Happy New Year....

There are so many parades and football games on New Years Day that they tend to run together. Granted, you may have become accustomed to sitting on the couch all day watching television, but this year you have the opportunity to do something special and a little different.

On January 1st, 2007, at 1:00 P.M., the Honorable Susan Bell will administer the oath of office to newly elected Clay Township Advisory Board member Conley Tillson, and newly elected Liberty Township Advisory Board member Steve Coffman.

You might ask why that is special. Well, here's the thing. Susan is a Libertarian who was elected Judge of the Hagerstown Town Court. Conley and Steve were elected to their respective offices on the Libertarian ticket. And it's a pretty safe bet that when Susan administers the oath, Hagerstown will be the only place in the United States where a Libertarian judge is swearing in two elected Libertarians!

In a few years this will be a common occurence, so don't miss your chance to participate while it's still so rare. Stop by and offer your congratulations and best wishes to our newly elected Libertarian office holders at 1:00 on New Years Day at the Hagerstown City Building, 49 East College Street. It won't take long, and it's a good excuse to get up from the couch.

Bring a friend and a camera.

That's a lotto money, Mitch...

The Muncie Free-Press has this informative article about privatizing the lottery. I've seen enough ineffeciency in government to have little doubt that it could be operated more effeciently by a private company.

However...

Asking a Libertarian if the Hoosier Lottery should be privatized is like asking a man if he has stopped beating his wife. Any answer is bad.

But, if you overlook the fact that the government is benefiting from operating an activity that would land you and me in jail if we tried to do it, and look at it from just the financial standpoint, privatization isn't such a bad thing.

It's not like this is some essential government service that we need to control, and if the state can keep it's current and projected future income from the lottery, plus an extra percentage of the profits, plus a billion dollars up front, I could go for that.

But I'm not too crazy about Mitch's plan to create a new group of indentured servants out of a selected group of students.

If we really want to keep good people in Indiana, we need to attract businesses to locate here with a friendlier climate of lower taxes and less regulation.

There's no sense bribing the graduates to stay if we don't have anything for them to do.

How big's it gonna get!?!?

Some of the funniest parts of the newspaper aren't even close to the comics page. This story from the Richmond Palladium-Item is a real doozy. Here's the best part of the story:

"His yearly salary was $3,800 when he joined the sheriff department. Back then the department had only two deputies, a sheriff, a full-time jailer/turnkey and a matron who was the sheriff's wife.

Now the sheriff department has 33 enforcement officers, 65 jail and clerical personnel and four courthouse security guards.

He witnessed the building of two jails -- one in 1959 and the next just within the last few years.

"The county has not increased in size or changed much in population during the past 48 years, but the demand for government services and the cost of those services have certainly grew (sic) significantly," Catey said."


No change in population or size, but over a 2000% increase in the sheriff's department personnel. You know, on second thought, that's not funny at all.

In fact, it's a crying shame.

Plan B....

The other day, a local apologist for big government suggested that Libertarian candidates quit saying what they won't do and come up with an actual plan for how they would govern.

Actually, a lot of Libertarian candidates have come up with an actual plan. A lot of those plans were explained during the last campaign. And a lot of those plans included things that government should not do at all, along with things government should do less of. Actually, Libertarians would govern very little. One of the biggest problems this country faces is the overwhelming opinion that every problem needs to be addressed with another government program, or by re-working or expanding an existing government program.

And a lot people who are of that opinion will probably not be accepting of libertarian ideas or Libertarian candidates. But lower taxes and less regulation is an actual, workable plan, and everybody doesn't have to accept that. All it takes is a little over a third of the voters in a three party system, or a little over half of the voters in a two party system, and we can start heading things in the right direction. And the last time out I received 23% of the vote in Wayne County in a three way race.

And we've already elected a couple of Libertarians in Wayne County, so maybe people are starting to figure out that they can control their own lives and their own money better than someone else.

Now that's a plan.