Don't forget Caeser

The last time Gaius Julius Caeser stepped into the forum, he knew he was safe. He had systematically beaten the Senatorial forces on every battlefield they had run to. The plebs of Rome would riot rather accept the rule of a senate back under control of the optimates. In fact, the optimate senators themselves knew that without Caeser's protection, the mob would probably slaughter them and their families without hesitation. Caeser was unassailable. The only people who didn't know it were the spoilt sons of the optimate senators. They had been protected from the battles which had occured outside Rome. They thought that if they just killed this upstart traitor to his class, things would go back to the way they were. They were wrong, but Caeser was still killed.

The modern pleb, from the NATO side of the cold war divide, is a spoilt rich kid, and just as divorced from reality as any optimate's son. He/she has grown up protected from the realities of Borneo, the Falkland Islands, Korea, and all the rest of the activity which has maintained our comfortable, free status quo. And so our govts are given ever more power over us. The scarred survivors of the gulags, on the other hand, know what it means to give too much power to the state.

Right to whinge

As a person of British descent, and an ex-soldier to boot, I figure I have a right to whinge. The bleeding-heart neo-liberals seem to get a kick out of it, with their global warming this, and no nukes that. Why not a whinge from another part of the political spectrum?
One thing that really ticks me off is the black hole into which my tax dollars seem to pour. Apparently, the govt. has this general fund, into which our taxes go. From this fund money is drawn to pay for Defence, police, roading, and other such. One problem I have is that the distribution seems to be according a ouji board or some such. My other problem is that some taxes are supposed to be for specific purposes, but they go into the general fund anyway. For example, I believe the tax that's added to our petrol is supposed to be for roading, while those with diesel vehicles pay road user charges. Now I don't see how a vehicle's fuel type effects how much wear and tear it dishes out to the road surface. Why not take the tax off petrol and fund Transroad with road user charges based on vehicle weight and mileage? Most of the admin is already in place.

Kiwi benefits

Now, I haven't done the research, but my own experiences lead me to believe that less than half of what the govt spends on benefits goes to the actual beneficiaries. What's more, a good chunk of the administrative costs can be accounted for by forms that aren't needed, and material that is completely redundant.
Here's a way to cut some costs, and remove a bunch of fraud too. Use our Community services cards as eft-pos cards. Groceries, petrol, Drs bills could be paid with them, while rent, power, phone, and other such costs get paid directly. Give adults $10 a week for non essentials like booze and ciggies, and $5 a week per person under 18. That way there's food in the cupboard, a roof over the head, and less chance of kids left in cars outside the local pub while parents blow their dole money on the pokies. Someone tell me what's wrong with this idea.

Wait, here's a better idea

Want to super-charge IT infrastructure? Tax broadband profits at 50% of the std company tax rate. Someone tell me why that wouldn't work.

NZ Labour party is scary

I just had a brief look at the summary fo our govt.'s Digital Strategy. Even the title of of the summary is bad, "How will we make it happen". Without a question mark you might notice. I would have thought the nightmare state of the Russian economy at present would be enough to teach anyone the ills of a centrally planned economy. What the hell are these people smoking? NZ's IT infrastructure would take off like a rocket if the govt just got out of the way.
Here's a thought. Take all the money that's earmarked for these control mechanisms, and offer it as a subsidy to whichever ISP provides all you can eat 12 Mb/s broadband. Then just step back and let the market solve the problem. Govt, like management, is usually best operated by getting out of the way the those who actually get stuff done.

Rodney's blog

I've just discovered that the leader of the Act Party, Rodney Hide, has his own blog. I'm a member of the party, tho' I can't afford to pay the fees, so I'm very curious about this blog. Hope its good.

Old dogs and new tricks

Some years ago, I did a one year course at Auckland University aimed at those who wanted to get a degree but had been a long time out of school. While I found the English and History courses really easy, Maths and Physics seemed a lot more difficult than I remembered from school. Obviously a different way of thinking is involved, and I think the same must apply for programming. When Commodore computers first came into NZ, my Dad owned the advertising agency they used. I'm wishing now I'd made better use of the opportunities I had back then. I'd probably be a rich pro geek, instead of a broke proto-geek.

Where to start?

I'm a somewhat normal sort of bloke, though over to the nerd side of the normal spectrum. I have a wife and three children, photo's of whom I'll probably post soon. I am at present at home on a Sickness Benefit as my wife has BorderlinePersonality Disorder, and thus needs a fair bit of help looking after our darling children. I would like to become some kind of web-geek, so I can make some money from home, but as yet I'm only a proto-geek, as HTML doesn't count as a programming language, and I'm just learning Python.
I'm a military sci/fi and fantasy fan, and thus lurk at Baen's Bar a lot, making occasional posts and irritating my favourite author, John Ringo.
My world view tends towards the likes of P.J. O'Rourke, C.S.Lewis, John Ringo, and Tom Kratman. Eric Flint is another of my favourite authors, but lives in a different part of the political spectrum.

More to follow