The idea of a "libertarian conservative" was always a contradiciton in terms. Until a couple of decades, Libertarianism was universally considered a left-wing grouping.

Hopefully, as those conservatives who have viewed themselves as libertarians dwindle, the tradition will be re-claimed by the left - and, by the same turn, hopefully the left will return to its Libertarian traditions and reject some of the tit-for-tat authoritarian policies it has adopted over the past few decades (Political Correctness and so on - attempts to combat the right's constant authoritarianism by creating a competeing set of authoritarian values, rather than offering liberty first and foremost).

I'm just loving watching you liberals eat it after the horrible 8 years of the Klintoons. Your Kerrys and Sharptons and Deans are such a sharp contrast to Dubyas clearcut ideals. We, the majority out here in the nation, applaud Georges initatives, his choices for cabinet and judges and, by God, we LOVE his wife! We LIKE what he's doing. We like the war in Iraq because it rid the world of Saddam Hussein. To hell with WMD, that was reson enough. And we will kick North Koreas ass too if they're stupid enough to try this administration. Same for Iran and Syria or any other bunch of fanatical idiots. That's the way the majority of us feel. You hang with your bunch, I'm quite pleased with mine. I really am enjoying watching you seeth in hatred tho. I love every article Ann Coulter writes. I love every day of Rush. You liberals are finally being seen for what you really are. Unamerican, unpatriotic and simply, fools. I love it.

Tom-- Thank you for posting your statement in this thread. It just helps illustrate the self-satisfied conservative opposition to dissent-- "unamerican, unpatriotic" yep, please go down the checklist.

But put us foolish liberals and progressives in the column of "unpatriotic" folks from Patrick Henry to John Adams who protested British oppression along with William Lloyd Garrison
and Frederick Douglass who protested slavery's oppression to Martin Luther King et al. Dissent is American patriotism.

Go back to England if you want loyalty to the crown. American dissent-- love it or leave it.

If there's one thing I've learned from all this surfing, discussing, blogging, etc it is "Don't argue with idiots. They will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience"

I've found this to be true on many (not all) right wing websites. Every discussion starts off great but by the end of it becomes this mud slinging match.

Mr. Cox,

Wait a minute, let me get this straight: You "love every article Ann Coulter writes...[and you] love every day of Rush." And yet you enjoy watching us "seeth [sic] in hatred"? Well, OK then. Have a very nice day.

This is really bad, but every time I read a post like Tom's above, my first thought is that it's an attempt at Onion-style satire. Klintoons? Is that supposed to make sense?

Of course, I don't listen to Rush, or read Ann Coulter (though I did see her on Hardball the other night; she's definitely veering into self-parody, if nothing else) so I don't exactly have the everyday exposure to this type of thinking.

Mr. Cox, are you serious? Can you give us the secret sarcasm signal if you aren't?

Ann Coulter is "veering into self-parody"? I *always* thought she was some kind of performance artist, seeing just how far into the lunatic fringe of the rabid right she could before even hard-line Republicans said "steady on". Surely nobody over there takes her seriously.

Nathan - for goodness sake, don't send Tom, or anyone like him, here. Yes, yes, we still have a monarch, but she's just a sweet old lady with no real power. And yes, we've been governed by Thatcherites lunatics for the past twenty years, but that's almost certainly going to change in a couple of years time - and finally, *we'll* elect a Kennedy. We spent a long time getting rid of, or reforming, people like Tom - indeed, we managed to get a lot of them to go to America - we honestly don't want any of them back.

Nathan, reading Tom's ramblings I realized we have another famous backer that you didn't mention: Darwin. Bartcop doesn't call it Monkey Mail for no reason.

GC: I promise you, we're sending Sully back, somehow, someway.

GC: I promise you, we're sending Sully back, somehow, someway.

Hitchens too.

Ah, you're stuck with both of them.

We're trying to find a way to send the other Hitchens brother over now - he's much worse.

"The idea of a "libertarian conservative" was always a contradiciton in terms."

Nonsense. U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas (former Libertarian Party candidate for President) is a perfect example of the compatibility of conservatism with libertarianism.

Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams are libertarian conservatives. (Thomas Sowell with a tad more conservatism, and Walter Williams with a tad more liberatarianism.)

Larry Elder is a libertarian conservative.

I could probably think of dozens more, given enough time.

is corners in command-line,.