Thom’s article:
Libertarians Believe in Kingdom Rather than Democracy | Thom Hartmann

“I’ve often said that Libertarians are Republicans who want to smoke dope and get laid (they’re in favor of decriminalizing pot and prostitution), but what Rand Paul is showing us that their worldview goes much farther than even a Republican like Richard Nixon – who brought us the EPA – would.”

That’s right, Thom – but libertarians don’t believe in Kingdom, they believe in a Magic Kingdom. In modern libertarianism, a super-deity called Free Market rights all wrongs and makes everyone free through it’s magical power of privatization. And even though we have wonderful examples of universal privatization in places like Somalia, somehow the magic deity will make things all better in America. You just have to believe…

We could wish that libertarianism was a movement of personal freedom, as it would like to disguise itself. If only libertarians weren’t so stuck on their worship of corporatism it might be different. However, we have to deal with modern libertarianism as it IS, not as we wish it was.

The fact that libertarian think tanks are funded by corporations and the super rich should tell you everything you need to know. But of course, the average citizen probably doesn’t realize that. So let us clarify AGAIN that libertarians want ZERO regulations on corporations AND universal privatization. That means that while you may own your own home, you won’t be able to set foot outside of your little piece of property without having to “trespass” on someone else’s property. That means that if you are allowed on the streets and sidewalks at all, it will be a privilege granted to you by the owner of that property. You will be able to do so ONLY under the rules of the owner, and that privilege will be subject to revocation at any time.

Rand Paul’s insistence that businesses should be able to be “white’s only” or “no Jews allowed” if the owner chooses isn’t an aberration, it is the cornerstone of libertarianism: private property rights above all; no public rights, period.

Once again, we remind you that you have NO rights when you are on someone else’s private property. And under the libertarian ideal, every inch of space is someone else’s private property.

The faith of libertarians is admirable for its steadfastness in the face of reality. Their idea that corporations, which now do so much harm as they play games at the edge of the law, will suddenly start doing good things once they have no restraints on them would seem to fly in the face of both common sense and empirical observation. For the faithful, however, reality has a well-known liberal bias and may be ignored.

It reminds me of the line that is used every time there is a merger: “The new combined company will be more efficient and will be able to pass the savings along to the consumer.” – Yeah… they will be able to - that’s very different from actually doing, however. The reality is that no corporations ever merged so that they could pass savings along to consumers; they did it to maximize profits. And that’s all corporations ever try to do, is maximize profits. But that never stopped a libertarian from believing.

Oh, and speaking of Libertarians being Republicans who want to smoke dope: Try going into a mall wearing the “wrong” kind of t-shirt (one that is against “mall policy”) …or saying the wrong thing – in that privately-owned public space – and see what happens. And yet Libertarians think that dope will be okay? Well, maybe, but only if the giant corporation that owns the town in which you live decides to allow it. That decision will depend only on how it affects the quarterly corporate bottom line.

If libertarianism prevails then we hope and pray that the libertarians are at least right in this one aspect and dope becomes legal. Frankly you’ll need to be stoned 24/7 to deal with your life under the corporate jack-boot …and knowing that you, Mr. Libertarian, helped bring about our living hell.

Another reason why libertarianism means no liberty at all.

“In my 20 years of practice as a family physician, I have encountered dozens of cases where the main contributing factor to a person’s death was the lack of health insurance for most of their lives.”

A recent academic study showed that about 45,000 people die in the USA every year due to lack of health care. These are deaths that simply DO NOT HAPPEN in other first world countries. This may be part of why most general practitioners are FOR universal healthcare even as the AMA vehemently opposes it.

What are the arguements against universal healthcare? “The government can’t do anything right” …even though Medicare, which is government-run healthcare is twice as efficient as the best of private insurance, delivering the best healthcare at the lowest cost. “You’ll have to wait to see your doctor” …like you don’t wait now! Sure, okay, there will be more people who can see a doctor if we have universal healthcare. God forbid you should have to wait an extra day to see your doc about that hangnail. 45,000 dead people every year is a small price to pay! “There will be death panels” … No, but there ARE DEATH PANELS RIGHT NOW; they are called insurance company bureacrats (why, btw, brag about killing people to boost profits).

Basically, my bottom line is this: If you don’t care about all those people who are dying RIGHT now, EVERY fuckng day because we in America put private profits above human life, then go fuck yourself. I don’t want to hear your bullshit.

The real “DEATH PANELS” are those who – in the name of ‘profits uber alles’ – are willing to let people die and turn a blind eye to it. They are paid off by insurance companies and they don’t give a crap about you. Oh, and this applies to radio talk show hosts, too.

Another blog gives a good breakdown of why American healthcare is so expensive and yet so bad: Where the money goes in the US health care system.

If you haven’t figured it out already, ALL of the scare stories and ALL of the crazy yelling town hall people are health insurance company-backed bullshit.

The people are shills. They are lying about being constituents, LYING about being ‘non-partisan’ – and the money behind all this AstroTurf (fake grassroots) comes from people with a dog in the fight; the health insurance industry.

Lies built on lies, and parroted by sleazy amoral radio and television talking heads.

So now we know, these people don’t give a shit about you, and they think you should just die if you aren’t rich. They’re bought and paid for by billionaires who also think you should die if you aren’t in their club. I hope all these sick fucks rot in hell. If there was an ounce of justice in the world, they WOULD!

So we see anecdotal evidence every day that conservatives don’t live in a world of facts, they live in a world of pre-determined conclusions… and fear. Scientists Explain Why People Vote For Republicans.

Covering two scientific studies about political views, one of the things we’ve shown as rather obvious is that conservatives start with a conclusion and then accept only “evidence” that fits their original beliefs. Duh. We see it all the time right here!

One study started with the whole lie about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction. For the purposes of the study, they could have started with any story. Taking people who believed this trumped-up cover story for the pre-planned invasion of Iraq, the true believers were then shown evidence that the story was not true. This evidence included very thorough research papers and studies. More than enough facts to change anyone’s mind. But not conservatives. For them, they only became MORE certain of their preconceptions.

“This ‘backfire’ effect only worked on conservatives. Even when they varied the source of the refutations, it made no difference—corrections from the New York Times and Fox News both caused conservatives to believe the lies even harder. In other words, objective truth is dead, observable reality is a fairy tale, etc.”

The last poll I heard indicated that about 40 percent of Americans self-identify as conservatives. And as we’ve seen here time and again (and has been repeatedly proven in scientific studies) conservative=fact-free.

Or put another way, America is almost certainly doomed. I’d like to think better – I really would. I’d like to believe that facts and reality DO eventually penetrate the conservative mind; it just takes a lot longer.

At least give me that!

Some ‘conservatives’ (read, pro-oligarchy folk) have tried to redefine the term ‘free market’ to mean only one that doesn’t involve “government interference.” I can’t blame them, I guess, everyone wants to make their position sound as good and as reasonable as possible.

It’s false, however.

A free market isn’t just a market lacking government regulation. Here is the ACTUAL definition: A “free market” is a market in which sellers, under no undue pressure to sell, proffer their goods/services to buyers who are under no compulsion to buy. This is critical; change any element of this formula and you are no longer talking about free market.

Health care is not (and cannot become) a free market for two reasons:
1) Supply is artificially restricted by the government and the AMA. The scarcity of medical care drives up the cost. This is completely artificial. You might say “Well, they have to! You can’t have just anyone practicing medicine!” Fine, I agree, but that means that health care CANNOT EVER be a free market, because of the artificial restriction of supply.
2) Not only is supply artificially low, but buyers are under EXTREME compulsion to buy. What, that thought never occurred to you!?!? If you need lifesaving medical care, you either get it or you die! End of story.

No free market exists in health care. And you just agreed in item one that you cannot turn it into a free market.

You could change item 1 by stripping the AMA of its ability to tell medical schools how many doctors they can graduate every year AND letting anyone sell medical services who wants to do so. So then you could choose between the really expensive guy who went to medical school and Joe the Plumber who sells antibiotics out of the back of his truck. This would take care of half the problem.

BUT, you can’t do anything about item 2: People will still need lifesaving care and as long as it is a LIFE OR DEATH NEED, the medical health care system will NEVER follow free market rules.

Sometimes people say, “yeah but we need food, too! And you don’t want the government regulating that.” Food has multiple sources and you can even grow your own, so supply isn’t artificially limited as it is with healthcare. And even so, the government does, in fact, regulate prices through farm subsidies and other methods. We have a cheap food policy in the USA. Some people think that’s bad. Whatever, we need an affordable healthcare policy and it needs to be effective in balancing the artificial (but necessary) limitation on supply.

No free market in healthcare and the people who say they want a free market really don’t (they still want limited doctors, limited medicines, etc.) so what we have is a monopolistic utility, ["monopolistic" because the government & AMA tell you who can provide the services and a "utility" because consumers NEED and are compelled to buy the services from only a few government-approved providers]. As with all monopolistic utilities consumers have no choice except to pay whatever price is demanded.

Now in most other utilities, government as the representatives of the people recognizes the unfair power that the supplier has over the consumer and acts to tightly regulate pricing. For medicine, those with an agenda having NOTHING to do with anyone’s best interest are still trying to pretend that there is some kind of free market solution.

It’s bullshit. When you figure out a way we can all buy medicine from our local supermarket in the same way we buy potato chips AND you figure out a system where people are NEVER compelled to seek medical care to LIVE – THEN and only then will you have free market healthcare.

The rest is all pure phony bullshit spewed by people who only care about profit-taking for the super rich and don’t give a shit about the average person. It’s a fact, and I just proved it!

Some probably-paid talk show callers have been claiming expertise and saying that the problem with health care is that people get too much of it. =The solution, these ersatz listeners claim, is to get rid of medicare and all government price controls and let the “free market” decide. Yes, that’s right, people are dying every day for lack of health care – and America is the ONLY industrialized nation where that happens – and the conservative “solution” is to make health care even more expensive so that you stupid consumers won’t use it as much!!!

Look, those of you who are driven by ideology need to understand that free market rules are a bit like the laws of thermodynamics: Yes, they work – but they apply only in a vacuum, under ideal conditions that seldom exist in real life. You need to blow off the ideology and start looking at reality. We’ll all be better off if you do.

“Ortloff discussed engaging in various sexual acts with said ‘minors’ while conversing with them online and on the telephone,” states the plea agreement signed by Ortloff on Wednesday.

I remember a Republican party that used to be practical and interested in fiscal conservatism. Where did those Republicans go, hmm? It seems that the embrace of religious extremism has caused a death spiral for the party. Now the only thing they can do is attack, ridicule and slime the other guy.

On the positive side, it makes it much easier to find child molesters and other sex offenders: Just check the voting rolls.

Kidding aside, I’m getting really REALLY tired of these fucking Republicans leveling with the public about all the scummy shit that’s been done in the name of the American public AFTER they leave public serve and get a hefty publishing advance or are worried about how history will judge them.  Yes, I’m looking at you, Colin Powell.

Seriously, how do these people sleep at night, knowing that they could have told America what was going on but they kept their mouths shut because, at the time, it was better for their careers?

In a just world, all of these honest-only-when-it-pays fuckers would go on some kind of Scumbag Picnic, driven there in a rickety school bus along a road on the edge of a cliff high above the ocean by a meth addict overdue for his dose.  Oops, he missed the sharp curve.  Darn the luck!  Ah, but I digress.

Hey, Greenspan!  I realize it won’t be long now before the Icy Grip of Death grabs you by the balls and drags you into the grave but you might consider taking a moment out of your busy book-selling schedule to apologize to the people of America and the world for keeping your geriatric jaw shut about what you knew about the “Battle for Iraq” (as my local Fox affiliate’s news show calls it).  Doesn’t it ever bother you, Alan, when you sit down to cut into your nice filet mignon and you see all that blood on your hands?  All the book royalties in the world won’t make it go away.  Try washing some of it off with TRUTH, Old Man.

Alan Greenspan claims Iraq war was really for oil – Times Online

Oh, OK, I’ll go a little further with this.  Quoting from the article:

“Rand had a reputation for living for her own interest. She is said to
have seduced her most serious reader, Nathaniel Branden, when he was 24
or 25 and she was at least 50. Each was married to someone else. In
fact, Mr. Britting confirmed, they called their spouses to a meeting at
which the pair announced their intention to make the mentor-protégé
relationship a sexual one.”

Oh, so she was a cheating bitch.  Good role model there.  I’m sure her husband appreciated the objectivism that went into her decision to fuck a younger guy behind his back.

More:

“Last year, bookstores sold 150,000 copies of the book. It continues to hold appeal, even to a younger generation. Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, who was born in 1958, and John P. Mackey, the chief executive of Whole Foods, who was 3 when the book was published, have said they consider Rand crucial to their success.”

I’m not aware of anything terrible that Mark Cuban has done, but he does have a widespread reputation for being pretty fucking cuckoo.  Didn’t he get fined a huge amount of money for screaming at refs during a Mavericks game?

As for the guy who runs Whole Foods, that asshole got caught recently putting anonymous postings on a business-oriented web site’s message board disparaging his biggest competitor, saying that it was poorly run, etc.  Oh, funny story, he just BOUGHT that competitor.  What’s that, Randians?  Oh, he was just acting in his “rational self-interest,” not being a flaming douchebag who lied about his competition to lower its sale price?  Oh, no prob, then.

“The book’s hero, John Galt, also continues to live on. The subcontractor hired to demolish the former Deutsche Bank building,
which was damaged when the World Trade Center towers fell, was the John
Galt Corporation. It was removed from the job last month after a fire
at the building killed two firefighters.”

Yeah, turns out (not that the New York Times seemed to think that this was worth telling you in this article) that the John Galt Corporation never demolished anything before.  Hey, who needs experience when you have self-interest to service and powerful fellow Rand fans to grease the skids for you?

Know what?  I’ve changed my mind.  I take back “fuck Ayn Rand.”  Fuck Ayn Rand AND all the assholes who think that her elaborate rationalization of selfishness constitutes a “philosophy.” 

Ayn Rand’s Literature of Capitalism – New York Times

When a ‘Duplicate’ Family Moves In – New York Times

Not according to the Feds; now they’re saying that porn purveyors have to have personal information about the “stars” of their “films” on file.  It’s to protect the children, don’t you know?

Bullshit, says me.  I don’t care what you think about porn; if you don’t like it, don’t buy it.  My point is that this is NOT to protect anybody’s kid.  If the producers can demonstrate that the participants are of age, then there are no children involved and it’s none of the government’s concern beyond that point.  Period.  (We’re assuming here, of course, that everything is consensual.)

This is just more of the religion-driven anti-sex shit the GOP is famous for.  Over the last three decades or so, there have been at least two federal government-funded studies on the effects of porn.  Both of them concluded that porn has NO deleterious effect on a normal adult human.  Facts.  Who needs ‘em when we have perfectly good superstition to follow?

Any time someone gives you that, “It’s to protect the children” line, take a good, close look at what their agenda really is.  Most of the time they’re just out to fuck with you and your right to choose what entertainment you purchase.

FEDS’ PORN ULTIMATUM | By JANON FISHER | National News | US News | Current National News

Oh, and as for this “well, it helped us find some guy who may have been up to something sneaky” shit, uh, were there other people you jerked around who weren’t doing a damn thing?  “Well, it makes me feel safer,” you say?  Tell me that when it’s YOU who gets yanked out of line and taken to the back room for questioning because you made a frowny face in front of the Junior G-man who handled your baggage.

Here’s an idea: let’s round up every man of the age of puberty or older.  I mean, they’re all potential rapists, right?  How do we know who the real rapists may turn out to be?  If we wait for them to actually commit a crime, it’ll be too late. 

Oh, and while we’re at it, let’s lock up all the women, too.  I mean, any one of them could be a bank robber, if not today then possibly tomorrow. 

Don’t you dare tell me that what I’ve just proposed is absurd if you support this “facial profiling” bullshit.  It’s the same logic, just extended to include more people.  Once you’ve accepted the “logic” that everyone is under suspicion because of the actions of a few, why not go all the way and flat-out accuse everyone?  That includes you, of course.  What, did you think that your support of universal suspicion exempted you?  Sorry.  After all, wouldn’t a guilty person act like that to throw off suspicion of them?  What are you trying to hide?

Welcome to the Slippery Slope, Dude.

New airport agents check for danger in fliers’ facial expressions

Read this article which talks about the government wanting to implement cameras that can read your smallest facial movements and, based on your nose twitches, decide if you’re a “terrorist,” then tell me that this cameras-up-everyone’s-ass-for-”safety” bullshit still makes sense to you.

Studies by Paul Ekman, a psychologist at the University of California,
San Francisco, have revealed that involuntary expressions can often
betray someone’s true intentions. If you flash your teeth, lower your
eyebrows and wrinkle your nose for a fraction of a second while trying
to smile, you have just demonstrated the micro-expression for disgust.

And that, my friend, means you’re a radical Muslim, not that you just had an un-airconditioned cab ride to the airport in heavy traffic.  Why do you hate America, Mr. Nose Wrinkler?

I know I’m getting old ’cause I can remember when conservatives OPPOSED government intrusion like this. 

Give ‘em an inch and they’ll take your liberties…but at least the nose-wrinklers will be in custody.

Security firms working on devices to spot would-be terrorists in crowd

Remember the late Phil Hartman of Saturday Night Live as Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer?  He was, as the name suggests, a caveman who was unfrozen from an iceberg and went on to become a trial lawyer.  Since he was a caveman, he kept referring (unconvincingly) to his fear of the modern world’s technology.  That’s the Republicans, without the “unconvincing” part.  As they said on Family Guy, the two symbols of the Republican Party are the elephant and an old, fat, white guy who is threatened by change.

OK, I am now going to let you in (sort of) on a secret.  I was actually on that CNN/YouTube debate.  Well, I kind of was and was NOT on the debate.  Near the top of the show, host Anderson Cooper aired very brief looks at some videos that didn’t make the cut.  In case you happen to have recorded the debate, I won’t tell you exactly which non-CNN-approved person I am (or why I was not approveable), but I AM seen on camera, although you don’t hear my voice.  It’s nice to see that CNN has standards; they aren’t going to allow anything silly on their air during a Presidential candidates’ debate.  Oh wait, what’s that?  A question about global warming from a SNOWMAN?  OK, now I’m confused.

Hey, maybe that’s what frightened the Republicans.  They think the talking snowman is real.

OK, listen up, Congressional Democrats, I’m only going to say this once.  Even after nearly seven years of having your metaphorical lunch money figuratively stolen by Dick Cheney and Co. (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rove Industries), you still haven’t gotten the fucking message.  Your political opponents are NOT nice people who are merely a little confused on the issues.  They’re fucking scumbags who are willing to send other people’s sons and daughters to fight and die in a Godforsaken sandpile in the Official Middle of Nowhere.

You Dems aren’t even playing the same game as the GOP.  You’re playing horseshoes while they’re playing hand grenades.

THEY DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT REASON, THEY DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOUR SUBPOENAS…THEY DON’T EVEN CARE ABOUT PUBLIC OPINION ANYMORE! 

Here’s how to handle them.  Every single thing any of them touches in the course of their working day belongs to the government of the United States of America, which means the people of the U.S.  Every office, every desk IN every office and every phone on those desks belongs to US.  All you have to do is reallocate those resources, as you have every right to.

Send men to the West Wing of the White House, accompanies by armed guards, to literally pick up and remove the desks, phones, chairs, EVERYTHING from their fucking offices.  Remember that “man-sized safe” supposedly in Cheney’s office?  Send some broadbacked guys over to his office with some hand trucks and have them carry the fucking thing out to a truck and drive it up to Capitol Hill.  Leave nothing behind but a card table and a desk lamp.

I’m absolutely serious about this.  Not one single thing in those offices belongs to the current occupant.  The Bush administration is NOT going to respond to what reasonable public officeholders would.  It’s time to Think Outside The Box, as they say.  Strip these people of the trappings of the offices they love so much.  Turn Bush into a figurehead by taking away even the ballpoint pens he signs his illegal “signing statements” with.  You want a Constitutional Crisis, Fuckhead-in-Chief?  No problem.  To quote you, “Bring it on!”