[CitizenUSA]

I like to call myself a moderate with libertarian tendencies, but I’m a true moderate unlike the GOPe. By moderation I mean I want smaller government, but I’m willing to compromise so long as we’re making good progress to the right. For example, I’d settle for slashing the Dept of Ed for the time being as a good compromise with the left that apparently wants DC running all the schools.

As far as libertarian goes, I think the benefit of the doubt should go to liberty, but I also support federalism and the right of communities to set their own standards. If a locality wants to legalize pot for example, I think that could cause problems but it’s their right. I don’t think liberty equals anarchy, but that’s what I read from some Libertarians.

Again, I think that’s a truly moderate approach, because I don’t want the federal government calling the shots on things that aren’t specifically enumerated in the US Constitution, but I support the right of communities to do things I don’t necessarily agree with. Make sense?

[Finny]

Makes absolutely PERFECT sense, so much so that I'd say you and I are pretty much on the same page, Citizen, though the word "moderate," like the words "gay" and "liberal," has changed so much in meaning and implication that I choose instead to self-identify as a limited government (which is just another way of saying "small l libertarian principle") Christian conservative.

But because the word "libertarian" appears at all, Res2nd, pinged, thinks that you and I and my 85-year-old mother (not to mention Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, and the late great Milton Friedman) are the same as liberals and that we yearn for lots of open homosexuality, child pornography, subsidized legal abortion on demand, and legalization of all drugs so that we -- you, me, and my 85 year old mother -- can get high.

Resposibility 2nd is

a) directly harmful to himself and America by bearing false witness in order to "prove" that he is morally superior to you, me, and my 85-year-old self-described "libertarian tendencies" mom.

b) would have his nose broken by righteous, honorable, conservative men if he accused my mother to her face of the vile things he slanders her with here, as she is a self-described (like Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams and Milton Friedman, all "liberals" in Resp2nd's demented, angry perception) small-l libertarian at least in tendency, though she is actually very much like you, Citizen.