From a comment on David's site

This is the post.

Quoth me:

Paul W. Davis - all governments are armed warlords and gangs. That's what a government is.

You're just arguing that we ought to prefer your warlords. That's all.

Your "laws" are nothing more than edicts enforced at gunpoint by whoever runs the gang.

IF you accept that the government that governs best governs least, THEN you accept no form of government whatsoever.

Any and all alternatives are socialism, plain and simple. The differences between Left-Socialist (D-Connecticut) and Right-Socialist (R-Texas) are purely academic. In fact, they're laughable. They don't disagree on the subversion of the rights of the individual or the domination of man by "armed warlords and gangs," they disagree only on what those warlords and gangs should do.

I agree on principles, I DISAGREE on enforcing them. I have never met a law or a tax that I have liked. Not once, at all. That statement is absolute. I believe any tax for any purpose is a textbook case of robbery and should be dealt with as such. In fact I'll go so far as to lay down one of my essential principles:

All tax collectors should be publicly beheaded.

I'll stop hogging David's bandwidth and write more on my own blog.

Sine regibus, sine dominis,
John H.

I've got a big problem with "small" government.

If it's wrong for you to take money from me to pay for your dinner, it's wrong for you to take money from me to pay for a gun to "defend the nation."

I don't care if you think national defense is good or necessary - taxation remains theft.

I don't care if you think government does a bang-up job of paving roads - taxation remains theft.

I don't care if you think "there oughta be a law!" - taxation remains theft.

Here's a thought to try on:

Minarchists are the pragmatists of the "libertarian" movement.

Do you understand that? You minarchists are happy to throw away principles, throw away essential beliefs, and sell yourselves and your children up the river in the name of expediency!

I can see no difference - no, there is no difference - between the gun owner who voted for Obama because he thinks his pet project is more important than gun rights and the faux-libertarian - a Libertarian In Moniker Only (LIMO) if you will - who thinks that THIS bit of theft or THAT abrogation of individual rights is okay because it's super-important!

Pragmatism and its sister philosophy utilitarianism are the antithesis of libertarianism. If your ultimate goal is not the abolition of statehood in its entirety, you are not a libertarian, you are a socialist. The preceding is an absolute statement.