Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

They call themselves libertarians; I think they're antisocial bastards
Guardian ^ | 12/20/05 | George Monbiot

Posted on 12/19/2005 8:30:57 PM PST by Pikamax

The road-rage lobby couldn't have been more wrong. Organisations such as the Association of British Drivers or Safe Speed - the boy racers' club masquerading as a road-safety campaign - have spent years claiming that speeding doesn't cause accidents. Safe Speed, with the help of some of the most convoluted arguments I've ever read, even seeks to prove that speed cameras "make our roads more dangerous". Other groups, such as Motorists Against Detection (officially known as Mad), have been toppling, burning and blowing up the hated cameras. These and about a thousand such campaigns maintain that speed limits, speed traps and the government's "war on the motorist" are shakedown operations whose sole purpose is to extract as much money as possible from the poor oppressed driver.

Well last week the Department for Transport published the results of the study it had commissioned into the efficacy of its speed cameras. It found that the number of drivers speeding down the roads where fixed cameras had been installed fell by 70%, and the number exceeding the speed limit by more than 15mph dropped by 91%. As a result, 42% fewer people were killed or seriously injured in those places than were killed or injured on the same stretches before the cameras were erected. The number of deaths fell by more than 100 a year. The people blowing up speed cameras have blood on their hands.

But this is not, or not really, an article about speed, or cameras, or even cars. It is about the rise of the antisocial bastards who believe they should be allowed to do what they want, whenever they want, regardless of the consequences.

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: liberals; liberaltarians; libertarians
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140141-145 next last
To: Sir Francis Dashwood
have never said I was a “conservative,” yet you continue attempting to label me as such.

I suppose the question remains, if you are not a conservative, why do you frequent a forum intended for conservatives?

121 posted on 12/23/2005 10:25:10 AM PST by jmc813
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 115 | View Replies]

To: jmc813
...why do you frequent a forum intended for conservatives?

I am a very partisan Republican and hate liberals...

Why does a liberal like you frequent a forum intended for conservatives?

122 posted on 12/23/2005 10:42:34 AM PST by Sir Francis Dashwood (LET'S ROLL!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 121 | View Replies]

To: Sir Francis Dashwood
Why does a liberal like you frequent a forum intended for conservatives?

Ummm...I'm pro-life, an absolutionist on the 2nd Amendment, a proponent for small government and fiscal responsibility, and an Army veteran. Why on Earth would you consider me a liberal?

123 posted on 12/23/2005 10:52:38 AM PST by jmc813
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 122 | View Replies]

To: tonycavanagh
Good argument. Over here in some states, though, speed limits tend to be understood more as "general guidelines." When I go the legal limit cars going substantially faster pass me.

The fear here in the US isn't that the guy going over 100 mph is going to get caught, but that the person going 5 mph over the limit would get ticketed simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. A camera in the wrong place might also confuse drivers.

The authorities can adjust the cameras to penalize only the worst offenders, but they have a way of tightening the net to catch others when it's to their convenience, so people are wary of photographic enforcement.

In the states where people do tend to follow the speed limit, the cameras probably aren't needed.

124 posted on 12/23/2005 11:36:26 AM PST by x
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: jmc813
Why on Earth would you consider me a liberal?

1. You favor allowing the surrender of our young to the cultural Marxists' chemical warfare (drugs) against us.

2. You favor allowing the surrender of our young to the cultural Marxists' psychological warfare (pornography) against us.

3. You favor allowing the partial surrender of our young to the cultural Marxists' biological warfare (sex perversion) against us.
(partial, because you say you oppose abortion)

125 posted on 12/24/2005 4:51:05 AM PST by Sir Francis Dashwood (LET'S ROLL!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 123 | View Replies]

To: steve-b
"Lastly, we might well ask, is it indeed so certain that our roads suffer from the slowness of petrol traffic; and that, if we can only make every sort of motor go faster and faster, we shall all be saved at last? That motors are more important than men is doubtless an admitted principle of a truly modern philosophy; nevertheless, it might be well to keep some sort of reasonable ratio between them, and decide exactly how many human beings should be killed by each car in the course of each year. And I fear that a mere policy of the acceleration of traffic may take us beyond the normal modern recognition of murder into something resembling a recognition of massacre. And about this, I for one still have a scruple; which is probably a relic of medievalism."

Somehow I don't think GK Chesterton was a Guardian style communist.

126 posted on 12/24/2005 4:57:04 AM PST by JasonC
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Howie66
""Libertarians" are to cowrdly to admit the TRUTH. They are really Socialists that lack the intellectual honesty (and/or nuts) to admit it.

"Libertarian" sounds so much more honorable and upright than "Socialist", thought that idea is just a myth."

Although it's possible that some of what you've "written" could mean almost anything, it does seem unavoidable that you've somehow equated Libertarianism with Socialism. To do so essentially tells the world that you have no idea what you are talking about. Period.

I hope I'm not being "to cowrdly" for you

127 posted on 12/24/2005 5:16:39 AM PST by muir_redwoods (Free Sirhan Sirhan, after all, the bastard who killed Mary Jo Kopechne is walking around free)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Howie66

Hey Howie, You do know the difference between a liberal and a libertarian don't you?


128 posted on 12/24/2005 6:36:01 AM PST by muir_redwoods (Free Sirhan Sirhan, after all, the bastard who killed Mary Jo Kopechne is walking around free)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Sir Francis Dashwood

Francis, I have to suggest, again, that you see a cleryman regarding your issues. He would probably be more kind to you than a shrink. You'd wouldn't like what the shrink would tell you.


129 posted on 12/26/2005 11:11:58 AM PST by 68 grunt (3/1 India, 3rd, 68-69, 0311)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 125 | View Replies]

To: harrowup
"RabidBartender wrote: Bring back tpaine!!!!! " I'll drink to that...""...and I'll buy!

And I'll vomit.

130 posted on 12/26/2005 11:17:27 AM PST by JCEccles
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 104 | View Replies]

To: JCEccles
I suppose most of the Tories here would.

It is kind of a shame all those men fought so long for liberty only to have their descendants and inheritors fritter it away.

By the way,was there no sex crimes,drug addiction,or other social ills in the original Colonies,later States ? Or were those things thought to be properly a matter for those involved and local officials?

131 posted on 12/26/2005 11:36:06 AM PST by hoosierham (Waddaya mean Freedom isn't free ?;will you take a creditcard?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 130 | View Replies]

To: APFel
The important tenant (to me) of Libertarianism...

Why should we care about your renter?
132 posted on 12/26/2005 11:44:22 AM PST by kenavi ("Remember, your fathers sacrificed themselves without need of a messianic complex." Ariel Sharon)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: 68 grunt
I have to suggest, again, that you see a cleryman regarding your issues.

A “cleryman,” what is that?

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

He would probably be more kind to you than a shrink. You'd wouldn't like what the shrink would tell you.

Most of those perverts need therapy themselves... (I wouldn't want to end up like you anyway.)

133 posted on 12/26/2005 12:10:42 PM PST by Sir Francis Dashwood (LET'S ROLL!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 129 | View Replies]

To: Sir Francis Dashwood
... cleryman ...

My mistake, clergyman. Since you're an atheist that your pick as to the denomination.

It sounds as if you've already seen a shrink and didn't like what he told you. Was it a court appointed visit?

134 posted on 12/26/2005 12:24:34 PM PST by 68 grunt (3/1 India, 3rd, 68-69, 0311)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 133 | View Replies]

To: kenavi
Do you pick through days old threads to troll folks on simple spelling errors?

Get a life. I'll chip in a nickel.

APf
135 posted on 12/26/2005 8:40:40 PM PST by APFel (Loose ships sink lips.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 132 | View Replies]

To: Howie66

You are misinformed.

Here's a quote from Ronald Reagan in 1975 from a Reason magazine interview.

"If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals–if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is."


136 posted on 12/26/2005 8:59:21 PM PST by KDD (A wink is as good as a nod to a blind horse.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: mysterio

hahahahahah

Like this shill for big gummint (the author of the article) is the first person to EVER call people like me "antisocial".

Well, screw you, you chicken manure sumbit...! If you don't want to be on the road with people like me, take the train or cloister your scaredy cat self in your house. I don't want to be on the road with people like you either, because you all are just GTOs....that's Gigantic Travelling Obstacles for you Pontiac fans.

Maybe if the UK took the people monitoring these speed cameras and set them to monitoring Mosques........


137 posted on 12/26/2005 9:42:32 PM PST by 308MBR (Not only older, but bolder. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Howie66

I think you have Liberal confused with Libertarian.

A moderate change in traffic laws in the USA would solve all of this. First of all, semis and anyone towing a trailer must stay in the far right lane unless avoiding an accident. Second, if you are out of the far right lane and someone hits you from behind, it's YOUR FAULT because you weren't going fast enough.

I paid taxes on the income I used to buy my car. I paid taxes on the purchase of my car. I pay taxes on the gas to operate my car. I'll drive it as I see fit and do to it as I please. Kiss my long haired country boy a...... if you don't like it. That's why your eyes only have three degrees of focus, yet your neck will turn 120 degrees.

As for the Libertarian party, the ONLY thing that bothers me about them is the open borders crap. Funny thing you call them Socialists when GWB is expanding Medicare and blowing funds out the door on welfare, when a Libertarian would cut it all out.

Oh, I forgot. You probably think all people who want to catch a buzz without paying through the nose on taxes or getting a Dr. to prescribe are "socialists".


138 posted on 12/26/2005 9:56:55 PM PST by 308MBR (Not only older, but bolder. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: JCEccles

Wuss


139 posted on 12/26/2005 9:59:30 PM PST by 308MBR (Not only older, but bolder. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 130 | View Replies]

To: Sir Francis Dashwood

WHAT THE HELL IS A "LIBERALTARIAN"?

I have never heard of such a beast. Is it related to a Jackelope? Could it be a Jersey Devil?

Don't get liberals and Libertarians confused just because both might have a joint in their pocket.


140 posted on 12/26/2005 10:06:27 PM PST by 308MBR (Not only older, but bolder. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 115 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140141-145 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson