Replies

Zbigreddogz & Billthedrill (real men are named after power tools): Browne was fiercely nationalistic to the point of isolationism - saying that other countries problems are theirs to deal with and if we devoted the resources we waste on their problems to our own we'd be living in a virtual paradise

Yah, that's what I said: He's a nutjob on FP.

His comments on Zell Miller make me think he was a nutjob period.

I have great respect for the 'less is more' libertarian philosophy of Government, and I usually (not always) agree with them, at least in principle.

But those feelings don't carry over to the Libertarian party, which, frankly, are either A. Really, really, really extreme, like, wanting to privatize roads extreme, or B. Drug addicts who want their stuff legalized.(a position I'm sympathetic to, to a point, but only to a point)

And even the ones that don't fit in to one of those two camps are nuts on FP.

I saw that interview and realized that he was being used at a time when he wasn't well (which was totally reprehensible). As I said, far better that we die quietly than to have our shambling shells trundled out for the baser motives of our formerly trusted allies.

Nine years ago I spoke with the man on a number of subjects and he had clear reasoning on them all. The "Zell" interview was not with the same man. Don't grind me when the people closest to him should have kept him home. Lou Gehrig Disease is an identity and dignity robbing bastard that you wouldn't wish on your worst enemies.

While attending several LP meetings around 1996 I saw that most were of the fervent "let's fix this wagon" mindset. When I left them in 1999 the Democrats had thoroughly infiltrated to the point where I had to literally flee the stink of patchouli oil (my nose says it smells like excrement).

Despite that I never saw any "stoners" nor smelled any marijuana at the Libertarian meets. I did smell Liberal Democrats and that is something you want to keep from your olfactory memory - trust me on that.

If we refused to vote for every politician who said or did something that we disagree with, we would be electing nobody, and this includes President Bush. I voted for him, I worked for his re-election, and would do so again if he could run again, but he has done and said much that has angered most Freepers.

I think a lot of Libertarian positions on foreign policy are naive and dangerous, and they often are the same as Jefferson's and Washington's. In the real world, Jefferson and his proteges Madison and Monroe, had to use real world policies in the real world of international politics.

Candidate Bush spoke against nation building, but President Bush is nation building out of necessity. I suspect that a Libertarian President would learn real world politics just as quickly, while reducing the domestic government activities toward those boundaries perscribed in the Constitution.