I never, ever want to be associated with people like this. A few choice quoutes from Mr. O’Reilly:

“I don’t care what you think…so keep your mouth shut”

Ummm…didn’t you invite the man on your show to hear what he thinks? Oh wait, you’re Bill O’Reilly. You don’t really care what other people think. You just invite them on your show to scream to them.

This is an interesting concept. I’m very close to calling myself a libertarian, but there are few things I just can’t get past. First, my jury is still out on gun control. In my opinion, the original purpose of the second amendment was two-fold:

1. The citizens of the U.S., lacking a standing army at the time of the writing of the Constitution, still had to protect themselves, and the country still had to ask a citizen militia for help in times of a war. Without the right to bear arms, the country would have been defenseless.
2. It was a symbol of the power of the people (the basis of a republic). If the citizens can bear arms, ultimately the government could not strip their power away through force.

Now, these days point #1 is a bit moot, since we’ve got the largest army in the world. Point #2 is still a little sticky though. Of course, based on point #1, how much good would your pistol or shotgun be against the world’s biggest army?

My other point of contention with the libertarians is their often racist attitudes. Though this is gradually changing as more open-minded intellectuals join the party, the party faithful still tend to be rednecks. Freedom means freedom for everyone, stupid.

Hope you don’t mind the switch to proper capitalization. I just thought I’d try it out.

Posted on 12 February 2003