Updating

So I've been bad about posting my last couple columns. Here they are (I didn't have a column in last week's paper):

"Who's the real conservative?", April 14

"Leftists: Caucus libertarian," April 7

In the second piece, I argued the Left should back Republican presidential hopeful Gary Johnson (at least in the primary season):

Issue-based alliances between libertarians and the political left are needed to confront the bipartisan consensus of militarism, corporatism, mass incarceration, an unaccountable executive, and the erosion of civil liberties. The odious amalgam has become the norm that, save for a radical change, will only become more entrenched.

That’s where Johnson comes in.

The left won’t be amenable to Johnson’s agenda on most fiscal and economic issues. (I also find his enthusiastic cheerleading for school vouchers and support for privatized prisons as New Mexico governor deplorable.)

But he supports limiting America’s military footprint abroad, legalizing marijuana, and halting civil-liberty curtailment.

Contrast that with Obama’s horrendous record on foreign policy, drug policy, and civil liberties. I don’t think you’d see Johnson trying Khalid Sheik Mohammed before a military commission or tacitly accepting the inhumane treatment of Bradley Manning.

The column attracted some attention — Johnson re-tweeted it, and E.D. Kain, one of my favorite bloggers, quoted it in a post at his Forbes blog this weekend. Plaudits are always nice.