Last week we expressed disgust at the rise of corporate welfare as more and more companies snuggle up to the public trough seeking government support. Thus far most of the calls for support in New Zealand have come from various industry associations--which are organisations whose raison d'etre is largely to curry government favours.
We have been afflicted with yet another example of this disgusting genre--this time from the Taxi Federation. Confronted with another attack upon a taxi driver, the Taxi Federation has called upon the government to provide money so that taxi drivers can make their vehicles more safe (security screens, video cameras, etc.) Well, knock me down with a feather!
Why didn't we all think of this. Every business which is at risk of theft, or their staff to violent assault, or arson or whatever other nasty crime is out there should put in safety equipment (automatic alarms, contracted monitoring services, video cameras) should they not? Oh, wait a minute. They already have. But the Taxi
Federation is smarter than the average bear. They are cunning enough to want the tax payer to fund what taxi businesses could (and should) have done years ago.
Yes, video surveillance and screens are probably required, but it is just a cost of doing business. Get it done. Pay for it yourselves. Every other business does. Don't expect the taxpayer to fund your costs of doing business. Or, should we go further? If the taxi industry deserves government welfare to fund anti-crime measures in every taxi, what about doing the same for every residential dwelling in the country? What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
Delicious Irony
Recent reports out of the US tell us that Congress is likely to have to postpone a grave discussion with Al Gore on global warming.
Al Gore is scheduled before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday morning to once again testify on the 'urgent need' to combat global warming.
But Mother Nature seems ready to freeze the proceedings.
A 'Winter Storm Watch' has been posted for the nation's capitol and there is a potential for significant snow... sleet... or ice accumulations.
"I can't imagine the Democrats would want to showcase Mr. Gore and his new findings on global warming as a winter storm rages outside," a Republican lawmaker emailed the DRUDGE REPORT. "And if the ice really piles up, it will not be safe to travel."
A spokesman for Sen. John Kerry, who chairs the committee, was not immediately available to comment on contingency plans.
Global warming advocates have suggested this year's wild winter spells are proof of climate change.
Yup, you can't keep a good global warmer down. Freezing cold temperatures in the US are "proof" of climate change (that is, global warming).
And the "warmers" are having a field day over the sweltering heat wave hitting Victoria and in particular the Aussie Tennis Open. Not only are the temperatures high, but they are forecast to continue for days, which has not happened since . . . 1908! Wow. So we are back to where we were in 1908.
Is Britain Going Mad?
The short answer is yes. The National Health Service is starting to look at how to deliver health services with less carbon emissions. It has to do this in order to fulfil its government mandated requirements to reduce its carbon output by eighty percent percent (yes you read right) in forty years. So, we have to make a start.
Lot's of options are on the table. First to grab our attention is a proposal to remove meat and dairy products from the menu of hospital food. Silly us. We would have thought that the fundamental driver for food in hospitals is healthy nutrition and doing whatever could be done to speed recover. But apparently not when you are saving the planet.
According to The Guardian, carbon lite menus will be augmented by other stellar initiatives like encouraging patients, staff, and visitors to leave their cars at home and get to hospitals some other way.
But the reduction in carbon emissions goes even further. It would be better still to be treated in your own home. One NHS "expert" has actually opined, "If you're going to get me radical I say the default place for health is in the home, and the person who delivers it is yourself: that's the ultimate low-carbon health service". Nah. The ultimate low carbon health service is to stay at home and die.
What madness is this? How has it come to this? Well, the National Health Service explains how it has come to this.
Unless we all take effective action now, millions of people around the world will suffer hunger, water shortages and coastal flooding as the climate changes, it says.OK, so millions of people are going to be hurt unless we do damage to our own people.
As one of the world's largest organisations, the NHS has a national and international imperative to act in order to make a real difference and to set an important example.
There is only one word to describe this mindset and such reasoning: evil.
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