As a member of The Monster Raving Loony Party, I say the rights of steel belted iguanas to barbecue quantum asparagus should not be refrigerated.
-Beeblebrox
Chairman, Commitee for the Reinstatment of Witchducking
“Political Dick”
do I HAVE to say it? 
–Nut
“All extremists should be taken out and shot.”
FWIW, self-righteous people scare me.
Well, now that I have actually had the time to sit down without distractions of work, phone and chat rooms. Here’s what I think about that statement.
I think for myself, very much so, ask virtually anyone here and I can stand high as the rest or even dig my own holes when it comes to opinions.
Given that, and I don’t recall the statement that started this whole thing, I must have seen something that gave me reason to believe that many of my fellow Libertarians may have felt the same way. Most of the time I pull that up when it involves politics of some kind or our Constitution. Again, I don’t recall the OP’s semi quote of mine so I can’t state exactly what made me make that statement. Also, when I see a wrong that is based on my statement (search without cause) I tend to get very protective of ALL of our civil rights and help promote my political party while I am at it. Yeah, cheap on my end but since I believe strongly in Libertarian beliefs I will do what I can to promote it.
As for Flymaster’s comment, he apologized to me later about that. In fact, he was the person that brought me to the thread. I think he knows that if he says such a thing again (grin) I will rip him apart like a dog rips apart a deer leg with lots of meat. 
I have nothing else to add… I think I was just in a bad mood that day or something.
BP
PS - Techchick, the day I posted that, your post was on the front page… so I didn’t bother linking it. Sorry 
Skipping over the notion of actually convicting a person of such an act (so that, if someone “knows” that said person has initiated force or fraud, the “knowing” person is free to enact any punishment they choose, since the perpetrator has no rights),
it still seems to be a bit much to claim that a criminal who has shop-lifted a soft drink should have no rights–much as a mass murderer.
Steal a pop, forfeit:
right to breathe;
right to speak;
right to worship;
etc.
Let me see if I understand… Joining any large organization makes you a sheep? At what point are we allowed to band together to gain collective power? Never?
This whole argument is stupid. People might become Democrat or Republican because they agree with the general direction of the party, if not every specific policy. And they may recognize the value of like-minded people forming organization to magnify their power.
And each party has a power structure, and they may like it that way. If you vote for an independant, you must recognize that that person has almost no shot at heading up a major committee, and that fund-raising is going to be difficult. So you join the party closest to your beliefs and support it. WHAT’S THE PROBLEM???
As for prefacing a comment with, “As a Libertarian”, or “As a Democrat”, or whatever… That’s just shorthand. In fact, it’s a compliment to the reader, because it’s an assumption that you will be able to take that statement and derive meaning from it. If I say, “As a Libertarian, I believe that gun ownership is a good thing”, that tells me that she believes so because of a belief in the right of individuals to own guns. If I say, “As a Militia Member, I believe gun ownership is a good thing”, then you can suspect that I approach the issue from the standpoint of defense of the country and/or protection from an out-of-control government, and not necessarily from fundamental principles of rights. Again, WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?
If the label isn’t appropriate, or it’s non-descriptive, or misleading, then that’s simply an inappropriate use of the label. If I said, “As a Candlestick maker, I believe gun ownership is a good thing”, then that would simply be poor writing on my part, because the preamble to the sentence does not illuminate anything.
And, you may not know this, but people DO take pride in their associations with groups that support their values. You can be proud to be a Democrat or a Republican without being an unthinking sheep that buys into everything they do. You can be proud to be a Boy Scout, Girl Scout, or a member of NOW or the ACLU. You got a problem with that?
I’ve heard this attack on people in organized political parties before, and every time I hear it I think it’s just plain stupid.