Last Updated: Nov 19th, 2009 - 11:07:39 Newsletters : 2005 Newsletters : 16 September 2005 Thought for the Day The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods. H.L. Mencken Sep 16, 2005, 11:15 Newsletters : 2005 Newsletters : 16 September 2005 Planning Is Socialism Another little vignette on "Centralised Planning". How hopeless we are. Socialism is a failed experiment but still we have faith that our "Gummint" will solve our problems and that they have a plan that will do just that. We only need to look at the planning for Transmission Gully to realise that our socialist central planners have no concept of building roads - they just want to make more plans. Now that those plans have come to naught, the "Gummint" has abrogated its responsiblity for Transmission Gully and told "Local Gummint" to solve the problem. Fat chance! Sep 16, 2005, 11:53 Newsletters : 2005 Newsletters : 16 September 2005 Market-Oriented Policies Are Mainstream This article by Roger Kerr was first published in the Otago Daily Times on the 10th of September. Sep 16, 2005, 11:38