If we taxed our bottled water industry at $1 per litre, we wouldn't have a bottled water industry. If we got rid of the accommodation supplement to private landlords, then there wouldn't be any poor people living in private rentals, and we would have to provide housing some other way. Both these changes might be positive, but in both cases the money trees you're thinking of shaking might not yield as much as you think.

Yes, we could restructure our tax system to yield enough money to fund a UBI, but it's not as easy as you're suggesting.

I like the solver fern + stars flags and I've always been mystified by the confident statements of various people, notably on this site, that not only are these flags not to their personal taste, but that they are actually rubbish in an objective sense. (One finds a similar attitude in beer snobs.)

I don't think much of Sean Plunket's shirt though.

Is it even possible for a headless chicken to clutch at straws? In my limited experience their preferred course of action is to run around like, well, a headless chicken.

Because sterilising someone is the same as, you know, killing them.

It was an over-the-top parody of the slippery slope argument.

Martin, if the Silent Holocaust reference was intended as an over-the-top parody of the slippery slope argument, then it's a very good one. If it was intended as a serious contribution to the discussion, then perhaps you could explain how it relates to the topic.

My father-in-law suffered from narcolepsy and took amphetamines under prescription for most of his 80 years. This despite the close relationship between the drugs he took and P. So why the fuss about cannabis products?

I presume you’re referring to Heartland Bank. What is your beef with them ?

That had me puzzled too. Maybe Homeland Security?