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Post by kungfuzu on Jul 24, 2023 9:11:32 GMT -8
I was just going to respond to Artler with, "Nice try, but no cigar."  I still like one definition of a libertarian that I heard a month-or-so ago. "A libertarian is a libertine who wants tax cuts." |
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Post by artraveler on Jul 24, 2023 9:44:27 GMT -8
Well, any butt is better than no butt, but that one is spectacular. I personally don't hold with a lot of the Libertarian Party positions. I am kind of like Marx, Gracho not Karl. I don't want to join any group that wants me as a member. Butt, that said I do think there is a solid stream of classic libertarianism in Jesus as related in the four gospels. A matter of point of view, rather than just theology. |
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jul 25, 2023 7:34:06 GMT -8
I think the people who hold the positions that I agree with are mostly dead and buried. Long may Dennis Prager grace the earth with his wisdom. But beyond him, the field thins out quite a bit.
Whatever you call it, I consider a strong and reflexive predilection to "leave me the hell alone" individual liberty is a good and necessary thing. I think the problem comes as soon as you attach the Libertarian label to it because there's just so much baggage that goes with it in the real world. Those who are "Libertarians," to my mind, are part of the problem, just as much as RINOs are part of the problem. It's great to have all those high-minded words in the Republican Platform, for instance. But do they live by them? Rarely.
And I think you can't have an "industrious and frugal" people, to quote Franklin if they are:
A) Addicted to Crack Big Government or
B) Addicted to Crack Grievance or
C) Addicted to crack (or various drugs) itself.
A Libertarian who is for "individual liberty" and who supports legalized pot, for instance, is little different from the Republican who says he holds the Constitution in reverence but continues to fund the Department of Education. There is little that is "sober and temperate" in that.
I like Rand Paul. But not because he's a Libertarian but because he's one of the few to say "no" to Crack Big Government. Will I abide a little excess if the doctrine is generally pushing in the right direction? Yes. But it will take a reform of the Libertarian Party greater than or equal to the reform of the Republican Party before that formula comes into play.
As it is, we are just ranting on the sidelines while the world is moved mostly by ignoble forces. And if people did no more than follow the teachings of Jesus and/or obey the Ten Commandments, society would instantly be transformed into a much better place. But we do not live in a time when self-restraint is at all respected or considered a worthy goal. So we live instead with various means of wishing it was otherwise through ideas and methods that tend to do little other than dig the hole deeper.
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Post by kungfuzu on Jul 29, 2023 14:39:01 GMT -8
Still growing and it has not yet been released internationally. $140 million |
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Post by artraveler on Jul 29, 2023 17:44:06 GMT -8
wife and I plan to see the movie next week. I have mixed emotions. As one of the, I believe, more stable minded among our social group. Believe me, we share some friends whose eyes spin in opposite directions on both sides of the political spectrum. Is it not interesting that politics is almost always portrayed as linear. However, if you really observe it there is very little right and left. Consider politics as not a straight line but circular or perhaps an oval and 3 dimensional like an egg.
At the very top of the oval rests the radicals of both left and right and moving down from the sides are the various political parties and groups who mingle at the bottom 1/3 of the oval. Thus, we have a small minority occupying the least territory of the oval, but having influence on the entire system.
No doubt, Mr. Flu's pamphlet was bought and paid for by our political foes.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,271
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jul 30, 2023 7:30:25 GMT -8
I believe it goes something like this: Human nature is inherently selfish, self-centered, vulgar, ignoble, dishonest, and crass. Most of the "morals" we put on are simply a means by which we can at least psychologically polish this turd and believe otherwise. And because others are doing this too, what is "moral" is usually a product of groupthink (that is, it's relative, not objective). No one is as virtuous as they think they are and most have no idea how rank they are.
True morals are about exposing this little fraud we commit on ourselves and others….the root of humility, gratitude, patience, and all the biblical virtues.
Thus "right and left" can become like a combination lock that uses about eight numbers. Maybe three of our conceits align here. Turn the dial and we lose a couple, but maybe we line up these three other virtue-tumblers over there (the alignment depending whether we are at a cocktail party, at the office, or with close friends). Or some particularly smooth demagogue can make four of five of them line up either "left" or "right."
The extremely virtuous ones in the "middle," of course, know they are extra virtuous because they are beyond such crass things as "left" or "right." Rush Limbaugh did as good a job as anyone poking holes in this conceit.
So I believe in "God," "guns," and the "Constitution." Click, click, click. I'm a conservative even while I ignore the mental sleight-of-hand that I vote for and support socialist programs, spend money at "woke" businesses when there are alternatives, accept the premises of feminism, accept the premises of black-grievance, etc. What tumbler did "conservatives" click at when they went along with the mask mandates and all that?
On the other side (and I know some very well), you have those who teach quite conservative ethics (don't mooch, get a job, don't cheat on your wife) but who regularly vote for the Party of Satan. But they are "liberal." Click, click, click, click, click, those tumblers override (or at least undermine) their personal ethics.
There is right and there is left. Perhaps the only thing we can say for sure is that the true believers on either extreme (who may be virtuous or not) are probably the most honest about what they stand for. The rest of us are bullshit artists who can't be bothered with any sort of truth or virtue that gets in the way of our pleasing conceits.
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Post by kungfuzu on Aug 16, 2023 15:37:30 GMT -8
Sound of Freedom just keeps on going. To be released internationally end of this week. $173 million |
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Post by kungfuzu on Sept 9, 2023 8:33:31 GMT -8
Although one does not hear much about the film now, it is having great success around the world. Worldwide revenues are now higher than those in the USA. The last line of the piece gives the numbers. Smash hit |
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