Thursday, February 15, 2007

I am Spartacus

I am, fundamentally, a small-government libertarian. Unlike the radicals in the Libertarian Party I don't view my libertarianism as a religion, as an ideology into which reality must be fitted. Rather, I view it as a sensible way of denoting what should be done by individuals under a free enterprise system, and what should be done by we as a people collectively via our representative government. What we as a people should collectively do should be limited to those things where history and the experience of our nation and other nations has shown that free enterprise doesn't work and government does, such things as as police, fire, courts, prisons, highways, parks, libraries, schools, and national health care.

I am by no means a radical of any sort. I don't want my government doing *anything* unless it is darn well proven to work or there is just an overwhelming consensus on the part of the people that the government needs to do it. Furthermore, I only want my government to do things that benefit we the people as a whole, not some folks overseas or just a small group of people who don't need any help from we the people as a whole. Yet somehow, I find myself in bed with liberals who are comfortable with using the power of Big Government to attack every social issue and every social ill. Why is that?

In part, it is because there is no longer a party for folks like me. Today's Republican Party is about borrow-and-spend Big Government and is filled with vile and evil people who refuse to speak up when death threats against young women are made, who speak of young women as "vile pieces of shit", who advocate raping and killing young women, who get vile demagogues like Bill Donohue who hate Jews and gays and white people (gosh who does he NOT hate? Other than his hand?) and makes excuses for child molesters and priests who rape boys to speak for the party. Today's Republican Party is all about imposing the hate-filled "Christian" ideology of a small group of very vocal radicals upon the rest of the nation at gunpoint (I put the word "Christian" in quotes because there is nothing Christian about hate). There is no place in today's Republican Party for sensible small-government conservatives because today's Republican Party is a party of ideologues, radicals, and hate. Their platform is a Big Brother nanny-state platform of imposing their peculiar morality at gunpoint upon the rest of us, and their policy is "kill the liberals", and their mouth-breathing brownshirts endorse it entirely.

Which brings up the question of the cowards who advocate raping and killing young women and their families yet somehow never manage to make it down to their local recruiter's station to sign up for their Dear Leader's little foreign war. I don't know if you've ever had a violent person threaten to kill you before. I have. Your heart starts thumping. The world suddenly assumes a terrible clarity. Then what happens next... well, I'm still alive, that's all I can say. But more insiduous is if they're threatening to kill you, and they are too cowardly to say it to your face. When you are getting anonymous phone calls at all hours of the night threatening to kill you. Then there is no respite from that adrenalin, you can't eat, you can't sleep, and you can't end the threat because they are cowards too cowardly to confront you to your face.

I have this to say about all cowards who threaten to rape and kill young women: My address is on my whois record, and my B.F. Mossberg & Sons 12 gauge tactical pump is ready and waiting. Bring it on. You mouth breathers are real brave, REAAAL brave, when it comes to making anonymous threats to young women. But Shakes ain't in this one alone. All of us who believe that hate is not an American value, who believe that all Americans, not just the ones with your perverted beliefs, are worthy of basic dignity and respect, all of us who oppose endless wars of conquest that do nothing for America and Americans, we are Spartacus. Take on one, you take on all of us. But somehow, I suspect my shotgun ain't gonna get no workout. It figures.

-- Badtux the Libertarian Penguin

12 comments:

  1. I stand in full unity with my good friend, the gentlebird from Kah-lee-forn-yah, and the next preznit of the United States, BadTux.

    BT, you have -- as usual -- expressed the feelings of so many in a way that many can only envy. While some may flounder around, trying to stay polite, and others may go off a la Rude Pundit, you manage to hold the middle ground... emphatic but still reasoned.

    Welcome.

    And to all the mouth-breathin', Bible-thumpin', hooker-humpin', sister-marryin', rifle-rack-in-the-pickmup neocon wingnut idjits (TM), as one of the other bloggers said...

    "In the words of your brain-damaged idol, bring it on"

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  2. Well spoken, oh Flightless One.

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  3. You know they don't make threats against us, pal. We can say 'bring it on' all day long and they stay quiet. I know you've noticed the troll on my blog lately and he takes the humble approach makes you look like shit when you smack the twerp with the smart mouth even though he needed it. But give them a 'frail' woman to target and they get all big and bad. I remember the one guy's email about Shakes or Amanda (or both) needing to get it from a 'Texas man' or some shit. I lived in Texas and knew a lot of Texas 'men'. There ain't much man behind them big belt buckles. These guys ain't men.

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  4. Badtux, I linked to your article because you said it better than I will. Hope you don't mind.

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  5. That shotgun of yours will turn to rust long before one of those trolls develops anything remotely resembling a testicle.

    And you're so right about what it's like to have your life threatened to your face. I've had a pair of handguns pointed at my head. The barrel of a handgun has a way of bringing the fragility of life into perfect focus...

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  6. and then, it came down to the issue of it being him or me. the fact that you are reading this tells you how that ended.

    louis l'amour

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  7. That was beautiful, Badtux. Just beautiful. *snif*

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  8. I echo: Bravo and Beautiful!

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  9. BadTux, you say it well - worthy of my late brother who thought that respecting the dignity of everyone was worth fighting for. And, I, as a woman, have had hands around my neck threatening to kill me if I didn't comply with his desires. Life is a precious thing, and we sometimes take the cost of it for granted. Your words are as effective in some places as your shotgun!

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  10. If America is a state of mind, there are a lot of Americans, living in other countries, who have followed this and agree with you.

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