The March Against Sue-Bradford's Anti-smacking bill

I'm back from my little trip away, and this blog is active again, thanks everyone for your patience.

As you would know from all the news articles, there was a big march in Wellington and Christchurch. Unfortunately, due to other committments, I wasn't able to join in against the ludicrous bill, but all the Libertarians from Wellington joined in, including Bernard Darnton, Phil and Luke Howison, and Lindsay Perigo.

The protestors marched up to Parliament, chanting slogans and waving picket-signs as protestors do. However, unlike many protestors, they were protesting against a law that is unjust, unfair (to good parents), and will inevitably end up as a disaster.

The Anti-Smacking Bill will not stop bad parents from beating their children; it will stop good parents from discipling their children. It will not stop bad parents from terrorizing their children; it will stop good parents from instilling a sense of 'right' and 'wrong' (two words most politicians have never heard of) into their children. Catch my drift, Sue?

Any politician who actually thinks that this bill will end family violence is well and truly a complete idiot.

If you're in Christchurch on March 19...

In response to my post about how road charging would benefit road infrastructure and provides a free-market solution to today's traffic problems, I've been notified by Eric Crampton, a professor of Economics at Canterbury University, of an upcoming speech in Christchurch about the benefits of a user-pays road system. The man who will be delievering the speech is world-renowned free-market economist Mark Blaug, from the University of Amsterdam. Professor Mark Blaug is considered "the world's foremost scholar in the history of economic thought and economic methodology". He has worked with many important international economic and social organisations, such as the OECD, UNESCO, UNECAFE, UNDP, UNIDO, ILO, and the World Bank.

The speech will be for the annual "Condliffe Memorial Lecture", started in 2005, to give free-market economists around the world rewards for their hard work. The previous lectures were about, in 2005, how Wal-Mart is good for America by providing a wide range of products to (especially lower-class) Americans at a low-price. In 2006 the lecture was about how outsourcing is great.

The speech starts at 6pm, on March 19. Please check out the UC site for further information.