday Arvo Ramble, 18.11.16

 

“Geonet have been busy measuring how much the ground moved in this week’s earthquakes.”
Measuring the ground movement – YOUR NZ

“I hear folk who think it’s simple; who wonder why even in a “moderate” quake Wellington’s buildings seem to be falling apart. The thing is that designing to respond properly to every earthquake means designing to respond to every possible earthquake – and there’s no way of knowing what earthquake you are going to get when even The Moderate One comes.”
Earthquake engineering is harder than you think – NOT PC

No, people, the Supermoon didn’t do it.
Earthquake myths debunked – STUFF

“So Gerry Brownlee is not happy that the new mayor of Wellington, Justin Lester, did not declare a 'red zone' in the Wellington CBD after this week's earthquakes… Brownlee's dictatorial management of the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake has more effectively destroyed that city than any damage done by the earthquake.”
Leave us alone, Gauleiter Brownlee – THOUGHTS FROM 40^o SOUTH

“New Zealand's Human Rights Commission says that property rights need to be protected in the Bill of Rights. I couldn't agree more enthusiastically. Their report is about what the government did to people in Christchurch's Red Zone.”
Property Rights are Human Rights – Eric Crampton, OFFSETTING BEHAVIOUR

“The Kaikoura railway destruction has an economic silver lining. There is now a possibility of less future waste on irrational and distorting transport subsidies.”
Could the earthquakes reduce Kiwirail distortions? – STEPHEN FRANKS

Bernard Darnton: “Large Hadron Collider detects a massive particle - the South Island.”
CERN boffins see strange ... oh, wait, that's just New Zealand moving 2m north – THE REGISTER

“Of the several thousand people I have interviewed in my broadcasting career, including forgers, prostitutes and train robbers, there is no-one I have held in greater contempt than Brian Tamaki.”
Brian Tamaki – Saint or Sinner? – BRIAN EDWARDS MEDIA
God deeply frustrated Auckland’s gay people live nowhere near a fault line – THE CIVILIAN

Core business or waste of ratepayers’ hard-earned?
Calm down. The new Auckland slogan search was fine – Simon Wilson, SPINOFF

“The government passed the Vulnerable Children Act in 2014.The new legislation required every person who works with children to be police vetted … This is already causing problems hiring EEC teachers…”
Laws that run out of control – LINDSAY MITCHELL

Have the Greens opened a Pandora's Box on immigration?
UK, USA... NZ? Why the Greens' surrender to the dark side should scare us all – Thomas Couhglan, SPINOFF

“’Maori Party Co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell said Labour's Maori MPs know in their heart of hearts, because they have family members actively involved in charter schools, that the schools are achieving results upwards of 10, 20, and 30 percent of the national average, particularly those in Te Tai Tokerau.’”
The reality about charter schools – LINDSAY MITCHELL

“The issue of assisted dying isn't going away - even if certain people in Government wish it would.”
Ministers 'undemocratic' on euthanasia – STUFF

 

“A civilisation won't flourish in a sea of lies and
excuses for them - no matter who's making them.”
~ Phil Oliver

 

“There is no innate truth to the liberal elite echo chamber in which we live. It’s just a bunch of smart people saying the same thing. Some of the things are true. But a lot them just aren’t…
”There is no rule that you have to agree w/ what you read. If you can’t figure out why a person would think that 'universal healthcare' is a bad idea without attributing malicious intent to them, then you have some work to do. If you have never heard a compelling argument for why Keynesian Economics is similar in validity to rain dances, then buy a book about the Austrian school of Economics. While you may not change your mind, hopefully you’ll realize that these issues are more complicated than 'people who think those things are dumb and evil.'”
A Closeted SF Conservative – MEDIUM.COM

At least, I think it was.
'Post-truth' named word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries – GUARDIAN
Why We’re Post-Fact – Peter Pomerantsev, GRANTA
Policing ‘Fake News’ Is Our Own Responsibility, Not Facebook’s – REASON

Betsy Speicher: “Once upon a time, the press reported the news. Then, when they didn't like what was happening, they ignored and refused to report the news. Now, when what they want doesn't happen, they FAKE the news.”
BUSTED: CNN Interviewed ‘Protester’ — No, Wait, It Was Cameraman – TRUTH REVOLT

Careful now.
Donald Trump appoints Lord Voldemort as Chief of Staff – NEWSTHUMP
Bullshit News – NOT PC

 

"The internal effects of a mutable policy are still more calamitous. It
poisons the blessings of liberty itself. It will be of little avail to the
people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the
laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent
that they cannot be understood: if they be repealed or revised before
they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes, that no man
who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow."
~ James Madison

 

“Donald Trump is a wild card. We don't know whether he was play-acting when he carried on like a juvenile lout or when he played the role of a mature adult. But he and the country could both benefit from some serious introspection on his part.”
What Now? – Thomas Sowell, TOWN HALL

“Not a rhetorical question - it's an established fact.”
Is Donald Trump already walking away from campaign promises? - CNN

“Capitalism to him is simply an engine of production that makes states and religion stronger. Producers put in yoke to drag forward the cart of (western) religion and (western) state power.
"This is what this senior strategist calls 'enlightened capitalism'.”
Who is Steve Bannon? – NOT PC

"There are two ways of letting political correctness control your mind. One is to reject viewpoints not because they are false but because they’re politically incorrect. The other is to embrace viewpoints, not because they’re true, but because they’re politically incorrect. We libertarians are seldom guilty of the first mistake. But we are often guilty of the second. Those who commit the second mistake are as much slaves of political correctness as those who commit the first."
To PC or Not to PC – Sharon Presley, LIBERTARIANISM.ORG

“American teachers union releases ‘anti-racist’ anti-Trump ‘lesson plan.’’ Tom Woods translates it from liberalism into English.
We Are Going to Teach Your Kids What to Think, and Intimidate the Dissenters – TOM WOODS

“Donald Trump's plans are set to add another $5 trillion to the national debt. Where does the GOP plan to find the money?”
GOP and Trump put deficit on back burner – POLITICO

And  they don’t mean ‘reducing the deficit’ either.
White nationalists see advocate in Steve Bannon who will hold Trump to his campaign promises – CNN

“When Whites are forced to think about race all the time by a culture that is obsessed with it, they're also forced to act and vote like a minority. Liberals and Democrats need to think harder about whether they really want to create a culture divided along lines of race and gender.”
How the Left's Racial Politics Backfired – Martin Cothran, FEE

“If Trump really wants to strike a blow against the Washington establishment, he'll pardon Edward Snowden.”
An "Anti-Establishment" Trump Would Pardon Edward Snowden - Brittany Hunter, MISES.ORG

“The left's reaction to Trump's election shows that voluntary charity can replace government funding.”
Progressives Show Why Planned Parenthood Doesn’t Need Government Funding – Tho Bishop, MISES.ORG

“In rugby parlance that's a double knock on.”
Sir David Attenborough sent death threats after saying ‘we could shoot’ Donald Trump – METRO (UK)

"Another leftist has won the White House. Yes, President-elect Donald Trump is a leftist. He advocates policies that violate individual rights. That’s what it means to be a leftist."
America’s Next Leftist President: Donald Trump - Craig Biddle, OBEJCTIVE STANDARD

“"Rather, I want to argue that Trump has much more in common with the demagogues of the earlier, lesser depression of the late nineteenth century...”
Populism as a Backlash against Globalisation - Historical Perspectives – Niall Ferguson, CIRSD

"Pence, like many advocates for creationism, is uninformed and uneducated as to what the term 'theory' means in a scientific context. For the record, the scientific definition of 'theory' is quite different from the everyday use of the word."
Mike Pence Wants Creationism Taught In Public Schools – PATHEOS

Horror or hyperbole?
One small step for dictatorship – Onkar Ghate, VOICES FOR REASON

“All this talk of how Donald Trump is a fascist … but what actually IS a fascist? ‘The difference between [socialism and fascism] is superficial and purely formal, but it is significant psychologically: it brings the authoritarian nature of a planned economy crudely into the open’.”
What IS a Fascist? (Ayn Rand) – Michael Hurd, LIVING RESOURCES CENTER
All democracies are Marching Like The Fascists – Anoop Verma, FOR THE NEW INTELLECTUAL

First, they came for the Muslims …
Reported Trump Immigration Advisor And Potential AG Is Drafting Plan For Muslim Registry – HUFFINGTON POST

“’Our nation’s Framers got a lot right,’ wrote Dana Nelson, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt chair of English and American studies at Vanderbilt University. ‘But they got something major wrong: they assumed that the three branches of our government would remain co-equal, maintaining the Constitution’s delicate balance.’”
Now Might Be a Great Time to Work on Reigning in the Executive – Cathy Reisenwitz, FEE

 

“For every complex problem there is an
answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” 
~ H. L. Mencken

 

“Had our prognosticators looked up from their graphs and charts and taken into account the philosophical principles that have been known for over two millennia, they might have been a little more accurate in their predictions.”
Aristotle Called the 2016 Election – Martin Cothran, FEE

Guess what got pushed through in Britain while everybody was jumping up and down about Brexit and Trump.
Snoopers' Charter 2.0: IP Bill passed by Parliament and will become law within weeks – THE INQUIRER

Well, that will confounds the popular narrative.
Thatcherite Group Says U.K. Should Keep Free Movement of People – BLOOMBERG

“No, the chart produced by globalisation critics does not vindicate Trump's rhetoric about free trade harming the white working class.”
Dead Wrong™ with Johan Norberg - The Elephant Graph [video] – YOU TUBE

Private property. Free speech.
Twitter suspends alt-right figureheads  - BBC NEWS

“Not only does government spend too much, but new data suggests that that spending is designed to cause maximum economic damage by discouraging the productive use and allocation of labour and capital.”
How Government Spending Kills Economic Growth - Dan Mitchell, FEE

 

“For the election, many people worked passionately to promote the
lesser evil. How many will work now to promote something positive.
Like honest money. Or a free market in education. Or anything else?
And how many will go back to sleep … ”
   ~ Keith Weiner

 

“What to do now that Donald Trump is going to be president? Skip the five stages of grief and go straight to the five stages of NeverTrump.”
NeverTrump Is Over. So What Does It Do Next? – Robert Tracinski, THE FEDERALIST

“A lot of people are eager to ‘do something’ to advance a culture of reason and a politics of individual rights, but they aren't sure how to start. I thought it would be helpful, as a starting point, to list the possibilities…”
Calling activists .... – ARI ARMSTRONG
“What Can One Do?” [Video] – VOICES FOR REASON

“The future of the party after Donald Trump’s victory…”
Libertarians Regroup – Yaron Brook, OPINION JOURNAL, WSJ

“Given the fact that books such as Rand’s The Fountainhead, We the Living, The Virtue of Selfishness and Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal are in wide circulation in Greece, not to mention Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government (authored by Brook and ARI’s Don Watkins), awareness and understanding among this audience was much greater. The focus turned to how citizens of Greece, a country in turmoil, are beginning to rethink the prevailing values.”
A First Look into ARI’s Recent Successes in Europe – VOICES FOR REASON

 

 

“The Federal Reserve System officially began operation on this date in 1914. It went on to play a key role in producing the Great Depression, a dozen recessions, and a dollar now worth a nickel of the dollar's value in 1914.”
Toward Radical Monetary Reform – Lawrence Reed, FEE

“James Valliant  takes time out from writing his upcoming book on the historical Jesus to puncture another, not entirely unrelated myth: that civilisation is underpinned by Christianity.”
Gimme That Old Time Religion! – James Valliant, NOT PC

“Immigration controls were just one aspect of the transition from economic freedom to socialist protectionism. It was the rise of the democratic welfare states, with all their controls and permits, that created immigration controls in the first place.”
Immigration Controls Are Socialist – Jake Desyllas, FEE

“It would be nice to think that folk will turn off as he becomes more obviously unhinged. It would be nice to *think* that ...”
Stefan Molyneux Cites and Repeats Conspiracy Theories About Jews from a David Duke Acolyte – STU-TOPIA

Adam Mossoff: “The innovation economy driven by secure & effective property rights in technology & written works…”

 

Meanwhile, in India.
The Nightmare of Going to The Bank – ANOOP VERMA.COM
The Bizarre Consequences of Messing With The Financial System – ANOOP VERMA.COM

Dubai has everything. It also has this. In this century.
British woman 'gang raped' in Dubai faces jail for premarital sex – INDEPENDENT (UK)

But I do hope this is true.
An Italian town has installed a 24/7 free red wine fountain – LOST AT E MINOR

“If this technology lives up to the claims of the scientists who discovered it, the implications are huge.”
Scientists make 'holy grail' breakthrough in DNA editing that could cure incurable diseases – INDEPENDENT (UK)

“This new theory, seeming to agree with observations, claims Einstein was not quite right and that dark matter might not exist. At large scales, it seems, gravity just doesn't behave the way Einstein's theory predicts.”
New Theory of Gravity Could Explain Missing Matter - No Need for Dark Matter (TWIS) – WAKELET

Anybody still remember “peak oil”?
The largest oil deposit ever found in America was just discovered in Texas – YAHOO

“While the twitterverse is chirping with concern over Donald Trump’s handling of the global warming science, we offer a few realities that should be key parts of any transitional team’s synthesis.”
Some Climate Realities for the Incoming Administration to Consider – Patrick Michaels & Chip Knappenberger, CATO

“In the early 1990s I was visiting the White House Science Advisor, Sir Prof. Dr. Robert Watson, who was pontificating on how we had successfully regulated Freon to solve the ozone depletion problem, and now the next goal was to regulate carbon dioxide, which at that time was believed to be the sole cause of global warming.
    “I was a little amazed at this cart-before-the-horse approach. It really seemed to me that the policy goal was being set in stone, and now the newly-formed United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had the rather shady task of generating the science that would support the policy.
    “Now, 25 years later, public concern over global warming (aka climate change) is at an all-time low remains at the bottom of the list of environmental concerns.
    “Why is that?”
Global Warming: Policy Hoax versus Dodgy Science – ROY SPENCER PhD

 

“Machines buy us the time to think about making
better machines. It’s a virtuous circle.”
~ Alex Epstein

 

So that’s how a lock works!
15 Astonishing GIFs Showing How Things Really Work – A PLUS

So how do they do it? And what can we learn.
How Surgeons Stay Focused for Hours – WALL STREET JOURNAL

Now we’re talking!
You can now buy a gin advent advent calendar for Christmas – HER.IE

“You, the real expert, are overridden by the pretend experts in government who increasingly dictate the terms of your employment, the food choices you have, and the medical decisions you can make.”
Government Experts Can't Give You A Happy Life – Don Boudreaux, FEE

So it wasn’t the war wot dunnit.
After The Maltese Falcon: how film noir took flight – GUARDIAN

 

 

“Western civilisation then is underpinned not by our so-called ‘Judeo-Christian heritage’ which is mostly only barbarous, but by our Greek – more especially our Aristotelian. The greatest story of history is the 2300-year death-struggle between religion and Aristotelian reason… ‘The death struggle of reason versus anti-reason continues.’”
“So, How Come You Keep Bashing Religion?” – NOT PC
A Critique of Rodney Stark’s The Victory of Reason – Andrew Bernstein, OBJECTIVE STANDARD

What have the Romans ever done for us?
Creating Christ: How Roman Emperors Invented Christianity – REASON V FAITH

“Contrary to conservatives, Ayn Rand supported the right to abortion; contrary to liberals, she opposed environmentalism; and contrary to libertarians (and others), she upheld a firm, assertive foreign policy. What unites these seemingly disparate positions? And what explains the moral fire with which she expressed her views on these issues?”
The Sacred Self: Ayn Rand On Abortion, Foreign Policy and Environmentalism [Video] – Keith Lockitch, VOICES FOR REASON

“It's all very simple. The initiation of force is always wrong. Once humankind gets this, [gets why it is wrong], we will soar to our almost unimaginable potential.”
The Nature of Government by Ayn Rand – FEE

And finally …

Hear Leonard Cohen’s Final Interview: Recorded by David Remnick of The New Yorker, while …

 

Long, for some, but perhaps just what this week (this year?) calls for …

 

 

… and this?

 

 

And yes, very much this:

 

.

“Shall we kill them in their beds?”–or, Transitions to Freedom: Good & Bad

A post from the archives offering advice for any putative Party X wanting to roll back the state.

Two bakers are talking politics. "How do you roll back the state?" asks the first. "One roll at a time," answers the second. A poor joke, but good advice. If you're serious about rolling back the state, then you set your compass in the direction of more freedom and less coercion, and you start hacking a path in that direction through the overgrown thickets of the overbearing state one hard-fought step after another.

You might start by preparing 'transitional policies' - policies that roll back the state and reduce coercion one machete stroke at at a time. Writing in The Intellectual Activist (July 1995), Robert Tracinski gives the necessary principle for formulating all such policies:

In judging a measure [advises Tracinski], one cannot hold it responsible for all aspects of a mixed economy - only for those aspects it changes. These changes can be evaluated by a straightforward application of the principle of individual rights: Does the reform remove some aspect of government control or does it add more control?... It is not a compromise to advocate reduced government control in one sphere even if controls in other spheres are left standing. It is a compromise, on the other hand, if one seeks to purchase increased freedom in one area at the price of increased control in another.

Ayn Rand explains the error of compromise:

When a man has ascertained that one alternative is good and the other is evil, he has no justification for choosing a mixture. There can be no justification for choosing any part of that which one knows to be evil.

Clear enough then: Start with what you find, and design the means to work step by step towards your goal, without ever purchasing increased freedom at the expensed of increased coercion. This is what is meant by the phrase ‘ratchet for freedom.’ A principled opposition -- call them 'Party X' -- would promote such policies. Policies that implement more white, with no new black.

An intelligent opposition party committed to working for more freedom and less government would design such policies to be picked up and passed around.

And in order for them to be picked up and passed around (and to be worth passing around) the policy should pass The Test of the Three Ps: it should be Practical, Principled, and arse-grabbingly Provocative. Provocative enough to be noticed; Practical enough to be work; Principled enough to move the game in the right direction.

The principle with each policy must be clear and unequivocal: More freedom with no new coercion.

Below are some examples of some policies that pass the test, but first, here's four proposals that fail:

• “Shall we kill them in their beds?” How about this: presently, a strong case can be made for the proposal to kill the entire front bench of Government in their beds, along with the Leaders of all Opposition Parties and all the various Human Wrongs Commissars. Practical, and easily done (although I'd expect difficulties coordinating the overabundance of volunteers.) Certainly provocative – and strongly based on the principle of self-defence. A proposal I’m sure we could all live with, so to speak. But as Tracinscki says, we activists must beware of purchasing freedom in one sphere at the expense of increased controls in another - the subsequent police crackdown on the assassins would undoubtedly remove all the freedoms gained by such a move, and for that reason it should be shunned -- and I say that with obvious sadness.
  
• Flat Tax: Here’s another example of this same error. A “low flat tax” would reduce taxes for some, true, but this reduction would be purchased at the expense of increased sacrifice by those whose present tax rates are below the chosen flat rate. That means it’s a new coercion. Not good. Not good at all. Far preferable is the Libertarianz transitional proposal (and Green policy) to offer a threshold below which no tax at all is paid, along with the slow and gradual increase in the level of this threshold.
  
• School Vouchers: The idea of school vouchers is popular, but so too is living at someone else’s expense. Vouchers do purchase wider choice, it’s true, but only at the expense of either bringing private schools even more under the Ministry’s boot (as a once relatively free early childhood sector now understands), or of throwing the taxpayer’s money away on bullshit ( Remember the Wananga debacle?). So school vouchers fail the test.  Best just to give the schools back and be done with it.
  
• Cap & Trade & Fishing Quotas: For some reason these two are still fashionable with people who fancy themselves as free-marketeers (at least, that’s what it says on their lapel pins). But it doesn't take much examination to realise both measures purchase the very minimum of freedom, if at all (compared to the other measures designed to “fix” the alleged problems these are designed to meet), and do so at the expense of increased bureaucracy and the effective nationalisation of industry and of fish stocks respectively – and in the case of ‘cap and trade’ sets a finite limit on industrial production. Even carbon taxes would be better than this. Tax credits even better.

So those are some failures. By contrast, here’s two measures that do pass our test:

• A Conscientious Objection Tax Policy would increase freedom and, far from requiring more controls and more regulation, would actively promote and engender their removal.
  Here's how it could work: The Conscientious Objection Tax Policy should allow an individual to opt out of paying for and using the government’s die-while-you-wait Health system, its factory schools, and its featherbedded welfare – to conscientiously object to the theft required to pay for these multiple disasters, to agree to make his own arrangements for these (thank you very much), and in return to pay only 10% income tax!
  What a deal.
  At a stroke the objector is better off (and with no new government controls introduced).
  Further, without the figleaf by which statists pretend big governments are there to “help” taxpayers, the advocates for taxing the hell out of you and I would be in the position of having to state clearly they are in favour of naked theft. 
  And like all good policies, the Conscientious Objection Tax Policy would have a flow-on effect, kick-starting an explosion of freedom in the currently stagnant Health, Education and Welfare pools—because how else are these dire disasters going to attract custom if they don’t wake their ideas up?
• Here’s another intelligent transitional measure, the Transitional Drugs Policy proposed by my colleague Dr Richard Goode. Why not make drug law both more rational and more free by legalising all drugs less harmful to health than tobacco and alcohol? Who could object, right? Even Jim Anderton and Jacqui Dean don’t want to ban alcohol. Yet. (Although Jacqui wasn't too sure about water). According to Britain’s widely respected Lancet journal of medicine, under this standard we could immediately legalise for recreational use (in decreasing order of harm): Buprenoprhine, Cannabis, Solvents, LSD, Methylphenidate, Anabolic steroids, GHB, Ecstacy, Alkyl Nitrites, Khat, and di-hydrogen monoxide. On what rational basis could anybody object? More freedom, less government, safer drugs, less money going into gang leaders’ pockets – and the apostles of moral panic challenged to explain the rational basis of their War on Drugs. Everybody except Jim Anderton and Jacqui Dean kicks a goal.

There you have it. Two measures that will advance freedom without introducing any new coercion.

What other ideas can you come up with?

Superannuation

Like many of you I was fascinated both by the common sense suggestion of raising the superannuation age to 67 while removing disincentives to taking up annuity products – a suggestion said to save taxpayers around $100 billion by 2061 – and by the knee-jerk reactions to the common sense proposal to address what is a growing albatross round the neck of every taxpayer.

The idea that 65-year-olds must leave work and get paid for the rest of their lives by other taxpayers is immoral, demeaning, and ultimately unaffordable; and something has to be done. It is a failed experiment – a collapsing pyramid scheme that is costing taxpayers around one-sixth of what Inland Revenue extracts from them each year. The report by investment services company Mercer doesn’t go anywhere near far enough, but it does at least state the obvious:

      Consulting services company Mercer says the double whammy of an ageing population [see Bernard Hickey’s chart at right] and the global economic crisis highlights the urgent need to address the issue of retirement saving, and reduce reliance on New Zealand superannuation . . . [*}

True, all too true. Add to that double whammy another two-base hit: the diminishing number of under-65s in the future who will be expected to pay for it all [see below right].

      "The solution to our retirement savings conundrum [says Martin Lewington, head of Mercer in New Zealand] rests in both growing the economy - ultimately increasing the size of the funding pie - and addressing the social and welfare issues associated with an ageing population and ensuring all New Zealanders can live comfortably in retirement." 
    "It's time for the government to take decisive action and balance the politics in the current debate with what's ultimately best for New Zealand, particularly in regards to the 'hot potato' issues such as raising the eligibility age for NZ Super."

All very sensible, yet barely even radical enough to make the difference that’s needed -- which is no doubt why the government dismissed the idea without consideration. “In my view New Zealand super in its current form is affordable,” sniffed John Key, giving his best impersonation of King Canute holding back the retirement tides by his ability to fake reality. “I've made it quite clear,” he confirmed, “that it would be my intention to resign from Parliament if I broke that promise I made to New Zealanders."

All the better – that’s a two-for-one deal I could sign up for!

But in the meantime, while the government’s policy is to fake reality and shut down debate, even the Mercer proposal barely even makes a start on this problem which isn’t going away, and isn’t getting any smaller.  Within the next forty years New Zealand will move from a position of having 1 in 10 people over age 65 to 1 in 4 people over 65. 

That’s a pyramid scheme with too many blocks missing.  Holding your nose and stamping your feet isn’t going to make that problem disappear with the next tide.

And given that the “decade of deficits” promised by Treasurer Bill English is mostly needed to keep the welfare gravy train going, of which the lion’s share is the bill for the retired, we should see every new tranche of borrowing needed to fund the shortfalls as a new and additional government programme.  One we can’t afford.

We already face the prospect with the Government Superannuation Fund of the government taking a larger and larger share of local companies.  And we now face the prospect of watching it throw away its your money away on local ‘PPPs’ instead of genuine investments.  How much more difficult do we have to make it before we finally face reality and realise that the concept of a twenty-to-thirty year taxpayer-funded retirement is unsustainable?

It’s not like it’s too difficult to sustainably and painlesssly wean the country off this albatross.  Take George Reisman’s simple suggestion for reforming American Social Security for example**, which I’ve paraphrased slightly to give it a local flavour:

    First, following a period of two to three years to allow time for necessary adjustments to be made, immediately raise the retirement age from 65 to 70.
    This, of course, would be a major disappointment to everyone who had counted on starting to receive a pension sooner. Fortunately, there is a way to give these people a substantial form of relief, which would go a long way toward alleviating their hardship. That is, at the same time that sixty-five year olds are refused a pension, enact for their benefit a “senior citizens' employment-income tax exemption” in the amount of, say, $90,000 per year. . .
    The far greater part of the taxes thereby waived for these seniors on their income derived from employment would be taxes the government would never have collected in the first place, since most of the seniors would not have been working otherwise. The elimination of the government's payment of pensions to this group would far outweigh any loss of revenue from those sixty-five year olds who would have worked and paid taxes on their incomes even in the absence of the rise in the Social Security retirement age.

Which might even be enough to allow a similar exemption for all over-60s, which would give them a chance to prepare.

    This income-tax exemption should be extended and enlarged year by year until it embraces everyone in the 65 to 69 year-old age group. And, of course, it should be progressively increased from year to year to keep pace with rising prices and rising wage rates. Indeed, it should eventually be extended to apply to everyone 65 years old or older. In this way, the years remaining in life past today's customary retirement age might become truly “golden years” for millions of people, who at last would be freed of the burden of income taxes on their earnings derived from employment.

Who would be prepared to speak against freeing up that particular burden?  But let’s keep going:

    The retirement age of 70 should be retained perhaps for as long as fifteen years, to make it possible for all workers aged 55 and over at the time of its enactment to take advantage of it. Thereafter, however, the retirement age should be gradually increased further, to 75, over, say, a twenty-year period, rising at the rate of one calendar quarter for each passing year. Thus, workers aged 54 at the time of the reform's enactment would be eligible for social security at the age of 70 ¼, while those aged 35 at the time of its enactment would not be eligible until the age of 75.
    The system should accept no new pension recipients after the end of this twenty year period. In other words, it would be closed to workers 34 years of age and younger at the time of the reform's enactment. These workers, who would remain permanently ineligible, would all have ample time to make their own provision for the future. The superannuation system itself would progressively decline and ultimately disappear as its pensioners passed away.

A relatively painless way to accomplish the necessary reform.  But there’s one more thing to be done to ensure that no new impositions are imposed on anyone:

    The government's very considerable savings from reduced pension obligations over an initial phase-out period totaling almost forty years from start to finish, should be earmarked for tax reductions for workers who will never be able to enter the system, i.e., in the above scenario, workers aged 34 and less at the time of the reform's enactment. As these workers advance in age, new workers will be entering the labor market. There will thus be an increasing number of workers to bear the burden of the Social Security system's final phase. This will permit Social Security tax rates to be steadily reduced on this group, until they disappear altogether.

Reisman makes both the economic and the moral case to end government superannuation.

    The end of Social Security would be the end of something that should never have been started in the first place. The root of the system is the philosophy of collectivism, in that it forces everyone into a giant stewpot as it were, in which individuals are compelled to support the parents and grandparents of total strangers, whether they want to or not, in exchange for themselves later on being compulsorily supported by the children and grandchildren of total strangers.
    And, of course, standing between the generations has been a mass of politicians and government officials who have used whatever excess has existed of these forced exactions over current pension payments, to fund ordinary, current government spending.
    If a private insurance or annuity company had done such a thing and used its excess of premium income over current payments, to finance the consumption of its owners and employees, for whatever purpose, including the funding of charities and public works, the company officials would now be spending long terms in prison. For it would be very clear that they had embezzled the funds of their clients. Yet exactly that in essence is what politicians and government officials have done, on a scale far surpassing all private financial frauds combined over the whole of human history.

The creators of the world’s super scheme were bigger Ponzi operators than Bernie Madoff.  As US Circuit Judge Anderson said in the 1922 Lowell v. Brown case[*], the Ponzi scheme was “simply the old fraud of paying the earlier comers out of the contributions of the later comers.” So long as the number of late comers—you might call them suckers—grows, the fraudulent scheme has life.  When it stops growing, the reality is the same for us as it was for Bernie Madoff.

Confronting the reality of the situation is the first and necessary step to putting the unsustainable pyramid scheme to an end.

* * * * *

* * In the final chapter of his book Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics, Reisman has a whole raft of similar transitional policies to pull the teeth of big government. And fortunately for you, you can read the whole chapter online.

LIBERTARIAN SUS: Open immigration – let’s do it!

This post arises from a question in reply to a comment I made at "Crusader Rabbit" last week on this post.  It also serves to address concerns raised by CR author 'KG' on Libertarianz immigration policy:

Q:  What's your solution to open immigration in light of Muslim terrorism?

The question of the ramifications of open immigration in this age of global terrorism is one that arises from otherwise libertarian-leaning folk from the blue corner in particular, (albeit not exclusively), and I understand their concerns.

Welcome to 'Sunday Star Times' & 'Herald' readers

Hi there, and welcome to NOT PC --- and to NOT PC's posts on Education.

Check out the Libertarianz' transitional education policy here at Libz TV. Read the full Libertarianz education policy here. And here's just a few of my favourite posts on the subject here at NOT PC...

• Another apology we'd like to hear
• Education: Buying less with more
  
• Curing South Auckland
• Illiterates still sadly surging forth. Ambulances positioned firmly at cliff base.
• Recipe for indoctrination
• Degrees by decree
  
• Holding students back
  
• Education vouchers, and why I'm against
• Cue Card Libertarianism: Education
• Posts on Literacy

NB: Libertarianz advertising is entireley funded by the voluntary donations of supporters. If you want to help support Libertarianz advertising this year, including the weekly promotion of Libz transitional policies in the Sunday Star and elsewhere, then head here to donate. Thanks.

Fifty-odd questions for National

By the time you read this post, I'll be holding up one end of the Libertarianz stand at Fieldays -- helping promoting reason, freedom and less government to an expected 150,000 punters strolling past our stand.

And since we'll be just three stands down the road from the National Party stand, we thought we should encourage passing punters to stop in and see them too, and ask any passing MPs some pointed questions.  In fact, for those so inclined, we'll be offering them some very pointed questions to ask.  Who better to ask them of, we thought?

And since we believe in fairness, we'll even give them advance notice of some of the very fair questions we've prepared for them ... 

Fifty-odd Fieldays questions for National

Q: RED TAPE: Which government departments will the National Party abolish to reduce government, in accordance with the stated aims of the National Party's constitution?
LIBERTARIANZ says: The Libertarianz unemployment policy is clear -- unemployment under Libertarianz would increase dramatically ... among bureaucrats, consultants and jobsworths. Start with the Ministries of Women's, Youth, Maori and Pacific Island Affairs, and NZ Rail and OSH, and then keep working on down ...

Q: SMACKING: At the anti-smacking rally outside parliament last year, National MPs stood up and said they were AGAINST the anti-smacking bill. One week later they all marched into parliament and voted FOR the Bill. Is there a word for that?
LIBERTARIANZ are opposed to the nationalisation of New Zealand children. Your children are YOUR children, not Sue Bradford’s – or John Key’s.

Q: RMA: You Introduced the Resource Management Act in 1991, and Simon Upton and Nick Smith oversaw it unchanged for eight years. Are you proud of that?
LIBERTARIANZ says: Private property rights provide the strongest possible protection for the environment and property owners. Libertarianz will repeal the fascistic Resource Management Act, and uncover the common law that decades of planning legislation have buried.

Q: COMPULSION: Is it true you are not a party of compulsion, as National's Kate Wilkinson said recently -- just before she was silenced for saying so?

Q: VOLUNTARISM: Do you support voluntary student union membership?
LIBERTARIANZ says: Supporting voluntarism on campus is a litmus test of freedom. If you don’t support students being allowed to choose with whom they associate, then what does that say about your support for freedom of choice.

Q: GLOBAL WARMING: You signed the Kyoto Protocol in 1998. Are you still proud of that?
LIBERTARIANZ says: Emission reductions required under the Kyoto Protocol will throttle New Zealand industry and energy production. Libertarianz advocate immediate withdrawal from this anti-industrial handbrake on prosperity.

Q: LABOUR-LITE: Is there any law introduced by the Clark Government that you WOULD repeal? Anything at all to which you wouldn't say "Me too"?
LIBERTARIANZ says: ‘Me too’ government is rotten government. Policies should be based on principles, not platitudes.

Q: ELECTION BRIBES: National originally said it would oppose interest-free student loans "with every bone in its body." Now you SUPPORT them! Where are those bones now -- in particular the 33 vertebrae?
LIBERTARIANZ says stop taxing students, and they can pay their own way through their studies. And keep your promises.

Q: EDUCATION: Three years ago National said bulk funding was "the first step towards providing the flexible education system that parents wanted." You've now abandoned even this timid first step. Do you no longer believe in a flexible education system that serves parents and children better?
LIBERTARIANZ says the separation of school and state is urgently necessary to liberate youngsters from the factory schools that are failing in everything but politically correct indoctrination.

Q: FOREIGN OWNERSHIP: Why won't you immediately overturn the pathetic ban on foreign ownership of so called strategic assets that saw the sale of Auckland Airport shares to Canada Pensions made illegal by this Government?
LIBERTARIANZ says it's not the Government's job to intrude upon a willing seller and a willing buyer. A principled party would know this.

Q: WELFARE: Why won't you immediately overturn Labour's Welfare for Working Families programme that is turning so many of the country's middle class into welfare beneficiaries?
LIBERTARIANZ says the moral cannibalism of enforced welfare should be abolished immediately, and beneficiaries urgently reacquainted with the ethic of self-responsibility – as should the National Party.

Q: DEFENCE: Why has the National Party capitulated completely on defending New Zealand? Isn't it true that the National Party's defence policy is now best summarised by the title of our national anthem: 'God Defend New Zealand'?
LIBERTARIANZ says: A country worth defending must be able to defend itself. New Zealand's woeful defence capability must be urgently upgraded --meaning more frigates, more Orions, surveillance aircraft for border protection, and rebuilding the strike wing of the Air Force.

Q: MONEY: After eight years of Labour, we are paying the second-highest interest rates in the developed world -- how EXACTLY will you change that?
LIBERTARIANZ says the idea that governments can print money to create false prosperity must always be paid for in the long run.

Q: WAGES: The gap between NZ wages and those in Australia and around the world is getting bigger and bigger -- how EXACTLY will you change that?
LIBERTARIANZ says getting the government off your back and out of your business will light the blue touch paper of prosperity!

Q: MONEY: Grocery and petrol prices are going through the roof -- how EXACTLY will you change that?
LIBERTARIANZ says abolishing GST and ending the theft of motorists through hefty petrol taxes (nearly a dollar of every litre) will begin to make life affordable again.

Q: HOUSING: Every city around the world that has made town planners into kings has made housing seriously unaffordable for hardworking kids, whereas un-zoned cities like Houston are the most affordable places in the world to buy a house. What will you do to reduce the power of town planners in New Zealand?
LIBERTARIANZ says the rule of the town planners will only end with a stake through the heart of the Resource Management Act.

Q: EDUCATION: Ten years after Lockwood Smith introduced the NCEA, 300,000 Kiwi kids are functionally illiterate. Are you proud of that? And why is he still on your front bench?
LIBERTARIANZ says the separation of school and state is urgently necessary to liberate youngsters from the factory schools that are failing in everything but politically correct indoctrination.

Q: ENVIRONMENT: Why is Nick Smith more concerned with cutting greenhouse gas emissions and protecting Maui dolphins than he is in protecting hardworking New Zealanders who are losing their livelihoods by the throttling of industry and the closing down of fisheries? Isn't he in the wrong party?
LIBERTARIANZ says the environment is best protected with strong private property rights, not their destruction.

Q: GLOBAL WARMING: Why has National climbed on board the anti-industry bandwagon in calling for "strong action on climate change" – which means government action to stop private action. We know that socialism doesn't work at fifteen degrees, so why do Nick Smith and National think it will work at seventeen?
LIBERTARIANZ says New Zealand should drop the Emissions Trading Scheme forthwith, withdraw from Kyoto, and leave folk free to make their own choices on global warming.

Q: HEALTH: Even with billions of extra dollars poured into it, the die-while-you-wait health system hasn't improved -- how EXACTLY will you change that?
LIBERTARIANZ will end socialised medicine, allowing providers of all forms of prevention, treatment and therapy to compete in an open market. Tax relief leaves money in your pocket to spend for your own family's health care as you see fit.

Q: TAXES: Cutting taxes without cutting spending makes economic sense? Do you think anyone believes you when you say serious tax cuts don't require serious spending cuts to match?
LIBERTARIANZ says: Your money should be left in your pocket. A Libertarianz government will abolish all duties, tariffs, taxes and levies - except income tax, which as a transitional measure will be set at 25%, with an income threshold before payment of $50,000. And unlike National, Libertarianz has spending cuts to match.

Q: CRIME: We know that violent crime against innocent New Zealanders is continuing to soar -- how EXACTLY will you change that? Why will you not recognise the right of New Zealanders to defend themselves and their families?
LIBERTARIANZ says real crimes with genuine victims like rape, robbery, murder and theft should be vigorously pursued and the rights of these victims enforced and upheld. The NZ Bill of Rights should be amended to uphold your right to self-defence and the right to possess the means thereof.

Q: WELFARE: We know that when nearly 300,000 New Zealanders are dependent on welfare that it's a lie to say unemployment is at "record low levels" -- how EXACTLY will you change the endemic welfare dependence that is the legacy of both National and Labour policies?
LIBERTARIANZ says the moral cannibalism of enforced welfare should be abolished immediately, and beneficiaries urgently reacquainted with the ethic of self-responsibility – as should the National Party.

Q; DPB: After watching case after case of unwanted children being murdered by their own whanau, when will you abolish the system whereby hard-working New Zealanders are taxed to pay for no-hopers to breed?
LIBERTARIANZ says: Recipients should be given three years notice that the failed DPB scheme will end, at which time it should be terminated forthwith.

Q: COMPLIANCE COSTS: Every government since Jenny Shipley's has promised to "reduce the burden of compliance and bureaucracy," but not one has yet managed it. How EXACTLY will you?
LIBERTARIANZ says there must be a separation of state and business. We must get the government's agents out of your business and out of your life, and slash the regulations that give them access.

Q: PRIVATISATION: Why will you not terminate wasteful dreck like NZ Rail and Maori TV, and sell off profitable enterprises like TVNZ? What happened to the National Party's principles of favouring smaller government?
LIBERTARIANZ says: State assets should be given back to those whose money paid for them - taxpayers - as shares to be sold or retained as you choose.

Q: NANNY STATE: Nanny State is going berserk. How exactly will you reverse the soft fascism of Nanny's onslaught?
LIBERTARIANZ says: The urgency of getting Nanny State out of our homes, out of our workplaces, out of your children's minds and out of our pockets should be understood now even by the National Party.

Q: EDUCATION: Why won't National allow tax credits for people paying for private education?
LIBERTARIANZ says if you withdraw your children from the state's factory schools, you deserve a refund.

Q: HEALTH: Why won't National allow tax credits for people paying for private health insurance?
LIBERTARIANZ says if you withdraw your custom from the state's die-while-you-wait health system, you deserve a refund.

Q: ELECTORAL CORRUPTION: Where was National when Libertarianz leader Bernard Darnton was suing Helen Clark for stealing nearly a million dollars of taxpayers' money to buy the last election?
LIBERTARIANZ says using taxpayers’ money to buy elections is corrupt, whoever is doing it.

Q: ENERGY: Will you repeal Labour's ten-year moratorium on the construction of new thermal power stations? Or would Nick Smith rather go hug a tree?
LIBERTARIANZ says the abolition of the Resource Management Act and withdrawal from Kyoto are urgently necessary to allow the long overdue construction of new, clean power generation.

Q: TRANSPORT: Why will you not sell off Michael Cullen's new train set so we're not in the hole even further for all its ongoing costs?
LIBERTARIANZ says all the government's white elephants should be sold off.

Q: PRIVATISATION: Why have you ruled out selling TVNZ, the power generators, all the SOEs and al the government's shares in Air New Zealand?
LIBERTARIANZ says all the government's assets should be sold off, or given as shares to long-term taxpayers.

Q: BUREAUCRACY: What will National do to make public servants our servants again, and not our masters?
LIBERTARIANZ says show them our unemployment policy -- unemployment under Libertarianz would increase dramatically ... among bureaucrats, consultants and jobsworths. Start with the Ministries of Women's, Youth, Maori and Pacific Island Affairs, and the Resource Management Act and OSH and work on down ...

Q: ANIMAL WELFARE: Why will you not rein in the maltreatment of farmers by the SPCA?
LIBERTARIANZ says a farmer's animals are his property, not the SPCA’s.

Q: RACISM: Don Brash stated that National believed in One Law For All. Does John Key?
LIBERTARIANZ says: Government should be colour blind. Law should be colour blind. There should be no favours based on race, colour, or 'treaty status.'

Q: RACISM: Why won't you abolish the Maori seats immediately? If it's right to do it in three years, why not now?
LIBERTARIANZ says: Mean what you say and say what you mean. Racist parliamentary seats should go the way of slavery and apartheid.

Q: WAITANGI: When will you end the corrupt Treaty Gravy Train and take power away from the corrupt Brown Table who are making millions from it?
LIBERTARIANZ says the politics of race and the myth of ‘partnership’ should be expunged from our legal system. Like good politics, good law is colour blind.

Q: GLOBAL WARMING: Why are you going to introduce an Emissions Trading Scheme of your own?
LIBERTARIANZ says: Throttling industry with feel-good law is wrong -- just flat out wrong.

Q: FISHING: Why won't National repeal Jim Anderton's draconian ban on set-net fishing. Do you care more about Maui dolphins than you do about the families and livelihoods of New Zealand's fishermen?
LIBERTARIANZ says: Human beings come before fish. (And if dolphins were so smart, they'd stay away from set nets.)

Q. LABOUR-LITE: What's the chief difference between your team and the Red Team? Better suits?
LIBERTARIANZ says if you want to vote Labour out, then voting to put Labour-Lite in is just a wasted vote.

Q. TRADE: How come the Labour party is better at getting free trade deals than National ever has?
LIBERTARIANZ foreign policy can be written in two words: free trade.

Q. TRADE: How come Phil Goff & Helen Clark are better at arguing the case for free trade than John Key & Bill English?
LIBERTARIANZ foreign policy can be written in two words: free trade.

Q. WINSTON PETERS: Will National once again offer Winston the baubles of office just so you can govern?
LIBERTARIANZ says Winston’s tantrums are too high a price to pay. In Parliament Libertarianz would firmly commit to supporting every law that both advances freedom and contains no new coercion. Which rules out supporting Winston.

Q. GLOBAL WARMING: Why did John Key change his view on Global Warming? Was there new evidence we didn't hear about?
LIBERTARIANZ says: The warmist charade is another scaremongering fiction, just like the Y2K, Asian Bird Flu and Ice Age scares of yore – another case of The Emperor’s New Clothes.

Q. Does the National Party Caucus beat the snot out of Nick Smith during morning break? If not, why not?

Q. FARMING: How come farmers have been better off under Labour? Please explain.

Q. ELECTRICITY: If Nuclear power was the right thing for NZ would National support it? If not, why not?
LIBERTARIANZ says: The abolition of the Resource Management Act and withdrawal from Kyoto are urgently necessary to allow the long overdue construction of new, clean power generation.

Q: ELECTRICITY: Good on Gerry Brownlee for taking the Clark Government to task for New Zealand’s shambles of an electricity supply. But what will National actually do that will make any difference to our supply shortage? And is he aware that it was National who signed the Kyoto protocol that makes new thermal power stations immoral, and introduced the Resource Management Act that makes building new power stations of any kind all but illegal?
LIBERTARIANZ says abolishing the Resource Management Act and withdrawing from Kyoto are urgently necessary to allow the long overdue construction of new, clean and reliable power generation.

Q. ECONOMY: Why has Labour out-performed National in terms of NZ economic growth rates each time they get into power? It’s not just luck, is it.
LIBERTARIANZ says: Failed policies of subsidies, ‘picking winners’ and micro-managing economics makes an economy insufficiently able to adapt to changing economic conditions. The only ‘managing’ governments should do is managing to keep themselves out of the way.

Q: LOCAL GOVERNMENT: Council rates are going through the roof! Why will you not repeal Local Government Act that Sandra Lee introduced to allow councils to charge like a wounded bull?
LIBERTARIANZ says all laws that allow politicians to put their hand in your pocket without your permission should be repealed.

Q: SUSTAINABILITY: Will you ban the word ‘sustainable’ from the government’s vocabulary?
LIBERTARIANZ says sacrificing our own prosperity to ‘future generations’ in the name of ‘sustainability’ is a con – it can only end in the poverty of both. Our grandchildren will not thank us for not building the dams, abattoirs, power stations, roads and houses today that will need in the future.

I'll let you know if we get any decent responses.

And if you'd like to contribute to help pay for the Libertarianz' stand, then we'd love to see the colour of your money.  :-)