...what is to be don't about it.

Thanks, Binx. (Just for the record, my answer is everything.)

Bebop-o, you truly are a treasure. Thank you.

La pluie nous a lessivés et lavés
Et le soleil nous a séchés et noircis;
Pies, corbeaux nous ont creusé les yeux,
Et arraché la barbe et les sourcils.
Jamais un seul instant nous ne sommes assis;
De ci de là, selon que le vent tourne,
Il ne cesse de nous ballotter à son gré,
Plus becquétés d'oiseaux que dés à coudre.
Ne soyez donc de notre confrérie,
Mais priez Dieu que tous nous veuille absoudre!

François Villon, from Ballade des Pendus (The Ballad of the Hanged)

I'm still trying to get my head around the idea that Buddha was a liberal, though. Seems to me a perfect "noble silence" question.

William wrote:

First things first: I'm two years younger than you are. Not such a great gap, is it? I have no interest in besting you. I see things you don't see, that's all, and understand them differently than you apparently would. The difficulty for me is grasping why you have the aversion you have to government as a Platonic category, rather than to specific governments. It seems to me that a fundamental part of your agenda is missing from all your arguments here. Do you not see this? Will you not share what makes you argue as you do?

The quote above bespeaks a misunderstanding of what I wrote so fundamental as to almost make me conclude that it's intentional. Is this misunderstanding just a rhetorical flourish on your part, or do you actually believe it? If the latter, perhaps my initial conclusion about you was correct; there can be no commerce between us.

The quote was part of my invitation to clarify; to make an open-ended statement to see if you would tell me what you think of Jefferson. I can not seem to get anyone here to tell me what they are for only what they are against.(or whom as the case may be) I do think that first paragraph of yours (last post, not this one) was constructed to allow readers to see slightly different things depending upon their own worldview. Hence, I hoped you would expand on it.

You say you have difficulty understanding my aversion to government as a category. I hope you mean nation-state government verses the natural ordering of society left in liberty; as in Iceland for example.

http://www.hi.is/~bthru/iep.htm

Minarchism verses Anarchism is an old dispute. I was for a small limited government for decades until Rothbard finally convinced me of the central issue. The limited government will grow and expand over time. Even in a liberty loving land like America the government will expand in power, never yielding any back to the people, until we are enslaved to the ruling class. I believe that power corrupts; and I believe an honest look at history shows this.

William, would you be so kind as to publicly state why you are for a strong government? You self-identify as a "collectivist" unless you were ribbing me. Why? Do you think all the woes we suffer can be cured via the correct leadership?

Regards, b1

Ah, Villon. Here's a quote from Basil Bunting:

Homer? Adest. Dante? Adest.
Adsunt omnes, omnes et
Villon.
Villon?
Blacked by the sun, washed by the rain,
hither and thither scurrying as the wind varies.

Just so you don't lose any more sleep waiting for this to happen, here is something for you to consider:

There are no solutions, only problems. Anything that looks like a solution is merely a reformulation of the problem. Since there are no solutions, everything is part of the problem.

Now that was funny. :-)

Congratulations.

--b1

Dodd, well, the son of a great man.

Not nearly so bad as Bayh, but still, he has yet to make his own reputation.

I am glad to see what he's doing, though. He's been a lot better as a Presidential candidate than I had expected. A Biden clone he definitely is not.

would've voted for Kennedy over Nixon
Johnson over Goldwater
McGovern over Nixon
Carter over Ford (probably)
Carter over Reagan (definitely!)
McGovern (write-in) over GHWB
Clinton over Bush
Clinton over Dole
Gore,
then Gore again for re-election
please don't ask me how I know
I just know
Jesus too
g'dammit!
Blasphemously,
Ginsberg

I have always thought that there are two kinds of people in the world. Those who insist that there are two kinds of people in the world and those who don't. I would prefer to think of myself as one of the latter. (I actually think there are about six billion types of people in the world.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokononism

An anarchist might see three kinds of people. Those that need to rule, those that need to be ruled, and those who would prefer to do either.

"The will to a system is a lack of integrity."

Friedrich Nietzsche

not to do either...

The tiny bird gave me a different sense---a sound of noisy slobbering respect, and so on--it was NOT sounding bird buzzing of a ribald humor.

Some things said here at the Salon can be repeated at dinner. It is a dinner party if properly hosted by YNW--a refined wit and cautious humour is not, finally, laughable, all the time or ridiculous. This is a shared meal, analogously. Serious!

None are perfect, and one who thinks their think/stink is the best, needs to be knocked off a baloney-paragon of virtue's pedestal. Let's not cultivate a ugly slobber-mouth style (please no chew barbecue corn chips with a wide-open mouth), but focus and cultivate greater beauty. Stimulate.

That crave for an illusory "ideal" compensates for a multitude of dripping, slobber-mouth, corn-chips. I hate when yellow powder crumbs are on a type-keyboard. If there were no visionary idealist, nothing would ever get finished, and worst, NOTHING would ever even ever started, either...

...HOE (hint)!

I am anticipating a winged RICO/RINO snorting, slobbering, and a natural sorta another noise at my window? I anticipate something exciting me. A women or beast? I hope a winged-goat or a bluebird lady?

O, I'll settle for whatever I can receive as a dear host guest.