Oh shit! Apparently, I'm not really a Libertarian after all....

... at least to Mother Jones.

Josh Harkinson has an interesting article on the Ron Paul phenomenon, Pauls' Apostles in the latest issue. It's an interesting read.

What captured my attention was the inset (unfortunately NOT duplicated in the on-line version) designed to bring the uninitiated up to speed on the varieties of Libertarian Theology:

Libertarianism might be a simple ideology, an aversion to big government in all its forms, but don't tell that to Libertarians....

Anarcho-Capitalists: The most radical of the lot, they want to abolish government entirely (though, unlike regular anarchists, the do support private property rights)....

Minarchists: Archrivals to the anarcho-capitalists, they support a minimalist view of government: Let the state handle roads, policing, and defense--but nothing more....

Cosmopolitan Libertarians: Term used by the minarchist editors of Reason to describe their embrace of world citizenship and deride rivals as hayseeds.

Economic Libertarians: Worship free-market absolutists like Milton Friedman.

Hippie Libertarians: Worship freedom-loving freaks like Larry Flynt.

Religious Libertarians: Worship deities of their choosing, care about politics primarily as it affects religious freedom....

Gold Bugs: Advocate a return to the gold standard, or some equivalent, as a way to diminish the fiscal powers of the state....

Objectivists: Followers of the philosopher Ayn Rand who love morality tales, hate anarchy, and endorse a scorched-earth foreign policy....

Neolibertarians: Libertarian neo-cons; big supporters of the Iraqi War.

Paleolibertarians: Old-schoolers who despise the neolibertarians for selling out to the system. Also think atheism is overrated.

Technolibertarians: Extropians, transhumanists, sci-fi fans, they strive to transcend humanity's meat-puppet limitations and take self-determination to the final frontier.

South Park Conservatives: Find their politics articulated in a show created by two avowed libertarians; a seminal episode follows a race for school mascot between a giant douche and a turd sandwich. Which, says Reason's Gillespie, "pretty much sums up who most libertarians approach politics."

Paultards: Blogosphere dis for those who annoy the online masses by relentlessly shilling for their man....

Problem: I don't appear to be in there. Nor do any other Pragmatic Libertarians like futurist and science fiction author David Brin, who is also a member of the Libertarian Reform Caucus.

Maybe that's why so many people in the Delaware blogosphere had a problem with me when I started this blog.

Mom always told me I was weird.

Moral of the story: most of the time, when people provide you with long lists of definitions for groups they don't belong to, you really shouldn't accept it as definitive.

A Libertarian Martin Luther King Jr. Day post

In which we travel into interesting waters . . . (for a fairly long trip, so be prepared) Dr. King's 1968 book, Where do we go from here: chaos or community? , is profound in that it criticizes anti-poverty programs for their piecemeal approach, as John Schlosberg of the Center for a Stateless Society [C4SS] observes: King noted that the antipoverty programs of the time “proceeded from a premise that poverty is a consequence of multiple evils,” with separate programs each dedicated to individual issues such as education and housing. Though in his view “none of these remedies in itself is unsound,” they “all have a fatal disadvantage” of being “piecemeal,” with their implementation having “fluctuated at the whims of legislative bodies” or been “entangled in bureaucratic stalling.” The result is that “fragmentary and spasmodic reforms have failed to reach down to the profoundest needs of the poor.” Such single-issue approaches also have “another common failing — ...

A reply to Salon's R. J. Eskrow, and his 11 stupid questions about Libertarians

Posts here have been in short supply as I have been living life and trying to get a campaign off the ground. But "11 questions to see if Libertarians are hypocrites" by R. J. Eskrow, picked up at Salon , was just so freaking lame that I spent half an hour answering them. In the end (but I'll leave it to your judgment), it is not that Libertarians or Libertarian theory looks hypocritical, but that the best that can be said for Mr. Eskrow is that he doesn't have the faintest clue what he's talking about. That's ok, because even ill-informed attacks by people like this make an important point: Libertarian ideas (as opposed to Conservative ideas, which are completely different) are making a comeback as the dynamic counterpoint to "politics as usual," and so every hack you can imagine must be dragged out to refute them. Ergo: Mr. Eskrow's 11 questions, with answers: 1. Are unions, political parties, elections, and ...

More of This, Please

Or perhaps I should say, "Less of this one, please." Or how about just, "None of them. Ever again. Please....For the Love of God." Sunshine State Poll: Grayson In Trouble The latest Sunshine State/VSS poll shows controversial Democratic incumbent Alan Grayson trailing former state Senator Dan Webster by seven points, 43 percent to 36 percent. A majority of respondents -- 51 percent -- disapprove of the job that Grayson is doing. Independents have an unfavorable view of him as well, by a 36/47 margin. Grayson has ignored the conventional wisdom that a freshman should be a quiet member who carefully tends to the home fires. The latest controversy involves his " Taliban Dan " advertisement, where he explicitly compares his opponent to the Taliban, and shows a clip of Webster paraphrasing Ephesians 5:22 -- "wives, submit to your husbands." An unedited version of the clip shows that Webster was actually suggesting that husba...

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