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It is a bit more complex than whether I agree with his article. I certainly disagree with paleo foreign policy. I think (as a former state officer of Libertarian Party in Connecticut) that Libertarianism is generally not for grownups whatever Libertarians may think. Overdosing on La Rand, Libertarianism is often the creed of those who want to do what they want to do when they want to do it and rationalize it later.

There are three kinds of "conservatives."

NeoConservatives, accurately speaking, a group of octogenarian and nonogenarian ex-Socialists and LBJ aides and worse who saw the light as the McGovernite communists seized a once respectable political party in the attempt of the McGovernites to geld America. Many are dead now. The rest will probably go all too soon. Not conservative across the board but good enough in our times.

Paleoconservatives, just as eager as the McGovernote communists to geld America while making believe that the discredited "blood and soil" embarassments of the 1930s, accompanied by ostrichlike heads buried in the sand until the bad people go away, posing for holy pictures with the constitution that they misunderstand, coupled with a few green-eye-shaded sleeve-gartered money obsessives clipping coupons in the back room at the bank on Main Street constitute a political movement much less a conservative one.

Actual conservatives (really the only genuine kind) who believe in aggressive military policy, interventionist foreign policy, economic policy of Adam Smith, that patriotism and skin color are not the same thing, that belief in God, heaven, hell, reward and punishment, sin and virtue, have very good consequences in any society, that, in war, there is no substitute for victory as MacArthur observed. See the 1960s-1970s New Right exemplified by Young Americans for Freedom and also see the Sharon Statement of 9/11/60 largely written by Stan Evans as YAF's founding statement. Yaf.org or yaf.com.

Reese claims libertarianism as "the true conservatism." It is not. I may have to do this in pieces since I cannot easily access the article without losing my writing.

Installment 2: I find it offensive that Reese would equate Jefferson Davis with modern paleoism. That would also suggest the Confederacy as something that paleos may resort to as a forerunner of themselves in history. Thomas Fleming of the Rockford was born in Northern Wisconsin but sojourned academically at Charleston, South Carolina and imagined himself a new spokesman for the Confederate tradition in such a fashion. He founded Southern Partisan magazine. Throughout American history, the South has NEVER been a hotbed of pacifism or anti-military feeling (unless it was resentment of Sherman, Sheridan and Grant accompanied by genuine pride in Lee, Jackson and the Johnstons) or favored weepy poetry drinkfests over military action.

Military action against our enemies IS responsibility and it is the responsibility that underlies our freedoms. Paleos, including Reese, need to lead, follow or, much more likely, sit down and shut up and stop undermining our nation. I want a government STRONG enough to conquer our nation's foreign enemies (enemies not immigrants) and punish domestic criminals who threaten our lives, liberty and/or property. I want a government WEAK enough to be effectively unable to impose socialist schemes upon our people and to thwart state efforts to do so. The actual wording of the constitution is a good guideline and we ought to live up to the Declaration of Independence while we are at it.

If killing your unborn children or your disabled spouse by dehydration is considered part of your "personal life," give me some federal authority to thwart either. Likewise, passing HIV/AIDS by pseudosexual practices involving the nether end of the digestive system ought be prohibited by government. If government cannot prevent such assaultive behavior, it ought to strip willing participants of civil rights as necessary to protect public health and, if we could quarantine TB and/or leprosy patients, we ought to quarantine HIV/AIDS patients. Federales can act if states don't.

The Spanish-American War was NOT an imperialist war. Emilio Aguinaldo got what he deserved. So did the Huks in the late 1940s.

Kelo vs. New London is an evil decision and, when you factor in Connecticut's practice of having the plaintiff's attorney paid out of the eminent domain judgment as a 33 1/3% contingency fee, the losing homeowners were doubly raped (by their local government by the way since the homeowners took the matter to the SCOTUS after losing in the Judicial District Court at New London and the Appellate Court of Connecticut (?) and finally at the Connecticut State Supreme Court (once more accurately called the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors).

I favor the Confederacy without reservation in the late unpleasantness known as the Second Great War of Rebellion or the War Between the States. I favor so-called "red states" over so-called "blue states." Slavery was unjust and an evil and tacky and ought to have been abolished at the outset but would have died of its own weight and inefficiency as Andrew Jackson predicted to Sam Houston on Jackson's last night in the White House. (See Texas history text Lone Star).

I am not a big fan of government but I am afraid we are living in an era when I do prefer some enhanced state security over incidents causing innocent folks to have their arms and legs flying disembodied through the air because the Islamofascisti are in a snit over whatever.

I think that covers the waterfront. Any other questions?