flores posted: Re: shubi,
"Stossel makes the false premise conservatives think laws make people more virtuous"
Hence sodomy laws, prostitution prohibitions, drug laws, don't really exist? Conservatives love them - Ok, conservative STATISTS, which are not unlike their brethren on the left. But they are positivist attempts at making man virtuous.
I’m a libertarian in part because I see a false choice offered by the political left and right: government control of the economy -- or government control of our personal lives.
People on both sides think of themselves as freedom lovers. The left thinks government can lessen income inequality. The right thinks government can make Americans more virtuous. I say we’re best off if neither side attempts to advance its agenda via government.
Let both argue about things like drug use and poverty, but let no one be coerced by government unless he steals or attacks someone....
I do think the laws as we have passed them, mostly by the socialists, promote bad behavior rather than deter it. In fact, I don't believe putting drug users in prison serves any useful purpose. There should be a less expensive system to deal with druggies.
Personally, I just don't want to hear about who is doing sodomy to whom. Those of us that find it disgusting should not have to have it pushed in our face. I don't think it is criminal behavior, just sick behavior.
how is the act of putting something into my body harmful to another?
I don't hold with criminalizing drug use, however. To do so is counter productive.