…although actually I’m not precisely enamoured by some parts of Maryland, either. The touristy parts Ocean City MD somehow manages to be trashier than Atlantic City NJ, and that’s a remarkable accomplishment.

I understand your calculation, though. I suspect it’s a lot like mine – but we weight things differently. Plus, the ugly truth? I can always move across the river. No interest in doing that, of course, but it’s a theoretical escape hatch that figures into my preferences.

What would we do, tack on “and we really mean it this time”? The Constitution is routinely ignored — by the legislatures, executives, and judiciaries.

As for the 3/5 Compromise, please keep in mind that it was the non-slave states did not want slaves counted at all.

“In a voluntary society, only natural law applies, not statutory law (unless the individual explicitly consents), so there’s nothing to vote on.”

Please. “Natural Law” means the strong eat the weak.

“Why do you need universal suffrage when your neighbors can’t vote to take away your rights?”

Why can’t they take away your rights? What’s to stop them?

“Desegregation; same thing. How do you have segregation in the first place without a strong central government to enforce it in the first place?”

Simple — you don’t let Blacks, or Jews, or Hispanics, or whomever you don’t like, into your restaurant or store. If they move into your neighborhood, you throw things through their windows late at night, and your children bully theirs in school or on the playground.

Your utopia does exist in places. Such places are called “monasteries.”

I really need to post some blog entries on this subject. It’s my own fault that some of these points are so unclear.

Speaking of clarification, the prohibitionists I referred to above who weren’t convicted were the ones harboring escaped slaves who’d crossed state lines. This was the law well after the Civil War, even in “free” states like Delaware.

What do you all think of Brian Moran paying Lionell Spruill $7500/month for voter outreach? During the session, even.

http://notlarrysabato.typepad.com/doh/2008/07/morans-big-mist.html

The Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery. It ended slavery in seven southern states that Lincoln did not have jurisdiction over at the time. Slavery continued for some time in upstate New York, Maryland, and territories such as Missouri and Texas. What ended slavery in the U.S. was jury nullification. Jurors informed by prohibitionist newspapers refused to convict prohibitionists of violating laws requiring the return of slaves.

In a voluntary society, only natural law applies, not statutory law (unless the individual explicitly consents), so there’s nothing to vote on. Why do you need universal suffrage when your neighbors can’t vote to take away your rights? Even under the constitution, universal suffrage was only an example of government finally getting out of the way. It was government that enforced restrictions against blacks and women voting in the first place.

Desegregation; same thing. How do you have segregation in the first place without a strong central government to enforce it in the first place? This was just government at long last getting out of the way.

I’m also told that Balkanization didn’t work out terribly well for the Balkans, either.

For that matter, the Articles of Confederation were very close to my ideal.

So I don’t suppose I need to say then that we tried that, and it didn’t work?

As far as Barack Obama’s inexperience, I note this morning that it’s Obama that the sovereign governments of Iraq and Afghanistan are greeting with praise for his understanding of their issues, while McCain’s the one telling me why I should be concerned about the Iraq-Pakistani border.

I may need to write a few blog posts about this, whenever I get around to it.

What I want could easily be achieved with a very small government. If I were able to write a brand new constitution, something akin to the ninth amendment would be the first article, and the last clause of every other article and amendment. For that matter, the Articles of Confederation were very close to my ideal.

By the same token, a stateless society with full respect for private property rights would not have to be as chaotic as you think either.

Too bad more Democrats did not think that “the stakes at the national level are just too big to risk it to someone” with so little experience. The Republicans nominated their most experienced candidate, and the Democrats nominated their least experienced candidate.

I do appreciate you bringing it up, though. It gives me the opportunity to explicitly disassociate myself from those kooks. BTW, I’ve seen your current blog. You might be surprised at how much you and I agree upon.

Part of me respects you for acknowledging the violence so many people can’t see. Then another part of me wonders why you support it, even though you’ve seen the gun in the room.

BTW, I really don’t call myself a libertarian anymore. Most of those guys are really just constitutionalists. Which, I have to admit, is preferable to what we have today. Politicians and bureaucrats following their own rules for once would be a hell of a start. But I’ve gone far more radical than that. I prefer the term Sovereign Individualist. Voluntaryist sounds pretty good too. But feel free to think of libertarians separately from me.

~

Rick, you know silly little statements like that is why people can’t take a lot of Libertarians seriously, right? Arlington County paves my bike trails . . . at the point of a gun! VDOT repairs the bridge over Washington Blvd. . . at the point of a gun! I know a lot of Libs are obsessed with guns (we’ll avoid what that’s about, for now), but eesh. Not exactly the way to get people to listen.