"such as, well, the right to have property in the first place, and not have it taken away by someone stronger and with a bigger gun!"

No, in this country the government will take it for them and claim its "for the betterment of the public". Which means that theory is a load of shit.

"your libertarian ideals are indeed better (good luck with that...)"

The majority of people who have it explained to them come to understand rather quickly that it is indeed a better way. However most people - nay almost all people in this country believe that they only have two choices. Thats a fallacy put forth by people like you who are afraid of having to actually earn what you have.

Your argument about africa has nothing to do with a free market or libertarian society. Matter of fact most of those governments are less corrupt than ours - they just dont have the power and influence to screw everyone over. Thats left to the drug dealers and slave owners. No different than it was in the western world 600 years ago - just more modern weaponry.

(and if you believe the reason we are where we are right now is governmental interference in day to day life I suggest you remove your head from your ass and start reading about the events in the world in the late 1700's - and not just the ones in this country)

Because powerful people fear freedom for the masses.

Even in the ancient Greek and Roman societies that started this mess known as democracy - the powerful and influential were a level above the commoners. No different than here in the USA today. (If you think otherwise consider that although we have moved past some of the barbaric attitudes held in ancient times we still treat the "upper class" as if they are special or somehow more worthy than the commoners, this is amusing and sad considering the vast majority of them inherited their wealth.)

Who stands to gain the most in a Libertarian society ? The common man.
Who stands to lose the most ? Those in power.
Who gets to control the decision ? Those in power.

It is not lost on most educated people that the reason we are the only major developed country in the world with a two party system is because our country is young, naive and lazy. Countries who have been through this song and dance before know better than to have the government control every aspect of daily life. The most recent attempt at running a major country like that was Soviet Russia - that worked out splendidly.

Libertarianism is not a political party - its an altruistic goal that any person can hold regardless of party. The act of being a politician or being involved in politics is one of balancing what you believe with what is attainable. As Obama's fanboys will soon be reminded of.

The 20th century belonged to the united states because Europe spent the better portion of it blowing itself to hell, rebuilding and then doing it again.

The US never really suffered from the effects of WWI and WWII like Europe did. Add into that the fact that the US sold weapons and materials to the parties involved and *bam* you have a 60+ year domination.

You will however note that the past 30 years have seen the US becoming less and less dominant, and losing its edge in critical fields (Math & Science are only the beginning). Add into that the fact that we've spent the last decade being a bunch of head in the sand religious nuts and you'll quickly start to realize that the bailout, these wars, social security etc etc are all one massive failure - namely the pending failure of our entire system. Based on the government doing what it was never intended to do.

Thats what the supreme court is supposed to be for. Checks and Balances lest we forget. Even if they go that route its not unimaginable for the court to stop them.

I'd go so far as to say that if the politicians in office are going this far to subvert the fundamental principles of this country then we really are screwed - and heading for a Soviet style collapse.

"I do think the voters are getting what we want on average"

No, they are not. Thats specifically why things keep failing. The president thats leaving office, the economy, our rights etc etc.

Thankfully we cant easily muck about with the Constitution - now if only people would start paying attention and remember that their trivial needs at this moment are NOT as important as the principle of this country (and by extension the long term health of this country).

If you believe the government does it better than private companies your a fool. Pick up a history book.

The fact that there is no choice to using the interstate doesnt change that fact.

I do not use the post office, I dont even know when the last time I mailed a letter was. I ship things via carriers with modern tracking systems - UPS and FedEx. Not surprisingly the private companies are light years ahead of the Gov't.

Government run internet ? Get ready to fill out forms du jour, stand inline, get an "internet license", and have content regulated and commercialized to death - just like everything else they got their greedy hands into. (See: TV, Radio etc)

Politicians are (and always have been) far far more greedy than business's -- and they dont even provide you with anything in return.

+1

The reality is there almost always needs to be a "person in charge" - even if its only a benevolent dictator.

Find people who want some relative independence (less hours or less politics) and who are responsible to partner with. Even if they only have average skills they are invaluable.

EMC is actually doing quite well, and Netapp is kicking ass as well. The only shops that actually look at cost/GB as a measuring stick are small shops, or shops with very specific needs.

Large corporations, government and high tech companies are usually more concerned with management costs, retention, migration and so forth.

Not to mention getting into things like actual storage utilization - often thin provisioning and deduplication (see: Netapp) cuts your utilization so far down that you can purchase systems two or three models below what you were looking at before hand.

I cannot imagine managing multiple sites with multiple TB of data inside of just a Linux or Solaris box. Talk about a nightmare.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/08/idc_q308_disk_storage_numbers/

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

Who said anything about a VPN ?

(half my retirement funds are now gone).

Like most things in your post thats wrong. Stop believing in the Obama campaign as the source of all your financial info. The correct statements would be pick one:

My retirement fund is now worth half what it was

This recession has actually caused my retirement fund to shrink

Or my personal fave:
What the hell ! You mean we can't buy big houses, SUV's and rack up credit debt endlessly ?!?! What do you mean we have to 'compete' for jobs ? Whats this crap ?? Dont choo kno I'm an American !!!

Its time to sort the wheat from the chaff. Man the fuck up. (and spread that to your friends, and their parents too - the great depression was FAR FAR FAR worse than this and they were not whining as much as people now either.)

Yes, if you have 10 years experience, or a degree and a handful of experience you too can be a rack monkey at google.

Thats his point. No Ph.D. no good job, good location and involvement in good projects. Once a company becomes large enough it takes some luck to be able to move from the bottom tier to anything else, and honestly why bother if you can get a job someplace else off the bat that pays better and allows you more satisfaction (time worked, projects worked on, career growth & flexibility etc etc)

I call BS, thats the only wikipedia page for any car of that age with MPG stated, and it doesnt cite a source. I'd be amazed if the car got more than 15 mpg. (I've spoken with quite a few old car owners who can attest to the crappy mileage)