Independence

[Bougie]

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Somewhere between my 4th hot dog, 5th Stella Artois, and 200th black cat today I had a moment of zen.

Despite all that we as anesthesiologists gripe about on this forum (reimbursements, modified RSIs, CRNAs, McSleepy) we still live in the best damn country on God's green earth.

Here's to the good ol US of A and to all of those stationed overseas that sacrifice so much so that we can all pursue the American dream.

Happy 4th everybody.

Awaiting all the traumatic partial finger amputations scheduled tomorrow.....

 

[Noyac]

What if i feel like this country is headed down the tubes?


Come on, our choice is b/w two presidential candidates that have been a part of the problem for the last, How Many Years? We are all falling into the trap they wish to keep us in.

Can we have a choice, please?

Libertarian?

 

[amyl]

wow there is two of us here.... thats the beginning of the revolution! ;-)
I love what this country stands for, what it was built on, and the ideals behind it.
I do not love what this country has become.
Obama will likely be the last nail in the coffin of what america once stood for.
I wish the libertarian party could break into some of the political offices in this country... they need someone rich or famous and a little more mainstream. or maybe it could be the political party of doctors, that would be great....most doctors i think would be cool with the eat-what-you-kill kind of philosophy.
i think its a PR problem with the libertarians. when everyone was discussing gay marriage, the war, the economy, etc. the libertarians should have made their voices heard. funny thing is most gay people i know are liberals just because they hate the republican bible thumping (which there hasn't been much of lately anyways)...but if they understood libertarianism they would probably be libertarians. its a PR problem. i think most people would back some libertarian ideas if they didn't see it as anarchy.

 

[coprolalia]

There is a big difference between social libertarianism and Libertarianism as a political movement.

I believe what most Libertarians actually want is the social form, not the true governmental form.

A true, full Libertarian system would create a completely laissez faire form of government. In essence, people and corporations would be allowed to essentially self-regulate, and would result in an almost "anything goes" system. We already have enough greed and corruption in corporate America. And, it would paralyze the court system even more than it already is. Libertarianism sounds like a good solution on the face of it, but over time it would create more problems than it would solve. The "little guy" would get screwed even more than he already is. If you look at the story of Standard Oil back at the late 19th and beginning of the 20th century, you'll see a good example of a corporation running amok in a far more "Libertarian" government than we have now.

Social libertarianism, on the other hand, would be a much milder solution. It would remove the "big brother" aspects of our current government. It would make individual responsibility paramount, without removing the laws and potential penalties of, for example, corporations trying to form monopolies, etc. It would eradicate the penalties against victimless crimes. For instance, we wouldn't waste time, resources, and money trying to hunt down and convict drug dealers and prostitutes/Johns. It would finally acknowledge the Puritanical b.s. that governs many of our actions, and give respect to consenting adults. It would focus on individual choices and individual responsibility for those choices, instead of governmental/societal responsibility.

But, beware. This is a harsh, unforgiving system too. You gotta expect a lot of people are going to get swallowed by it, as they will, in essence, have free reign to do a lot of things that are not necessarily in their best interests over the long haul.

-copro

 

[Noyac]

There is a big difference between social libertarianism and Libertarianism as a political movement.

I believe what most Libertarians actually want is the social form, not the true governmental form.

A true, full Libertarian system would create a completely laissez faire form of government. In essence, people and corporations would be allowed to essentially self-regulate, and would result in an almost "anything goes" system. We already have enough greed and corruption in corporate America. And, it would paralyze the court system even more than it already is. Libertarianism sounds like a good solution on the face of it, but over time it would create more problems than it would solve. The "little guy" would get screwed even more than he already is. If you look at the story of Standard Oil back at the late 19th and beginning of the 20th century, you'll see a good example of a corporation running amok in a far more "Libertarian" government than we have now.

Social libertarianism, on the other hand, would be a much milder solution. It would remove the "big brother" aspects of our current government. It would make individual responsibility paramount, without removing the laws and potential penalties of, for example, corporations trying to form monopolies, etc. It would eradicate the penalties against victimless crimes. For instance, we wouldn't waste time, resources, and money trying to hunt down and convict drug dealers and prostitutes/Johns. It would finally acknowledge the Puritanical b.s. that governs many of our actions, and give respect to consenting adults. It would focus on individual choices and individual responsibility for those choices, instead of governmental/societal responsibility.

But, beware. This is a harsh, unforgiving system too. You gotta expect a lot of people are going to get swallowed by it, as they will, in essence, have free reign to do a lot of things that are not necessarily in their best interests over the long haul.

-copro

Your right, there are many views of libertarianism. That is what makes it so difficult to put your finger on. 2 libertarians can have very different ideas and beliefs.

 

[cfdavid]

I think what is drawing people to look seriously (or hopefully) at alternatives like Libertarianism is it's focus on the Constitution. Also, the fact that over the past 15 years the neo-"conservatives" have taken over the Republican party. So, we see ourselves involved in nation building, wars, and spending that would have been unheard of during the times of REAL Republicans. And this is a very important concept. Typically, when we associate ouselves with a group, we naturally tend to want to defend that group from external critisism. So, we dig in during times of "assault", when perhaps we should have been self-critical and questioning certain events etc. as they played out. The bottom line is that these f..cking "neo-Cons" are NOT TRUE REPUBLICANS.

*****The reason I'm hopefull though, is because of the shear number of Americans that know we're heading in the wrong direction. It's going to be up to US to turn things around. And this may require, sadly, what would have been considered "extreme" measures by the liberal minded generation before us. We'll see. We're at a turning point.

In JPP's post about Toughlife, I think he hit the nail right on the head. We simply CAN NOT continue on with apathy and the status quo. We're going to need very different, more "extreme", tactics. The stakes are too high, and this certainly applies to the direction of our country as well as to the future of various professions etc.

 

[cfdavid]

An Independence Day blog entry from Pat Buchanan.

http://buchanan.org/blog/2008/07/pjb-independence-lost/

 

[VolatileNavyDoc]

Somewhere between my 4th hot dog, 5th Stella Artois, and 200th black cat today I had a moment of zen.

Despite all that we as anesthesiologists gripe about on this forum (reimbursements, modified RSIs, CRNAs, McSleepy) we still live in the best damn country on God's green earth.

Here's to the good ol US of A and to all of those stationed overseas that sacrifice so much so that we can all pursue the American dream.

Happy 4th everybody.

Awaiting all the traumatic partial finger amputations scheduled tomorrow.....

I agree. This is a pretty funny "patriotic" skit.

http://www.break.com/index/america-rules-england-sucks.html

 

[Bougie]

love break.com...