The libertarian pony rides again!

I've been told that quality of the magazine Reason has seriously declined over the past few years. Given the silliness of its current state, I'll take it on faith that it had some level of respectability during its existence.

Now they've ventured into the video business. A friend posted this clip on their Facebook page that can only be described as childly simplistic:



Yes, absolutely! Who needs amendments saying that the government can't jail you based solely on what you've said, and then hold you indefinitely without a trial?

When I hear pie in the sky "we should all come together and demand less government" libertarian talk like this, I'm reminded of what is universally regarded as one of the greatest blog posts of all time.

The authors of Examined Life came up with the theory that, when you wish for things like this, you should also wish for a pony too. And why shouldn't you? After all, wishes are totally free, and they don't affect the likelihood of them coming true.

This works very well with the concept of libertarianist thought, which is based almost solely on wishes. As Belle artfully ponders, "[j]ust imagine that we live in a state of perfect liberty, free from taxation and instrusive government, and we should all be wealthier and freer. Now wish that people would, despite any restraint on their actions such as policemen, functioning law courts, the SEC, and so on, not spend all their time screwing each other in the predictable ways ranging from ordinary rape, to the selling of fraudulent stocks in non-existent ventures, up to the wholesale dumping of mercury into the public water supply. Awesome, huh? But it gets better. Now wish that everyone had a pony!"

I guess when you know you're only going to garner 1-2% of the vote, you can afford to take some outlandish positions, because you know you're never going to have to follow through on any of them (BTW, the Naderites are every bit as guilty of this). So why not wish for an idealistic state that bears no similarity to any existing government of an industrialized country in the world?

Click your heels three times and say it with me: PONIES PONIES PONIES!!