Nanny stateism

There is an interesting nascent debate going on about whether the government is too involved in people's lives, the nanny state.  The main complaint is that the government passes and then enforces too many laws.  This happens in the same environment where many in society complain about the government not doing enough to help solve people's problems.  A recent example that comes to mind is the disappearance of a guy in the South Australian outback, with family and relatives complaining that the police didn't do enough to locate the missing man - that is this in an example where there is an expectation that the government should solve people's problems.  Of course the media are involved here.  They clamour for a leaner government, which will then be unable to be as involved in people's lives as it would if it, the government, was more resourced.  The media also clamours for government and its resources to solve the myriad of complex problems they catalogue, like this unsual example of the guy disappearing in the South Australian outback.

Today I was listening to a program on guns and gun control in Australia.  There was a 'beautiful', if that's the right word, example of how the government should be involved in people's lives.  The gun lobby urge for easier access to firearms (that is, a lessening of nanny stateism) while relying on police to be responsible for intervening when guns fall into the right hands.  As I say, this 'elegantly' sums up the idea of government taking a preventative stance to minimize of problem (guns), versus some in the community seeing government's role being to be the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, in this case to enforce the laws about gun use.

Post holidays challenges at the Men's refuge

Came back from two weeks away on holidays to find a series of small things wrong, domestically.  Australian Post who were meant to have held my mail, can't find the mail they held, having no idea where it is, where to start looking for it, or who to ask where it might be.  I want to get the $22 back from them that I paid them to hold the mail, but I'm more concerned about the new credit card that is probably among the held mail.  I guess all of the letters they held for me and ultimately have lost, could  end up at the dead letter office.

Also my set top box, aged VCR and timer for my central heating were not working when I arrived home after a fortnight away.  Another power plug was playing up & all this made me think there had been a power surge, which I mused might have been due to all the solar panels feeding in too much power to the grid or just the coal generated power protesting against the carbon tax.  After two days of set top box and VCR on the blink, I rushed out and purchased a new set top box, DVD, VCR combo and a surge protector for $380.  When I brought it home, the apparently dead set top box and VCR miraculously had come back to life, meaning I'd wasted $300 on the new stuff from the Good Guys.  Knowing the Good Guys were probably good guys, I asked if I could bring back the DVD VCR set top box combo and get a credit.  "Maybe" was their answer - they need to inspect the pristine new equipment and see if is still sufficiently pristine.

Today, on a nearly completely unrelated topic, I saw a church in the Canberra suburb of O'Connor with solar panels on the roof in the shape of a crucifix.  The power of the Lord, I thought to myself.  Maybe Julia needs to pray at this place for a lift in the polls,while I could try and enlist support from a higher force to stop the surges and bring back my mail from the dead letter office or whereever held mail gets held up.