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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, July 09, 2014

The biggest threat to sanity in the GOP

The poll that I cited yesterday certainly had some good news. But one thing is troubling. And I do not mean the fact that Rand Paul was first; he has some hard-core supporters, mostly former supporters of his father, but they will never number enough to take the nomination. (I like some of the ideas that are subsumed by the term “libertarianism,” but the Pauls' isolationism and anti-Israel sentiments turn me off; the elder Paul also brought his libertarianism to the point of near-anarchy, though the younger seems to be rather more reasonable.)

No, I have no fear that Rand Paul will be the nominee. He will do as well as Ron Paul did in 2012, at best. What I consider the biggest threat to sanity is that apparently the Santorum/Perry/Huckabee Religious Right has settled on its candidate: Mike Huckabee, who finished in a tie for second, equal to Chris Christie's position. If there is anything that could get me to vote for a non-Republican in 2016, it would be the nomination of Huckabee (or another one of the Religious Right, but he is the leader among those). I don't mean I would vote for a Democrat such as Hillary Clinton — my vote would go to some third-party candidate. But unless the people favoring Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, etc. (who are all meritorious candidates, to be sure) coalesce behind Chris Christie, Huckabee could be nominated. And that would be a disaster.

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