SwampGrouch wrote:

ErikO wrote:Libertarianism is fine as long as the economic part only supports deregulation between persons and does not include things that only exist as legal entities.

I wear a small "l" on my libertarianism since I never was a Republican to start with.

"Libertarian" n. A conservative who wants to smoke pot legally.

((ducking))

Nah, that'd be a emember of the Guns and Dope Party. R A Wilson was a very interesting fellow, wish I got to meet him.

I take the concept of 'laissez faire' that is so embraced by the Libertarians and tweek it a lot. I do not feel that I nor anyone else have any right to limit the rights of anyone else; individuals' choices limit their own freedoms and rights. Likewise, if something is good enough for me then I see no reason why my neighbor should not have access to the same things unless they don't want it.

That all comes to a screeching halt once legally held social contracts come on the scene. Sole proprietorship is the one thing that I feel should be relatively unregulated due to the inhearant risks to the owner's personal fortune. That alone would ahve them make sound choices as their own necks are on the line. Corporations are largely bullshit and should expire every three years with a one-year cool off. Risk is healthy, it forces the amoral non-person to respect the breathing individuals under its protection.

Non-profit entities are very different and I think they should enjoy the same protectionism that the AIG's and JP Morgans get now. I'd consider United Way too big to fail but if a bank makes stupid bets with their investors' money, they should win stupid prizes.

Progurt wrote:There's a difference between the more recent Grover Norquist version of "Libertarians" and the historical and traditional meaning of the word.

Etymology of the word libertarian

The word stems from the French word libertaire. The use of the word "libertarian" to describe a set of political positions can be tracked to the French cognate, libertaire, which was coined in 1857 by French anarchist Joseph Déjacque who used the term to distinguish his libertarian communist approach from the mutualism advocated by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon.[37] Hence libertarian has been used by some as a synonym for left anarchism since the 1890s.[38] The term libertarianism is commonly considered to be a synonym of anarchism in countries other than the US.[13]

Personally I'm more of a mutualist anarchist than an individualist anarchist.

Norquist is an Athoritarian wearing sheep's clothing. He's personally done as much damage to our political landscape as Lee Atwater did before his conscience litterally killed him.