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:[[Feminist]] – Some work on the philosophical position
:[[Feminist]] – Some work on the philosophical position
:[[Sufi]]—clarified relation to rest of Islam
:[[Sufi]]—clarified relation to rest of Islam
==Libertarian not Liberal==
As long as I’m at it. I’ve also been accused of being a “liberal” so I may as well take a moment to make my political philosophy clear.
I am, politically, a Libertarian. I believe that in a state of nature no one has the right to touch me or my stuff without my consent and that I have the right to use as much force as necessary to prevent others from touching me or my stuff without my consent. However, I also believe that many people would not, in a state of nature, respect my rights and that I am not strong enough to protect my rights against infringement by all others. So, I take myself out of a state of nature and enter into society. I submit myself to the authority of a government and surrender some of my rights in order to ensure that the rest of my rights are respected and protected. However, I surrender as few of my rights as possible to make the government work. This means I submit to reasonable levels of taxation, surrender my right to use force to protect my rights (except in cases of immediate self-defense), and I give up the right to behave without consideration of the public good. That’s about it. I may have given up a few more rights, but I’d have to hear a very good argument before I would agree to that.
In practical terms, this means I agree with members of both major parties some of the time and disagree with them on others some of the time.
Here is where I am on some of the “hot button” issues.
:Abortion: I consider myself a moderate here. Once the fetus is a human being, it is morally indefensible to abort it other than to protect the health of the mother (the mother has no right to take a human life, unless that human life threatens her own). While the fetus is not a human, abortion, for any reason the mother wants, is morally permissible. I don’t know when the fetus becomes a human being—I have some suspicions (Almost certainly by the end of the 2nd trimester, but probably not before the end of the 1st trimester). If I had to decide, I’d probably draw the line around the end of the 1st trimester.
:Drugs: A person has the right to do to their own body any stupid thing they want. So long as the drugs are used in the privacy of ones own home and I don’t have to pay taxes to care for those who are stupid enough to injure themselves with drugs, I think they should be legal. Legalize and tax—that’s what I say. (same goes for prostitution)
:Evolution: I lack the expertise to judge the arguments for and against it—I’m fairly convinced, by the vigor with which creationists argue for the inclusion of ID in public schools, that ID is a religious position rather than a scientific one (but I’m open to hearing otherwise), if that is the case I don’t want the schools teaching it as science.
:Federal Debt: This is way to high, borrowing against the future is both bad policy and morally questionable, why should children yet to be born have to pay for things being done today?
;Federal Deficit: I oppose deficit spending, save in extraordinary emergencies.
:Gay marriage: If a church wants to recognize a gay marriage it should be allowed to, if it doesn’t want to recognize a gay marriage it shouldn’t have to. Personally, I’d make marriage a purely religious matter and take the government out of it all together. Its none of the government’s business who I chose to live with or how I and my religion choose to see that living arrangement.
:Homosexuality: A person has the right to consent to any use of their body they see fit. I don’t care who has sex with who, its none of my business.
:The Income Tax: As it is, it hovers around the acceptable high (if it were much higher I’d think it was immoral, if it were lower, I’d be happer)—I guess if I felt the government was using all the money it collected appropriately I’d be happier about it—The government has the right to tax for what it needs, so long as it only taxes for what it needs and not what it wants.
:The Iraq War: What a mess. If I was sure that we went in with pure motives, if we really were going in in self-defense, I’d support the War 100%. If I was sure we went in under false pretences, if we really went in for the profit of oil companies or for some Bush family vendetta, I’d oppose the War 100%. As it is, I’m not sure what was going on in the White House. Now I just want as few of out solders to die and be injured as possible while protecting America against future attacks, and I have no idea what choice in the future will best serve those interests.
:Religion: Personally I’m fairly agnostic—I don’t know who is right and I don’t pretend to. I’d like to believe that some sort of divine being exists and that so long as I live my life morally (by which I mean respecting the rights and autonomy of others) that being will see me as good when and if I am judged. Politically, I think religion is a personal choice, I don’t care what religion a person holds in their heart, I care what they do in public. As far as I am concerned a person can worship any deity from Athena to YHWH and so long as they respect my rights I could care less.
:War on Terror: The United States government has no duty higher than that to protect American citizens from terrorist attacks. Full stop, the end.
For those who care, I also just took the “political compass” test and it places me as a centrist libertarian
Left/Right: 0.00 (Dead Center)
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.62 (More Libertarian than any figure I see on their chart)