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The principles that rule this blog

Principles that will govern my thoughts as I express them here (from my opening statement):


  • Freedom of the individual should be as total as possible, limited only by the fact that nobody should be free to cause physical injury to another, or to deprive another person of his freedoms.
  • Government is necessary primarily to provide those services that private enterprise won't, or won't at a price that people can afford.
  • No person has a right to have his own beliefs on religious, moral, political, or other controversial issues imposed on others who do not share those beliefs.

I believe that Abraham Lincoln expressed it very well:

“The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do, at all, or cannot
so well do, for themselves — in their separate, individual capacities.”


Comments will be invited, and I will attempt to reply to any comments that are offered in a serious and non-abusive manner. However, I will not tolerate abusive or profane language (my reasoning is that this is my blog, and so I can control it; I wouldn't interfere with your using such language on your own!)

If anyone finds an opinion that I express to be contrary to my principles, they are welcome to point this out. I hope that I can make a rational case for my comments. Because, in fact, one label I'll happily accept is rationalist.

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

After New Hampshire

This morning, while I was having a tea and a pastry at a local Starbucks, I heard a woman loudly advocating Mike Huckabee's candidacy. Not, as one might think, because of his “Christian leadership” position, but mainly because he was pro-gun! Of course, this only underscores the problems with Huckabee — it would be hard to find an issue on which Huckabee and I are on the same side. (He did integrate a congregation where he was a preacher; I guess that's one good thing that could be said about Mike Huckabee.)

But looking at the New Hampshire results, it is good to see that they provide a retreat from the craziness of Iowa. New Hampshire tends to have a libertarian mindset; after all, the state motto is “Live Free or Die.” And Huckabee's positions are pretty far from libertarianism. So although my favorite candidate, Rudy Giuliani, didn't do very well there (but then, he hadn't bothered to campaign there!) the candidate who did win, John McCain, is someone I consider a good one. (McCain is probably my second choice, actually.) So I'm not unhappy with the New Hampshire results. (And they probably sink Mitt Romney's candidacy, though he still could help his chances in Michigan.)

Over on the Democratic side, New Hampshire followed its usual practice of confounding the experts. Hillary Clinton beat Barack Obama, even though Obama's win in Iowa propelled him into the public spotlight and Clinton's tears might have ended serious consideration of her candidacy. Of course, since I like neither of the two, I don't really care that much about who won that contest.

Now on to the next state!
Posted by Opinionator at 9:05 AM Labels: , , , , , ,

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