Running barefoot

Dear Editor,

I read with great amusement Rick Poore's letter ("Rants out of place," Sept. 14) regarding Dick Trail's "partisan political diatribes," and why the Gazette would publish such things. I happen to know the answer. It's for the same reason it publishes Mike Hendricks' column, or Mr. Poore's letter, or this one: because the price is right, namely, free. I mean, we're not talking about a paid full-page advertisement in support of Ben Nelson here. (Just how black IS that kettle, Mr. Poore?)

While Mr. Trail may be a penny-pincher (as long as they aren't his own incoming pennies) and an iconoclast (as long as they aren't his own icons), he's no libertarian, no matter how Glenn Beck might define libertarianism.

He may have SOME libertarian ideas, but then again, nearly everyone does -- regarding a few selected issues. Libertarians are not so much anti-government as they are pro-SELF-government, or, failing that, government at the smallest level. And Mr. Trail is hardly that. Calling Dick Trail a libertarian is every bit as much of an insult to actual libertarians as claiming that Obama is spending money like a drunken sailor is an insult to drunken sailors, who, after all, are only squandering their OWN money.

Opposition to government takeovers of charity and health insurance is not the same thing as opposition to charity and health insurance themselves. If the federal government were to propose nationalizing the shoemaking industry, would you claim that anyone opposing that wants everyone to run around barefoot?

Sincerely,

Owen J. McPhillips

McCook