From: Brian Holtz [brian@holtz.org]
Sent: Sunday, June 16, 2002 3:00 PM
To: Anton Sherwood
Cc: ba-liberty@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [ba-liberty] Answer to Mr. Sherwood on Drugs


> From: anton [mailto:anton]On Behalf Of Anton Sherwood
>
> > You held up the sign at a rally called to "protest [the] Drug War".
> > Any such rally can obviously be interpreted as "my drugs and my
> > taxes". 
>
> Is there any point in tailoring the message for the implied 
> subject of that passive?

That depends on precisely what you mean by 'tailoring'.  Would you
maintain that there is no value in immunizing the party and
the cause from charges of "my drugs and my taxes" selfishness?

> Must I turn a blind eye to murder, corruption and hypocrisy

Nope. Got any other strawmen for me to deny?  (Hint: using
'must' instead of 'should' makes it a strawman.)

> for fear of the spin that an occasional shithead will put 
> on my anger?

The widespread "my drugs and my taxes" perception of 
libertarians is hardly that of just "an occasional shithead",
and the fact that you think otherwise speaks volumes.
As does the fact that this mailing list exploded with
traffic as soon as someone dared criticize the libertarian
emphasis on drug policy.  You may be as hardcore a drug
enthusiast as I am an atheist, but it's just not smart to make
either drug use or atheism the poster child for
libertarianism.

> > When was the last libertarian rally for (say) market-
> > oriented environmental protection (or anything else that
> > couldn't be interpreted as "my drugs and my taxes")?
>
> Couldn't?  "You must own stock in timber companies."

Que?  If you've got a place and date for the most recent
libertarian rally that was a defensible candidate as not
being about "my drugs or my taxes", let's hear it.
So far, you guys are 0 for 2 on answering this question.
--
brian@holtz.org
http://humanknowledge.net