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In response to: 3238

I couldn't help but notice that you addressed nothing I challenged you on in #3235.

...one thing I have noticed about you third party folk is that you love to write long, long, long, defenses...

Too bad. I know you're in a hurry to get back on over to the mutual admiration thread where everyone agrees with each other. One thing I've noticed about you incumbent party types is your evasiveness and the great lengths you will go to silence those who challenge you.

We...do not hold to the...We-Live-In-A-Police-State mentality.

Bush law chief (Ashcroft) tried to suspend habeas corpus. If that doesn't smack of police-statism I don't know what does. You tell me. Again, I ask you, do you give Bush and Ashcroft a pass because they're Republicans? Where's the outrage in the GOP? No Libertarian candidate would ever support such a thing. He would be shunned by fellow Libertarians and probably banished. Furthermore, no Libertarian would just blow it off and make excuses because he's one of our own.

...the only one in your little tent that keeps it short is OWK...

Despite OWK's briefly worded challenges to others to defend their positions he is personally attacked and ridiculed. Often accused of floating straw men with perfectly legitimate questions usually requiring a simple yes or no. He challenges others to think and to defend their positions and instead he is resented for it. A sure sign that somebody is insecure with their own beliefs is their evasion of the challenge and the subsequent lashing out at the one who posed it.

OWK: May I quote from "The Great Libertarian Racket"?...."Back in the real world, many criticize the little quiz, created by David Nolan..(who)...decided to start a political party in his living room with a few of his friends over chips and dip. Writes one critic: "This Libertarian quiz asks a set of leading questions to temp you to proclaim yourself a libertarian. The big trick is that if you answer yes to each question, you are a MACHO SELF GOVERNOR: there is an unspoken sneer to those who would answer anything else."......I KNOW the game. I know what OWK is trying to do.... WE DO NOT BUY IT, and we tire of the sneer.....we just do not agree with you...get over it.

He challenges others to think and to defend their positions and instead he is resented for it.

Some of us simply find the Socratic method puerile,annoying and insincere. We had enough of it in college. That it is a favorite dodge of the left in defense of the indefensible makes the use of the tactic even more grating. Got a position, state it. Don't play sophomoric "what if" games.

Btw..."challenges others to think" sums up the Libertarian attitude. Pure snobbery. The height of arrogance. And Libertarians wonder why they have not be able to connect with even a fraction of the public.