A libertarian sensibility begins with the assumption that people have different values that produce different preferences ("different strokes for different folks") and should be allowed to enjoy whatever they wish, so long as it doesn't adversely affect the ability of others to do the same.

Still, there are some things that lots of people seem to enjoy that I simply can't understand the appeal of, including:

• Contemporary country music: I have a certain respect for the old country singers, from Hank Williams up through Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, but everything I hear these days is about trucks, empty whiskey bottles, tractors and cheating women.

And what's with all the cowboy hats?

• Hockey: Isn't there an old joke that goes something like "I went to a fight last night and a hockey game broke out?" I still can't see the puck.

• Ordering steak other than rare: I knew a fellow who always ordered his well-done and then added insult to injury by smothering it with ketchup.

No ribeye deserves such a fate.

• Taylor Swift or, more precisely, the Taylor Swift phenomenon: By now I've heard a lot more of her music than I would ever have wanted (hard not to with an 11-year-old daughter) and find myself even less capable of understanding what the fuss is about. There seems to be nothing there but........

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