Free Libertarian

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Free Libertarian

I have always found Libertarian philosophy quite interesting. Now I don't mean the ridiculous Lyndon LaRouche crap that has been pushed for many years, but actual philosophical Libertarianism.

You see, Libertarianism seems, to me at least, as a bit of a contradiction. Its principle arguments seem to be the individual as the determining factor in society- all rights, freedoms, and priviledges should be considered as they apply to the individual. Yet the individual exists as a member of a society, which, by definition, is a collective.

Therefore, Libertarianism has innate contradictions. The rights/desires/intentions of the individual are supreme, yet they must be delineated within the bounds of a group collective. It seems a house of cards- the greater the demands on society that the independent individuals assert, the weaker the societial capacity to assure them of those demands.

Oh well, maybe Pen Jillette will pull a magic trick to get it all to work.

Crazy Immigrants!

So today was the day of the big national demonstrations in support of Immirants. I don't actually understand what they're protesting for- fairness of immigration laws? Aren't they already here?


Don't we already let them have jobs cleaning our toilets, collecting our garbage, watching our kids? All at wages, that, while admittedly are well below anything any of us would actually work for, are better than they could get in their native countries? Okay, so they live here and have to support themselves while often trying to support family members in their home countries-what's that to me?

They act like we own them something. No, actually, they act like this country was built on the back-breaking labor of immigrants before them.

They should know better- this country was built on the back-breaking labor of genocide and discrimination. Now that IS hard work, and God knows our government is working REALLY HARD!

More of those Ubiquitous Exogenic Inanities

I'm in the process of building another longish post, this time on my favorite subject, Neandertals, but Blogger is having trouble uploading my pictures. So, that being the case, I figured I fire off another short observation on other peoples wackiness (I only need photos for my inanities!).

This morning, I'm sitting in on a lecture for the class I assist teaching on (TA), and its your typical, early Monday morning, everyone is barely keeping their heads out of their laps, kind of lecture. Suddenly there is this loud blaring from the hall which is almost drowning out the poor professor (she's a sweet English woman with a relatively soft voice), so I slip out to check on the racket.

A small group of your typical neo-Hippie-wannabes are out there screaming through a megaphone about a protest for immigration rights later in the day. Now I'm actually very liberal in my political philosophies and am highly sympathetic to their agenda, but I asked them, politely at first, to consider that the students they were trying to gain the attention of were actually straining to ignore them to hear the prof (final exams next week and all). So I asked them to come back later near the end of the lecture to advocate their position. One of the little knuckleheads starts screaming through the megaphone toward the open class door (we were, afterall, the only class in session on the whole floor). So after I calmly removed said megaphone from said knucklehead's mouth he demanded to know why the truth must always be put down with violence! When I informed him, through gritted teeth, that what I had done SO FAR was NOT violence, he and the others seemed to get the point (my Bootcamp Company Commander would have cracked him over the head with the megaphone to stress his point!), they finally left vowing to come back later (still haven't seen 'em).

Anyway, my point to this pointlessness is I find these neo-Hippie-wannabes quite absurd! They were all dressed liked they were homeless, but the kid with the mouthpiece was wearing Birkenstocks for Gods sake! Not to mention his Hemp sweatshirt and expensive designer "Hippie" pants. I swear his sandles alone cost more then everything I am currently wearing-combined!

All of this "Organic," ""Sweatshop-free," "Fair-trade," etc, crap is inane to me. Don't get me wrong, I agree with all the sympathies, but these things are LUXURIES in our society. Did the kid collect cans to save up for his $100 sandles? No, Daddy bought them on his VISA and probably paid for them with his profits from his Oil company stocks! Because the kid's got (relatively) wealthy parents he can afford to meander through life and continue going to school while protesting for poor immigrants that are working 12 hour days. And the kid is probably doing it wearing an iPod and sipping an expensive "Free-trade" latte!

My point is that there are plenty of hard working activists that sacrifice to help people (one of my best students has sacraficed for years working in non-profit, yet she was in class, not screaming through a megaphone), but these neoHippie-knuckleheads just don't get it. That's because they are just doing it for fun until they grow up.

I expect to be audited some day when my knucklehead from today finally returns in his job as an accountant for the IRS.

Figures.