Bill Faulkner Really gets it right

I have just read the single most moral, principled, and SENSIBLE thing I have yet to read from a local body bureaucrat!

This is it. It was in a regular column by Tauranga City Councillor, and mayoral candidate Bill Faulkner:

“I will move at the first council meeting to stop all work and expenditure on the waterfront museum (and here is the important bit!) and more urgently to investigate facilitating private enterprise in pursuing two boutique museum sites they are presently discussing.” (does this last bit mean private enterprise are ALREADY showing interest in starting a museum - if so, then why the hell are council hell bent on forcing ratepayers to pay for one?)

Bill is saying he recognises the value of a museum, but does not see the need to rob ratepayers to get it.

To me this is really exciting news, because if Tauranga ended up with a PRIVATELY owned museum, it could be the beginning of people starting to realise that bully tactics by council - force and threats- are not the only way to get things done. - they can be done BETTER and SMARTER by private enterprise and without the council resorting to further armed robbery - (by this I mean forcing people to pay ever increasing rates, and if they don’t pay can be fined, have their property confiscated, and or jail, which all add up to the equivalent of armed robbery, which most of us know is wrong and immoral)

It means Tauranga could get a museum, and it will not cost ratepayers a CENT!
I do however have a few questions, and I would like Bill to answer!

WHAT gave Bill this CRAZY IDEA?

Would Bill apply this same idea to other projects such as Art galleries, aquatic centres etc.
If NOT, WHY does he apply this approach just to a museum?

I offer, with this letter, my thanks, and a virtual shake-of-the hand to Bill for offering to people of this area for the VERY FIRST TIME a REAL, MORAL, and PRINCIPLED opportunity to provide us and future generations with facilities many of us would love to benefit from WITHOUT beating us with a stick (the use of force) and lumbering our children and grandchildren with a mortgage to pay for them.

BRAVO

Venezuela on the Highway To Hell

You can't say you were not warned! In Issue 76 of The Free Radical, the cover story writen by Peter Creswell (notPC) entitled "A Challenge To Young Socialists" pointed out to those who were unaware (like myself!!!) that Venezuela was heading down the well-trodden highway to socialist Hell. Well, it appears (shock-horror) that PC and The Free Radical was quite correct! The following article appeared in the local newspaper today: WHATS IN A NAME Venezuelans may have to give up calling their babies names like Hersony, Nohemar or Superman under a bill designed to block names that invite ridicule, are extravagant or hard to pronounce. The bill would let authorities turn down unusual names.. MMmm - let me take you there! Gidday Chavez, how are you? I'm good thanks Chavez! - Say, have you seen Chavez lately ? I hear she's got a new boyfriend - Chavez I think his name is. . . etc etc. What if the "Authority in question has a speech impediment - say a lisp" Chris or Christian will be off the list for a starter! or perhaps cant pronounce their "r's" Robert (Wobert!) Wonald and Woger will be off the list also I guess. The have nationalised the countries industries, and now they are nationalising the children. Below is my letter to the editor, which borrows heavily from PCs article and another by Jeff Perren on the same subject. Venezuela on the Highway To Hell Anybody following the news may be aware Venezuela has been speeding towards full-on socialism for several years.
Soon no-one in Venezuela will be allowed to say anything president Chavez disapproves of, even if they could find the means, as he has nationalised (taken by force from its rightful owners) energy, telecommunications, radio and TV stations, who are forced to interrupt their programmes to broadcasts speeches by Chavez.
There is nothing new in his actions though - it has all been done before! First they nationalise industry, then they censor all opposition, and then slowly the people starve - and by that time, there is no-one left to speak out against the horrors. For those with eyes, and minds, Venezuela is just the latest tragic example.
Surely those who have witnessed the heyday of socialism will recognise the destruction of another country in the making. Chavez is leading his people down the well-trodden pathway which every single socialist country before him has gone - The highway to Hell!
And now, as reported in the BOP Times, his latest imposition upon his citizens is to make it illegal for them to call their children names of which he disapproves.

Childrens names must be OK’d by his authorities.
Coming “our way” soon!

Something for all you devout socialists out there to look forward to.