This sort of thing just really, REALLY burns my arse...from a commenter at David Hardy's place:
Absolute freedom among civilized people is anarchy, yet that's what libertarians espouse.
Um, no, it ISN'T. God, but this sort of thing just really gets my goat. Why is it that so many people equate the smaller, less-intrusive government philosophy of libertarians with hedonism? It's quite unhelpful, not to mention a blatantly dishonest portrayal of the libertarian philosophy. (Methinks they might be confusing libertarians with libertines, but they seem to be fairly smart people, at least book-smart...) To hear these people talk you'd think those of us who subscribe to the libertarian philosophy don't think there should be consequences for anything. Funny, try as I may I don't hear even people like Ron Paul advocate doing away with laws against things like robbery, rape and murder. I wonder why that is? Could it be that what libertarians espouse is indeed NOT "absolute freedom among civilized people" by itself, but rather freedom tempered with common sense, ethics and morality? Could it be that way too fucking many Republican Party apparatchiks are more interested in seeing their party gain the upper hand in the government than they are in seeing the principles of the Founding Fathers upheld? I tend to think that's EXACTLY what it is.
Oh, and you know what's really ironic? The person who penned that comment has a blog called -- wait for it! -- Common Sense Junction. What a fucking joke...and almost as ironic, is the fact that the Libertarian Party has nominated someone like Bob Barr to be its standard-bearer. I said this in comments to an earlier post, but it fits here.
"Based on some of what I've read about Barr's political leanings, I tend to think he's just hitching his wagon to that horse because it's the most viable one, not because of any credible libertarian positions he holds. To be honest I think the LP's credibility, to the extent it ever had any, has taken a huge hit because of them taking him as their standard bearer. Words mean things, and small-L honest-to-God libertarian Bob Barr ain't."
One must wonder what the hell they're thinking. Is this the best they can do? And, yes, that goes for both the Libertarian Party and those who try to paint libertarians as something they're not.
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