Friday Fiver

[gridlore]

From the home office in a bus station in Alabama, we bring you this week's questions:

1. When is the last time you rode the bus? A few months ago. Normally, I'm a public transportation fanatic, but my current job is unreachable by bus (or train, for that matter.)

2. Describe the last time you stood up for a cause: Constantly! Even if its just debate/arguing on the net, I'm a passionate supporter of gay rights, abortion rights, and a staunch defender of the 2nd Amendment. (now there's a combination you don't see that often.)

3. Have you visited Alabama? Many times. Mainly Phenix City, since I was stationed right across the Chattahoochee River at Fort Benning. But I also made it to Montgomery and Selma.

4. Have you ever attended a rally? Several. Mostly for gay rights and pro-choice causes.

5. Have you ever been arrested? Nope.

Comments

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

I'm a passionate supporter of gay rights, abortion rights, and a staunch defender of the 2nd Amendment.

You're right, that's very rarely seen, which confuses me. These are all personal liberty issues, every last one of them. They're all issues of keeping the government out of citizens' private lives. You'd think there'd be more common cause found amongst the various one-issue advocates, but it isn't happening. Too bad, isn't it, that the evangelical Fundamentalists seem to have a unifying cause when the rational rest of us can't manage to find one so obvious?

[nsingman.livejournal.com]

Actually, we libertarians are staunch supporters of gay rights, abortion rights and gun rights. Then again, perhaps the fact that the combination is rarely seen means that there just aren't that many of us. :-)

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

Well, I think one reason there are so few Libertarians is due in part to the economic policies that normally go along with that political worldview. They're interesting on paper, but not realistic when you attempt to put them into practice. At least, not with the American people at their current level of development. Just my $0.02, anyway.

[lysana.livejournal.com]

So you're saying the Libertarian party in the US isn't a source of true libertarianism? After all, they're wishy-washy on abortion.

[nsingman.livejournal.com]

I've learned not to be terribly presumptuous about "true libertarianism," since there are a few different flavors. What might make some libertarians wishy-washy on abortion, though, might be the issue of when the fetus becomes a person. I'm not sure myself, though I'm probably more unwilling than even my fellow libertarians to force a woman to carry a pregnancy to term. I'm uncomfortable with late term elective abortions, but I'm not sure where I'd draw the line at wanting them actually outlawed.

No libertarian I've encountered would ever force a woman to have an abortion, of course, nor would they force a physician to perform one.

[murbin.livejournal.com]

The Libertarian Party in the US is made up a wide range of members, but I agree with nsingman's comments about Libertarians and abortion. Even those who don't like the concept, feel it's none of their business what other adults do with their bodies.

As for Doug's grouping of rights he fights for, there is actually an organized group that is very vocal about two, and probably very supportive of the third. They are called the Pink Pistols.