I have no idea what either of you think about libertarianism: I don’t recall ever reading anything by either of you on this topic, so how could I know? If you read more carefully, you’ll see that I am expressing what I think of libertarianism based on what I have seen self-identified libertarians assert.

I have no idea what transpires privately between you and Teresa: that’s none of my business. I have merely noted (and indeed can link to an incident of this) that when you are rude, Teresa does not disemvowel you, but rebukes the person you were rude to for provoking you.

How is being an even-handed moderator – willing to rebuke anyone for rudeness, even the moderator’s spouse – “women’s work”?

You’ve piqued my curiosity about Jim Henley; I’m not familiar with him.

In fairness to Yonmei – she described libertarianism as “what she found” and “in the US”. I think that’s a reasonable qualification, and opens up the opportunity to clarify the differing tendencies and make the dialog richer.

For that matter, I have plenty of respect for many actual American free-market libertarians; Jim Henley, for instance, is one of my favorite bloggers, a man of tremendous integrity, even if I do disagree with him about, say, the SEC.

on libertarianism:

I distinguish capital “L” libertarian from lowercase “L” libertarian: capital L is the Libertarian Party and the Silicon Valley self-identified Libertarians I know. They’re good on drug policy but seems to have gotten kinda stupid (IMO) in terms of a lot of domestic politics. (I can’t remember the humorous anarchist quip on modern US Libertarians, something about private police forces, porn, smoking pot, property.)

Lower-”L” libertarian I identify more with the the individualist libertarian strands that are usually better identified with anarchist circles: neither necessarily capitalist nor anti-capitalist, although certainly some what fit in both categories.

Political labels, at least, are to be used with caution (IMO): One can attach a label to others, or self-identify with a label, for all kinds of reasons & in helpful ways — but I’ve rarely seen any label that fully captured an identity or stance, or was understood the same way by everyone who used or encountered it.

Anyway, whatever advice I offer on the management of our comment threads, Teresa does in fact get the last call. Yonmei’s insight into what transpires between Teresa and me is on par with her grasp of what either of us thinks about libertarianism.

*shrug* Allowing her husband special privileges to abuse others, while making a big deal out of politeness for everyone else – including anyone Patrick is rude to? I would say that’s not a feminist stance, though obviously no one can claim to be ideologically pure feminist 100% of the time. Technically, I think this is the my-husband-can-do-no-wrong position, since as far as I can tell, Teresa doesn’t even notice Patrick’s rudeness to others as being rude.

I wouldn’t call Making Light a feminist blog, but it sometimes touches on feminist issues

Yes, I’d agree to that.

While I tend to agree about libertarianism in the U.S., the brand the Neilsen Haydens practice doesn’t strike me that way. I wouldn’t call Making Light a feminist blog, but it sometimes touches on feminist issues, and I would consider the Nielsen Haydens to be feminists.