Well, that's why I think the line is porous, not nonexistent. There are definite differences; I just think that the two groups have some substantial overlap. My anecdotal example is my mom, who was a hippie, suggesting that I read The Fountainhead as a kid. She wasn't a libertarian or an objectivist at all and only…

It's all a matter of taste. If your taste is for people having the same three types of conversation over and over about different subjects in between orgies, then I guess it's Christmas morning for you. Otherwise, a lot of the later books are not essential. I'd actually recommend his short stories and novellas over…

I have this big theory about happiness that I've been working on (i.e. pondering off and on) for years. It's germane, so I may as well lay it out here.

"Maargh, goddamnit. Anne, git yer robe, the goddamn feds are here. Ah, Jesus" *puts on a bathrobe and staggers to the front door*

Out of the Silent Planet can't come soon enough.

The line between American hippies and libertarians were porous, philosophically speaking, enough so that I remember reading an excerpt from some old conservative outreach manual about appealing to hippies by stressing personal freedoms. Really, the division almost comes off as more of a personality difference than a…

I still remember the sinking feeling I would get as a teenager upon reading a Heinlein book that I hadn't encountered yet and realizing, halfway through, that it was going to tie into the whole Long family / Boondock thing. I'd usually enjoy it up to that point, too. Then they'd run into these irritating walking…

Ha ha ha. You might want to avoid his later books, then. They all get tied into an overarching continuity where all roads lead to a planet that's basically Jubal's backyard writ large.

He's pretty much right in line with other social democrats throughout the world, such as the NDP up here. In the US, though, socialism of any stripe gets roundly rejected by much of the population. There isn't anything radical about him in other places, but the US has been run under various flavours of capitalism…

Socialism still appears to have an image problem in the US, though that's changed over time. I recall a clip of some talking heads reacting with horror to a poll suggesting that college-aged people don't consider it as a "scary" term. Trump voters, though, were unlikely to turn from a fake rich guy to a person who…

I kind of wish Sanders were Canadian. If he were in the NDP right now, we might be seeing some shakeups for the better. Social atheist Jew does not hurt you in the NDP!

It would have been interesting to see that election, but I don't know if Sanders would have fared much better. His avowed socialism would have spooked many older voters and he would have been targeted by even more anti-Semitic rhetoric than we actually saw. Still, it might have been enough to keep a few more…

I will have you know that I am only using two blankets right now, thank you very much.

This is the impression I'm getting from replies. I guess it's hard for me to believe how possible this is. In my high school law class, it seemed that Canadian decisions about Charter cases (as in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms) would turn over decisions from before the Charter was put into effect, but not…

I think you're right. The appointment(s) will definitely be made on this issue. Pence comes off like Roe v. Wade is his white whale. If they only get one appointment, though, that may not be enough to turn the tide.

The latter part of your post is more or less why I wonder if this administration would bother with attacking the decision. Wouldn't it be easier to basically paper over it with all sorts of other measures designed to make getting one's legal abortion possible?

Roboooooooooto

Harding was pretty terrible.

I thought that the US Supreme Court mostly ruled on constitutional matters for some reason. I had thought that the logic would go that providing abortion services had already been found to not be unconstitutional (as you say, it doesn't mention the subject at all), so it couldn't suddenly be found to be…

Yes, I get that part. I'm just saying that it seems unlikely. It's not like the Constitution has changed since Roe v. Wade, right? It would take some impressive mental gymnastics to suddenly find it unconstitutional now. I'm not American and I think I must be missing something, because everyone is talking like the…