>JP, this is the weirdest thing I ever heard of. First, in rel. to your
>first paragraph, I've never known anyone from the left to be interested
>in censoring - no I don't think "the left" does this. What does this have
>to do with the bumper sticker, by the way? Do you identify Libertarians
>with the left? Confused.
>
(1) IMHO the left is, just as keen, on a certain set of language and ideas
as the right.
(1b) Also, (purely IMHO of course) the Left uses institutions and
bottlenecks as gleefully as the Right to (try to) impose _their_ particular
set of language and ideas
(2) "What does this have to do with Libertarians?" you ask. .. IMHO the
Libertarian Party here in the US generally is the most opposed to, and
least interested in, imposing any particular set of language and ideas on
anyone
[Aside / Footnote -- I am uninterested in arcane discussions on the "
[gasp] REAL " meaning of "Libertarian". Libertarian = the LP in the
states. This is no more mysterious or controversial than using the word
Democrat to mean the same ideas/party that Bill & Hillary are members of.
Saying 'Democrat' (the ordinary common usage) to mean that particular party
and those particular sort of ideals does not ameliorate any "real"
historical meaning of the word "democrat" - same deal with 'Libertarian'.
I know a couple of people here are touchy about this <; ]
(3) You may or may not know that the 55 mph Federal speed limit was
abolished by congress recently. IMHO this is a quite 'Libertarian' act.
(4) So the 55mph speed limit was abolished. Similarly (I hope) the IRS,
Welfare, 'Censorship' should all be abolished/minimized/go-away.
>Today THE REFRIGERATOR, tomorrow STREET SWEEPING, and THE NEXT DAY....
>APRICOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(4b) Alan, I appreciated the laugh but each of these items -
eliminate 55 mph speed limit
eliminate IRS
eliminate welfare
eliminate censorship
are (obviously) campaign promises of the L.P. and are indeed (pretty
obvious) Libertarian notions.
Seems pretty straightforward.
BUT ...
thanks for caring !
- JP
>Finally, the "natural progression" of your last paragraph is just plain
>weird. The speed limit's been raised, doesn't even exist in parts of
>Montana - does that mean they're against censorship?
>
>Today THE REFRIGERATOR, tomorrow STREET SWEEPING, and THE NEXT DAY....
>APRICOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
>Alan
>
>On Wed, 13 Dec 1995, JP May wrote:
>
>> > But you'll notice that when the Right wants certain ideas
>> >to disappear, they don't try to get people to come around and remove the
>> >books from your bookshelf. They go after the bottlenecks: they get the
>> >ideas out of the local public libraries, the school libraries, and the
>> >classrooms.
>>
>> A HA HA ... you don't think 'the Left' does this ? Like the bumper sticker
>> on my truck ses .. Vote Libertarian Now.
>>
>> Today 55 mph, tomorrow the IRS, the next day welfare, the next day
>> censorship .. life could be good.
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>
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