Sean:
My version of Liberalism consists of a strong distaste of any Government regulation that involves telling an individual what he/she can do with their own body (anti-Smoking, anti-Trans Fats). Others (namely the NYC variety) think that if the Government can protect an individual from themselves, it should.

You might have a point there, if only anyone were arguing to outright ban the smoking of cigarettes or the consumption of trans-fats. That would, indeed, constitute protecting people from themselves. But the NYC trans-fat ban, for example, doesn’t prevent anyone from eating all the artificial trans fats they want; it merely prohibits commercial kitchens from using them. It’s not protecting you from yourself; it’s protecting you from corporate bean counters who decided it’s a few cents cheaper, and therefore better for your bottom line, to give you an exceptionally unhealthy artificial ingredient, which in many cases you wouldn’t even know was there if they didn’t explicitly tell you.

As I’ve been arguing at my site, giving you the freedom to make bad decisions is one thing, but allowing people and companies to profiteer on encouraging others to make bad decisions, and to obfuscate the harmful impact of those decisions, is quite another.

I can’t really speak for Liberals. I tend to call Libertarians Economic Conservatives and Social Liberals. But there are various versions of “Libertarian”, and yes, some would probably fall into the definition of “Conservatives who smoke pot”.

I personally don’t like the term “progressive” as it reminds me of the William Jennings Bryan folk who were also “progressive” but were also backwards idiots who sought to punish people for teaching Natural Selection.

Yes, Progressive and Liberal can often be used interchangeably. I use Progressive when speaking of other people, simply because “Liberal” has become an epithet, especially here in the South. I’ll generally call people whatever they like, the terms don’t mean all that much anyways. My version of Liberalism consists of a strong distaste of any Government regulation that involves telling an individual what he/she can do with their own body (anti-Smoking, anti-Trans Fats). Others (namely the NYC variety) think that if the Government can protect an individual from themselves, it should.

Finally the code has been revealed. Progressives are Liberals who are too ashamed to call themselves Liberals. So what are they ashamed of?

Isn’t the whole Progressive thing a bunch of hooey Sean? Is that why Liberals call Libertarians closet Conservatives who smoke pot?

It was really just a joke, didn’t really mean anything by it. Have all the guns you want, doesn’t bother me.

Me, I blog about chicks with nipples on their feet.