Libertarianism is basically the Marxism of the Right. If Marxism is the delusion that one can run society purely on altruism and collectivism, then libertarianism is the mirror-image delusion that one can run it purely on selfishness and individualism. Society in fact requires both individualism and collectivism, both selfishness and altruism, to function. Like Marxism, libertarianism offers the fraudulent intellectual security of a complete a priori account of the political good without the effort of empirical investigation. Like Marxism, it aspires, overtly or covertly, to reduce social life to economics. And like Marxism, it has its historical myths and a genius for making its followers feel like an elect unbound by the moral rules of their society.

And to ensure the "-1 Flamebait"...

Government is the Great Satan. All Evil comes from Government, and all Good from the Market, according to the Ayatollah Rand.

Is that anything like Mormon's Magic Underwear?

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

i agree. why would the government cut itself off from a huge revenue source. isnt pot in the top 5 of cash crops?

as to the first part about cops under pressure, i really dont agree. cops have a lot of leeway in enforcing law. the police were just at my apartment an hour ago for me to view a photo line up of some crack heads who robbed my buildings super. in plain view were two one hitters, a 2 foot glass bong and a pipe. we all just looked at them, then each other and smiled. i went on with the line up and they thanked me and left.

as long as you are not a pain in the ass and acting a fool, they will leave you alone. if your a dick or lying about shit, they will fuck you silly. this isnt an isolated incident, when i lived in chicago, the cops could care less about a couple of grams of weed or a pipe.

the best way to NOT get arrested is to remember cops are someones brother, sister, father or mother. dont act all indignant or self righteous and they will cut you some slack. if your an ax wielding psycho killer YMMV.

President Merkin Muffley: But this is absolute madness, Ambassador! Why should you *build* such a thing?
Ambassador de Sadesky: There were those of us who fought against it, but in the end we could not keep up with the expense involved in the arms race, the space race, and the peace race. At the same time our people grumbled for more nylons and washing machines. Our doomsday scheme cost us just a small fraction of what we had been spending on defense in a single year. The deciding factor was when we learned that your country was working along similar lines, and we were afraid of a doomsday gap.
President Merkin Muffley: This is preposterous. I've never approved of anything like that.
Ambassador de Sadesky: Our source was the New York Times.

while i do not know if slashdot posts are monitored, NOVA (PBS) had an interesting documentary called -> 'The Spy Factory'.
for the truly lazy -> http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/spyfactory/program.html
here is a short synopsis -> http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/spyfactory/about.html
the most telling part is:
"NOVA follows the trail of just one typical e-mail sent from Asia to the U.S. Streaming as pulses of light into a fiber-optic cable, it travels across the Pacific Ocean, coming ashore in California, and finally reaching an AT&T facility in San Francisco, where the cable is split and the data sent to a secret NSA monitoring room on the floor below. This enables the NSA to intercept not only most Asian e-mail messages but also the entire U.S. internal Internet traffic."

i guess ATT and Apple now have an exclusive deal with slashdot for mod points.

Flamebait...really?

another interesting and insightful comment that brings real questions to the discussion modded down...for what?

should read as
who stole my wilco albums.

i hope those guys dont read the slashdots...

i think they do care and that it is their business model. my records (LPs/vinyl) didnt last forever (scratched/ broken/warped in the back seat of my car), so i bought them on tape(8track/cassette). tape player(s) ate those. i bought cd's versions of all my albums when that format came out. again they got scratched, ex girlfriend stole them or whatever. then, through the magic of PCs i could back them up. i could burn that disc over and over and over again. i could even burn a copy for that evil bitch GF who stale my wilco albums. i just cut those fuckers (read as- music industry) out of the loop and out of a huge source of income.

as quoted in the the Sun-Times article Jeffrey Michael, one of the owners of Horizon, as saying, "We're a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization."

well, if they want it on the mainland, Wyoming has the smallest population. the Big Dick Cheney would be on hand to waterboard any suspected traitors to the fatherland or Al Qaidas types (sp?) roaming around (like the turbans wouldnt stand out or anything).

but seriously, these decisions are better left to those fat cats in Washington because they know how to govern for the people, by the people, irregardless of party affiliation.

plus, think of all those jobs- construction, security (think Blackwater or Xe or whatever they are calling themselves this week), scientists (mediocre ones not snapped up by private corporations), the boon for the local housing market, FEMA could get into the action with a staging area (just in case). tourism would probably spike with all the looky loos and what not. why are you guys so paranoid about a high risk enterprise like this? as if the Feds dont know what they are doing.

so really this is about stimulating the economy. who wouldnt want to be the lucky recipient of such a well thought out gift to the american people, with the economy sputtering because it cant handle a couple percentage points of flux.

it is GOOD for everyone involved.

sleep tight Kansas, and may Jesus hold you in the palm of his hand.

i dont know if we have an unusual trend or not either. maybe it is a natural cycle is the way i am leaning, from the stuff i have seen. with that in mind i am no scientist and you could call me a 'joe twelve-pack'.
personally, i don't care for all the granola munching moonbeam lovin' tree huggers and there carbon credit save the earth crap. the earth has survived worse things than what we humans can throw at it. as a species here, are time is limited on the grand scale of things.
no, i am not a global warming denier. i believe it is a real. we do have some pretty concrete evidence of how warm the earth was 65 - 90 mya. i have no idea about gas diffusion and all that fancy stuff. however, 0ver 65 mya dinosaurs were frolicking in a tropical climate 300 miles from the north pole.

http://www.blm.gov/ak/st/en/prog/culture/dinosaurs.html

the following linkus thingie has references to co2 levels and there probable cause.

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF10/1024.html

now, before we all get our panties in a bunch and shout out about continental drift in what not, i have a couple of scientific looking maps for you.

http://www.scotese.com/K/t.htm

and you have to scroll down half way for the map on this one, the article also talks about the ocean-cycles too

http://www.bgs.ac.uk/education/climate_change/greenhouse_earth.html

and if you really want a good laugh, watch penn & tellers episode on recycling for some insight on the carbon credit scamola.
i dont know how anyone has a frame of reference on whether the weather/temperature today is unusual when you have 4.5 billion years of data to examine for trends.
i think we should just shift the calender to accommodate the later start of summer and winter.
al gore is a tool.

good stuff...

i am not so clever, obviously.

finally, a rational, well thought out comment that is on topic and offers a solution.

there is nothing more to add to this discussion.

i tried "boobs"- not only did bing show me more boobs, but there was a greater variety.
i just scrolled down and they just kept coming...

big ones
little ones
flapjack style
silicone sweater meats
brown
white
even mocha swirl jugs...
it was a multi-ethnic soiree of bazoombas
and a couple of acts of fellatio for good measure.

bing wins tits up!
of course this was purely scientific and should not be tried at home.