Actually, the three examples given are samples of how the free market was violated by government in favor of business interests. Rockefeller took advantage of, among many other things, government grants of monopoly to railroads to drive his competitors out of business. Carnegie's horrible labor practices, and his use of thugs to beat or murder strikers, was defended by an equally corrupt government. And Edison? Edison was a thief, plain and simple, but he was a rich thief and thereby able to buy off justice. Even Bill Gates isn't as big a thief as Edison was, and anyone attempting to pull off the things he did would be sued or imprisoned or both.
That said, you know perfectly well that I'm not a -radical- Libertarian, and that I don't go whole hog on the party dogma. The free market needs at least minimal regulations- things like, "fraud is illegal," or, "there should be a big label warning lark's vomit," etc.
As far as your worries, you already see a broad reaction to the Radical Religious Right's overreach; even a lot of fundamentalist Christians are saying that Bush & Co. are going too far. (Hell, even James Dobson co-wrote a book saying he's been wrong lo these thirty years; all this time he's been pushing for Christian control of government, and now it turns out victory in politics equals defeat in the pews.)
Anyway, War on Immorality has been waged non-stop since the 1970s, even under Clinton. On the small scale, it wins the warriors votes for shutting down titty bars and adult video shops... but on the large scale, it makes those same warriors look like utter twits.
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That said, you know perfectly well that I'm not a -radical- Libertarian, and that I don't go whole hog on the party dogma. The free market needs at least minimal regulations- things like, "fraud is illegal," or, "there should be a big label warning lark's vomit," etc.
As far as your worries, you already see a broad reaction to the Radical Religious Right's overreach; even a lot of fundamentalist Christians are saying that Bush & Co. are going too far. (Hell, even James Dobson co-wrote a book saying he's been wrong lo these thirty years; all this time he's been pushing for Christian control of government, and now it turns out victory in politics equals defeat in the pews.)
Anyway, War on Immorality has been waged non-stop since the 1970s, even under Clinton. On the small scale, it wins the warriors votes for shutting down titty bars and adult video shops... but on the large scale, it makes those same warriors look like utter twits.
Heard from Ed Meese lately?