UNLIMITED "Vaginas are scary" discussion thread!

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Hanna's taken a few unpopular stances against his own party.  He is a weird cross between those somewhat more moderate New England Republicans and a libertarian (affiliated with the Cato Institute), which explains a lot of it.

The Cato Institute is a think tank, isn't it? Let the conspiracy theories fly...

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Hanna's taken a few unpopular stances against his own party.  He is a weird cross between those somewhat more moderate New England Republicans and a libertarian (affiliated with the Cato Institute), which explains a lot of it.

The Cato Institute is a think tank, isn't it? Let the conspiracy theories fly...

It's a Libertarian think tank.

[Doktor Howl]

Hanna's taken a few unpopular stances against his own party.  He is a weird cross between those somewhat more moderate New England Republicans and a libertarian (affiliated with the Cato Institute), which explains a lot of it.

The Cato Institute is a think tank, isn't it? Let the conspiracy theories fly...

It's a Libertarian think tank.

Means it's empty, right?

[Freeky]

 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Hanna's taken a few unpopular stances against his own party.  He is a weird cross between those somewhat more moderate New England Republicans and a libertarian (affiliated with the Cato Institute), which explains a lot of it.

The Cato Institute is a think tank, isn't it? Let the conspiracy theories fly...

It's a Libertarian think tank.

Means it's empty, right?

It means something much scarier than that. It means that it's full of sociopath opportunists taking advantage of the Libertarian worldview for their own financial gain.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

I took it to mean they're trying to wreck the GOP, which is great if Libertarians don't actually come into power.
This might not be accurate, but the idea of Hanna as a Libertarian mole is LOLZ.

[Prince Glittersnatch III]

Hanna's taken a few unpopular stances against his own party.  He is a weird cross between those somewhat more moderate New England Republicans and a libertarian (affiliated with the Cato Institute), which explains a lot of it.

The Cato Institute is a think tank, isn't it? Let the conspiracy theories fly...

It's a Libertarian think tank.

Means it's empty, right?

It means something much scarier than that. It means that it's full of sociopath opportunists taking advantage of the Libertarian worldview for their own financial gainrational self interest.

FTFY

[Cain]

Cato are actually a lot more reasonable than most libertarian think-tanks out there.

The main reason for that, as far as I can tell, is that the Koch bothers have not been able to impose their full will on the organisation, due to the structure of the board, and so get rid of possible dissenters like Julian Sanchez and Leon T. Hadar.

Some of their writing on foreign policy and civil liberties is actually worth reading.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Don't Libertarians always coat their agenda with a few good ideas so people will swallow it? Kind of like those Dutch politicians who are trying to shut down the coffeeshops but call themselves "liberal".

[Cain]

Not always.  The Tea Party, for example, has virtually no redeeming qualities or platforms whatsoever.  Eternal war abroad, neo-feudalism at home, and black people put in their place.

Cato, on the other hand, actually says things like "maybe we shouldn't conduct our entire foreign policy via the military" and "assassinating people based on intelligence reports is a dick move".  Given not even the majority of Democrats can bring themselves to state the last two, I think that puts Cato is a good light, regardless of their more dodgy economic recommendations (and even then, they're less nutty than "repeal ALL the regulations and put us back on the Gold Standard" variety.  Most of the time).

[Doktor Howl]

Not always.  The Tea Party, for example, has virtually no redeeming qualities or platforms whatsoever.  Eternal war abroad, neo-feudalism at home, and black people put in their place.

Cato, on the other hand, actually says things like "maybe we shouldn't conduct our entire foreign policy via the military" and "assassinating people based on intelligence reports is a dick move".  Given not even the majority of Democrats can bring themselves to state the last two, I think that puts Cato is a good light, regardless of their more dodgy economic recommendations (and even then, they're less nutty than "repeal ALL the regulations and put us back on the Gold Standard" variety.  Most of the time).

Thing is, Cato is almost unique in those two outlooks.  Americans are raised from birth to worship the military.  Almost all Americans believe that the military protects "our freedom", and even when they know in the front of their brain that this isn't the case, they still have a lifetime of conditioning to overcome.

Also, many Americans believe that it's better to kill one guy than have a battle.  That's true, but of course it leads to making the murder of people who are being inconvenient a matter of patriotism.

[Freeky]

So, the thought that there are thousands of peoplle who are trained to kill every day and who sort of answer to the government doesn't actually scare people?  Even a bit?  It has always terrified me.  It's one of the biggest reasons I never wanted to go in, right behind I don't want to kill people.

[Doktor Howl]

So, the thought that there are thousands of peoplle who are trained to kill every day and who sort of answer to the government doesn't actually scare people?  Even a bit?  It has always terrified me.  It's one of the biggest reasons I never wanted to go in, right behind I don't want to kill people.

80% of the military is trained to patiently wait in lines, and to fill out meaningless forms for a living.

Just saying.

[Freeky]

So, the thought that there are thousands of peoplle who are trained to kill every day and who sort of answer to the government doesn't actually scare people?  Even a bit?  It has always terrified me.  It's one of the biggest reasons I never wanted to go in, right behind I don't want to kill people.

80% of the military is trained to patiently wait in lines, and to fill out meaningless forms for a living.

Just saying.

I never said I was well informed or rational about it.

[navkat]

Cato are actually a lot more reasonable than most libertarian think-tanks out there.

The main reason for that, as far as I can tell, is that the Koch bothers have not been able to impose their full will on the organisation, due to the structure of the board, and so get rid of possible dissenters like Julian Sanchez and Leon T. Hadar.

Some of their writing on foreign policy and civil liberties is actually worth reading.

I subscribe to their monthly, actually. I don't agree with everything they put out but they're the only "Libertarian collective" who acknowledge the encroaching role of corporate interest in government and that healthcare and social services are problems a tad more complex than "get a jeorb, negroid!"