Posted on 09/08/2004 8:53:21 PM PDT by quidnunc
Being a libertarian for the most part myself, I readily admit that the libertarian philosophy is always going to have holes when it comes public goods.
National Defense, as well as other public goods, can never be truly resolved by libertarian philosophy, with its instinct to simply privatize everything. But somethings can't be privatized, and the libertarin position on those issues are always going to be inadequate in dealing with such subjects.
oh how excellent!! Love your literalism...
Flippin' morons...
The left is very welcome to them.
Me to I even joined the party.. Very sad reality check.
Yeah, but what's to stop a private army from imposing its own martial law? That's why privatize army can't work.
The Libertarian Party continues to disgrace itself ...
If they were serious about their purported principles,
they would demonstrate against the bloated federal
government, not whore after the liberal media by
playing liberal, as here.
For Libertarians who don't follow the blame-America foreign policy plank that Badnarik espouses, I suggest as an alternative Larry Elder, Los Angeles talk show host. We're throwing our vote away anyway, so go for the write-in.
My response to Badnarik is this: if gratuitous American intervention overseas causes terrorism, then why don't all the terrorists come from Latin America and the Caribbean? Our "intervention" in the Middle East has mainly taken the form of giving them trillions of dollars for their oil. It seems that giving Arabs too much money has had the same deleterious effects as giving our CEOs too much money.
I know. I had my tongue planted in my cheek, mate. I have never run across libertarians who did advocate a privatised military. I have come across those who think that the military should be overseen and funded by the national government, but organised in the states - basically making the Guard take-on the overwhelming majority of the defense duties. Personally, I do not think that such a scheme works well in the modern world.
That said, I am curious about the waiting period on an F-16...
Back in the 1970s, I used to imagine the LP's second amendment group: the Emergency Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Tactical Nuclear Weapons. 'If they've got 'em, we need 'em too.'
Thank you for seeing the error of your ways! :-)
Two and 1/2 minutes.
LOL! I can see it now...
"No, kids, daddy is not digging a pit for a swimming pool; that hole is for the Minuteman II silo."
I think the Libertarian party still has promise. But at the current time it is not being fulfilled, it remains a promise. I think its fundamental problem is that it abandoned the philosophy upon which its political philosophy is built. That split allowed it to be dragged into the superficial gutter by interest groups like pot heads and motorcycle helmet laws rather than addressing principles.
I still see the promise of the Libertarian party. But I do not yet see the promise of that promise being fulfilled.
For the record here is what I mean about the philosophy underpinning the political philosophy: Political philsophy deals with the proper role of government and the morality of societal interpersonal interactions. As such, it is an extension of ethics/morality, which is itself an extension of metaphysics and epistemology.
The philosophy underpinning the political philosophy is as follows:
Liberals (Control Democrat Party): Kantian roots, Socialist philosophy
Conservatives (Republican Party): Religious roots, specifically Judeo Christian. Religious conception of morality rather than philosophical (religion and philosophy answer the same questions)
Libertarian (controls nothing): Enlightenment Era philosophy....the same as what this country was founded on.
If you go back further, the philsophy can be seen as a duel between Plato (liberals/socialists) and Aristotle (libertarians).
Just remember, if we're going to use that interpretation then the guy next door as the right to anti-aircraft, and while you're tooling around the skies, his drug adled teenager and his drug adled friends are shooting at you for kicks.
They are not now,nor have they EVER been "serious".
That is scheduled right after their hooker break.
I have to wholeheartidly concur...
Yup, but they are too stoned to operate the flak batteries. ;-)
I am just delving into a bit of cheeky humour to make light of this unfortunate situation. There was a time when the Libertarian Party had some solid core principles. Now, they have just gone over the cliff.
BTTT
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