I have long insisted that capital "L" libertarians contain a great many kooks. It is not my responsibility to argue against their every point any more than it is yours to emphatically distance yourself from Stalinists or Ward Churchill.

I'm in the Reason and Cato libertarian house. They don't talk like like that -- or if on some rare occasion someone at either place has, it was a true aberration.

I've been far too busy in the past few days for any but very short entries at my blog, but I've been reading the Niewert and other hit pieces on Ron Paul, and doing a slow burn. As a libertarian who sent a modest donation to the Dodd campaign in order to encourage him -- and who would vote for him if the Dems nominate him -- I plan to vote for Paul in the GOP primaries.

Now is not the time, and I certainly do not have it, to explain WHY Paul takes the position he does on "separation of church and state," and other of the issues being distorted. In a nutshell, Paul doesn't like the result of "incorporation doctrine" of the 14th Am that made most of the constraints of the BoR, which were intended to apply to the *federal* govt, applicable to the states. That leads him to certain positions that may have nothing to do with what he thinks of them on the merits per se.

Finally, for those who are having spazz attacks because they think Glenn is a closet libertarian, so what if he were? (And I'm not saying he is or is not.) That would render the role he has played, and continues to play, less crucial?

To pick just one point in your litany of rage about Paul, if you could show him where in the Constitution Congress is authorized to fund overseas family planning and population control programs, he might well take a different view. You cannot assume he opposes birth control because of his position on that congressional spending issue.

Thank you for that. Niewert et al. fail to understand that Ron Paul will not vote for anything that he believes the Constitution does not authorize Congress to fund or involve itself with. Period. From that one should not make any inference about whether he thinks the particular project or program proposed to be funded is a good or bad cause in and of itself.

Yes, he broke with his federalist principles on abortion. His view has been that Roe federalized the issue and that only a federal response could "fix" it. But he has also said he may have been wrong to let himself come to that conclusion.

In any event, if Roe is overturned tomorrow, the vast, vast majority of states, including red ones, are still going to legalize at least first trimester abortions. South Dakota just demonstrated that. All the hysterical shrieking about women as slaves and bodies lying dead in alleys in "Ron Paul's world" is about as reasonable as those who think we have to make a glass parking lot of the Middle East to ward of the Caliphate.

Paul is singing from the Lord's hymnal on the most critical issues of the moment, and smearing a man who holds enormous potential to change the terms of the national conversation in the right direction is very, very stupid, not to mention sleazy.

[Paul] doesn't just happen to have these slackjaws as followers, like flies to dung. He actively seeks them out which absolutely is indicative of a fellow traveler.

Uh-huh. And except for a brief period when their master told them to stop doing so, the Stalinists in the Communist Party USA supported FDR. He didn't reject their support. Hence, FDR was either a Stalinist or a fellow-traveler. Or so was the far-right flip-side of your position at the time.

And his brother, Kevin.

Rudy is a tyrant, who, if given the expanded Executive office Bush has established, would be an unbridled horror. Randy Maestro, Rudy's Deputy Mayor (1996-1998) and former Assistant U.S. Attorney with Rudy (1985-1989), writes a paean at Townhall to "Rudy the Prosecutor":

Rudy also brought a record number of federal narcotics prosecutions to address the drug epidemic in our city. He even instituted a "Federal Day" program once a month to prosecute those arrested for drug offenses in the federal system to have the maximum deterrent effect. Moreover, he used drug forfeiture laws in innovative ways to seize both proceeds and instruments of those crimes. For example, when New York officials couldn't get local judges to evict drug dealers from public housing projects, Rudy seized the tenancies from them to the cheers of neighbors forced for too long to endure their drug crimes.

Oh yeah, how "innovative" of Rudy. To kick poor people out of federal housing projects by employing the atrocious asset forfeiture tool to steal their "guilty" tenancies. I wonder how many non-violent drug offenders had their lives, and their family's lives, ruined by prison as a result of Rudy's "Federal Day." One can expect him to be just as "innovative" with the "inherent" powers of a Yoo presidency.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RandyMaestro/2007/11/16/rudy_giuliani_the_prosecutor

I think Buckaroo Banzai put it better: No matter where you go, there you are.

Thank you! In a friendly conversation with my adult son I quoted that (true) observation to him, and he wanted to know the source, which I could not recall. Now I can attribute without adding it to my "to do" list (googling).

Glenn has to sleep sometime, and the Sugarman creature knows that his posts don't get deleted when Glenn slumbers on Brazilian time.

IGNORE HIM until Glenn can figure out what to do about this issue.