Today I was at the usual study group before Interpretive Methods and we were talking about the midterm elections. Eric is quite political and was very thrilled with the results. The rest of our group is solidly Democrat, and I’m good with the House reversal because perhaps a Democratic house vs GOP-ist everything else will just lead to a government that can get less done. I maintain that because there is no coming Libertarian Revolution, the best scenario for me is a government that can’t get anything done.

(Still waiting to hear on the Senate.)

I was only half listening to the discussion, but I definitely heard “…and we’re all liberals,” said in the tone that, of course we’re all liberals, because to not be a liberal is to be the worst of all political demons. To not be a liberal is to automatically be against abortion, to be homophobic, and a number of other sins.

Lucky for me, I hadn’t even begun to shake my head before Eric pipped in with “No…”

And I interuppted with “Actually, I consider myself a conservative.”

Of course, I am a liberal in the “classic” sense of the word, but word does not invoke that connotation and therefore, I do not want to be that word.

There are 101 reasons why I do not consider myself a liberal, most of which are probably obvious for anyone who has read any of my political nonsense. I guess what bugs is the assumption that because I am a well-educated, relatively intelligent person, then I MUST be a liberal, because to be an thing else would just be silly. Add in the fact that I was raised in the Northeast by former hippies and that I’m Jewish and my political affiliation is probably even more puzzling.

(My parents don’t like that I’m a libertarian either. They think it’s a late teenager rebellion)

On the positive side: If the Ex and I had continued to talk the way we were, I would have continued to get attached. We might have possibly done something stupid like plan to see each other. We would have just gotten closer.

So it is better that this happened now, instead of say, a year from now, because then I would just be even MORE attached and MORE upset about this.

On another note: I met an EXTREMELY hot, Libertarian Israeli secular Jew. He loves Ayn Rand and studies Russian history. He knows who Paul Johnson is and he listens to Billy Joel. The night we met we were all hanging out at the Pub right next to his apartment, but it was dark and so he walked me home (15 minutes out of his way) and asked for my number so we could hang out again.

And of course, he’s gay. OF COURSE. Normally, my gaydar is really good, but I was distracted by the beer and his hotness. Thank god for facebook, because otherwise I might have done something stupid.

However, this encounter, when combined with my experience with Libertarian boys this summer (Libertarian #1: a few dates. Too nice. No chemistry. Libertarian #2: a hot piece of ass. Proposed to me when he heard my views on feminism. We had drinks, got naked, and he stood me up on the second date) is making me think there is a Libertarian conspiracy to keep me from getting laid.

Actually, considering what a prude I am I should probably accept that I am not gettin’ any for a very long time. As Lisa teased “Abstinence? You really HAVE become a Republican.”

So I went out with Hot Libertarian Boy, on like, a date. We talked about Reason magazine and feminism. He’s really, really hot. Like, so far out of my league hot. And oh yeah, I’m moving in less than 3 weeks.

But apparently it’s my goal to make out with every libertarian boy in NYC, and he asked me out again, so why the hell not?

Why on Earth did I come to work today? I make the decision around 9 PM that I would call out or take a personal day, and yet, here I am. 

I am a pushover, somehow.

I am taking off tomorrow. It will be at least 99 in the shade and I will have just gotten paid (though not laid. I used to think that was the lyric. I mean, its JBJ. Of course he just got laid. He’s hot.)

Photos from the Reason gathering went up. Terrible hair day aside, they are proof that Libertarian women are all hot. 

The theme of today is “hot.” Carry on.

If it goes well tonight I’ll report on why I made this exception. (Spoiler: He’s a Libertarian! C’mon people, am I honestly expected to resist a Libertarian?)

Giving to Pamie’s annual book drive will give you good karma. This year books are going to libraries along the Gulf Coast that were ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, but missed a lot of the media attention.

Go here to donate.

I gave a copy of Atlas Shrugged  because it’s my favorite book in the world. (Note: the mild irony of donating copies of Atlas Shrugged does not escape me) I got my first copy of Atlas Shrugged as a “you HAVE to read this” gift and I’ve given copies to others for the same reason. My friend teases me because when I see someone reading this book in public I have to restrain myself from talking to them (especially if the reader is a cute boy.)  I also donated Paul Johnson’s “Creators” because he’s a phenomenal historian and more people should have the opportunity to read his books.

Help Public School Kids by Funding by Participating in a DonorsChoose Challenge

I like this project. I gave money to the one for getting fourth graders interested in non-fiction, in the hopes that one will grow up and be able to discuss obscure European wars and treaties.

I already knew about the recent approval of the abortion ban in South Dakota, but I didn’t know Mississippi had followed suit. It’s a slow morning at work and I’m actually reading some of the text and there’s this little gem:

… If a rape victim becomes pregnant and bears a child, the rapist could have the same parental rights as the mother, said Krista Heeren-Graber, executive director of the South Dakota Network Against Family Violence and Sexual Assault.

I really don’t know what to say to that. It’s so WTF that I don’t know what to say.

How dare these people call themselves pro-life? That is not pro-life. You think anyone really WANTS to have an abortion? You think us evil woman sit around consciously skipping birth control pills just to stick it to The Man? Abortion isn’t fun and for many it’s difficult and it’s absolutely neccesary. Abortion isn’t anything new. So long as there has been civilization there have been unwanted pregnanices, and woman have always had to find a way to deal with it.

I am very much a “small government” person, and don’t believe in socialized medicine, but if the government is going to create policies that they claim are in the interest of the unborn, they should take responsibility for the consequence of that action. These people ARE NOT PRO-LIFE. They don’t care about the fetus once it exits the womb. They don’t care that they are subjecting women to physical and emotional turmoil. They don’t care about anything except their smarmy, self-righteous attitude winning out.

And now a rapist could have the same rights to the child as the woman?

That is not pro-life. That is not even a respect for life.

Blaming women who have abortions as whores, is naïve, presumptuous, and disrespectful. Shit happens. It happens to girls who never skip a pill, to married couples who don’t want children for whatever reason, to single girls, when the condom breaks. You get pregnant, and you realize that you can not raise a child for financial/mental/other personal reasons. And the option to abortion is there so it should be safe and accessible because from a public health standpoint it is neccesary for it to be an option. Forcing a woman to carry a pregnancy to term is nothing short of abuse. And don’t give me an argument for the adoption system. The foster system in this country sucks. The people who ban abortion are the same people who want to ban adoption my gay couples and singles.

And then, you go ahead and restrict  access to contraceptives and information about safe sex. Because God forbid teenagers know how to use condoms. You will not be able to stop people from having sex. You will not be able to prevent teenagers from having sex.  And a lot less would be getting pregnant if you didn’t make it so hard for a girl in rural flyover country to get on The Pill.

This article, by the man who introduced me to Libertarianism, makes the obvious, but often overlooked point that the ideological make-up of the Supreme Court has never been set in stone. It’s shifted left to right and back several times and the country managed to survive. That goes for other branches of government too. There are tons of (very valid) points about this becoming a “One-Party Government” but it was essentially a one party government in the New Deal/WWII era as well, until the conservatives got their coalition together and were able to make gradual gains in government

As I’ve said: The Dems lose because they are fighting against “something” without a clear definition of what “something” is, and without a plan for “the thing” that will replace “something.” 

One of the thing that bugs me is one of the only issues brought up regarding the new Supreme Court justices was abortion. Now, I’m the most pro-choice person ever, but there are FAR more important things to discuss. Further, to nitpick, it’s annoying that they talk about “upholding Roe” when Roe is great public policy and lousy legal reasoning. Legalizing abortion, beyond the ‘right to choose’ issues is more of a public health issue than anything else, and the legal rationale that was used it the case is extremely weak. Additionally, the court is technically upholding Casey and not Roe, but that’s just more nitpicking.

 Hm. I defended Kerry early on in the primary, because of his ability to appeal to centrist voters, but in retrospect, Edwards, despite his lack of experience, may have been a better candidate. He remains all cute and Southern. Still do not like Dean. I have little opinion on Hillary except she’s marginalizing and I’m sick of her stupid plays to the ‘moral majority.’ I still maintain that things would be better if Bill Clinton would over throw the government in a coup d’etat and declare himself Caesar. I <3 Bill Clinton <3

I think I must’ve overdosed on the Sudafed yesterday, because I was all buzzing and out of it, and in retrospect, the drugs were probably hurting more than they were helping. It was a “I’m having trouble forming sentences” kind of day.

Anyway. Tuesday was supposed to be an unofficial work X-Mas Party/Celebration of the “Shock and Awe” of CK’s one year anniversary here. Almost everyone who was supposed to go skipped work, and those who made it in had long commutes home ahead of them, so it wound up being just CK and I. We of course toasted to Jersey, and  to the Libertarian Revolution.

CK has really become my favorite co-worker, and some of it really is a “It’s a Jersey thing. You wouldn’t understand.” But Tuesday was good for conversation about politics, relationships, work/school, travel, and drunken adventures. His girlfriend dislikes me immensely, because she doesn’t like her boyfriend getting along with girls, and the way this has unfolded has been very amusing. It’s very junior high-ish. Office politics are silly. Anyway, Tuesday night was one of those times when you have a conversation with someone and realize that you’ve become friends, which was nice.

I was supposed to go to The Boy’s last night, especially since there are now cats at his place, but he had to work late, and I didn’t feel well, so I went home, did laundry, and crashed. I really need to start packing up the apartment and getting ready to move, which is a hassle.

Other than that, I am simply looking forward to a four-day weekend. It doesn’t feel like Christmas; I guess I’m bombarded with all the X-Mas stuff so much everyday that I just don’t see it. I will be thankful, however, that I am not working at B&N café.

Quote of the day, via CK: “God I hate the Third World so much!”

I love that I sit next to a Libertarian from Jersey at work

I am re-reading Hobbes and Rousseau even though there are a great many books I want (need) to read.

I’m no hippie and I know my radical libertarian ideas (beliefs?) have no place in reality. I have enough reason to determine that if people ever wake up and start wanting the government to back off, it would be in tiny, incremental ways.

Hobbes argues for a strong sovereign, one whom we will accept tyranny from because his tyranny is paradise compared to the state of nature. I’m not quite into this Hobbesian idea of implicit consent (though I do think it applies in certain circumstances) but his view of human nature is what makes me, only half jokingly, call myself a Hobbesian princess. .

Human energy is self-directed, hence free, but the slightness of individual strength against nature makes cooperation – “society” – a necessity, thus a fact of life. That’s how Rousseau steps in, but I don’t agree with Rousseau that humans were peaceful in the radical individualism that characterized early man.

“The social order is a secondary phenomenon, an abstraction from the myriad of free choices. I feel as if we are in need of another awakening, another discovery of freedom.”

And for the record, yes, I do love a man who appreciates the sanctity of the Constitution.

Typically girly reunion only with out the shrieking. (And we are frothy as opposed to bubbly, but we certainly do not shriek!)

Me: Aw, Sebastian, I miss having you around to open doors for me.
Sebastian: Find yourself a boyfriend with some manners!

(Well that boy we were going to cat fight over now IS all mine!)

In 95 degree weather, Sebastian removes his suit jacket. Notices me, sprawled out on the couch my jeans rolled up, my tank top out of place, and APOLOGIZES because a gentlemen never removes his coat in front of a lady. I sit up and remark on my indecency by aristocratic standards. He quotes something about beauty to God makes it still decent. How euphenistic.

“All right now just pretend that whole last exchange never happened. How do you like this?”

“As a fond memory or a disturbing memory?”

Me: Maybe I have “O” type blood too, because I never get bitten by mosquitoes.
Laura: Or maybe it’s just the blood alcohol level

“I was really paranoid about running over his foot”

The “ha-ha”

Politically correct baby blankets, Rousseau-ian child rearing, “well, i guess he won’t be hearing from us anytime soon”

N: So I have to go to confession for the right time in like, 90 years and I’m going to be like “I don’t remember all my sins, but they were pretty much all the same…””
F: (interrupting) “I hate people. I make fun of people. I am generally hateful towards most people….”
Laura: Wow. Maybe you need to join our misanthropy club.

Lecture series: Coming soon to a campus near you.

Sebastian and I are going to have a television show called “The Monarchist and the Libertarian.”

Sebastian: Your Libertarian principles are rubbing off on me! I think I should have the right to choose to be stupid!

In honor of tax day: Screw the federal government. Boo taxes!

Yay, it’s almost over!

I’m spending today trolling around campus in my political gear, smiling sweetly at those who glare at my t-shirt.

Then Pi Sigma. Then Libertarian dinner.

Then, one eye on NaNo-ing, one eye on the election shenanigans.

I am not the notoriously cynical, pessimistic, voted most sarcastic girl I was in high school here. In high school I was good about being the very vocal minority, who (sometimes condescendingly) dismissed the views of my classmates. I bitched about the ridiculousness of a system that reward stupid kids who spit back rhetoric with a high class rank. I tried to avoid getting into NHS. I was a star academic decathalete (and loved it!!!) with Cs in Chemistry, Spanish, and Math. I wasn’t a contradiction, but some might of saw me that way.

I am the token libertarian member of SYRA. If my parents knew I had joined a club with Republican in the title I think they’d cry. I speak up in class and I’m not shy about expressing my opinions if you ask, but I don’t go out of my way to make it known that I’m probably one of the more conservative people on this campus. I don’t write articles for the SkidNews, that’s bashed my club every week. Even though I can write coherent articles it just seems pointless to publish something that people will dismiss because its ‘conservative.’ I don’t know.

Maybe I’m not putting enough faith in the Skidmore community, but in the past year and a half, I’ve found that the ‘collegiate liberals’ here are barely better than Hampshire. Sure they shower more often, and don’t think money is evil, since most of them have quite a lot, but they hold similar narrow-minded views that they refuse to see past. And I don’t understand. College is, ideally, supposed to challenge you, and challenge you’re perceptions of the world. Skidmore doesn’t do that. Most students enter Skidmore as relatively liberal, and take Liberal Studies which is supposed to teach you to think about things the way you never did before, but really just confirms all the comfortable ideas most people already have. It’s approach is normative and no conclusions are drawn. The class would have been controversial in my upper middle class white high school, filled with kids whose parents “Vote for Reagan” signs on their lawns had scared my hippie mother when we first moved to the area. At Skidmore, it just seems to enforce what almost everyone already believes. It doesn’t challenge any assumptions.

Again, maybe I’m just being cynical, but its been a long time since I felt this disillusioned. At Hampshire I found crazy hippies somewhere to the left of communist who spouted endless ridiculous rhetoric and discounted my view because I’m white and straight. At Skidmore I’ve found classes full of people who don’t do their reading, liberals who think the views they acquired freshman year will guide them through the rest of their lives, and a community that is rather intolerant of views that do not fit into its touchy-feely liberal scheme. You’ll certainly never find “The Closing of the American Mind” in LS1 or read a Phyllis Schafly article in Women Studies 101. If the general population doesn’t agree with it, it isn’t discussed. So many viewpoints, so many ideas are discounted, and even ignored. In high school, the focus was narrow and I was under the impression that that changed in college. I was wrong.

I’ve changed since graduating high school, I’m still dramatic, but more quiet – a product of barely uttering a word my entire tenure at Hampshire. I’m less cynical, less bitter, and less angry, because I am more content with my surroundings (sometimes) and my life. I’m not as notorious. I’m somewhat alienated from a good part of campus life, and getting here a year late didn’t help that. I’m not unhappy with that. I like “my” version of college life, even though its often atypical. I love the government department and talking to my professors and getting obsessed with my reading.

But I don’t like being attacked in the paper in a baseless article. I don’t like being in class and having everyone in the room gang up on me, and rudely tell me I’m wrong without even letting me finish my sentence. I don’t expect people to agree with me, in fact, I’m perfectly willing to engage anyone who disagrees with me. I’m not afraid to defend what I believe. I am, however, insulted by the fact that liberals here are so threatened by conservative views that they have to result to anti-SYRA propaganda. I find it appauling that if I try to express myself before Senate I’m accused of breaking the honor code because my opinion is apparently aligned with ‘not upholding the integrity of Skidmore College.’ I find it depressing when people raise completely irrational ideas in class that have no basis in reality and are applauded for their compassionate liberal thinking. And sometimes, I’m lonely, because all I want to do is have a beer and argue about books and politics and ideas, and that’s when I really miss my o-town friends.

Skidmore is not what I expected it to be. I knew it was liberal (and that fits with a lot of my views, actually). I knew it was a mix of hippies and rich kids. I didn’t know they’d lie to me like this. I was promised a challenge and what I’ve gotten is a place where I can whip out a 10 page paper 2 days before and get an A, when Ms Roeser would have just shook her head and used the “STOP” stamp. I’m not unhappy here. College, overall, has just not been what I’ve expected. I’ve created my own form of the college experience, and I’m fine with that, most of the time. It just makes me cynical sometimes. I am, after all, “the cynical one” of the LTTC.

I want beer and good conversation and I want college liberals to stop being so afraid of the views that they try to so hard to counter.
But I’ll take 2 out of 3 (but don’t be sad cause 2 out of 3 ain’t bad)

For a long time, probably since high school, I have been reluctant about the label of “feminist.” I didn’t feel that I fell under the term. After my experiences at Hampshire, I jokingly called myself an “anti-feminist.”

This entry, on one of my favorite blogs, momentarily made me think that maybe I had been to harsh to claim I am not a feminist. But you know something? Apart from the Neo-Nazis and racists, who aren’t ever going to alter their deep-seeded hatreds, we ALL believe in equality. To simply say that the dictionary definition of feminism is enough and that is thereby encompassses anything else you may believe it misleading and wrong.

Feminism isn’t a state of being. It’s an affiliation, similar to a political affiliaiton.

My Feminist Political Thought class this semester is just affirming to me that I am not a feminist. At best, I may be willing to consider the term “Libertarian Feminist” (or iFeminist) even though Wendy McElroy and his ilk are still kind of looney. Then again, most Libertarians are.

I DID NOT WRITE THIS.

Edited: The “godly author” (his words, not mine) added a really long comment on the end of this, which LJ flagged because it was too long, so I posted it in the entry itself, lest I be accused of censorship

A PROPOSAL: TO PREVENT THE STEALING FROM THE RIAA TO SAVE THEM FROM THE THROES OF POVERTY; TO PREVENT ILLEGAL ENJOYMENT AND CONTACT WITH PROTECTED, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY; TO PREVENT ARTISTS FROM EXPLOITING THE RIAA

Read the rest of this entry »

Me: pity me and my american political thought stuff
YoungerWiserSibling: I have no pity for someone who takes a class because of a crush on an elitist libertarian