its funny that you should mention this. i was going over my lj this morning and found a post earlier that got me thinking. it was from when those college students stood up with the sign about ben franklins quote, "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security. " its been on my mind all day.
That is a cool story, and I find myself in the same boat. I would not describe myself as a left liberal, but neither would I describe myself as a libertarian. I would join you in defense of the Bill of Rights. It's been very interesting these past few years to watch the realignment of strange bedfellows.
And, ultimately, any time the Libertarians wind up sleeping with someone it's bound to be strange.
Defining political positions in terms of opposition seems bound for failure. I find it amazing that people still talk in terms of "left" and "right" as though there is a single dimension of political thought, especially considering the origins of the usage.
I think there may, however, be a set of freedoms that would define adherents as "sane" with the obvious oppostition label. This doesn't attempt to label whole poltical philosophies, but rather at least allow us to come to agreement that, as in your example, internal checkpoints are a hallmark of insanity. Paranoia, megalomania, whatever. The specific insanities aren't really the point.
I recently stuck my prying eyes into the Oregonian voter database (that thing that tells you that Art Alexakis, the entire Portland Trail Blazers team, and various other local celebrities didn't vote) and was puzzled to see it has me listed as a registered Democrat, even though I voted Libertarian in 2004 and haven't voted Democrat since 1992. Weird, man.
I hit a similar checkpoint coming in to CA from NM once. I was pretty freaked out, because we had one of those dumb one hitter/dugout combinations in the car. But all they wanted was a look in the cooler to see if we had any fruit and to make sure there were no brown people curled up in the trunk.
Most thorough search I ever had was going into Canada south of Montreal. You could tell Canadian Customs were bored. So they tore the car apart and even had a dog sniff it. No drugs that day, luckily. Not even a banana or a day laborer.
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And, ultimately, any time the Libertarians wind up sleeping with someone it's bound to be strange.
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I think there may, however, be a set of freedoms that would define adherents as "sane" with the obvious oppostition label. This doesn't attempt to label whole poltical philosophies, but rather at least allow us to come to agreement that, as in your example, internal checkpoints are a hallmark of insanity. Paranoia, megalomania, whatever. The specific insanities aren't really the point.
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Most thorough search I ever had was going into Canada south of Montreal. You could tell Canadian Customs were bored. So they tore the car apart and even had a dog sniff it. No drugs that day, luckily. Not even a banana or a day laborer.
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