How the financial collapse killed libertarianism. - By Jacob Weisberg - Slate Magazine: "The best thing you can say about libertarians is that because their views derive from abstract theory, they tend to be highly principled and rigorous in their logic. Those outside of government at places like the Cato Institute and Reason magazine are just as consistent in their opposition to government bailouts as to the kind of regulation that might have prevented one from being necessary. 'Let failed banks fail' is the purist line. This approach would deliver a wonderful lesson in personal responsibility, creating thousands of new jobs in the soup-kitchen and food-pantry industries.

The worst thing you can say about libertarians is that they are intellectually immature, frozen in the worldview many of them absorbed from reading Ayn Rand novels in high school. Like other ideologues, libertarians react to the world's failing to conform to their model by asking where the world went wrong."
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This article got a lot of attention from libertarians who, of course, claim he doesn't grasp the subtle nuances of libertarianism. But I think the true believers in free markets have some major soul-searching to do. I have been arguing for a long time now that the libertarian defense of CIDs is misguided. Their theory tells them that private repression is actually freedom because it is based on contract law. They see these entities as superior to, and eventual replacements for, municipalities. The fact is that the nation's private governments are at even greater risk than the cities and counties, who have it hard enough right now.