Posted on 02/15/2014 4:10:10 AM PST by Kaslin
I know there are stereotypes about libertarians being a bunch of dorks.
Conservatives think we’re potheads. Liberals think we’re heartless.
And many other people simply think we’re a bit weird.
These stereotypes can be amusing, but I also think they’re wrong.
And regardless, I think there’s much to admire in the libertarian ideals of small government, personal liberty, free markets, non-intervention, and individual responsibility
Moreover, we have other redeeming features.
For instance, we’re actually the last of the great romantics.
Don’t believe me? Well, check out this collection of libertarian valentines.
My two favorites include this one mocking Obamacare.
And I also think the valentine mocking the National Security Agency is in the running to be my favorite.
But they’re all good and worth sharing.
So remember that libertarians are cuddly and loving!
P.S. There’s no policy angle in this postscript, but I feel compelled to offer apublic service announcement for any men in the audience.
If your significant other tells you she doesn’t want you to do anything for Valentine’s Day, don’t believe her.
Sort of reminds me of the famous Dave Barry column about men and women that I linked at the end of this post.
P.P.S. Let’s close with a serious point about public policy.
I’ve mocked the Transportation Security Agency for its empty “security theater.”
And I’ve shared horror stories of utterly pointless harassment of travelers.
But nothing will be more compelling and convincing than this article by a former TSA bureaucrat. Here’s an excerpt, but you really need to read the whole article.
It was a job that had me patting down the crotches of children, the elderly and even infants as part of the post-9/11 airport security show. I confiscated jars of homemade apple butter on the pretense that they could pose threats to national security. I was even required to confiscate nail clippers from airline pilots—the implied logic being that pilots could use the nail clippers to hijack the very planes they were flying. Once, in 2008, I had to confiscate a bottle of alcohol from a group of Marines coming home from Afghanistan. It was celebration champagne intended for one of the men in the group—a young, decorated soldier. He was in a wheelchair, both legs lost to an I.E.D., and it fell to me to tell this kid who would never walk again that his homecoming champagne had to be taken away in the name of national security.
And here’s another example of the TSA in action.
A bureaucrat confiscated a tiny toy gun that was part of a sock monkey’s outfit.
I’m not kidding. Here are some passages from anews report on the incident.
May and her husband were going through the screening process when she noticed that one of her bags was missing. “And the (TSA agent) held it up and said ‘whose is this?’” she said. “I realized oh, my God this is my bag.” May said the TSA agent went through the bag, through the sewing supplies and found the two-inch long pistol. “She said ‘this is a gun,’” said May. “I said no, it’s not a gun it’s a prop for my monkey.” “She said ‘If I held it up to your neck, you wouldn’t know if it was real or not,’ and I said ‘really?’” said May. The TSA agent told May she would have to confiscate the tiny gun and was supposed to call the police. “I said well go ahead,” said May. “And I said really? You’re kidding me right, and she said no it looks like a gun.” “She took my monkey’s gun,” said May, who has retained her sense of humor. “Rooster Monkburn has been disarmed so I’m sure everyone on the plane was safe,” she said.
Let’s end with some humor about the Keystone Cops of airport security. If you want some TSA laughs, see this, this, and this.
Libertarian flaming in five, four, three, two, one, have at it knuckleheads.
Not me. They make more sense than anyone else out there. The major parties are all for some combination of theocrasy, corporatocrasy, and statism. In different proportions, of course.
The knuckleheads must not be awake yet.
The biggest problem with Libertarians is that they are selfish. They do not need anyone telling THEM what to do, so they don’t let ANYBODY be told what to do. In REALITY, most people do need to be told what to do.
Libertarians: stop giving the peasants delusions of self sufficiency. It just gets them misery.
Someone here has a tagline to the effect :
“I’m too libertarian to be a conservative and too conservative to be a libertarian. “
How bout I’m a constitutionalist. (And not the kind that zer0 is a scholar of)
Love it
“Libertarian flaming in five, four, three, two, one, have at it knuckleheads.”
Sorry. Not me. I don’t agree with all the libertarians have to say, particularly on drugs, but there is enough “there” there for me not to engage in silly flamefests.
In REALITY, most people do need to be told what to do.
You’d do quite well in Cuba or Zimbabwe.
People need to learn how to think and how to take care of themselves. After that they need to be left alone to live.
I’m no libertarian but I sure as hell don’t want an autocracy.
“The biggest problem with Libertarians is that they are selfish.”
Really? For every preconceived notion, there are usually lots of exceptions. Here is one that I’ve run across: http://shiresharing.org/welcome/
I think it is cute how little you understand what I said.
Your response was adorably naive.
I think it is cute how little you understand what I said.
Let’s see... “Libertarians: stop giving the peasants delusions of self sufficiency. It just gets them misery.”
How many ways are there to interpret that? Now go away, I’ve no time for grubby little peasants such as you.
It was the urban, the ignorant, and those too lazy to investigate and judge for themselves that want(ed) Big Brother to make sure everything was “safe”.
Much “admired” Teddy Roosevelt and people like him got a war of unjust conquest with Spain over a coal bunker explosion,and soon afterwards,another war this time with Germany when that nation was not attacking the U.S.The U.S. and British governments made a mockery of neutrality by shipping war goods on passenger ships and cried bloody murder when any were sunk.
The Revolutionary War,The War of 1812, World War II, and the Korean War were wars the U.S. of A. HAD to fight;the other wars range from questionable to outright wrong. Half of America's historians ,newspapers, and public figures have made their living praising wrongs and vilifying the few Presidents who actually adhered to the Constitutional limits as “do-nothings”.
“Your response was adorably naive.”
And your initial post was whimsically authoritarian.
“Well the United States of America must have been libertarian until 1908 or thereabouts,because until that time what you ingested was strictly your business and not the governments’.”
Well, it’s not an all or none proposition as too many libertarians tend to view it. I dislike the libertarian view on this stuff as it tends to encapsulate an extremist view with one that has emerged as being relatively moderate. Said another way, marijuana legalization is light years different from the legalization of PCP and heroin, yet the prevailing libertarian view is that ALL should be legal and freely available.
Sorry. I’m not getting on that road to perdition. I can’t say that I much care if marijuana is legalized. Frankly, if potheads want to self-lobotomize, that’s their prerogative. I don’t see the state having much of a legitimate interest in that. I have much more of a problem with drugs such as heroin where the price tag for imbibing might be a one way trip to the morgue.
I don’t see the state having much of a legitimate interest in that. I have much more of a problem with drugs such as heroin where the price tag for imbibing might be a one way trip to the morgue.
A lot of politicians would love to regulate and tax marijuana.
Their love of taxation and regulation is the reason why its legal in WA and CO. I believe however that most of the addicts will come to grow their own in some fashion which will drive down the price and force the politicos to be a little more circumspect.
Same deal with cigs. More folks are getting sick of the high taxes and growing their own tobacco. I’d argue its safer as well as they’ll know what’s in it.
I wonder if that’s why the liberals have been going after backyard gardeners...
Evidently not, abortion, porn, gay marriage, gays in the military, we were actually a very strict and conservative society.
Libertarianism didn't get going until the 1960s.
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