Sometimes I just can't resist a good debate, especially an online one where I have a little time to compose my thoughts and words. Today I got sucked into one on national healthcare at Digg.com. I'm still trying to get a good understanding of what is being proposed by President Obama and Congress, so my arguments address nationalized healthcare in general rather than current proposals.

Online debates at Digg.com are usually both fun and scary because I often feel like a lone sheep surrounded by liberal wolves. But even though my comments tend to get buried quickly, I plod on, hoping maybe at least one person will be educated by what I post. I've extracted the relevant parts of the debate below and I encourage everyone reading this to share your viewpoint in the comments to this post (and continue the debate if you feel compelled).

A user comment on my introductory article on libertarian principles asked about libertarian military beliefs, so in this article I am covering the principle of non-interventionism.

At the core of libertarianism is the belief that force should only be used in defense--that aggression is wrong. A lot of the problems libertarians have with our government today are because the government is using force without cause. An obvious example is the use of eminent domain to take property.