I must admit that CT's pseudo and avatar initially caused me to be a bit unjustly biased towards the TPM member from the git. Over time though, CT has often proved to be worthy of targeting. Portraying the Tao in two different shades of blue is strongly indicative of fuzzy logic failure, not Clear-Thinking. Even a casual shallow contemplation of the Tao should manifest itself with a concomitant understanding that any attempt to visually symbolise it need be clearly depicted with an inherent sense of opposite forces in constantly flowing interactive motion with each other, and requires near opposite shades to do so. It is a method for creating order from the force of life's chaos. Zen practise strives towards a perspective from within the point of transition between the two oppositional forces. The place in the changes that is motionless (almost a Koan-like contradiction, isn' it?). It's a valid method, but not for me, as I enjoy being tubed within the leading wavefronts. The problem with that perspective is that it requires great patience, as one must still be in a fortuitous position awaiting, when a wave begins to break. When first engaging CT, I sometimes attempted to convey lightly my sense of irony with his pseudo and avatar, but he wanted none of it, and instead seemed to perceive my intents as being motivated out of spiteful disrespect. Over time, this has ratcheted up into sniping incidents. Compare that to Lux Umbra Dei, who was able to work with elliptic and obscure faint scents set upon a slight breeze, and comprehend substantive meaning, even without understanding why/how I did this (so many reasons, some even I don't really understand, including ungraded tests, traps, tells, alarms, etc. i often act from a belief in the validity of my own intuitiveness). I miss Lux. CT seems motivated from a need to just win brawls, and too often resorts to a rhetorical game that really irritates me: arguing against my style of using hyperbole as humour, and ignoring the substance. (I still haven't come close to grasping what motivates Eds to lamely troll me though...)

CMN is an completely new (for me) TPM Cafe member, and I discovered the claims of libertarianism from the member's almost contentless user page. You know that my libertarianism is non-standard from much of present-day libertarian thought in the US. In Europe, much of it would not even be considered radical.. I consider the LP National's assertions of a natural affinity between libertarianism and contemporary conservatism to be an obscenity; it's open-arms acceptance of Neo-Confederates, and Christian Dominion proponents of theocracy antithetical to libertarian theory; the promotion of tawdry sports betting tout conman, and patent troll, Wayne Root, as an LP spokesman reprehensible; the elevation of all property rights to first-tier natural rights stature ungrounded in logical thought; the defense of public corporations as persons within the understanding of the 13th and 14th amendments as being anti-free market, and anti-individual liberty; its tilt away from the sound principle of open borders an arrogant disregard for a foundational cornerstone of The Nation conception; the fatuous belief that Ron Paul actually represents anything close to libertarianism laughably uniformed, and its embrace of the inhumane Miseserly Austrian Schooled love of possessions which override concerns about others' natural rights, to be an inexcusable acceptance of the drool that dribbles from the mouths of demented Hapsburg Monarchists as libertarianism's Eucharistic blood-wine route to salvation, which can only lead to neo-feudalism, not liberty. Admittedly, non-standard American libertarian theory, but certainly unworthy of the LP National's derogation of belonging within the anarchist-wing of the party.

How was that for a free-falling raving? I plan to email a reply to last night's message from you soon, but cannot predict a decent estimate of when. sorry bout that...