With Libertarianism and justice for all

[vovat]

For more radio fun, I listened to Michael Badnarik, the Libertarian Presidential candidate, being interviewed on NPR. I thought he came across as fairly rude and not too bright. (Brighter than Bush, I suppose, but then so are most potted plants.) Really, he struck me as being pretty similar to the Family Radio fundamentalist types, only instead of "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus," it was "private property, private property, private property." Yes, there are areas in which I think the government has too much control. The thing is, though, who doesn't? I'm sure if you asked Democrats, Republicans, and even Socialists, most of them are not going to say, "Yes, I want the government interfering in every aspect of my life!" There's certainly some disagreement among the different political parties in terms of exactly when the government SHOULD be allowed to interfere, but not wanting a lot of interference isn't an idea on which the Libertarians have a monopoly. Libertarianism, as least as explained by Badnarik (who might not represent the views of all people who consider themselves to be libertarians), seems to be based on easy answers and buzzwords. For instance, he said that criminals are people who don't respect private property. Also, Columbine was apparently caused by Ritalin (something with which the host of the program actually took issue), and a lack of restrictions on gun ownership would result in less crime. In addition, Badnarik used the word "steal" so often, you'd think he was a representative of the RIAA. It's a word that gets a reaction, even when used in a fashion that might not be entirely appropriate. So, yeah, even if I thought Badnarik had a chance of winning, I wouldn't vote for him.

Comments

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you're probably right about the politics in the smoking episode. I guess I kind of have a libertarian approach to that issue myself, though, in that I think that businesses should be allowed to decide for themselves whether they'll allow smoking. I mean, in places where there are no smoking bans, restaurants usually have non-smoking sections, and some family restaurants don't allow it at all. (Friendly's is a good example of the latter, but I don't think they have those in your area.) Places where you have no choice but to inhale smoke (and whether or not second-hand smoke will cause actual physical damage, I still prefer NOT to inhale it, because, well, it smells horrible) are usually fairly easy to avoid, except in certain situations, like, say, a bar holding a concert that a non-smoker wants to see. There are probably better solutions to that than a total smoking ban for a city, though.

The Bullshit! episode on curse words took pretty much the same position you do (and I do, for that matter) on the FCC's censorship policy. But I also think that deregulation isn't a good idea, and I suppose Libertarians would be in favor of it. It seems to me that Clear Channel owning pretty much every radio station in the country isn't really good for anything. Penn and Teller didn't address that in the episode, though. (Well, since the episode was about censorship, it really wouldn't have been relevant for them to do so.)

You're right about people missing the point of Bowling for Columbine, but then, I think some of that comes down to the same ideas about a lot of people (especially on the conservative side of things) wanting easy answers and thinking they're right no matter what. It's like, since THEY only have one position and won't bother to consider any others, Moore must be the same way. I see this kind of thinking pretty often, really.

[revme.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- I don't know, the Second Hand Smoke thing is one where I'm probably more-or-less with that same approach too. I can't breathe around it, and I would be totally fine _personally_ if they banned it from everywhere (especially shows, sometimes I get headaches after being at a show where there's everyone-and-their-brother smoking because it gets in my clothes and everything), but while I like it _personally_, I'm not sure if I really think it's a Good For Society Thing. I dunno, it's kinda funny, because I actually pretty much agreed with the Second Hand Smoke episode, just not the way it was presented, I guess.

(I am less enamoured with the Global Warming episode, though -- the environmentalist they talked to; the guy with the More Or Less Economic Approach is _hell_ of controversial and there's a LOT of back-and-forth on him. I haven't looked enough at both arguments, unfortunately, so I can't really tell, but it seemed a little disingenuous of P&T to basically be all "This dude is the Bee's Knees!" since, well.. yeah. I don't know. I suppose, say, Magnetotherapy is "controversial" too, but the difference is basically the difference is "Scientists Versus Batshit Kooks" -- with that guy, it's more "Scientists Versus Other Scientists", with Kooks And Others taking sides, so... yeah. I am not willing to write him off all together, nor am I willing to say "Oh, P&T are 100% right with him!", but I think they could have handled it a bit better. That, and I thought that episode was a bit too... Let's beat up on the flakes and kooks! rather than actually dealing so much with issues. That's probably the least satisfying Bullshit! episode, and I wish they'd have gone back and redone it. Because I think they've got some good points but I think it's more complex than they're making it out ("Global Warming isn't real! What are you, stupid?!").)

Anyway, though, those episodes basically make Bullshit only, say, 99.9% The Best Thing Ever rather than 100%, so... hey.

But yeah, we don't have Friendly's, but I think I pretty much know The Type Of Place It Is. I'm thinkin' sorta a Denny's/Shari's or maybe even a TGI Friday's type place?

But yeah -- it was weird, though, since a lot of complaints about BfC even seemed to come from the Liberal Side as well. Like they wanted Moore to just go "GUNS ARE BAD!!! DON'T USE GUNS!!!" and do that for 2 hours, instead of an actually nuanced exploration of the issue. I mean, I don't think that Moore is the End-All-Be-All Type Guy or anything, but... yeah. I thought BfC was better than people gave it credit for.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Was the global warming episode the one where they kept talking to that clueless hippie who didn't really know why she was supporting her pet causes? If so, yeah, I think that was one of the weaker ones, although I can't remember for sure.

I guess my general thought on global warming is that it might not be quite as much of an imminent threat as some reactionary types want us to believe, but it's still happening, and something should be done about it. I mean, even if global warming itself ISN'T a big problem, the pollution that's causing it is almost certainly bad for a lot of other reasons.

Friendly's is kind of like Denny's, but geared more toward kids, and with more of an emphasis on dessert and less on breakfast. It serves a lot of the same kinds of food as Friday's, but doesn't have a liquor license. I don't think I've ever been to a Shari's.

[revme.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's the one I'm thinking of -- I mean, I totally agree that that particular chick was dumb as a box of hammers, and that a bunch of those sorts of folks are doing it because it's a Cause rather than actually feeling strongly about the particular issue, and that a lot of those types of Environmentalists are actually Pretty Embarassing and even maybe Detrimental To Their Cause. The only problem is that P&T were sort of doing a Clueless By Association Thing (More than with the other episodes, where, y'know, it's hard to find, say, someone who believes in Ouija boards who ISN'T clueless -- I had less of a problem with that sorta stuff, especially since most of the people they'd actively beat up on weren't People Who Were Taken In, but The Evil Motherfuckers Who Know Better But Are Saying This Bullshit To Make Loads Of Money), and they seemed to do less actually Hard Science in it. I tend to think that there was a germ of a good episode in that one, but as is, it was a really flawed ep, and sort of a bad way to go out, since wasn't it the season finale? But yeah, I don't hold that ep against the series or anything.

But yeah -- I don't know really. I'm pretty much where you are; I mean, I thought it was interesting that they mentioned in that episode about how in the 1970s everyone thought that Global Cooling was the Big Problem (although, of course, they didn't go into it as much, about reputable scientists-versus-kook/moneymaker scientists, I thought; after all, that's part of the charm of science; hypotheses can be proven wrong and scientists aren't felt compelled to hang on to them, even if it does look a little weird to be "Oh, this is True!" one day and "Oh, no, this wholly other thing is True!" the next -- no matter if you actually were working under a hypothesis the first day that seemed like it was going to bear out, and then the next the results were in that showed how wrong you were); so, I dunno. I think that barring me-doing-my-own-legwork and stuff, I'm tempted to more-or-less trust P&T, since I, well, I trust them and don't necessarily think they'd lie to me (Well.... you know what I mean, heh.) -- but, yeah, I tend to think of it more like you do: If it exists, it's not nearly as big a problem as folks are making it out to be, but it's still a problem. And if it doesn't exist, that pollution can't be good anyway, so something should still be done. I mean, it's not like anyone (uh, as far as I know... maybe some twits are...) is saying "OK, once we get Global Warming licked, we can just sit back and do whatever we want!" -- and since the Suggested Causes of GW are mostly stuff that we know is Bad Anyway, why not spend time fixin' them?

Also, Shari's might just be a West Coast thing, I'm not quite sure. They're sort of a Denny's but a bit better.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I get the idea that Penn and Teller are usually more or less accurate, even if they have an agenda that doesn't necessarily agree totally with my own political beliefs.

Is Shari's open all night, and do they have breakfast at all hours?

[revme.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's pretty much how I am. When I agree with them, though, it's AWESOME.

Definitely yes to 24 hrs, and I think yes to breakfast, but I'm not certain on that one.