Friday, 1 June 2007

Libertarianz I have known.

Lindsay Perigo's still in for John Banks on Radio Pacific, and being the grand libertarian he is (read fringe extremist), he decided to talk about Maori Party MP Hone Harawira's Pravate Members Bill to outlaw the manufacture and distribution of tobacco.
They couldn't have timed it better as Perigo managed to sit in on World Smokefree Day. While Mr. Harawira's bill stands more chance of getting pulled out than me winning a 1-in-122 lottery (yes, I'm being facetious), it really isn't getting much traction anywhere other than Te Karere (one of our token Maori programmes, which can be very good).
Lindsay can't stand regulation, legislation, or government in general (the market is a much better indicator), so obviously he ranted and railed against prohibition (but never managed to bring up marijuana). What he did want everyone to know was that if this bill was selected from the ballot, and if it received enough support to get to the select committee process, and if this bill managed to pass the select committee process with the same level of support, and if this bill managed to pass all of its readings without too much tinkering, well, it would only be a matter of time before the same thing happened to alcohol.
What he really wanted us to know was that this Communist Government led by the dictator Helen Clark was reminiscent of Fascist Germany in the 1930s.
Really simple.

(I should probably admit that I'm a smoker, a lover of tobacco, and I do actually agree that smoking shouldn't be banned, purely for my own nefarious selfishness. It's fairly depressing when you find you agree with the enemy at the base of an argument. Sigh.)

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