Islam is a pro-Aspergers religion (unlike Christianity)

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Yeah....because the problem is that we don't understand basic math principles.

number5 said the math simply does not add up, I show that it does, now it's said with sarcasm that's not the point even when it was stated as a point. Do you not see the fallacy in this?

On the contrary we are very aware of how much government is in our lives and we want them out.

We're not hard-line libertarians. We like our roads, police, fire dept, schools, & military.

Siting pre-industrial living conditions is quite the sad straw man argument. There are plenty of people in rural american living happily on their own without the luxuries provided to most metropolitan areas. But living far away from any city services or government intrusion in no way indicates a pre-industrial living conditions. We are quite happy to live out on our own with no government support, yet we still have running water (with a private well), electricity (from a private electric company), Internet, cell phones, and every other aspect of industrialized life.

And our Amish friends would also like to have a word with you. Many of them are quite happy and content with their pre-industrial living conditions.

So how many programs do we need to eliminate to pay for the 13 trillion + deficit?

Don't you think perhaps a more aggressive payoff plan, such as reducing spending and raising taxes might be in order?

Wouldn't you agree that much suffering could be avoided by allowing so-called entitlement programs to remain and that certain societal problems can only be addressed with additional funding, such as our below average educational system, health system, and crunmbling infrastructure?

If someone finds themselves in the hole for $50k, is it enough for them to cut the cable bill and turn down the thermostat? No.
They need to bring in more income, either by getting a second job, or a better paying job. There needs to be an increase in revenue.

Methinks you don't know what libertarian means if you think they don't want roads, police, fire dept, and military.

Read up on Cato's policy suggestions sometime. It's almost the same as the tea party but without the war rhetoric.

Yea Cato. Privatize roads
http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv25n3/v25n3-6.pdf
Privatize schools
http://www.cato.org/pubs/briefs/bp-023.html

The police, fire, and military privatization would fall more under the "anarcho-capitalism" label but anarcho-capitalism is categorized as a libertarian political philosophy.

That is what I meant by "hard-line libertarians"

Getting back to topic, I think people are being taken advantage of and they are using people's naivity (sorry if spelling is off) to recruit people to use for more violence.

I'm not saying the majority of Muslims are like this, but I have yet to hear of a Jewish or Christian using a passenger plane as a weapon of terror.

Libertarians are not anarchists. Rather, the are minarchists. The want the smallest and least extensive government possible consistent with public order and keeping the peace.

ruveyn

And what do you think republicans and tea partiers want to do with education?

I actually don't have a problem with Privatizing Schools if they will agree to comply with ADA. Seriously, I was lucky when it came to public schools but there have been so many other cases where the public schools are horrible.

If a public school isn't doing their job and has incompetitent chimpanzees for teachers, then I think it is completely appropriate for a parent to take their kid out of that school and have their tax money that would be used to fund that school go to a private school where the teachers actually know how to teach.

I home schooled and private schooled my children. I could not get a cent back on my property taxes.

ruveyn

I know that's what the School Voucher Program that President Bush wanted would have done though. (It would have pulled the funds from said school and given it to whatever private school you wanted to put your kid in).

The voucher system is similar to the charter schools these days. It's certainly not a bad idea. There's just not enough of them to go around. The largest problem, IMO, is the fact that teachers are not held accountable. We spend so much on testing and evaluating the kids, but we should really be evaluating the teachers. Tenure should be eliminated altogether, and earnings should be based on performance.

You can't make education completely private, unless of course you believe that children should only be given the kind of education that their parents can afford. I believe a quality education needs to be the right of all children in this country. There's clearly some work to be done, but I'm hopeful that it's starting to move in the right direction.

Here is an interesting stunt. During and N.E.A. convention just say over the load speaker: Merit wages, kill tenure. At least a dozen attending the N.E.A. will either have a heart attack or an epileptic seizure.

ruveyn

I know. I get the same reaction from my family member who is a teacher. But I really believe the tide is turning. Education reform is sorely and obviously needed. In some states and cities, there has begun a real dialogue about doing away with tenure. The founder of TFA (Teach for America), Wendy Kopp, should be credited with bringing education reform to the forefront. There are a lot of valid criticisms about TFA, but the movement for improving poor-performing schools has expended quite a bit. There have been many TFS-like spin-offs that have had tremendous success by hiring teachers that understand that tenure will not happen, and that they are expected to work after hours and that they must comply with continuous evaluation. They do so for slightly above average starting pay. I believe the KIPP schools are a wonderful example in Jersey.

Teachers don't get into the profession for the money. Most of the time, they do indeed hold their students' success as their #1 priority. Unfortunately, the needs of the students often kept swept aside by the wants of the union. Good teachers, the one's that understand the importance of their job, should have no problem with any changes to the game that improve the quality of education for the kids in our country. It becomes very hard to make an argument for tenure when so many of our kids are failing miserably.

There's a documentary on the subject that should be released soon, if it hasn't been already, called Waiting For Superman. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Actually, libertarianism includes minarchists, anarchists, and people who are just small-governmentalists. So, the ideology is broader than that. Hard-liners are usually minarchists and anarchists though.