Penn Jillette is a ‘nutty ******* peacenik’ who wants the government off your back

DC Caller ^ | 5/7/2013 | Jamie Weinstein

[rktman]

LAS VEGAS — “My whole libertarian approach comes out of being just a nutty f'ing peacenik,” magician Penn Jillette confides backstage at his show, a few hours before he is set to perform.

[rktman]

Cleaned up the excerpt a little but the whole thing is at the link. Don't always agree with Penn but most of the time he's right on the money. Look to utube for some of the videos that he and Teller have out there concerning politics.

[Tulane]

I agree with him most but not all of the time...His show Bull$hit debunked many liberal myths...from global warming to the benefits of organic farming...to the cynical liberal curbs on free speech...and the show did this with humor, intelligence and without the shrillness of so many left and right partisans...

[RummyChick]

He is amazing on Celebrity Apprentice. Very astute.

[struggle]

I like guys like Penn Gillette.

He may be the diametrically opposed viewpoint from me, but he has the ability to reason, listen to argument, and not have a personal reaction to it.

That is very rare these days.

[circlecity]

I disagree with Penn on many points but give him credit for arguing his points rationally and logically and not accepting liberal BS. He is coherent. Where I almost always disagree is at basic starting points and that’s OK, I can agree to disagree on that basis. I’m sure I’d enjoy a discussion over a cup of coffee with him and that we’d walk away freinds.

[rktman]

It really boils down to common sense (one freakin’ word) and logic. None of which the radical left wing extremist demokkkrat scumbag socialists use even if the actually have some. Some of the videos are priceless. Well until youtube gets their subscription program in place. Guess they don’t make enough off the advertisers.

[bigbob]

Or boiled-down a bit differently, it’s “too little government” vs “too much”, or to err on the side of freedom vs the side of centralized control by a handful who think they’re smarter than the rest.

I know which side I’d take in a heartbeat.

[Bratch]

[rktman]

No doubt. Leave me alone. If I need your help, I’ll let you know. Otherwise, butt out. Kinda how I feel about it.

[rktman]

Did you send this to difi? Probably wouldn’t get it.

[GraceG]

I agree with you, I don’t always agree with Penn, but I would LOVE to have him as a Neighbor, he very much lives his philosophy and will admit when he was wrong in the past about something.

He is very much a passionate thinker and thoughtful person, not some libertarian drone who only recites talking points.

I am pretty sure we can all agree that Penn is a modern day philosopher.

[rktman]

Pretty sure everyone is breaking some law, rule or regulation as we speak. Err, write. Gotta love those rules and regs that carry the weight of law even though congress never approved them. WTF? How is that right?

[skeeter]

Jillette is one of the very few celebrities who can manage to be an outspoken atheist without being obnoxious & offensive.

[absolootezer0]

I think his comment on why he’d be such a terrible politician, is exactly the kind of attitude that would make a good politician.

[Still Thinking]

Underlying Jillette’s rage is his anger over America’s complex legal framework, under which he says no one can be sure they are entirely law abiding.

It's actually worse than that. There are so many laws that you don't have to even guess if you're law abiding because NO ONE is.

[SSDecontrol]

My biggest beef with Libertarians is their foreign policy. I’m all down for a libertarian leaning fiscally responsible domestic model but we can’t be pacifists on the world stage.

[2001convSVT]

You are 100% correct, you can not control a man guilty of nothing, therefore the government must make use guilt of something, to exercise control, try telling that to anyone, most will give you a blank stare at best.

May God Bless all those who stand up for the freedom of the individual.

[cuban leaf]

I just finished it and there was one really weird thing: Not only does he agree with me on every single issue brought up in the article, but he even articulates the same core reasons for those beliefs, and some of those reasons are rather obscure.

He and Jean Simmons are my evil twins. Both have the same political/social world view as me, right down to many of the detials, except I’m a Christian and neither one of them is. However, Penn reminds me of myself BEFORE I was a Christian, regarding his take on Christianity. I wonder if he will ever come to the Christian side.

[cuban leaf]

It’s actually worse than that. There are so many laws that you don’t have to even guess if you’re law abiding because NO ONE is.

---

And one problem with that is it causes a lot of us to have a “why bother trying” attitude. It’s where I am now. I get my moral compass from the bible. If it matches man’s laws, that’s fine. Otherwise, well, The Cornbread Mafia* comes to mind. Great book, btw.

*I live in the Cornbread Mafia area. The whole thing is basically chronicled in the song “Copperhead Road”. It began with the Catholic community bootlegging in a “how to obey God’s laws while disobeying man’s laws” sort of way, spurred by prohibition. When they were all caught a few years back, out of 40-70 who went down (I forget the number), not a single one turned on the others. They all went to prison for varying terms.