Explaining politicians

Light blogging due to Xmas rush; still finishing and framing commissions due for delivery Xmas eve. But this is worth a wider read. Again from the Future Freedom Foundation, one of the few daily newsletters I always look at:

With government controlling more and more of our economy, the fact that crooks have to go where the money is causes more and more of them to turn to government employment. However, there is probably an even stronger reason for individuals to become politicians. That is the power which accompanies political office. Many idealists think they know better than the ordinary person what is good for that person. They consider themselves a cut above the ordinary individual who just isn’t smart enough to know what he or she should do. Idealists seek government power to impose their ideas upon the rest of us. They may be personally honest insofar as not thinking of lining their own pockets with money but have little compunction about bolstering their egos with government power. This attitude explains the environmentalists, the do-gooders, and others whose ego causes them to seek government power to impose their ideas upon those of us who just want to make our way in a free market in open competition with everyone else. They don’t believe in a free market or voluntary actions. They do believe in controlling others by means of government power.
 

– Harry Hoiles

(Harry Hoiles passed away in 1998, former owner of Freedom Publications)

Truth column December 13

My December 13 Truth column is now on-line

I wish I knew if my sympathy for Brendan Horan, sacked NZ First MP, is warranted.
Anyone who has been dealt to by NZ First leader Winston Peters has my commiserations. 
The party is not referred to as ‘Winston First’ without good reason.
Saving his own skin is the name of the game.
But most of us aren’t privy to the details surrounding Horan’s family dispute so can only speculate on the injustice or otherwise of his dismissal from the party.

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Other Truth columns here

Ever more influential people question the war on drugs

...like Richard Branson, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

Sir Richard Branson has never sat on an idea. A frenetic 40-year career in the public eye has seen him launch Virgin Group, with its 400 companies, while juggling time between world record attempts, Hollywood cameos and humanitarian drives. Lately, Branson has embarked on a new adventure, one no less challenging than attempting to circumnavigate the globe in a balloon. As a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, Branson is sharing the spotlight with the burgeoning movement to end the U.S.-led war on drugs.

That crusade brought him to New York this week for the premiere of Breaking the Taboo, a documentary film asserting that the 40-year-old drug war, centered on prohibition rather than rehabilitation, has failed on all fronts. Narrated by Morgan Freeman, the film splices images of brutal violence with interviews with global leaders, including former U.S. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, who lambast the $1 trillion global war for overcrowding prisons while doing little to curtail drug use among an estimated 230 million people around the world. “Obviously, if the expected results were that we would eliminate serious drug use in America and eliminate the narco-trafficking networks, it hasn’t worked,” says Mr. Clinton during the film.


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Hat-tip Future Freedom