[Jon Henke]
While I am not above "sounding pretentious, obtuse, doltish, obsessive, or just dull", I tend to do so unintentionally, so I'll skip the awkward mucking about over how to introduce myself and simply point out that I am, to quote Douglas Adams, "just this guy, you know?"
I was honored that Megan would ask me to guest post in her absence - she's long been one of my favorite bloggers and thinkers - so I've promised her that I won't be needlessly antagonistic ("Ron Paul isn't good for libertarians, and your gold standard sucks, too") or otherwise leave the place a mess. For now, let's just get the narcissistic stuff out of the way...
- Like Daniel Drezner, I'm also returning from a conference. Unlike Daniel Drezner, however, my conference was with bloggers. I cannot imagine a country governed by bloggers, which is probably for the best.
- I attended the opening night at the Washington Nationals' new stadium this evening. But I'm not even a baseball fan. In fact, I didn't realize it was opening night until around the 5th inning or so. I used to be a pro sports fan - Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks - but in 1994, (a) Dominique Wilkins was traded away from the Hawks and I discovered I had simply been a Dominique Wilkins fan, and (b) baseball players went on strike and I discovered I wasn't really all that interested in the exploits of petulant millionaires in tights. Still, tonight was quite enjoyable. The new Nationals Park is very well done.
- I'm also not a fan of music. I enjoy pointing this out, because it invariably confuses people. "What kind of music", they'll ask. "Any", I'll respond. It just doesn't seem very interesting to me. I'm not sure why this confuses people, though. They're not surprised when somebody says "I don't like modern art", so why should it be unusual that some people just aren't touched by music?
- In 2000, I voted for Harry Browne. In 2004, I wrote in None of The Above. Both lost.
- I tend to be a right-of-center libertarian because I'm more concerned about the loss of economic freedom than social freedom - in part, because I think the former will lead to the latter. Decades ago, we were talking about lobotomizing gay people, now we're talking about marrying them. We're not in danger of theocracy. We should be more concerned about what Brandeis called "insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding." The "do-goodism" to which James Buchanan referred is the greater threat. After all, "the licentious sinners we can control; the saintly ascetics may destroy us."
- Limited government is a fine idea. I wish we had a Party that believed in it.
Welcome!
I'm not remotely interested in convincing you that you really do like music, if you don't... but ...
would it be ok if I pointed out that the statements "I don't like music" and "I don't like modern art" aren't really parallel? You would engender several orders of magnitude less confusion in people if you went around saying "I don't like jazz", "I don't like classical music", or something like that.
Don't worry. Your passionate interest in yourself more than compensates for lacking what a lesser mortal would experience listening to Mozart.
The 'Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy' allusion and cornball shot at striking baseball players also portend well.
Man, we would've guessed the twelve-year-old with the reversible name (Reed Tristan? Tristan Reed?) would've been the great buffoon, but actually he seems fine. The smart money would now seem to be on you, Jon, to be the big mistake, the great joke.
Keep it up.
"Limited government is a fine idea. I wish we had a Party that believed in it."-yon blog poster..
[Jon Henke]
to your point, note:
"The U.S. Mint was reopened to gold after the hiatus of the Civil War and Reconstruction, on January 2, 1879. In celebrating the event General James A. Garfield stated in an address delivered in Chicago:
“We shall still hear echoes of the old conflict, such as the ‘barbarism and cowardice of gold and silver’ and the ‘virtues of fiat money’. The theories which gave them birth will linger among us like belated ghosts, but soon will find rest in the political grave of dead issues…”
Garfield warned that the ‘periodic craze’ of fiat paper money might sweep over this country from time to time.
http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/fekete/2008/0328.html
"Fellow-Citizens:
WE stand to-day upon an eminence which overlooks a hundred years of national life—a century crowded with perils, but crowned with the triumphs of liberty and law. Before continuing the onward march let us pause on this height for a moment to strengthen our faith and renew our hope by a glance at the pathway along which our people have traveled. 1
It is now three days more than a hundred years since the adoption of the first written constitution of the United States—the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. The new Republic was then beset with danger on every hand. It had not conquered a place in the family of nations. The decisive battle of the war for independence, whose centennial anniversary will soon be gratefully celebrated at Yorktown, had not yet been fought. The colonists were struggling not only against the armies of a great nation, but against the settled opinions of mankind; for the world did not then believe that the supreme authority of government could be safely intrusted to the guardianship of the people themselves. 2
We can not overestimate the fervent love of liberty, the intelligent courage, and the sum of common sense with which our fathers made the great experiment of self-government. When they found, after a short trial, that the confederacy of States, was too weak to meet the necessities of a vigorous and expanding republic, they boldly set it aside, and in its stead established a National Union, founded directly upon the will of the people, endowed with full power of self-preservation and ample authority for the accomplishment of its great object. 3
Under this Constitution the boundaries of freedom have been enlarged, the foundations of order and peace have been strengthened, and the growth of our people in all the better elements of national life has indicated the wisdom of the founders and given new hope to their descendants. Under this Constitution our people long ago made themselves safe against danger from without and secured for their mariners and flag equality of rights on all the seas. Under this Constitution twenty-five States have been added to the Union, with constitutions and laws, framed and enforced by their own citizens, to secure the manifold blessings of local self-government. 4
http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres36.html
Abandoning the Braves in '94 was kind of like selling Microsoft stock in the early '80's. Nice move.
"I attended the opening night at the Washington Nationals' new stadium this evening."
Care to divulge the source of your free tickets??...i mean...was it hard to get tickets?. More important, did GW toe the rubber or did he candy arse it from in front of the mound?.
Did you also, like McArdle, vote TWICE for the worst President in modern American history?
Political scientists and weblog writers, one class usually more vituperatively, each dedicate considerable time to criticizing and bemoaning the corruption, shortsightedness and duplicity of elected politicians, but I have now read a political scientist and a weblog writer, each who declares that neither of them can conceive of their tribe governing.
Just who is supposed to be running this monkey show?
Just who is supposed to be running this monkey show?
The Philosopher King, of course: Rush Limbaugh.
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night
And his affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.
— The Merchant of Venice V, i
"None of the Above" actually won in 2004, but Diebold stole it for Bush.
OK, I've read all the introductions and the accompanying comments and I must say that I can appreciated Megan's recent angst about the state of her comment threads. Who knew The Atlantic attracted so many ill-mannered louts?
Did you also, like McArdle, vote TWICE for the worst President in modern American history?
Silly question. Megan isn't anywhere near old enough to have voted for Jimmy Carter even once.
You call baseball players "petulant millionaires in tights." Comicbook superheroes, speed skaters and some track athletes wear clothes that can be ridiculed as tights. Not baseball players.
Sometimes people knock basketball - basketball, not baseball - players for making millions running around "in their underwear." Underwear, not tights. You seemed to have mixed up various cliches. But what baseball players wear pretty much falls in the pants category. More than any other sport until you get to stuff with little physical exertion like golf, darts or pool actually.
I just hope pointing out that your failed attempt to harbor cliches in a sneering attempt to be funny was a botch doesn't hurt daddyquatro's delicate sensibilities too much.
All in all, it was a pretty dreadful and self-indulgent introductory post.
Megan isn't anywhere near old enough to have voted for Jimmy Carter
Ah yes, Carter, the weakling who won the Nobel Peace Prize but failed to launch an invasion of Iran. Surely he was a worse President than the incompetent buffoon who has made war crimes American policy and pissed $3 trillion into the sands of Mesapotamia. Perhaps Bush will invade Iran as a farewell gift to his fans, and thus demonstrate conclusively his superiority to Carter.
Just to be disagreeable and stand out in the crowd, I thought your intro was fine. I don't know how anyone can do a self-introduction without talking about himself & thus sounding self-absorbed. I withhold judgement pending substantive posts.
"Limited government is a fine idea. I wish we had a Party that believed in it."
Have you heard about the Libertarian Party? I think you might like their platform.
"Who knew The Atlantic attracted so many ill-mannered louts?"
I believe Megan and her ilk attract us, sort of like shit attracts flies.
Not sure if I really wanna go to that analogy but whatever. I should've gone with "war and bloodshed attracts nuns." Crap.
Where is my can of Raid.
Yeah, you are a real rocket scientist. It's March 30 and you didn't realize it was openning day until the 5th inning?
When's Megan coming back?
Who knew the large-minded, hyper-defensive progressives counted among them such a high number of thin-skinned baseball fans wrapped up in their hero-worship of petulant millionaires wearing what appear to be tights, but are actually really just pants with increasingly fat asses stuffed into them?
Personally, I enjoy the ill-mannered louts that flock to these types of blogs. They're a fascinating examination of the "my shit don't stink, and I is really smart" attitude. They're very much the intellectual peers of the judgemental-but-hypocritical bigots of the right wing, but without the Bible crutch.
"I tend to be a right-of-center libertarian because I'm more concerned about the loss of economic freedom than social freedom - in part, because I think the former will lead to the latter."
AMEN BROTHER!!!!
Did you also, like McArdle, vote TWICE for the worst President in modern American history?
McArdle voted for Gore in 2000.