What Is the Riddle of Steel?

New at Reason: Jacob Sullum gives two thumbs up to Arnold's gubernatorial performance.

Comments

[Anonymous]

so smoking a joint was a "bad choice"?

[Douglas Fletcher]

Who gives a flying fruck about medical marijuana.

The problem with California is that Davis & Co. are bankrupting the place. Any governor who seriously deals with the budget problem isn't going to have much time for anything else, least of all a boutique issue like medical marijuana.

[max power]

Why are we libertarian-leaning Californians being given so much shit for liking Arnold? Let me ask you this. Who of the following do you expect me to vote for?

A. An inept, corrupt, anti-free market Democrat.
B. A Libertarian who has absolutely no chance in hell of winning (or for that matter getting more than 3% of the vote).
C. A Republican who is openly pro-free market, who thinks the gov't should stay out of people's personal lives, and who has a very good chance of winning.

The answer is a very obvious "C." Am I expected to vote for the Druid, the pro-smoking activist, the gun nut, or whatever other loser the LP comes up with just because Arnold thinks that gov't should help out children/the infirm and because he thinks that not everybody needs to have automatic weapons?

Please. For anyone remotely concerned with pragmatics, Arnold is a huge step in the right direction.

[PLC]

Douglas - are you not a libertarian? Don't you understand that the ONLY important issues today are marijuana, Clear Channel, and pornography? Don't you know anything about FREEDOM?

[Anthony]

Medical marijuana is a huge issue because innocent people are being sent to jail. I understand that the budget is a huge issue, but so is personal freedom and justice. If Arnold states that he made a mistake and wants to continue the failed War on Drugs then he won't get my vote and his entire drug history should be fair game in this race. I do think that if he believes that medical marijuana patients should continue to go to jail while he doesn't have to expose his own drug history (involving at least marijuana and steroids), then he is a hypocrite.

If Libertarians don't stand up for personal freedom, then what seperates you from some rhetoric-spouting Republican?

[Dan]

Is there no real libertarian candidate running

I wouldn't trust a "real libertarian" to organize himself and his five friends to agree on pizza toppings, let alone to run my state. Ideologues make lousy elected officials.

The important thing, to me, is that Schwarzenegger is a step in a libertarian direction -- yes, he favors some big state programs, but so does every other electable person in the state. What's important is that he also favors capitalism and social libertarianism. People need to embrace concepts like "capitalism is good" and "the government shouldn't interfere in your private life or work life" before they're ready for the logical next steps of "the government shouldn't have its fingers in every pie" and "the government that governs best governs least".

[Mark S.]

I don't know why conservatives are raving for this slab of Austrian beefcake. Ah-nold on record for saying that he wants to increase the number of welfare programs and to bring businesses into the state for the express purpose of taxing them in order to pay for said programs. He's for "sensible" gun control. (Really? Is there also sensible censorship, sensible conscription, and sensible tyranny as well?) The only thing I can see eye-to-eye on him is criticism of the Religious Right, but that shouldn't be likely to endear him to the average Republican who 9-chances-out-of-10 has sympathy or is a member of that particular movement.

Of course, having once been a Republican I can tell you that the "platform" and the "principles" that the GOP states to be for is nothing more than the bait to reel in the voters. Like all broker parties, all they care about is getting people under their banner into office. The RNC would back a Marxist Leninist for office as long as they ran on the Republican ticket.

(Of course, the Dems are the same way. They haven't done anymore to get rid of their "Yellow Dog Democrats" than the GOP has to remove the "Country Club Republicans" from their midst.)

Ideologically, Ah-nold isn't all that different from Davis and certainly isn't a part of a "Right Wing Coup" that the latter believes is behind the recall against him. But since Arnie has name recognition and GOP credentials, they'll back him anyway.

[Dan]

he wants to [...] bring businesses into the state for the express purpose of taxing them

Here's what he said:
"More businesses are leaving California than ever before. When business comes back, revenue comes back. When revenues come back, we can afford all kinds of programs that are very important."

Maybe you're viewing the world through Ayn-Rand-colored glasses, but I parsed that statement as saying "We need businesses to stay in the state before we can collect revenue, and we need revenue before we can pay for important government programs". Which is factually true; Scwarzenegger's statement is basically a shorthand description of the Laffer curve for businesses. The key thing you're missing here is that he's saying revenue has to come BEFORE spending, even on "important programs" -- which puts him far to the "right" of almost all governors, plus the President and Congress.

He's for "sensible" gun control. (Really? Is there also sensible censorship, sensible conscription, and sensible tyranny as well?)i>

Yes. Examples of sensible censorship include bans on libel, slander, perjury, and giving military secrets to enemy nations in time of war.
"Sensible tyranny" is an accurate description of the criminal justice system -- well, of the sensible parts of it, anyway. 🙂

As for "sensible gun control"... insane people, people convicted of violent or property crimes, and young children are people I (and, I suspect, the vast majority of people) am perfectly content to deny gun ownership to. People who either lack the capacity for informed, rational though, or whom have opted out of the American social contract, shouldn't be in a position to harm the rest of us. I do not think the Framers would have disagreed. You could try a "first they came for the insane people and the rapists, but I said nothing..." routine on my reasoning here, I guess, but IMO it lacks "oomph".

[Gene Berkman]

Gray Davis is only partly responsible for the deficit. Legislators of both parties have pet programs they cost lots of money - try to get a Republican to vote against new prisons, or the laws needed to fill them.
And the voters who have passed propositions mandating that the state spend money are also responsible.
But Gray Davis shows very clearly how tawdry our politics has become. He raised $70 million to run for re-election, and the people who paid expect something. No wonder the state deficit is almost $25 billion this year.
At the same time, President Bush raised over $105 million to run for President in 2000, and the programs he is rewarding his friends with have given us a half trillion dollar federal deficit.
So yea, I will vote to recall Davis. Schwarzenegger will win without my vote, and I hope he can hire some Reason Foundation staffers to help him cut the budget. But what are the odds?
Sen. Tom McClintock has real ideas for cutting the budget, and a vote for him is a good protest against big government.
Take a look @ http://www.tommcclintock.com for his plans.

[Citizen]

Gene,
McClintock already has my money and my vote.

[Anonymous]

"using this recall mechanism as a political weapon essentially renders california ungovernable, and will probably destroy any attempt at leadership in that state."

Please don't get my hopes up for nothing.

[Jean Bart]

"End of Days" was boring mostly.

[Jeff Smith]

Politicians learn to take themselves very
seriously at a young age. When I was an
undergrad at the Univ. of Washington, a
poor fellow who ran a very funny campaign
for student body president on behalf of
Mr. Potato Head had to pay a fine because
the student government types thought he
was not taking student government seriously
enough.

Jeff

[Anonymous]

If Arnold and McClintock are both smart, McClintock will drop out of the race and Arnold will hire him as a policy adviser, budget-guru type.

[Alex]

eek.

[Jean Bart]

This "cult of Arnold" is rather humorous.

[Jean Bart]

Jacob Sullum is only partly correct concerning the nature of Arnold's acting career - its not nearly successful these days as it used to be.

[Rex Stetson]

Well, Arnold's film career has seen better days, and I think it's fitting that after crap like "end of days" and "collateral damage", that he went back to the beloved "Terminator" role that made him famous for what might be his last film.
Reagan's career wasn't doing so hot when he ran for governor, if you'll remember...in 1966 when he was elected, he hadn't done a film in a year or two, and his best years were behind him (in the '50s he did a few films each year).
And neither Arnold nor Reagan were considered especially good actors- but I think their strengths both lay in their personality and character, which was inspiring to people.

[joe]

As someone who thinks the Florida electoral votes, and therefore the presidency, was actually stolen, I think Davis' use of words like "coup" and "steal the election" are offensive. Although the recall mechanism seems really idiotic, there is nothing corrupt happening, no one is having their vote voided, and the whole issue looks like it's going be settled fairly, at the ballot box (albeit is a less the ideal manner. What a fiasco!)

Davis is crying wolf.

[mak_nas]

seems the one thing most reaional people can agree on is that utilizing this recall mechanism as a political weapon essentially renders california ungovernable, and will probably destroy any attempt at leadership in that state. that law has to change -- one hopes californians see that quickly, before their bond ratings are junked and the state defaults.

[Jeff]

Is there no real libertarian candidate running that one feels compelled to back an actor with minimal policy ideas?

[Stel]

All Arnie need to do for career revival is do a remake of "Bedtime for Bonzo"!!! Now that'll add a new dimension to his career!!!!

[Xmas]

Dude! End of Days was awesome!

Also, I think this recall process is great, mostly, sort of...

I need to check on this, but the number of signatures needed to start the recall process is based on the number of voters in the previous election. That means the parties are encouraged or, if you like, forced to get people to vote in statewide elections. The more people that vote, the harder it is to get a recall.

Sure, the recall is a populist method of doing, but it does encourage democratic participation.

[Rex Stetson]

Xmas:
I apologize for insulting "End Of Days" in my earlier post. In the interest of Full Discosure I admit to not having seen it, but I had heard from several people that it was bad, and it looked pretty bad to me. I hang my head in shame 😉

[Anthony]

Does Arnold support medical marijuana, or better yet, total decriminalization of marijuana? If not, then he is a hypocrite (since he smoked marijuana on the documentary "Pumping Iron") and not worthy of the support of Libertarians.

[Citizen]

I've heard all the talking heads spout the same line Anthony just did. I understand that he supposrts medical marijuana but even if he doesn't, that doesn't make him hypocritical. Have YOU ever done something that you later regretted? Isn't that kinda what the whole rehabilitation vs prison movement is about? It's not that folks can realize that they made bad choices in the past, and even think that they shouldn't have been allowed to make said decision.

I'm still not voting for Arnie.

[Andy]

McClintock might do well for the budget, but he's way too much of an "America is a God country" guy for me. On the attempts to get the phrase "under God" out of the pledge of allegiance, he writes:

"If the source of our fundamental rights is not God, then the source becomes man ? or more precisely, a government of men. And rights that can be extended by government may also be withdrawn by government."

The implication I draw from this is that "Godless heathens" can not be consitently moral and can not be trusted. This all-too-common idea in the minds of politicians bothers me more than tax-and-spend liberal ideologies.

Andy

[Anonymous]

It is well known that the USA and its states follow a 3-branch system of government: the legislative branch, the judical branch, and the celebrity branch.

[Jackie Maddox]

This was a very boring sight. It is usless....A complete waste of my time.

[Edwaard]

What the **** I asaked about the Chinese legislative branch and this is what I get a bunch of ****ing comments on **** knows what. God what the **** ****ers.

[Edwaard]

What the **** I asaked about the Chinese legislative branch and this is what I get a bunch of ****ing comments on **** knows what. God what the **** ****ers.

[Edwaard]

What the **** I asaked about the Chinese legislative branch and this is what I get a bunch of ****ing comments on **** knows what. God what the **** ****ers.

[ashley]

f*** u people

[Subotai!]

What is the riddle of steel!?

[Blum David]

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DATE: 01/20/2004 07:13:02
Do give books - religious or otherwise - for Christmas. They're never fattening, seldom sinful, and permanently personal.