You know, as a "l" libertarian, this has always puzzled me about "L" Libertarians. I cannot fathom why they are clinging to this starving the children schtick when they are the first ones to step up to the plate and argue for just leaving other countries to fend for themselves. Now we are to blame for withholding food? Whatever happened to non-interventionism?
People still went on talking about truth and beauty as though they were the sovereign goods. Right up to the time of the Nine Years' War. That made them change their tune all right. What's the point of truth or beauty or knowledge when the anthrax bombs are popping all around you? That was when science first began to be controlled–after the Nine Years' War. People were ready to have even their appetites controlled then. Anything for a quiet life. We've gone on controlling ever since. It hasn't been very good for truth, of course. But it's been very good for happiness. One can't have something for nothing. Happiness has got to be paid for.
All too true, we can see the sheeple lining up for slaughter.
We're the best option out there, BUB, and you know what? There's actually a system in place right now that allows a dedicated person with opposing views to get things changed more to their liking. Sounds like you've not going to have a lot of spare time on your hands.
By the way - when the country is at war, it's not real smart to sound like you're trying to the undermine confidence in our basic principles, which are admired worldwide by most educated, non-cave dwelling persons.
We are all McCainacs now
No public libraries . . .
No public parks . . .
No public schools . . .
It's libertarian heaven, I tell ya'.
Ungrateful, spoiled, snivelling jackasses.
No doubt.
AMEN! You go Lew!
Another point he made, which was right on target, is the insanity expressed by some of our political "leaders" (not the least of which is Bush) that these terrorists are envious of our freedom. What a joke!!!
These people don't care about our freedoms. What they do care about are the insane policies forced on other countries by the United States on behalf of global corporations -- AND THEY SHOULD BE MAD!!! Wouldn't you?
Our government is FILLED to the gills, with busy-body, blood-lusting, low-life commies and socialists. They are called Republicans and Democrats! I hate them all.
Its called the beginnings of Socialism. Check out the DSA site and see how many (50) congressmen are named as friends. This is not only a scary prospect but is also the reason for the above. Stop voting in these Socialists-in-liberal-clothing types and maybe, just maybe, we can begin to take back this great country.
As to the following....
Yet we’re supposed to be so proud of our free country that we go around the world liberating other people with our Tomahawk missiles. God bless America, my eye. God save it, is more like it.
...more cynicism than anything else. I say, God Bless America, lead us in virtue and forgive us our sins and mistakes. However, if there is anyone out there who thinks there is a better place to be, a more virtuous country concerned with human rights and civil liberties, let them show the way. If there is a mass exodus then we will know there is something to this message by this author, else it is just more rhetoric with no solutions.
What does it mean to be Anti-American? Is anyone that challenges the government anti-American? Terrorists have challenged the US government; ergo anyone who challenges the government is a potential terrorist. Bin Laden has raised his hand in terrorism, therefore, every public hand raised in objection will from now on be treated as a public hand raised in attack.
This term applies not only to those who hate Americans but also to those who have challenged US foreign and defense objectives. Implicit in this denunciation is a demand for uncritical support, for a love of government more consonant with the codes of dictatorship than with the ideals upon which the United States was founded.
The charge of "anti-Americanism" is itself anti-American. If the US does not stand for freedom of thought and speech, for diversity and dissent, then we have been deceived as to the nature of our national history. Were the founding fathers to congregate today to discuss the principles enshrined in their declaration of independence, they would be denounced as "anti-American" and investigated as potential terrorists.
Democracy is sustained not by public trust but by public skepticism. Unless we are prepared to question, to expose, to challenge and to dissent, we conspire in the demise of the system for which our government is supposed to be fighting.
Libertarians often rely on saying "this is bad." In that they're a little like liberals or socialists. Just as some talk about a world without war or poverty or injustice, our author talks about a world without governments, taxes, or emininent domain. How do we get there? Is there any way of getting there? Are we even sure that there really is a libertarian "there" to get to.
Something may be bad, but is there an alternative or a remedy? Could the alternative or cure be worse than the illness? Is the alternative suggested really possible? How would it look in practice? I'm not saying in advance that the libertarian alternative won't work, just that people who advocate it assume that it will and that it would be easy to implement it.
A society of sparsely settled self-sufficient agriculturalists could live without a very oppressive or developed government. Once communities become more densely settled, the rights, desires and hopes of people become too intermixed.
I have a hard time believing that the Ayatollah Peikoff wouldn't find ways to put a superhighway through my block if that's what he wanted. Or that our author "Mr. Government is worse than Anthrax" wouldn't find ways to get rid of offensive nuisances in his neighborhood. He should also watch out that his neighbors don't get the idea first.
"I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled upon one another in large cities as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787. Papers 12:442