Sabel79

The child cage fights thing was, at all times, hyperbole. If it makes you feel better: no, I do not believe Libertarians want to have child cage fights. Just freedom from the interference of authority sufficient enough to allow them to get away with it if in fact they did. ? I’m personally quite uninterested in what goes on in the private lives of others. So long as it doesn’t cross over and begin having an effect on others (ex.: Drink and do drugs all you like, but don’t then drive). Where Libertarians and I diverge sharply is the point at which this becomes the case.

Bold #1: I don't want to descend fully into the gaping maw of pedantry, and there are different strains of Libertarianism, but I find it hard to believe that the underlying habit of the ideology to reduce society to economics (again, the same fatal flaw which kills Marxism) can have any other logical end. Bold #2: Standard Oil, Ma Bell, and heck, the British East India Company were literally in the business of limiting competition more than anything else. Bold #3: Any decent society puts limits, both at bottom and at top, of the outcomes of our choices (or the impact those of others have on us). You can get rich, but you pay taxes (Which are the cost we pay to fund government to ensure a civilized, at the very least, society). Those taxes can then be used to ensure the poor (no matter what the reason for said poverty, and that can start another argument) do not starve. Arguments may be had in between about what government should be doing (infrastructure, defense, education) and to what level, but there you have it.

1. Dixon Ward?

Also fun if you look at the aggregate. Sabres won July 1st (on paper in terms of goals above replacement according to this chart I have no ability or interest to verify)!!!!!!

Lulz...

To your first response: the constant retrofitting of the philosophy, or ideology, or whatever, to include institutions incompatible with the very heart of the matter so as to sell it to a wider audience is maddening (not you personally, mind). The "well, obviously there'll be some government and regulations" idea means you've (again, not you personally) left the Libertarian platform and are now just a hardcore small-government conservative calling yourself a Libertarian in an attempt to differentiate yourself from the rest of them. To the second: Libertarianism really is the Marxism of the Right. Instead of the collective, it peddles the myth that an endless cycle of self-interest will somehow benefit us all. And the ostensible lack of barriers to entry disappear quickly as the first few through the door (Because they are perfectly free to do so) build new ones right behind them. To the third: We have seen, in this country, my parent's generation engage in a 40-year pattern of diminishing the safety net built by my Grandparent's generation for a very good reason. But I suppose we're about to learn the lesson over again, probably soon. I have no expectation of ever seeing a dime of the Social Security I've been paying into for more than 20 years now. Congress, with the full cooperation of the Clinton Administration, absolutely gutted public assistance in 1996. I spent twelve years of my professional career working in Title IV-D programs, created by that legislation. The impact, largely felt by children because of course it is, is not good. Which reminds me: Children. Brought into the world with no agency or intent, left to suffer the consequences of their parent's poor choices. Personal responsibility is, of course, a good thing. There likely should be more of it. but it needs to be limited to those actually responsible. To the fourth: It was a Hunger Games reference.

The upper half of League One / lower half of the Championship is about right.

Mine is the extreme example, surely, but, assuming they've thought things all the way through (which many people on all ends of the spectrum don't do, so this is not me just bashing the Libertarians) they are absolutely advocating the Ayn Rand model, yes.

Libertarianism is, at base, anarco-capitalism. Effectively, capital wholly usurps the State, and with no regulation or restriction, is allowed to do as it will. This is marketed in the US as: "Gee golly, wouldn't it be great to have a small government, personal liberty at all times, and personal responsibility ascribed to those we choose to see as leeches?" In reality, of course, this is a fairly transparent deflection from the real aim, which is simply piling all the money (or whatever has value) up at one end. Once "The Free Market" is wholly in control, the comparisons to Soviet Russia are apt. You want a job? Gonna have to bend to the whim of the Corporation, as to hours, pay, working conditions, and so on. Want food, housing, medical care? You're buying it from us of course, and frankly we need it more so whatever scraps we toss you will have to suffice (At a large markup). If this sounds an awful lot like now, well, it does kinda. Remove the last few remaining vestiges of the welfare state or whatever you want to call it are stripped away, it gets a whole lot worse. This is what makes the American Libertarian focus on "Liberty" hilarious, as it's definitely a sliding scale. It's not your Liberty anybody is concerned about. You or I or anyone else can be left dead in the gutter with nary a second thought if it's deemed expedient by the wealthy.

I will just never understand (this is not directed at anyone here, I've just been given cause to think about it having read this thread and because of a recent conversation I had with somebody) why people get so up in arms about this subject. This isn't a new issue. There are records of trans people in Pharonic Egypt, Precolonial Africa and America, Asia (specifically India), Ancient Greece and Rome. Heck, the story of Joan of Arc becomes so much more understandable if you look at it under this lens. So the idea that we should look at rising acceptance of the transgendered as some sort of evidence of societal decline is off the mark. It comes down to letting others be who they are, as I'm sure most of us enjoy the same privilege. It does damage to exactly nobody, effects even fewer people, and is the right thing to do. IMO. I have a coworker who goes around the bend about the bathroom issue. Which, to be clear, isn't an issue. Has been going on for decades, but I digress. People need to pee. That's all there is to it. Sexual assault, peeping, and other untoward behavior is already illegal. Conservative congressmen are statistically far more likely to engage in such behavior than trans people. I do not get the angst. Sex and gender are two different things. One is a function of what dangles off you and the other is far deeper and more complicated. As we work to understand all that entails, perhaps we can be understanding and nice to one another. Then again, this is humanity we're talking about.

Libertarianism IS authoritarianism. The logical terminus of the ideology is abject slavery for the vast majority of the population. With no government to keep capital's thumb off the scale, or ensure that the most vulnerable among us are looked after, or to remind us that children should not be made to fight to the death in cages for sport (extreme example, but there's precedent), things get bleak in a hurry.

You're closer to that line than me. Libertarianism is the greatest evil this planet has had to deal with. Congrats, White guy who loves Elon Musk.. it's a perfect circle...(not anyone specifically, even though, yeah, it's a few of you...

And subsuquently demolishing a donut shop.

Once they figure out what they've signed, that fan base will be more emo than they were over JT.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

It's not unprecedented. South Korea rode the same inexplicable wave in 2002. I really think Belgium pulls this off.

Actually, I do believe the NHL app lets you do this...

Yeah... probably about right...

He was pretty much George Costanza in real life. Just a breathtaking level of avarice coupled with an utter lack of shame/self-awareness. Bye.

Belgium - Brazil should be fun, at least.

How? They're only slightly less than $5 million under the cap now... I know, I know, Stevie Y and his magic cap wand. Or something.

Hopefully it's all just a setup for something even more embarrassing...

England. Do it.

Color me surprised. Don't see that going well for him, unfortunately.

Which is still better by himself than any pair five teams are able to toss out... This makes me laugh and cry at the same time...