For me, the most interesting aspect of the idea of anti-commons is that one could expect both Rand-reading libertarians and hammer-and-sickle communists to agree with Heller. The former crowd would insist that his argument just amounts to the suggestion that individuals should be allowed to appropriate anything in nature the value of which they are capable of increasing; the latter gang would say that any commodity that can be used without permission is communal property by definition.

The new, stark dichotomy that's left to replace this old one is something that we're all already familiar with, of course: the institutional ideology of the Republican party vs. the informed opinions of people who, like, actually think.

Don't forget that there are plenty of ideologically idiotic Democrats, and not every Republican fits your description.

I was really interested in your first paragaph, and I was led on by the first sentance of your second, before being let down by the result: common liberal anger.

Perhaps you should get new reading glasses then. Just because not every Republican believes X doesn't mean that X isn't official Republican ideology. And I'm a Heller-admiring socialist, as it happens, not a Liberal (I read your use of the word as implicitly capitalized, in good Limbaugh-esque fashion).

Maybe you should actually try taking a few freshman logic courses, too, after that trip to the optometrist.

i doubt if the dude is a socialist. most of the ones tout socialism do not want to be socialists. they want everyone else to be socialist. if they were socialists, they would have already moved to a commune as any real socialist would. this person does not have the guts.

the sad fact is that these washed up marxists don't have the guts to be real socialists. they would dry up and blow away if they did not have some capitalist to suckle.

i never see a capitalist trying to force anyone into socialism but washed up marxists are always trying to force everyone into socialism.

So, are there any afficionados of capitalism left out there who can carry out a discussion of these matters without descending into personal abuse or unpunctuated illiteracy?

*insert echoey sounds*