Oh, news flash — Rick Perry wants to invade Mexico. Well, why not? He’s got to prove to the base that he’s crazier & meaner than a meth-addled armadillo, and this may do it.
But why stop at emulating Black Jack Pershing’s crusade against Pancho Villa? Let’s re-take Chapultepec!
Back to the scheduled topic — E.D. Kain has a great post at Balloon Juice pointing out that libertarians hate democracy. Just a bit —
Michael Lind recently wrote a piece on libertarian hostility to democracy and at the time I felt as though something were missing from the otherwise excellent article. I believe that many libertarians sincerely do believe in liberty. Yet for all that, the antipathy to democracy — which goes well beyond Hayek’s preferred “liberal dictatorship” — reveals the fundamental internal conflict within libertarianism: in order for it to exist as a model for society, democracy must be snuffed out through coercion.
Be sure to read the whole thing.
I’ve been reading that we already have special forces in Mexico, plus CIA and “contractors.” They are fighting drug cartels, not just training Mexican troops. Why mock Perry when we already have troops there?
We have CIA officials working with their Mexican counterparts on joint intelligence operations, and Mexican special ops units are being trained by U.S. special ops units. What Perry is suggesting is an invasion of Mexico.
Why can’t we invade Canada?
Montreal is one of my favorite cities in the world.
Maybe after Mexico.
Who thought we’d blow the dust off of Manifest Destiny in the 21 Century, and want to control the continent from near the Equator to the North Pole?
And why stop there?
Let’s go for South America. After all, it’s got ‘America’ in its name.
The United States of America – Pole to Pole!
Perry’s famous boot maker friend needs to make him an embossed leather codpiece. Something nice and fitting for a warrior with maybe the Texas state seal surrounded by a border motif of intertwining saguaro cactus and some occasional hand forged silver rivets.
I think we can effectively tie wingers in knots by pointing out that, if we took over Mexico, we’d have to educate all those damn Mekskins. It might be like one of those scenes from the original Star Trek when Kirk ties the alien computer into a logical paradox!
They already hate Perry for being willing to educate Mexicans in Texas, just imagine how bad it would be if they imaginged having to pay to educate ALL of them.
I know, and wish I didn’t, some libertarians – at least that’s what they call themselves. They’re an unhappy bunch and I understand the source of their unhappiness to be a haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be getting social insurance – they’re almost phobic on the subject, in fact, which may be why none of them is able to actually define libertarianism – phobias do cloud reason, after all.
According to Lind – as I read him – libertarians have a fondness for tyranny over democracy. Actually, it sounds more like seated tyrants of the past have professed a belief in libertarian ideals which, of course, is very clever of them given that tyrants are made when men rule above law.
WAY OT:
Tonight is Andy Rooney’s last appearance on “60 Minutes.”
**SOB***
Lind’s piece on the longstanding affection of econo-libertarians for murderous pro-business authoritarians like Chile’s Pinochet or Cuba’s Batista is brilliant. Sufficient wealth and property will buy you all the civil liberties you could ever want or need in a system like that. Private power don’t need no stinkin’ constitution.
“We have CIA officials working with their Mexican counterparts on joint intelligence operations, and Mexican special ops units are being trained by U.S. special ops units. What Perry is suggesting is an invasion of Mexico.”
Maha — I don’t believe it ends there. There are reports that they are involved in fighting drug cartels. I don’t know how credible those reports are, but after all that has happened in the last 10 years, why should anyone believe them when they say that is all they are doing?
The reports I saw didn’t have anything in the way of sourcing, which made them sound more like speculation to me. But even if true, there is a difference between what sounds like covert special ops and regular troops.
WAY OT:
c u n d glag didn’t you use to be c u n d gulag? Or, are you someone new?
Libertarians versus liberty? What a conundrum! Until, of course, you realize that political labels tend to be lies. ‘Libertarianism’ is a misnomer; its proper title is ‘propertarianism’; for private property is what interests them. This implies, among other things, that they are more into privileges than rights.
I hear that a very large percentage of the Mexican cartels profit and business is in marijuana. If we were to legalize marijuana we would effectively cut their profits and business by over 60%-70% without ever having to spend a dime to combat them. Cut them in half with the swoop of a pen. On top of that, we would be able to tax and regulate a lucrative market that we have created with our unreasoned marijuana laws.
” I tried Marijuana once, It made me want to rape and kill”
Thanks, Bonnie, I hadn’t noticed.
I’m ‘glag’ you told me!
The title of this one made me chuckle. Tea Partiers had no earthly clue what their yammering about when they shout the words “liberty” and “freedom” like some litany or magical incantation. Erich Fromm identifies two different sorts of freedom — “freedom from” and “freedom to become”. The first connotates avoidance of oppression and the second suggests that the qualified not be denied equal opportunity to better themselves (particularly if society benefits) on account of artificial impediments of $$$….that the sky should be the limit for those who excel in some way. We’re all better off when money does not get in the way of this. Now the tea partiers have sadly mistaken “freedom from” to include freedom from taxes, science, community and a lot more upon which civil society is grounded. What’s next? Freedom from patriotism? Accountability? Community? The god-given right to hate who you please?
This is a pernicious re-definition of freedom and will inevitably land us closer to a totalitarian society than it will empower individuals who are willing to work hard.