Glibertarians.com 2017 Archive

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  • ZARDOZ SATURDAY NIGHT LINKS

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  • UnCivil Reviews – Mass Effect: Andromeda

    After complaining in the Lynx that I got a physical box with a digital code instead of install media for my preorder, there were those who suggested I review the game and give an opinion.

    First Caveat: I have, as of this set of impressions, thirteen in-game hours. On the plus side, it does not feel like the game is about to end. Though it also means I have not fully explored the character of all of the NPCs, which is an area that traditionally was BioWare’s wheelhouse.

    Second Caveat: I may end up with unmarked spoilers because of my style of writing reviews. I will try to avoid this, but mistakes happen.

    I took my code and typed it into Origin while the Lynx were going. After getting to 42% of the download completed, Origin installed the base game and said I could start playing. It then went on to keep downloading content in the background. So if anyone is already put off by the Origin requirement, there’s your answer. This isn’t an Origin review, so all I’ll say is that it’s a weak Steam rip-off, and I’d rather not have to have yet another sales platform installed on my machine to play games.

    One of the designers also supposedly said something racist about white people

    The first impression I had of the game proper was that it loaded to the main menu massively faster than earlier Mass Effect games. After poking around in the settings menu as per my habit, I dropped into character creation. There has been much said about character creation on other pages, including claims that it was difficult to make a white Ryder which prompted me to immediately try for that.

    The results were passable but there were a few things wrong when wandering about in-game. One, the hairline does not actually attach to the forehead. That gets distracting in close-up shots. Two, the face looks fractionally small for the head but proportionate to itself. That could just be me having screwed up in making my changes. But one thing that kept jumping out at me – all the restraints on the character customization are artificial. It is clear that the engine as it exists could easily handle giving a wider range of variation. Two, it is easy to see where the impression that there was a deliberate effort made to try to prevent people from making a white character. Whether there was intent or not is the question.

    Anyway, I had my soulless ginger, and I kept wondering – why doesn’t the hair color apply to the eyebrows? It makes it look like everyone has a terrible dye job. Actually given how the hair doesn’t connect to the forehead, it makes it look like he’s wearing a wig. This leads into the next distracting problem. I’d dismissed the fuss about facial animations, but there is indeed something seriously off about them. At times, the lip-sync is broken to the point where the Salarians have more natural speech movements than the humans. This wouldn’t be as bad, but being Mass Effect, there are closeups during dialog, and it’s right there, front and center where you can’t miss it. Speaking of dialog, the voice acting… is spotty. Some characters work just fine. No problems. Others, the voice just doesn’t sound right for the model. And then there’s the handful where the actor is just awful. The Salarian director is one such character, where I was wondering “did they leave in placeholder audio?” during his dialog. Decent voice acting is invisible, it blends into the background. Bad voice acting ruins the immersion.

    Will this cavalcade of complains end? Yes, but there are a few more to get to first. Coming from the voice acting, you get the writing. Whoever wrote some of this dialog at best half-assed it. Other writing is par for the series and not so much of an irritant. The problem is the juxtaposition of varying degrees of quality. There is a side quest where you investigate a murder which is actually pretty okay, but I was doing it in parallel to some of the main quests where the glaring mistakes popped up. Little flubs – awkward sentence structure and word choice unrelated to character proclivities, things like that, but being in cutscenes for the primary plot just meant there was nothing else to pay attention to at the time. I get the feel of several parallel writers, where the less experienced members got handed the main plot.

    Right, lets get on to the gameplay. Anyone who’s played BioWare’s work in the past decade will be familiar with most of the conventions. In fact, they will have played this exact game before. For some, what I am about to say is the most damning commentary I could make. For others, it’s a non-issue. But here it is. This game is really Mass Effect: Inquisition. Character picks up unique ability that requires them to personally attend to some vital task. They are dropped into a position of authority within an organization without any qualification – an organization which they have to rebuild from a shattered state and woo allies against a better-resourced foe. And they repeatedly return to the same locales to do side quests and harvest resources to perform upgrades. They even have strike team missions which fill the role of the strategic map in DA:I. These strike team missions are where the Multiplayer is slotted in, as any of them sent out using an “APEX” requirement is a multiplayer mission. I’ve not done any of these because screw multiplayer; I play video games to get away from real people.

    I was okay with Inquisition, and I’m fine with its reskinning. In fact, the reskinning is one of the best things because the Environment artists did a gorgeous job. Lets take a trip from the Citad- sorry, the ‘Nexus’ to the Desert world.

    The office view.
    I told you it was the Citadel.
    Even the star system is dusty.
    The pretty view.
    The Business View.
    We really should pave the parking lot.
    We did build that.
    Fun fact, the Nomad doesn’t float.

    Then we go and have a chat with an NPC and we get another good look at the character animations. And we see that there was a shortage of quality control

    She stood like this the whole conversation.

    Lets take our mind off that, here’s a view of the system on the verge of falling into a black hole.

    It doesn’t technically suck, but it won’t be fun.

    But that brings me to another problem. While exploration is explicitly a part of the game’s premise, the movement transitions take too long. You select a new celestial object to visit, the camera zooms in where you are, pans to aim at the other body, then flies over there, pauses for a full second, and finally reorients at the new location before giving you back control. You can’t skip it, and it does this for every transition. This wouldn’t be so bad, but when you’re doing stellar cartography, a lot of these planets have zero or at most one surface feature to investigate from orbit. You will be flying from world to world a lot. This gets tedious after a while.

    While we’re on the subject of transportation, the Nomad is a decent vehicle in some ways, it definitely handles better than the Mako, but cannot tackle anything approaching the inclines that the Mako could. It doesn’t jump very high, but it also doesn’t leap off of cliff faces and pirouette through the air like the Mako did. It has one seriously annoying drawback – no gun. You have to get out of the Nomad to shoot anything. I’m not going to compare to the Hammerhead because that was a skimmer, and the wheeled vehicles are more appropriate parallels. The Nomad apparently has an infinite supply of mining probes packed away in the back. These probes are as big as people and I’ve launched a number on a single run without resupply. I think I’d rather have a gun.

    While I joked about the aesthetic in the screenshot travel montage, I do understand wanting to keep the Initiative tech looking like what we saw in previous installments. Where the problem comes from is the lack of originality in the Andromeda aliens. I’ve seen two sapient species thus far. One looks like it got lost trying to figure out if it was supposed to head to the Star Wars set or the Star Trek set. It is an uninspired rubber-forehead design. The main villain race looks like someone tried to mix and match traits and animations from the Geth and the Collectors. They are the biggest disappointment thus far. We flew all of these light years for something that isn’t even all that alien. The ‘Archon’ has a comedically child-like face too. It’s just a bit embarrassing.

    The characters look like BioWare standard fare, and I could point to the archetypes from previous games, but as I said, at thirteen hours in, I’ve not had time to evaluate them all. Except I know I cannot stand ‘Peebee’. Immediately after the scene where she introduces herself, I emptied an entire thermal clip of pistol rounds into her because she was that obnoxious. Sadly, these seemed to have no effect. There were points in the subsequent mission where I was all but yelling “Don’t follow the moron” at the pathfinder, but the power of cutscenes compelled him. I cursed when I opened the wrong door on the ship and ended up in an inescapable conversation with her. Some of the other NPCs started out grating, but became less of an irritant over time. Liam was much easier to deal with after I replaced him with a Turian and he wasn’t constantly yapping on during missions.

    I am seriously distrustful of the AI, and I really wish there was a way for the PC to try to get it out of his head. That thing is just plain wrong and the first step down a lot of bad endings for humanity.

    So far, I give it three dead Reapers out of five. It won’t wow you, but it can be enjoyable if you liked Inquisition. You may want to wait for a sale if you’re on the fence.

  • Let’s Go Toe-to-Toe on Beer Law

    To begin, I’m as much a lawyer as Charlie Kelly is; I just prefer to focus on beer law instead of bird law. The after effect of the terrible experiment in alcohol prohibition in the United States is the cause of most of these bizarre and strange laws. Before prohibition, the peak number of breweries in the US was over 4,100 (1873). While consolidation was already happening previous to the 18th amendment being ratified, once it was passed it started forcing breweries to close. By the time the 21st amendment was ratified, less than 750 breweries remained active. The number of breweries continued to decline as consolidation continued until we reached the nadir of less than 100 breweries in the 1970’s.

    Thankfully, Jimmy Carter did something great, and he legalized homebrewing on the national level in 1978 (although it was not legal on the state level in all states until 2013). Once homebrewing became legal, it allowed for experimentation with styles and techniques that led to small independent breweries opening up (at the time called micro-breweries, now referred to as craft beer). It took until 1994 for craft beer to even make up 1% of the US market in volume. Two years later, the US had over 1,000 active breweries, and then it took until 2011 for the US to pass 2,000 active breweries. After that, growth exploded, reaching 3,000 active breweries in 2014 and reaching over 4,100 in 2015 (while now making up 10% of the US market).

    If you are unaware, after prohibition a three tier system was put into place to extract taxes and still allow regulation of alcohol production and distribution. These tiers are regulated on the state level, meaning that we have a rare opportunity to look at each of the states, and compare the results of their regulations over the 30 years since small breweries started opening. Thankfully, the Mercatus Center has done this, with a focus on two factors:

    1. Self-distribution – Allowing breweries to sell their beer directly to retailers instead of going through a distributor
    2. Beer franchise laws – Which determine when a brewery can terminate their deal with a distributor

    The study finds that allowing breweries to self-distribute and to get out of contracts with distributors they are having issue with leads to more breweries and a higher volume of production. This leads to more jobs, more options for consumers, and more taxes for the state (they’ll always take their cut).

    It’s a common refrain that drugs should be legalized and treated like alcohol. If we want to regulate drugs like alcohol, the study by the Mercatus Center shows us that we should have less regulation if we want people to have more options. These options do not always need to be for stronger and more potent items. Two of the current fads in the craft beer world are session beers and sour beers. Both of which are generally lower in alcohol than your average beer.

    Of course, we’ll also want to try to avoid some of the more terrible laws that exist currently in some states. People are generally used to the alcohol laws in their state: they know if they have to go to a special store to buy some things, or if they need to make sure to stock up on Saturday; however, they generally don’t know the laws in the states around them. These laws vary wildly state to state, with some states being relatively good (California and Oregon come to mind) and some states just bad (Utah and Pennsylvania, I’m looking at you)

    Some of the more bizarre laws from the more moderate locations include:

    Thankfully, in this area things are getting better. In doing the research for this, I ran across several laws that have already been repealed/updated. Last year included quite a few sweeping changes to alcohol laws through the states. Almost every one of those laws was opposed by the various groups who had profited by the regulations that were in place (liquor stores, distributors, and AB InBev/SABMiller), and yet the changes continue. It helps that craft beer is still a growing industry. In my home state of Ohio, there are currently 57 active applications for new brewery licenses, and there have been only a handful of breweries that closed their doors in the past year.

    If you’re interested in keeping up with the current laws and changes that are being proposed the Brewers Association is a good start, as is your local brewery.

  • Boker Shabbat Links

    A bucket for Monsieur
    Food should signal virtue

    One of my insufferable Facebook friends posted about a social-signal dinner he flew over to Paris to attend, the theme of which was dishes from countries on Trump’s “banned” list. Because: “This is what people in decent, kind, intelligent countries do. Thus: not ours.” We certainly have work to do before we reach this level of kindness. And what France needs is common sense hammer control regulation.

    The concept of moksha is characteristic of Hinduism, and may be attained in many ways. This may not be one of them.

    Missing children numbers in DC have been declining, so we need to Do Something. Break out the milk cartons! The government is on the job!

    Nuggets of Death
    I want these right now!

    Folks who don’t live around here are likely unaware of the wonderful, junky deliciousness that is Wisconsin Cheese Curds. I’ll put in a plug for the ones from Culver’s, which are approximately 153,000 calories per serving, and absolutely irresistible. But besides imminent heart attack and stroke, they carry their own particular brand of insidious danger. (Warning: autoplay)

    Not actually OMWC and SP's closet
    Nice rack!

    Every once in a while- rarely, but not “never”- something positive for liberty happens. And this time, it happened in one of those flyover states. This is a state that our local Hate Radio guy ranted shouldn’t exist. And he was being serious. I can’t decide which is my guiltier pleasure, Culver’s cheese curds or Hate Radio. Anyway, celebrate this in an appropriate way, like randomly firing guns in the air.

     

  • ZARDOZ FRIDAY NIGHT LINKS

    ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES. HAVING PLEASED ZARDOZ, HE GIVES YOU LINKS TO ENJOY THIS NIGHT. GO FORTH AND SNARK!

    • PORTLY BRUTAL CALLS FOR KILLING. WHY ARE CANADIAN BRUTALS UPSET? ZARDOZ HAS OFTEN CALLED FOR GOING FOR AND KILLING…
    • FAMOUS BRUTAL PROBABLY SHOULD NOT BE PILOT ANYMORE.
    • GERMAN BRUTAL MUSES ABOUT CITY JERRYS ONCE TRIED TO DESTROY.
    • PRIMATES SAVE BRUTAL.
    • HOODED BRUTAL BELIEVES IN GOING FORTH AND KILLING …FRENCH BRUTALS
    The links....they have bullet points!
    I see…links!

  • Belly Up to the Bar

    Gearing Up for Cocktails 

    By RC Dean

    Last week’s post on the Dark and Stormy dabbled in the equipment and supplies that can be put to good use by the home bartender. This week we will survey the Casa Dean’s loadout for cocktailing, which by its nature invites a plethora of tools and ingredients.

    Casa Dean Gear

    In addition to the cocktail measuring glass and soda syphon mentioned last week for the Dark and Stormy (ginger beer syrup edition), and the eyedropper the week before (to dose Pernod properly for a Monkey Gland), there’s also a few other items that we use:

    • Shaker. There are some variations on this, and a lot of [real] bartenders use a Boston shaker (two stainless steel containers, the top of one fitting inside the top of the other) or a variation with a pint glass and a stainless container. These are tricky to pour out of and prone to accidents, so I use a pretty standard shaker, the kind with a cap that has a strainer.

    Shaking your drink does a couple of things, in addition to mixing the ingredients: it chills the drink, and it dilutes the drink a little (remember: a proper shake is 10 – 15 seconds). Both of these are Good Things – water is one of the unacknowledged ingredients of many cocktails, which just taste better a little diluted. Hell, it’s acceptable, even expected, to add a splash of water to even the finest single malts.

    • Spherical ice makers. This is a recent addition to our setup, and we’ve started using them almost exclusively for “rocks” drinks. Highballs still get the usual cubes from our icemaker. The spheres have a couple of advantages; they just look cool, and they melt more slowly, so your drink doesn’t get as watery. The 1 ½ inch size seems pretty standard. It does take them a little longer to cool the drink, if it started at room temperature.

    I’ve been using this SVERES Jumbo Ice Ball Tray, which makes six at a time. A little more labor intensive than just pushing the lever on the front of the fridge, but worth it, IMO. I’ve also got a pair of these Tovolo Sphere Clear makers, but they’re kind of a pain in the ass to use. I think they make somewhat better spheres than the tray.

    • Glasses. For highballs, we just use whatever. For rocks drinks, I’ve been using these Bodum double wall glasses. They slow the melting of the ice balls even more and look pretty cool. These used to be pretty fragile, but they’ve been beefed up enough we haven’t had any problems.

    Casa Dean Supplies

    Confession time: I don’t fresh squeeze my citrus juices; I get good lime, lemon, and orange juice in bottles and just use that. I also don’t generally garnish. When I’m thirsty, I get lazy, OK?

    For liqueurs, we have the following:

    • Pernod, for Monkey Glands. I haven’t found another use for it that I liked, so that’s about it. Its basically licorice concentrate, to my palate.

    • Amaretto, mostly for Polar Vortexes (to be written up one of these weeks). It’s a sweetener, mainly, but even in small amounts it changes up the drink.

    • Salerno, for margaritas, sangria, anything that calls for orange liqueur. I’ve got some Grand Marnier, but just don’t really use it much since I found Salerno, which isn’t as sweet and “heavy” as most orange liqueurs.

    • Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur. I pretty much just use this to make my own maraschino cherries, which are completely different than the dyed candied cherries passed off as such in the grocery store. Real maraschino cherries on chocolate ice cream is just divine, BTW, and justifies making your own all by itself.

    • Drambuie. For the occasional Rusty Nail. Mrs. Dean also likes it sometimes just over ice.

    • We also have Rivata sweet and dry vermouth. I mostly use the sweet to make Rob Roys and Manhattans. I’ve tried olde schoole martinis, but just don’t come back to them.

    For bitters and mixers, there’s a few standards and a lot of interesting stuff to try. As mentioned last week, Pickett’s Ginger Beer Syrup is excellent. The Jack Rudy Classic Tonic syrup gets a real workout in hot weather, as well – it produces a vastly more flavorful gin and tonic than what you get in the store. You need a soda syphon to use these, or you can just crack open a soda water or club soda and pour in. But the soda syphon’s more fun.

    I like the Bittermilk lineup, and use several of their mixers off and on (the Charred Grapefruit with light rum is way too easy to drink in hot weather). Others make their way in and out of the pantry from time to time as experiments (I have this Maple-Bacon Syrup going through testing right now), and it is remarkable how many smaller companies are putting out good stuff. These will get called out as needed in future recipes.

     

    Derpetologist’s Spot the Not: Leonard Peikoff (a famous Randroid)

    1. [Regarding the so-called Ground Zero Mosque] Any way possible permission should be refused and if they go ahead and build it, the government should bomb it out of existence, evacuating it first, with no compensation to any of the property owners involved in this monstrosity.

    2. Responsible parenthood involves decades devoted to the child’s proper nurture. To sentence a woman to bear a child against her will is an unspeakable violation of her rights: her right to liberty (to the functions of her body), her right to the pursuit of happiness, and, sometimes, her right to life itself, even as a serf.

    3. Every argument for God and every attribute ascribed to Him rests on a false metaphysical premise. None can survive for a moment on a correct metaphysics.

    4. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon facts.

    5. Statism and the advocacy of reason are philosophical opposites. They cannot coexist—neither in a philosophic system nor in a nation.

    6. What is is. Perceive It. Integrate it. Act on it. Idealize it.

  • Fur Fridays

    Here we are at another Friday, Glibs. Our beloved Jesse is out of town, but I’m hoping that this particular Fur Friday makes you long for his return.

    I’m sure there’s a depressing story behind that eye.

    Contrary to popular belief, I am just one big softy. Look at this puppy’s face and tell me you aren’t, also. I have a particular fondness for blue heelers, corgis, wolfhounds…and, well, most furry creatures. Yes, even cats, albeit at a distance.

    In Montana, there are several pet rescue chapters–various regional Humane Societies since the state is so vast, “Res-Dog-Rescue” types (usually around the major reservations), and even some breed specific Rescues if you’re just really into Border Collies or herding types. The focus of my post today is RezQ Dogs. As was mentioned in a previous post of mine, we have some odd racial dynamics at play in the Last Best Place. However, folks seem to be able to put aside any “racist!!!1!” decries they might have when it comes to pet rescues. RezQ Dogs is a volunteer, nonprofit organization in Dodson, Montana, a bustling town of ~124 people, as of the last census. They try to find homes for the unwanted and abandoned dogs from the Fort Belknap and Rocky Boy Indian Reservations. You might have guessed that it’s hard for them to find homes for all of the pups they take in, and you would be right. The owners and the volunteers of this organization foster these dogs in their own homes until they can place them. Of course, at some point, they run out of vacancy and have to turn dogs away, too. They hope that one day they won’t have to do this anymore, that people on reservations will have some kind of respect and sanctity for the life of another creature.

    Clearly spoiled rotten

    Before this starts to read like one of those awful, heart-breaking commercials with Sarah McLachlan music in the background, here’s a picture of a dog who has literally never known hardship, besides trying to figure out which stuffed animal to rip the eyes off first. When I drove down to Wyoming to buy this little bundle of fur, I had no idea that an organization like RezQ Dogs existed, or I really would have considered them first. They mention on their website that the bulk of their rescues are just puppies, less than a year old. You don’t always know the story behind abandoned dogs, but in the case of a puppy, seems to me like someone just wasn’t ready for the responsibility or they lacked the patience and consistency to train the dog properly, and so they abandon it. They literally leave it by the side of the road in a box, assuming that a good Samaritan will happen upon it and give it the life it deserves. Or maybe they don’t assume anything at all. Maybe they just leave it there and figure it’s in someone else’s hands now and no longer their problem. Whatever their motivation is, they deserve to go to a special Hell.

    Anyway, if you’d like to make a difference in a dog’s life, feel free to visit RezQ Dogs Facebook page or their website. It doesn’t look like they update their website as often as they do their Facebook, but they do make an effort to list all of the dogs they’re currently fostering. Better yet–seek out rescue facilities in your own neighborhood and make a difference locally. It might not seem like much, donating your time one afternoon or kicking in $5, but it really does have an impact.

  • Friday Afternoon Links

    Back to little old me, for links.  We simply cannot count on the awesome presence of ZARDOZ every day, you know. With that in mind, have some Links before Happy Hour (assuming you are in a civilized time zone, i.e. Central)

    • A follow up on the STEVE SMITHED bull fighter.
    • Borderline NSFW Daily Fail for those that like the wimminz. [UPDATE: previously revealed (heh heh) by Just Say’n]
    • Slim pickings at the Daily Fail, for those like the menz, so look at this Scottish rugby player.
    • Say, a few years back, I remember hearing something similar to this. Live Hilarity Updates here. And down for the (short term) count?
    • Um, wut?

    Right then. Promptly ignore these and talk among yourselves!

    THAT WHICH IS IGNORED!
    Got Lynx?

     

  • Completely Unwarranted Attack on the Single Land Tax (Land Value Tax) #2

    We’ve had some really good back and forth in the prior articles about the SLT/LVT, so I’m gonna poke the hornet’s next one more time.

    Rent, so much rent!!!

    This time I’m taking aim at the claim from SLTers (and other economists) that a single land tax/land value tax is the “least bad” because it incurs no “deadweight loss.”

    MASSIVE DISCLAIMER: I’m not an economist. My only formal exposure to economics was a AP micro in high school and 2 weeks of macro in college before I dropped the class. I’m prepared for somebody with knowledge in this subject matter to refute any and every premise/assertion/conclusion I make.

    First, let’s define deadweight loss. In a broad sense, deadweight loss is a measure of certain inefficiencies caused by government intervention in a market. Focusing specifically on taxes, deadweight loss represents the benefit that would’ve been had by consumers in the perfect market that is foregone in the distorted market.

    As a simple example, let’s say the perfect market would sell monocles for $1, and the government imposes a $3 luxury tax on monocles, raising their total cost to $4/monocle. There are a lot of people who would buy a monocle at $1, and a few glibertarians who would buy a monocle even at $4. Deadweight loss represents the economic benefit that the glibertarians who bought $4 monocles would have otherwise had with the $3 they ended up paying in tax.

    Using a static model, it looks like this, pictographically:

    I made a graph!!!1!1!!

    Using this model, SLTers say that the SLT has no deadweight loss because there is a fixed supply of land (a vertical supply curve). You usually see a graph like this from them:

    I've seen this one before

    However, let’s think about what this means for a moment. It means that no matter the tax on the value of the land, the consumer does not lose economic benefit. This strikes me as incorrect. In fact, upon examining the above graph, it seems a bit… off. After looking at it for a bit, it appears that the demand curve has been moved in the no deadweight loss graph. It’s showing the equilibrium for a distorted market, not for a theoretical perfect market like in the top graph. Taking that into account here’s what the graph should look like (IMO):

    What am I missing here???

    Somebody please explain to me what I’m doing wrong here. When I, a lay person, am coming to a different conclusion than the likes of Milton Friedman, I’m worried that I’m missing something very simple.

    However, just to hedge my argument a little bit, I think we need to re-examine this asymptotic economic model. Land is a somewhat unique object in that it cannot be produced. When looking at a supply curve, we’re more focused on production. Thinking about it for a moment, it seems really odd to say that, should the demand for land drop precipitously, land could go to at-or-near zero price. See, what I intuit is that some land isn’t marketable at a certain price. I think the vertical line is too simplistic and results in “technically right” answers that don’t reflect reality. The “not for sale” aspect isn’t being taken into account. Therefore, in adjusting the supply curve to reflect the marketable supply of land rather than the total supply, we get a graph that looks a bit more like the first one in this article:

    Land for a penny!

  • Go Ask Alice

    The Query

    I’m a single guy who’s finding the search for a girlfriend frustrating, because one of my absolute requirements for any woman I date that she be at least libertarian-leaning. I have friends of different political persuasions, of course, because politics aren’t the crux of our friendship, so we do [shared interest activity] then part ways. But I don’t think I could stand coming home to someone who supposed to be a source of solace and moral support yet I think is at best naïve and at worst stupid or immoral or both. How could I connect with someone who doesn’t even understand my frustrations with the world outside the walls of our home? How could I respect as an equal someone who thinks such a world is moral or just?

    So, for those of you who are dating/married to non-libertarians, how do you make peace with that? Am I doing myself a disservice by maintaining such a strict requirement?

    — Where The Libertarian Women At?

    The Answer(s)

    Riven:

    I don’t think there’s anything wrong with waiting until you find the right person. Previously, I was married to someone who might have considered himself a libertarian, but he definitely fell into a standard Republican square, in my estimation. Things didn’t work out–for plenty of reasons, not just because we couldn’t see eye-to-eye ideologically. One thing I’ve found about libertarians and libertarianism is that it isn’t just a political philosophy; for me, it’s more of a life philosophy. I would not be able to push my ideals aside for my romantic partner and I have a whole failed relationship to prove it. As you said above, how could I come home to someone who has an entirely different approach/reaction to the world than I do? I couldn’t. Mr. Riven and I met on OKCupid, where it was easy to see on each other’s profiles if there was going to be any compatibility or not. Luckily we were both painfully honest, and meeting in person only reinforced that compatibility further. The rest, they say, is history. Hold out for that unicorn.

    Banjos:

    A thrice divorced hopelessly romantic former coworker of mine once told me a story. He was almost about to give up on finding “the one” when a friend of his point blank asked him a question.  “What do all the women you have been married to/dated over your life have in common?”  He thought about it for a second and then said “I met them all in bars.”  His friend then said “If you want to catch a different kind of fish, you need to start fishing in different ponds.”  My coworker took his friend’s advice to heart, found a different pond, and has been happily married ever since.  Shortly after being told that story, I started fishing on Reason and caught myself a sloopy. I know of another couple who are soon to be married who found each other through Reason’s comment section, as well. So my simple advice is this: If you want a libertarian fish, fish in libertarian ponds.

    BrettL:

    First of all, we know there are no libertarian women out there, Banjos and Riven are taken. But beating our heads against the wall of impossible is obviously attractive to the libertarian leaning. What worked well for me was to find one who didn’t care at all about politics and really didn’t think much about how society should be ordered. And then show her the outrageous things that happen every day that this site and certain others are good at highlighting. Mrs. L still doesn’t care about politics, per se, but she sure does say a lot of things that sound like they came off this message board in response to the petty statism we encounter day-to-day. However, Mrs. L is awesome, sane, and puts up with me, so good luck finding your own unicorn.

     

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