Miles White

Not to mention Calvin Coolidge's popularity.

A bit late but... Peter Schiff for president.

After all, how can you resist that lobstery goodness. Maybe I should become gay?

Gordon Ramsey has some competition. Being both a Jew and an Atheist, Jesus must really hate me despite loving everybody at the same time.

I'm not a legal expert but isn't there some ex post facto violation going on? Forcing gay couples to get annulled when it was still legal for them to get married. Edit: Never mind. Should've read the other comments.

"Anybody who gives up Liberty for temporary protection, deserves neither and will loose both."- Ben Franklin

And Jack Nicholson will be Francesco...

Lol. I was hoping somebody would notice the Irony in that statement.

Lol. I was hoping somebody would notice the Irony in that statement.

I can't stand what they call Screamo or Hardcore. It hurts my ears to much. I stick to listening to West coast Jazz and Steely Dan. Also, I find the subculture of "Emo" to be a combination of disgusting, nihilistic, whinny, attention seeking brats. Not that I'm trying to make fun of anybody who is Emo, but I use to be around those people in high school. Couldn't stand them then, can't stand them now.

I noticed the title says "Government exists to enforce order, not protect rights." What do you think the government is doing by enforcing order if they aren't protecting rights?

As I said in another post, I was a left-leaning libertarian. I've always believed in limited government and there was once a time where I actually believed the non-aggression principal was an axiom. I took up an interest in the whole Geoist philosophy for a while until my mother introduced me to Ayn Rand. My mother is a fan Rand but not an Objectivist mainly because she's too skeptical on metaphysical issues. After reading Atlas Shrugged for the first time however, I was hooked and I've never turned back.

To me the left, right wing dichotomy really annoys me. Mostly because of how relative it's nature is. Some people consider John Adams to be the first Conservative, even though Thomas Jefferson supported smaller government than him. In the late early 1800's the Republicans represented a Mercantilist system with heavy infrastructural investments, while the democrats were pro-business Classical Liberals. The Democrats have actually had a longer history of supporting limited government than the Republicans until William Jennings Bryan excommunicated the Classical Liberals from the Democratic party around the turn of the century and replaced it with Progressivism and Populism, leaving the neglected individualists resorting to allying themselves with the former Mercantilist party that became more limited government, and non-interventionist oriented by Warren G Harding and Calvin Coolidge. Progressivism only became more popular among the Democrats through out the depression. In the fifties, the Republican non-interventionism began to be replaced with a more pragmatic, big government oriented philosophy with a strong national defense by Eisenhower until Barry Goldwater in the 60's came out with his rugged individualist ideas of combining small government at home with a strong national defense along with strict alliances with NATO to fight communism which encouraged the Democrats to emphasize their newly adopted non-interventionist foreign policies to stand as the opposition against. The more you examine the majority party system threw out American history, the more you find out how many times parties have traded planks to make up a new platform. If there is any consistency in all of this, I guess you can say that they're all consistent in standing opposed to one another with the specifics of what being relative. I think before you ask were somebody stands on the political spectrum, it would help to specify "At what time period?" Because I don't think Objectivist could be placed anywhere on the modern day left, right spectrum.

Surly, you're not saying that you support prop 8, are you? I would like to hear your reasons for doing so. Yes. Particularly because it embodies and promotes an entirely altruistic ethic unlike socialism which is nothing more than a political system devoid of morality. Moral relativism has to collapse into something you see? Religion provides that something for it to collapse upon. Get rid of religion, and there will be no way for anybody to praise the virtue of sacrifice anymore. Oh I don't know...

Tell me about it. Believe it or not, but before I was an Objectivist I use to believe in Geoism or the whole land property is collectively owned crap while everything else is private. Spooks me to think back to those days.

You prefer Law itself to be Subjective then?

Same here. I'm from California and I voted No on prop 8, despite it's passage. In one of the most liberal states in the country, governed by one of the most liberal republicans in the party, we still can't legalize gay marriage...and they say religion is a minority.

Vice Presidential Libertarian nominee for president Wayne Allen Root brings up and interesting idea of federal tax reform that I haven't thought of before. He proposes for all federal taxes to be abolished and replaced with a single tax upon the states levied in proportion to their population, thus leaving the actual responsibility of administering taxes to the states. If states were voluntarily financed under such a federal tax proposal, then it would even be consistent with the concept of a fully free society. I typically don't care for petty libertarian short term goals, but this is one that caught my eye and deserves recognition.

Personally, I look at fractional reserve banking in the same way I look at religion. I disapprove of it, but would do nothing to stop it legally. I would prefer to use a 100% full reserve bank because I'm a frugal person and I'm picky about my savings, but the issue nonetheless is a matter of practicality, not of morals.

I call dibs on the Secretary of Treasury. I'd kick Bernanke's butt out of that bank and repeal the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.

Look up Calvin Coolidge, and Grover Cleveland. Not only favorite presidents, but personal heros of mine. Thomas Jefferson of corse should be on the list. William Mckinely, for supporting the gold standard during a time where allot of people wanted silver, and greenbacks instead. Andrew Jackson for dismantling the first bank of the United States which triggered the "Wild Cat" free banking era in American history. Those are some of the first that come to mind.

Perhaps the Republicans and the Consitution Party members can unite into one dinky, pitiful little third party as no one would take them seriously anymore once they successfully casted out every ounce of secularism left.

Amen to that brother (no pun intended). I was at least hoping for gridlock. after all, Milton Freidman once said that government spending and deficits have always decreased in the past when democrats control the executive and republicans control the legislature. Now that the democrats make up a majority in the senate however, I have no more faith left in America (again no pun intended). Perhaps the good thing that will come out of all this is the flat out rejection of the neoconservative/ compassionate conservatism that created this mess in the first place. I have no one to blame than George Bush. Now I truly understand why Leonard Peikoff said he would be apocalyptically bad. He would increase spending and run up a deficit in the name of capitalism and tarnish it's name for the next several years. Let's hope this new socialism leads to a new grassroots small government revolution. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for another Calvin Coolidge in 2012.

Those skits were during the Will Ferrell days. Snl went through a renaissance starting when Chris Farley, Mike Myers, Tim Medows first came on and ending when Will Ferrell left. The show hasn't been the same since.

Most people were educated by public schools. That explains allot. Most people are afraid of gold because of it's deflationary tendencies that has been the leading cause of bank runs in the past. People use that as justification for being against it, forgetting that an inflationary system-cause by a fiat based monetary policy- also has horrible side effects of it's own. The fallacy behind gold hostility, is derived from the Keynesian idea that fiat money will allow us to use inflation as a tool to stop all recessions during periods of economic downturns by encouraging immediate consumption to put us back on track. However as Jimmy Carter has shown so eloquently shown, fiat money ain't quit cracked up what it's suppose to be. It is true however that gold has deflationary tendencies since people would be allowed to use their medium of exchange for other purposes as well (especially if you're a jeweler), but that will always be countered by the market through the issuing of credit and bank notes that promise to redeem the payer upon demand in that amount. As long as the demand for gold remains the same, gold will always find it's own way back onto the market. The real problem behind gold critics is their belief that fiat money is infallible which anybody who has lived through the late 70's should know that it most certainly is not. Gold may have negative consequences but so does fiat money, and fiat money is even worse because it's inflationary tendencies gives the appearance of stability in the short run while making everything worse in the long term. Deflation has the exact opposite effect of making things appear worse in the short run until the prices of goods, and assets lowers enough in proportion to the growth domestic products rate of deflation. Neither are good within their own vein, which is why gold should be so desirable since gold would do a better job at keeping our economy at a stable rate than any other medium of exchange would. The problem with most economists, is their belief that the untamed beast of inflation can be used for good, and want the rate of inflation to increase on a yearly basis so people can continue to consume and live beyond their means with artificially lowered interest rates at the expense of long term economic stability. The next time you encounter another gold skeptic, I recommend you simply reply to them with two words: StagFlation.