OK, this prompted me to write a tome.
I am a life member of both the Libertarian Party and (gasp) the NRA.
I consider myself a classic liberal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_liberalismI hang out here because I would rather hang with you guys than pugs, it’s the same with all my close friends and relatives. I have no pug friends. All my friends are either libertarians or Dems. The fact that pugs have zero sense of humor is a huge reason. Humor is a huge part of my life. I don’t just laugh once every day, I prolly laugh at least once every hour. And pugs are just so sour. (rhyme intentional)
I think the war in Afghan was just, and the war in Iraq was wrong, though not completly unjust. They were under a cease fire and had violated 12 years of UN resolutions. But it was a mistake, geopolitically. For what? To create two Irans? That’s a super fucking fantastic idea. (sarcasm)
OK, we broke it. Let’s hope we can fix it.
As far as my NRA thing goes, I go shooting with my Dem friends all the time and some of them even go hunting while I stay at home. I find hunting distasteful in the same way I find pumping my septic tank distasteful. I have no problem with those who enjoy it. It’s meat on my table. I hire both tasks out. I prefer to take just take pictures on my vacations.
I also happen to believe that a personal sidearm is the single most effective form of self defense, for the same reason cops do. My life, and those of my loved ones, are the single most dearest thing I treasure.
So I refuse to engage in barbaric fisticuffs with someone who is trying to harm me and possibly end my life or one of my own, intentionally or not.
I am a big guy, 6-1, 220 (green eyes, wavy blond hair, and single, for the bear-loving fem DUers out there, lol) but I find no reason to engage in a sporting event (e.g. boxing, wrestling) just because someone gets in my grill. If I was a dog, I would be Labdrador, temperment wise.
Here is my cardinal rule: if you carry a gun, always carry pepper spray. It’s for the same reason cops do. It allows you to modulate your response. When you carry a gun, you can’t afford engage in fisticuffs or wraslin’ matches, because you could lose control of your weapon, which is a serious sin.
If someone is seriously out of control and posing a physical and/or lethal threat, give him a faceful of pepper. It might not be macho, but at least saves medical bills, on both sides. BTW, I am currently recovering from a broken finger from simply falling down on a freaken sidewalk, couple of weeks ago at a Rose Bowl party. Any fem Duer wanna kiss it and make it better?
Most times when hand meets skull it results injury to hand. I prefer to take fight to the ground as soon as possible. I wrestled in high school so I have some skill. I learned the basic martial arts skills, arm bars, chokes, finger holds, etc.
I can usually talk myself out the ocassional confrontation and fortunately, knock on wood, have never had to resort to lethal force. Two of my closest friends however, have been forced to defend themseves with firearms. One was assaulted in the street by a man with knife and the other by being woken in the middle of the night by a man forcing his way through his front door with a crowbar. Neither ended ended in death or even injury but both incidents were resolved with firearms. Most importantly, lives were saved on both sides.
Fighting is just so fucking ridiculous. It’s like, “you looked at my girl, let’s play chess!” Or how about a game of Ping Ping? No, you want to fight me or harm me and my own, it’s no holds barred.
Anyways, back to us Dem/libertarians…
Platform: Legalize freedom. ‘Nuf said.
That’s pretty much it.
Legalize dope, prostition, gambling, etc. Just like Canada. Criminalizing consensual activities makes no sense to me, nor Canadians.
Please take a look at this and google “peter mcwilliams.”
http://www.mcwilliams.com/books/books/aint/toc.htmA brilliant man who happened to be gay, who got totally fisted by our government. This is the man who turned me on to libertarianism. He’s dead now, because our government killed him.
Back to politics. You have all seen and prolly taken the Nolan Diagram. DUers always score strong on the personal liberty scale, but tend to fall short on the economic liberty side.
I will allow some ground on that side of the debate because I don’t want to see this great country devolve into some sort of kingship. But I also think that we are hella long way from that. Yeah, give me the top ten percent of this country own this percent of that argument and I will throw back that this top percent of tax payers pay this amount of taxes. Like I said, I give a of latitude for that argument.
I believe that there has never been a more country that is more receptive of the upworldly mobile than this country. I believe that we are closer to meritocracy than any other form of government. Feel free to diagree.
And one more thing, If we are gonna have an income tax, can we please simplify to something that even the IRS can understand?. You can call the IRS 1-800 number for help and they can't even answer the question. And yet you are still on the hook for penalties even if they give you the wrong answer.
If we’re gonna have an income tax, let’s reduce the filing to something the size of a postcard.
I have no problem with replacing it with a national sales tax, though I understand and appreciate the burden on poor folk. We can figure out a way around that. Yet a NST would be a sneaky way to tax the black market, which is a tremendous untaxed portion of our economy. Twenty percent, I’ve read.
Oh, and by the way, FUCK illegal wiretapping.
Oh Bajesus Freaking Christ. Did our CIC just argue against FISA because it’s old.
Beam me up, Scotty….
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