The Daily Show did a nice mocking segment of Christie who came out strongly in favor of forced government intrusion for the good of public health…when it came to the Ebola scare a few months ago over a nurse who didn’t even have it. Someone should play that video back to him and substitute “ebola” for “unvaccinated”. So much for that Jersey straight talk, he’ll be as much of a maverick as John “I’ve never been a maverick” McCain.
While I’m glad Obama came out in favor of vaccines, I just know there’s a bunch of kids with idiotic Republican parents who are going to be hurt by that.
Except, of course, that Somalia is only a ‘libertarian utopia in the sky’ in the straw filled arguments of those who don’t like (or seemingly understand) libertarian ideals and just want to build mannequins to chase away the crows.
XT’s right, the libertarian dream is as much a pure fantasy as a “worker’s paradise” or any other utopia. Somalia is pretty close—as long as you can afford your own armed personal guard and a fortified compound to live in—but close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and atom bombs. Right?
I get you – but the crux is in that little word “ideals.” (I think Knorf was making a similar point.) If it’s any consolation for you, extreme Marxism-Socialism is equally ignorant of how human beings actually operate individually and in aggregate.
First of all, Somalia’s not really like that anymore. They have a functioning national government that’s extended control over a bunch of the country, and while al-Shabaab controls a lot of the countryside in the south and Somaliland is still defacto independent, neither of those are anarchic, either. al-Shabaab is a fairly strict theocracy and Somaliland , while it formally has a parliament, is really ruled by a bunch of clans that get together and decide policy. The whole “armed warlords everywhere” thing was really a 1990s-2000s problem.
Secondly, as mentioned, Somalia during that time period didn’t really reflect libertarian ideals or values.
Sorry. I just get upset when people use “Somalia” as shorthand for a lawless, anarchic mess. It seems unfair to me for that to become it’s reputation because of conditions 15 years ago.