Utopia, you are standing in it!

This tweet from Chris Bishop caught my eye

Jacinda Ardern embarrassing herself in the House by insisting the cannabis referendum is “binding” against the advice of the Justice Ministry, the Office of the Clerk, experts, and common-sense. There is no end to the depth of the incompetence of this useless government.

— Christopher Bishop (@cjsbishop) May 7, 2019

This is the second in a series of posts about this issue and related matters. It would seem that Jacinda Ardern is further compounding the brazen misinformation put about by Andrew Little when he claimed according to a report from Jane Patterson at RNZ

Cabinet ministers have agreed the referendum will be binding, based on agreement by all three governing parties.

“The voters’ choice will be binding because all of the parties that make up the current government have committed to abide by the outcome,” Justice Minister Andrew Little said.

Now this…

This is worth another look and is a humorous way to view the issues covered by Earth Day as well as this website. Comedian George Carlin (1937 – 2008) gives a hilarious look at the environment and environmentalists during a comedy special he did. Carlin told the truth that the Earth has been through a lot worse than man’s influence.

It’s this summer’s hottest pastime for libertarian-leaning academics: finding examples of bad scholarship in Nancy MacLean’s new book Democracy in Chains. For those out of the loop, MacLean, a history professor at Duke University, argues in her book that Nobel-prize winning public choice economist James Buchanan is part of some Koch-funded vast right-libertarian conspiracy to destroy democracy as inspired by southern racist agrarians and confederates like John Calhoun. This glowing review from NPR should give you a taste of her argument, which often has the air of a bizarre conspiracy theory. Unfortunately, to make these arguments she’s had to cut some huge corners in her federally-funded research. Here’s a round-up of her dishonesty:

• David Bernstein points out how MacLean’s own sources contradict her claims that libertarian Frank Chodorov disagreed with the ruling in Brown v. Board.
• Russ Roberts reveals how out-of-context Tyler Cowen was taken by MacLean, misquoting him…

Dave Granlund takes a look

Given that this is a topic that will be an ongoing political issue in NZ for some considerable time – this is the first in a series of posts about this issue and related matters

So Andrew Little has released the approach being taken regarding the cannabis referendum

There are several immediate concerns which come to mind and no doubt as things are clarified over the coming months some will prove to be unfounded. Though I will be pleasantly surprised if that proves to be the case.

First though let us address the rather peculiar interpretation placed on the concept of binding used by Mr. Little (from Jane Patterson at RNZ)

Cabinet ministers have agreed the referendum will be binding, based on agreement by all three governing parties.

“The voters’ choice will be binding because all of the parties that make up the current government…

I’d like to call your attention to a fairly new feature of The Atlantic that began last fall: a series of columns and short pieces gathered under the rubric (and webpage) called “The Speech Wars”. Click on the screenshot to go there:

The topics and viewpoints are diverse, but all have something to do with the rights of people to say what they want, and the counterspeech against it.  There are pro- and con-columns about Ilhan Omar’s statements, columns about hate speech, about the demonization of Harvard’s Ronald Sullivan, a house master and lawyer who is defending Harvey Weinstein as a client, and so on. Here’s a small screenshot:

You won’t agree with everything—how could you when the pieces sometimes take diametrically opposed stands?—but you’ll probably benefit most by reading things you don’t agree with. After all, isn’t that one of the great boons of free speech?