Comments on: Rudy Giuiliani Is Not A Libertarian, Exhibit Two

By: gsmm

gsmm — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 11:46:59 +0000

I was there when Don asked Giuliani, right after he gave a speech about protecting state rights and individual freedom. If you want to find out where all of the presidential candidates stand on medical marijuana please visit http://www.granitestaters.com.

By: Seer

Seer — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 21:42:40 +0000

“Live Free or Die”

It would appear that Rudy would prefer people die.

By: Tom Gellhaus

Tom Gellhaus — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 23:16:42 +0000

Returning to the original post’s subject, have we heard from Eric Dondero about Rudy’s excuses for his opposition to medical marijuana and his refusal to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge?
I mean, Eric kept saying months ago that Rudy was a libertarian; I know that Ron Paul is not the only one running who has said they would not use the federal government to oppose states who voted to allow medical marijuana use.

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 19:44:35 +0000

Richard you assume there’s no room for debate on the life issue within the context of libertarianism.

The issue is one that simple liberty-oriented philosophy does not directly engage.

Where does life start? When does that life become human? I’ll admit I’m not the best read when it comes to libertarian writing, but do these issues have a clear-cut answer?

I don’t think so. If you believe that from the moment of copulation, sex (as a consentual act) carries with it an inherent obligation to the potential fetus, then a pro-life stance can hardly be denied.

If you believe that a fetus isn’t a baby/human until it takes its first breath, then a pro-life stance would not be consistent with libertarian views.

The key word here is belief. This is something science can’t answer.

As a med student who used to tutor in embryology, I can give you a lot of facts as to why the ‘first breath’ thing is bollocks. That and the fact that I was born over a month early, perfectly healthy. The difference between me and an ‘abortable fetus’ was one of location, for over a month of my life. I can also give you a lot of reasons why ‘conception’ isn’t a very good point either. Not least of which is the fact that conception isn’t actually the beginning of pregnancy, physiologically and developmentally speaking.

But that’s all that science can do, it can merely inform the debate.

http://www.l4l.org/

By: Bret

Bret — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 19:28:55 +0000

Richard,

At the risk of sounding a lot like the Ron Paul-spammers, if you check out Paul’s voting record or his essays over at http://www.ronpaullibrary.org you’ll see that he’s ideas on abortion are thoroughly consistent with libertarianism.

My wife (vehemently pro-choice) spent the entire night reading through his essays and at the end had no problem with his views.

By: Doug Mataconis

Doug Mataconis — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 18:44:34 +0000

Richard,

I’m anti-abortion too. I can’t think that anyone actually thinks aborting a fetus is a good thing, even if they believe someone should have a right to do it.

What you actually mean, of course, is that Congressman Paul is pro-life.

The problem is that your assumption that all libertarians are pro-choice is entirely incorrect.

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 18:39:50 +0000

Neither is Ron Paul a Libertarian then- he’s anti-abortion

By: Tom Gellhaus

Tom Gellhaus — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:48:40 +0000

I await Eric Dondero’s explanation of this and the last Rudy article earlier this week eagerly.

Okay, that last word was sarcastic. But I do wonder what his explanation will be – if he isn’t too busy running for TX-14 District to respond.

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:32:53 +0000

They’re the same people who call Bloomberg a libertarian. Yes they are somewhere between left and right, but they often combine the authoritarian aspects of both sides.

Remember, it wasn’t so long ago that Kos had the gall to call himself a libertarian *snort*