Dinesh D’Souza, writing about a recent Reason Magazine holiday party attended by Christopher Hitchens, writes on his blog:

Recently Hitchens appeared at a “secular Christmas party” thrown by the libertarian magazine Reason. Many libertarians are basically conservatives who are either gay or druggies or people who generally find the conservative moral agenda too restrictive. So they flee from the conservative to the libertarian camp where much wider parameters of personal behavior are embraced. To the sensible idea of political and economic freedom many libertarians add the more controversial principle of moral freedom, the freedom to live however you want as long as you don’t harm others. Hitchens, needless to say, is at home in this group.

Of course some libertarians are “gay homosexualists,” and others may enjoy the occasional needle between the toes. So what of it? What’s so wrong with respecting the rights of people to engage in “anything that’s peaceful,” which includes (with regard to drug use) the ability to make self-destructive choices? I see no reason to make a distinction between what D’Souza characterizes as economic freedom (which he’ll graciously allow you) and moral freedom (which he won’t). Leave people alone to pursue their lives and goals in whatever peaceful way that they see fit. Don’t presume to know how I should live my life or advocate the use of government force to promote your morality.

Via Hit & Run

Filed under: Profiles in Governance, Daily Rant