Topic: Liberty

…And the lack thereof.

Posted onOpinionated Junk

Toward a new right

by 21 Comments on Toward a new right

From time to time I am remind­ed of the com­plete and utter inad­e­qua­cy of the terms «left» and «right» as they per­tain to the realm of polit­i­cal beliefs. Even the Lib­er­tar­i­an Par­ty’s two-axis Nolan Chart is only a small step in the right direc­tion. This kind cat­e­go­riza­tion over­sim­pli­fies opin­ion about the role of gov­ern­ment in a dan­ger­ous way that pre­vents both lib­er­ty and progress.

Recent­ly I had cof­fee with Jason McClain and had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to engage in a brief … Read the rest

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Posted onOpinionated Junk

Happy Birthday to the Rail Splitter!

by Leave a comment on Happy Birthday to the Rail Splitter!

There are more anniver­saries today than I orig­i­nal­ly real­ized. Thanks to @spacehobo for remind­ing me. Although we offi­cial­ly cel­e­brate «Pres­i­den­t’s Day» on this com­ing Mon­day, once upon a time cal­en­dars cel­e­brat­ed Wash­ing­ton’s and Lin­col­n’s birth­days sep­a­rate­ly and on the cor­rect days. Today, quite aus­pi­cious­ly, is the 200th anniver­sary of Abra­ham Lin­col­n’s birth.

This means it’s also the 100th anniver­sary of the Lin­coln Cent, which was designed and placed into cir­cu­la­tion to hon­or Lin­col­n’s 100th birth­day. I have a … Read the rest

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Posted onBlahg

God Bless These United States

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It’s a glad day for me. For the first time in my life a man I vot­ed for has tak­en the office of Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States. Amer­i­ca has shown a will­ing­ness to tran­scend the prej­u­dice that has poi­soned so many chap­ters of our his­to­ry. I keep on think­ing about how it was less than fifty years ago that peo­ple were skep­ti­cal­ly whis­per­ing, «do you think that Amer­i­ca is ready to elect a Catholic Pres­i­dent?» Today proves not that … Read the rest

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Posted onBlahg

Republicratarian

by 6 Comments on Republicratarian

thanks to Paul Kienitz for this poll.…

I am:
-1%
Repub­li­can.

“You’re a damn Com­mie!  Where’s Tail­gun­ner Joe when we need him?” 

Are You A Republican?

I wish I knew what it means. Am I a ‑1 Repub­li­can on a score of 1 to 10? or ‑1 to +1? Or ‑10 to +10? I was kind of guess­ing that I was more like sqrt(-1) Repub­li­can, but, well, whatever.

EDIT: … Read the rest

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Posted onOpinionated Junk

On your knees for this proposition

by Leave a comment on On your knees for this proposition

Cal­i­for­nia can be a pret­ty wacky place some­times. It’s a pret­ty heav­i­ly polar­ized state polit­i­cal­ly, gar­ner­ing it a rep­u­ta­tion (depend­ing on who you ask) of extreme con­ser­vatism and of rad­i­cal lib­er­al­ism. It’s part of what makes it inter­est­ing to live here, and excit­ing to be a part of the vot­ing constituency.

I received in the mail today my vot­er pam­phlet. There’s a pri­ma­ry elec­tion com­ing up, and there are over a dozen propo­si­tions for us to vote on. Some of … Read the rest

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