I've been down this path many times before with a number of the same individuals, and they are never going to ease up on the lobbing insults (albeit often elegantly worded ones) at libertarians and mischaracterizations of what it is that most of us believe, and our motives for believing it.

Me too. Some here were not yet born when I got insulted the first time via computer! Hell, I married my wife 33 years ago to hand out insults to me when needed. And she is still at it! ;-)

That all said, I glean that you are a defender of Lew Rockwell. So please answer me this: how in the name of holy reason can Lew host all those articles by Gary North? North is about as much a libertarian as Stalin was. He literally is a fascist, of the "clerical fascist" species. A total Christian Reconstructionist, who, if he had his way, would see the author of this blog stoned to death as per Leviticus.

So why does Lew associate with North at all?

As for the abomination that is the war on (people who use some) drugs, Glenn opposes that. Moreover, he has written critically of the prescription drug system, which is part of the apparatus upholding the statist and evil drug "war."

Hey, I like Glenn G's writing. It almost excuses lawyers. :-)

I can not speak for Lew Rockwell. I like the people (most, not all) he lets post there.

I read the RRR and that means Rothbard up till they moved to the net and of course Rothbard died in 95. Lew has let a lot of folks post on lewrockwell.com; like Glenn for example. That is an editorial endorsement of some kind to the post in question, but I do not know to what extent. For example, most of Paul Craig Roberts stuff that makes it there is the stuff on how bad the Republicans are on liberty and law --- his economic ideas are often seen at CounterPunch, a hard left site I like.

I have never seen any religious stuff by North. Can you point some out? I myself do not subscribe to a literalistic interpretation of any of the spiritual myths. For most of the last 2,000 the people who believe what I do where burned as heretics. (see Catharism for example)

I do know he is a grumpy old man, a gold bug, an economic historian with a PHD, and he sells gold I think. But, you seem to know more about him than I; if you feel strongly write Lew and tell him. I have written about 3 times over the years and he responded then.

(note: yes, I am aware that being open here invites insult and attack --- but hey, if that is all they got why not let them get a chuckle or two)

LaL: : ... El Cid, I'm afraid you've run the very serious risk, with this post, of confusing with historical facts some violently prejudiced people in this forum, who may not know what their being a "liberal" or a "conservative" actually *means*, but who know that the *word* liberal makes them feel better than *other* words they have heard, but don't actually know the meanings of, either. ...

The whole post was the funnest damn thing I have read in ages. My hat is off to you!

(oh, hell I'll have to go buy a hat ...)

b1: "...The absence of government is not the absence of societal organization. Most libertarians believe that societal organization arises automatically. ..."

Oddly enough, the societal organization that arises automatically IS government. Environmentalists often make the same mistake. They assume that there is some "natural" state that would be acheived if it weren't for all the meddling of humans. Trouble is, we humans are no more or less a part of nature than any other element and that includes such things as the Federal Reserve Bank or the Gulag ot the Grand Canyon.

That depends on how you define that slippery word "government". However, I could have said "nation-state" to the fellow and been a tad more pedantic. It took outside intervention to disrupt the stable anarchy of Iceland. It is too bad we humans spend so much time in a "us/other" fog of hate --- only the gods know what we would have accomplished.

... My next door neighbor even went so far as to build a shelter, install a hand-pump well and carved out a portion of his yard to grow food. ...

Sad, that is.

It is hard for me to believe that people are so easily frightened. It was hysteria there for a while and hardly anyone will now admit they were afraid. Too bad your fellow can not grow hemp in that yard. :-)