Anyone here read Michael Shermer's latest book The Believing Brain?

[Odin2005]

1. A lot of skeptics tend to be libertarians, unfortunately.

I think it's a personality thing. Those most likely to be skeptics are also most likely to fall for Libertarian rhetoric about Liberals being "bleeding hearts" who ignore the "cold hard truths" of economics. Skeptic types often fall for it because most are of a personality that tends to repress the human values side of the equation (Jungian Feeling) in the name of cold hard facts and conceptual models (Jungian Sensation and Thinking, respectively).

In my experience the best skpetics are Jungian Feeling + Sensation types, Carl Sagan (an ESFJ) is an example. Such people tend to fuse their skpeticism and empiricism with a respect for the human side of the equation.

Then again, I'm an ISFJ, so I'm biased, LOL.