Archive for March, 2009

Here is something I don’t get. A lot of conservatives have very strong feelings about illegal aliens. Border protection is one of those major sectors of conservative thinking that I generally disagree with as a libertarian. I get some aspects of the argument, but some of it seems a little hypocritical to me, and some of it just seems too emotional rather than rational, which means I am not going to go for it. Even some very outspoken persons who are vocally leaving the Republican party and, at least to some extent, voicing support for the Libertarian party, or at least for being libertarian, still are hanging on to some strong opinions on border security, including a border wall.

Now granted, there were some of the more honest voices protesting the cost and dangerous levels of power granted by congress when the border wall idea was passed. Congress not only approved a border wall, they suspended legal restrictions so that it could be built, and approved a massive budget for the wall. Suspension of laws for a government project is a dangerous thing, laws are for governments too. So there was a little outcry about that, but the approval of the wall was applauded.
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Which is why I will just link to it. This was a peice just done on my other blog home on the freedom stripping that our government has been doing and is now doing at an accellerated rate.

I know it is just symbolic at this point, but it is a point of gathering and communicating. People are tired of being taxed to death. And enough people realize that you can’t just keep spending money and say taxes will stay the same. Someone will be paying for it. History says it will be us, no matter what the government is claiming. So it is time to protest. Then it will be time to do even more.

For now, join me at a tea party near you on April 15th. I will be at the one in Richmond, VA. See site for details.

On to part 2 of the military discussion. Again, we start with the ideal.

The libertarian ideal is a military that is all voluntary, defensive only, and operates at minimum cost. Privatization and contracting and other competitive methods to keep prices low and efficiency up are to be employed. Military intelligence is to be kept in check so that the rights of people, especially citizens, are not infringed on.

In our current political climate, it may not be too hard to cut some fat in the military. The main stream media is not particularly pro-military, so cuts in areas that are inefficient are not a hard sell. Certain contracting and privatization might be difficult, and indeed it would be something that, even in the libertarian ideal, should be approached with caution. Read the rest of this entry »

This is another installment of the “How not to be a crazy extremist” discussion that I want libertarians to read. This time, I am doing a two part segment on the military. It is a big subject, so I wanted to break it up in the interest of keeping my posts under 437,895 words. There will be a part 2a and 2b for starters, I may add more if I find a section of this subject that is poorly covered.

So, let’s look at the deployment aspect of the military. The overseas portion. The libertarian ideal ranges from defensive action only, to defense of ourselves and our allies. The first involves no troops on foreign soil whatsoever, unless it is either voluntary or is a portion of a campaign from a direct invader to stop the invasion on our soil. Read the rest of this entry »