I will not waste my time with a point by point response; you have done much of my work of making yourself look foolish for me. I will just hit a few highlights.
1. You should not use terms that you do not fully understand. Ad hominem, for example, does not mean what you seem to think it means. It is a propaganda technique whereby one attacks their opponant personally, and then argues that since his opponant is a dispicable person, of low morals, stupid, and a liar, nothing he says can be given any credence, no matter how rational the points might be. As an example of ad hominem, we can all look to your last post. Much of it, when boiled down, consists of the following argument: "You are a libertarian, and I know libertarians are evil, horrible people, so what you say cannot possibly have merit." Furthermore, you squeal like a schoolgirl when I rightfully note your evil. You claim I am making an ad hominem argument, when nothing could be further from the truth. I attacked your argument and your philosophy, and demonstrated with many examples and arguments why I condidered that philosophy to be evil. It is clearly logical to conslude that one who embraces an evil philosophy is either evil himself, or is a fool. Defend your philosophy, or cry and kick your feet like a child; it matters little to me, either way.
2. You claim to act from morality, but, interestingly enough, when questioned about the precise nature of that morality, you retreat into 'it's none of your business'. You have had no qualm about spouting your various morals to everyone before. Why, now, are you shy? (chuckle) We all know why, Cain. It's because you know that you're whipped in the religious argument, and you don't know enough about the Bible or the God you claim to serve to even hold your own against a Sunday School student.
3. You talk loudly about how you are worried about the wellfare of the country, yet, when questioned on what service you have offered other than your loud mouth and your willingness to be our master, you become suddenly very quiet. Why am I not surprised? I'll wager you have neither served in the military, nor served as a policeman, an EMT, the National Guard, or even a political office. What, exactly, have you actually done to live up to the claims you make other than to flap your gums or type furiously? What sacrifice have you made that anyone should take what you have to say as anything but the mumblings of a coward?
Ah, but you say, I am a citizen! I have every right you do, because it is the American way!
And I say, "Precisely." And there you dangle, hoist by your own petard.
You are opposed by a monstrous force for evil; fully half this nation is in the grip of Communist madness, and yet _still_ you will not see that _you_ have armed them. It was people like _you_, who conceded the liberty of man must give way to the good of the community, that inspired this Communist monstrousity that threatens to devour us all! Look to your history! What did Stahlin do to men like you? What did Hitler do? They both subscribed to the same sort of evil that you did, that the individual must perforce sumbit to the community. Do you _still_ not understand? Do you _still_ not see that while you lie whimpering on the ground, licking the boots of your Communist masters, you will be praying that men like me will stand between you and what you _know_ would be the result of their depredations? You will whine to yourself, "why does no one stand up for me? I do no one harm! How can this happen?"
When it comes, it will come because men like you, fools that they are, did not stand for right when they might have done so.
"Still if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves." -- Sir Winston Churchill
When they drag you, kicking and screaming, to a re-education camp; when they pry your children from your arms because your personal morality no longer gibes with that of the community; when they ban your religion because it conflicts with the loyalties they want you to hold; when they imprison you for your loud mouth that is critical of their vision; then, you will understand just what a mistake you have made. Study your history: things change. Fifty years ago, men like you held sway. They took for themselves power beyond what was sensible; now the reigns have changed, and that power is in the hands of those who would destroy their way of life.
Thus the wisdom of the founding fathers is clear: do not empower a government beyond the barest of necessity. It is a sword you will weild for only a short while, one that will eventually turn upon you. It is not possible to do enough good to balance out a Hitler or Stahlin regime. And yet you work steadily, blindly toward just such a horror.
What will you sacrifice for you need to be 'right', for your evil desire to control others? WIll you sacrifice your children? Your nation? Your religion? When will you wake up?
Thraka
Here's a quick review of the most popular "reasons" that liberals, conservatives, intellectuals, janitors, cultural jihadists with brains bathed with wild turkey, roscoes, and the rest will cite you in order to defend the theory that the state is good, wise, at least inevitable, and certainly better than other conceivable alternatives:
1. The Social Contract - This is sort of a political version of the doctrine of "original sin." Supposedly, way back their someplace (with Adam I suppose) we "signed" a deal waiving all of our creator endowed rights and now there's nothing we can do about it. None of those that attempt to justify the state with this excuse can produce a document with signatures, but their faith is undiminished.
2. Divine Right - This theory is actually just as popular today as it ever was. Every time someone tells you to "render unto Caeser," he's saying, "God has ordained the current thugs that control your turf. And when a rival gang moves in and supplants the current extortionists, then, ergo, God has ordained that you shall do whatever they tell you too."
3. Public Goods - This theory holds that if A engages in a certain activity for his own benefit and it turns out that B also benefits from A's activity, then A must forego all activity and benefits derived therefrom because it frosts A so that B is getting free-bies.
The classic example that they use for this in Economics class is fireworks. There's no way for A to prevent B from enjoying A's fireworks, so, ergo without the state (and its thugs) we will never have any fireworks. Adherents to this theory of the state are not deterred by the fact that every 4th of July, private fireworks are launched all over the country.
Their other standard example is protection. They ask, "How will Exxon pay for the aircraft carriers they need to protect their far flung business interests unless the state dips into each paycheck of every wage laborer that lives in America?" Well, they don't actually ask the question like that, do they?
Congress's constitutional powers to raise a navy and lay and collect import duties could be viewed as at least a half assed attempt to combine usage fees (import taxes) on those receiving the service. Our constitutional prohibitions against government standing armies and affirmations of people's militias directly contradicts the "public goods" theory of the state with regard to the issue of protection.
But, like someone said a hundred or so posts back, either you believe in the Enlightenment or you believe in magic. The old magicians told us that the state was inevitable because God said so and/or we all were grafted onto the communal body when we "signed" our social contracts.
Nowadays, we have modern priests (economists) who have graphs and computer printouts that "prove" that without the state there would be no fireworks, protection, street lights, prescription drugs for seniors, or food to eat.
Ad hominem attack or not, this simple comment here, sums up what I had in mind. Thanks for the pithy remark. You did good.
Truth is, while many American's, including the vast majority of conservatives and republicans, remain very concerned, over the direction the US has taken since the 1930`s and even more so since the 1960`s, it's obvious, not everyone chooses to overreact in the manner you have. You and other libertarians have chosen to express your disgust for the American people and for our politics, through intense emotional rantings. What some would call, paranoia. You know, as in the fear of persecutory action being taken by civil authority, against your person. You've even taken that to another level and have accused me of being evil, immoral, unspiritual and unpatriotic. Frankly, you don't know me that well. In fact, you don't know me at all. But I know your type.
My my, you do have some deep rooted problems. Let me tell you, these personal problems you have expressed publically, are not going to be solved on FreeRepublic. They especially won't be solved, through a continued barrage of personal insults, based on ad hominem rhetoric. I call attention to your original post at #84, in which you took it upon yourself, to blow out of proportion, one small paragraph I wrote. You went off on a tantrum and carried forth with this emotional rage, onto your post at #324. WOW! Talk about irrational behavior!
In addition, your numerous references, to the religious shortcomings of others, indicate a strong intolerance for the religious beliefs of others. Some people use religion as a way of reaching God and bonding with like minded worshippers, in the same faith. However, you use religion like a crutch, to bang over the heads of those who disagree with your personal interpretation of life on Earth. The idea that one version of divine intervention, may be different then another, doesn't seem to play a role in your thinking. The idea that you can label people as unbelievers and throw around personal rhetoric as gospel, is just more of the same, intolerence on your part. Many people believe their personal relationship with "God", is no one elses business. That happens to be my belief too, but I don't question the faith of others, in order to make me feel superior, as you have done. So if you find it necessary to quote Biblical occurances, may be you should remember, your faith may not be, the faith of others. Stop being such an intolerent and sancitomious hypocrite. I don't believe God appreciates you representing his holiness and divinity, in such a callous and self-righteous fashion.
These ideas you preach, that half of the people in America are caught up in the madness of communism; that we're all going to be dragged away, kicking and screaming, to a re-education camp; that all the children will be taken from the parents, because their personal morality isn't in concert with the community; that American's will be imprisoned for their religious beliefs; that people will be jailed for expressing free speech, these are scare tactics, often used by the leftwing in America, over the last fifity years. They've been used to freighten American's and make them fearful of what the future holds. This is a form of political terrorism and sadly, is in keeping with the the outrageous, ridiculous and dangerous tactics of libertarians. This irrational and reactionary behavior you have exhibited, has absolutely nothing in common with the wisdom and the practical nature of the Founding Fathers.
Now let's see if you can start to behave yourself and have respect for your fellow FReepers. Let's see if you can engage in civil political discourse, without attacking anyone, for having the cojones to disagree with you.
I am again impressed ... you speak the truth of history and of wisdom. These fools can not see or do not wish to see the damage they have and continue to do to our country. Our freedom, our liberty, our country will not survive much longer with these fools in power.
Who is 'Cain' here? "O physician, heal thyself."