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.

Comment Rescue (?) and child-related gun violence in Delaware

In my post about the idiotic over-reaction to a New Jersey 10-year-old posing with his new squirrel rifle , Dana Garrett left me this response: One waits, apparently in vain, for you to post the annual rates of children who either shoot themselves or someone else with a gun. But then you Libertarians are notoriously ambivalent to and silent about data and facts and would rather talk abstract principles and fear monger (like the government will confiscate your guns). It doesn't require any degree of subtlety to see why you are data and fact adverse. The facts indicate we have a crisis with gun violence and accidents in the USA, and Libertarians offer nothing credible to address it. Lives, even the lives of children, get sacrificed to the fetishism of liberty. That's intellectual cowardice. OK, Dana, let's talk facts. According to the Children's Defense Fund , which is itself only querying the CDCP data base, fewer than 10 children/teens were killed per year in Delaw

The Obligatory Libertarian Tax Day Post

The most disturbing factoid that I learned on Tax Day was that the average American must now spend a full twenty-four hours filling out tax forms. That's three work days. Or, think of it this way: if you had to put in two hours per night after dinner to finish your taxes, that's two weeks (with Sundays off). I saw a talking head economics professor on some Philly TV channel pontificating about how Americans procrastinate. He was laughing. The IRS guy they interviewed actually said, "Tick, tick, tick." You have to wonder if Governor Ruth Ann Minner and her cohorts put in twenty-four hours pondering whether or not to give Kraft Foods $708,000 of our State taxes while demanding that school districts return $8-10 million each?

New Warfare: I started my posts with a discussion.....

.....on Unrestricted warfare . The US Air force Institute for National Security Studies have developed a reasonable systems approach to deter non-state violent actors who they label as NSVA's. It is an exceptionally important report if we want to deter violent extremism and other potential violent actors that could threaten this nation and its security. It is THE report our political officials should be listening to to shape policy so that we do not become excessive in using force against those who do not agree with policy and dispute it with reason and normal non-violent civil disobedience. This report, should be carefully read by everyone really concerned with protecting civil liberties while deterring violent terrorism and I recommend if you are a professional you send your recommendations via e-mail at the link above so that either 1.) additional safeguards to civil liberties are included, or 2.) additional viable strategies can be used. Finally, one can only hope that politici

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