[The Mad Hatter]

I seem to remember Permabear's preferred candidate, Anyone But Obama, using self-defence to rationalise military aggression in the middle east.

[ed2hands]

He's a fruitcake.

[hooradiation]

Originally Posted by Valmont

And Robindch still hasn't finished an Ayn Rand novel.

Given that acts of exceptional patience are usually the preserve of saints, I'm not sure why you're so surprised.

[RichieC]

Rick Santorum on Sunday took on separation of church and state.

"I don't believe in an America where the separation of church and state are absolute," he told 'This Week' host George Stephanopoulos. "The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country...to say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes me want to throw up."

The GOP candidate was responding to comments he made last October. He had said that he "almost threw up" after reading JFK's 1960 speech in which he declared his commitment to the separation of church and state.

Santorum also on Sunday told Meet The Press host David Gregory that separation of church and state was "not the founders' vision."

The GOP candidate has been doubling down on religious rhetoric in an effort to court evangelical voters ahead of Super Tuesday. Last week, he questioned Obama's spiritual beliefs.

"[Obama believes in] some phony ideal, some phony theology ... not a theology based on the Bible, a different theology," he said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1302246.html

This guy makes me want to puke!

[HavingCrack]

Interestingly in terms of foreign policy Ron Paul is easily the best candidate for the Republicans and is better than Obama.

[RichieC]

A snob that want EVERYONE to go to college...

[joseph brand]

Originally Posted by RichieC

I read the caption in HIS voice. Impossible not to.

[robindch]

He's the presidential fruitcake that keeps on giving.

Here's Santorum speaking to an, er, overflow crowd in the town of ... wait for it ... Cumming.

http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=245894

[amacachi]

The GOP candidate was responding to comments he made last October. He had said that he "almost threw up" after reading JFK's 1960 speech in which he declared his commitment to the separation of church and state.

Ironic really that JFK had to say such things because the Baptists and other nutters with whom Santorum is so cosy were unlikely to vote for a Catholic at that time.

Some old-school fractures in the unity of the Christian denominations in the US actually look appealing.

[RichieC]

This should be the Album cover of this thread:

[Jimoslimos]

Originally Posted by Permabear

As such, libertarians would hardly condone the prospect of a private militia that went abroad with the goal of killing people and stealing their property.

Given this, I think it's clear that libertarians would not be okay with mercenaries or conquistadores heading off to foreign lands. The very prospect is a bit ludicrous, in fact.

There's is a difference between not condoning something and actually taking physical steps to prevent it.

Imagine the many thousands of unemployed ex-US military combined with major weapons suppliers whose main employer/buyer has downscaled and it's not so ludicrous to see how these might come together.

I have many many problems with libertarianism but I'll try limit my reservations to those with relevance to the A&A forum. It might preach tolerance and freedom of expression but the flip-side of these freedoms is it permits bigotry, hatred and segregation to spread.

It's not a stretch of imagination to imagine schools, clubs, shops, communities, etc refusing to teach/deal with/permit/etc people based on their religion (or lack of). No amount of toothless condemnation from a libertarian federal government will change things at a local level.

[Permabear]

Originally Posted by Jimoslimos

I have many many problems with libertarianism but I'll try limit my reservations to those with relevance to the A&A forum. It might preach tolerance and freedom of expression but the flip-side of these freedoms is it permits bigotry, hatred and segregation to spread.

You might be able to argue this, based on the fact that libertarians generally do not support state censorship of so-called "hate speech." Libertarians believe that groups such as neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan have every right to spread their ideas — as malignant and noxious as they might be — because they see any prospective downsides of free speech as minor issues when compared to the alternative, which is granting governments the power to regulate what kinds of speech, publications, and ideas can circulate in society.

It's not a stretch of imagination to imagine schools, clubs, shops, communities, etc refusing to teach/deal with/permit/etc people based on their religion (or lack of). No amount of toothless condemnation from a libertarian federal government will change things at a local level.

It's not a stretch of the imagination at all. Libertarians don't believe that government should have the power to force private business owners to serve clientele that they don't want to serve. But neither do they believe that governments should prevent businesses from serving certain clientele (as they have done in the past with apartheid, Jim Crow laws, etc). In short, they oppose both state-mandated integration and state-mandated segregation.

If a woman wants to found a private gym that admits only women, or if a Muslim want to found a private school that admits only Muslims, do you believe they should have that right? Alternatively, do you believe that the government have the right to override the wishes of private business owners, forcing the gym to admit men and the school to admit children of all religions?

[Permabear]

Originally Posted by The Mad Hatter

I seem to remember Permabear's preferred candidate, Anyone But Obama, using self-defence to rationalise military aggression in the middle east.

Who was that, by the way? Do you have a link?

[RichieC]

Play a game of Khamenei or Santorum:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...rand_old_party

[horses4courses]

God didn't say anything.