Amos - please be assured no offense is meant here, but: are you *sure* that feller's a Libertarian? He sounds, and the linked "Free Kentucky" site seems (at a glance, I admit), a bit more like yer average survivalist-militia-antigummint sort, than the Libertarians I've run into. (Granted, there's surely some overlap there.)

Here's the Libertian Party national website Click here. One notes they oppose pledge-of-allegiance in public schools, favor drug legalization, etc.

I admire the Libertarians for (usually) their intellect, and for an intellectual consistency all too rare these days. BUT, what sets them apart from most 'Catters I think, and most others too, is in a sense precisely that ideological rigor. They favor maximum individual freedom, hence minimal government power, in ALL areas of life -- political, social, personal, civic, *and economic*. IOW, they are purist civil libertarians *and uncompromising laissez-faire capitalists*. They oppose censorship, police-state "security" measures, drug laws, porn laws, the draft, foreign military adventures, foreign aid, public school prayer, public schools generally, guns laws, civil-rights laws affecting the private sector, regulation of business, the income tax, taxation generally, and so forth & so on---all for the same reason: these measures diminish individual liberty.

They aren't (quite) anarchists, but they'll do until anarchists come along :). They truly believe that that government is best which governs least---literally, in all sectors of society. A merry-hearted Libertarian once gave me their platform summarized tongue-in-cheek on a business card: "We favor abolition of nearly everything; we call for drastic cutbacks in everything else; and we refuse to pay for what's left." :)

The Libertarians I've talked to are very nice, bright, sane and sincere. I'd *like* to think that their consistent minimalist-government vision is right, true, attainable, and a blueprint for a better, freer, more prosperous world. / But I don't. I fear it's a never-never-land, a tir-na-nog, another gnostic dream of perfection on this earth, taking into account part, but not all, of our individualistic-but-also-tribal human nature. / Interesting, though. And a very valuable contribution to the debate. Let a hundred flowers bloom (as that great Libertarian icon, Chairman Mao, once said :).

Well, please forgive the foregoing disquisition; and Happy Fourth again to one & all, as the illegal unofficial fireworks--set off by instinctive Libertarians no doubt :)-- snap, crackle & pop outside along my street.