Ordinarily, I think of myself socio-politically as “liberal” or “progressive,” but I positively identify with the Authentic conservative perspective you’ve laid out here. Like you, I think a completely arrogant greed divorced from any sort of compassion is at the root of the so-called “conservative/neo-con” ideology we’ve been living with for a long time now.

Ultimately it’s much more effective to sit down to a discussion than to stand up for beliefs right or wrong. And it certainly goes a long way toward building a community when both sides actually trust that something might be gained from discourse and dialogue rather than “winning” the argument by shouting down the opposition. Maybe a day will dawn when Authentic conservatives reclaim their territory from the power-mad Gekkoes, and we can put civility back into our Civil Discourse. I hope so.

As to you’re comment about Mr. Sowell being more of a libertarian than a conservative, I’m afraid your right about that. Although I’ve always thought of him as a great Conservative voice, his views on many things are more in line with libertarianism than they are pure grassroots Conservatism.

Which is probably why it breaks my heart and feels like such a betrayal when he starts sounding so much like a mouthpiece for the Randian Wing of the Libertarians.

How many private homeowners can afford to litigate such claims all the way up and down the judicial food chain? Apartment dwellers who are thrown out on the street by the bulldozers are even less able to defend themselves with litigation.

The best that can be said for the Supreme Court majority’s opinion is that it follows — and extends — certain judicial precedents. But, as Justice Clarence Thomas said in dissent, these “misguided lines of precedent” need to be reconsidered, so as to “return to the original meaning of the Public Use Clause” in the Constitution.

He is opposed to the taking of property from private individuals by the government using eminent domain to hand over to other private individuals/concerns. You have mischaracterized his argument and libeled Mr. Sowell.

Oh, I’ve always seen Sowell as more of libertarian than a conservative.