TheBellCurve

The Great Divide...

2012-01-25T20:09:00.005-05:00

In the GOP rebuttal to President Obama's State of the Union Address, Mitch Daniels claimed that the president is trying to divide us. I'm not sure who Mitch thinks "us" is. If he's talking about people in general, we've been divided for a long time. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing.

Out in Indianapolis next week, they're having a big football game where a bunch of people are going to be cheering for one team, and a bunch of people will cheering for the other team, and some of us won't even know who's playing. For the most part, after the game is over, everybody will go their separate ways.

I've been married for 35 years to a woman that is just a little over the top where cows are concerned. As far as I'm concerned, I'm not really interested in them until they get just a bit past medium rare. I don't think our different views on the role of cattle in our lives has caused any irreparable harm to our marriage.

I suppose Governor Daniels might have been talking about how divided people are politically. That seems to pose a little bit more of a problem. There is something about politics and government that causes people to be a little more demanding. For some reason, when the government is involved, people get the notion that their good ideas ought to be laws. And they tend to get pretty insistent about it.

That's probably where division gets to be a problem. It's not just that people have different opinions on how certain situations should be handled, but that they want to use the force of government to make sure that everyone complies with their opinions.

Libertarians believe that in situations that don't involve initiating force or fraud against another person or their property, people should be able to make their own decisions. Barack Obama and the Democrats don't believe that. Neither does Mitch Daniels and the Republicans.

That's why I decided to be a Libertarian. Because nobody forced me.

They've come a long way baby....

2012-01-13T18:23:00.005-05:00

The first pack of cigarettes I ever bought cost 40 cents. The last pack of cigarettes I bought cost a dollar. That wasn't the main reason I quit buying them, but I do remember a nickel seemed like a lot to pay for just one cigarette.

I went on a field trip with some buddies down to the Ohio River the other day, and made a stop at a Riverboat down in Lawrenceburg.

We walked by a cigarette vending machine on the way in, and I noticed that a pack of cigarettes cost $10.00. I'm sure you could buy them cheaper than that somewhere else, but I'm still glad I got out at a buck.

Probably should have done that at the blackjack table, too.

What are those choices again?...

2012-01-08T08:06:00.004-05:00

Usually, for the most part, I watch Republican and Democratic presidential candidate presentations as a somewhat disinterested bystander. From a libertarian standpoint, there isn't enough actual policy difference between the Republican candidates, or the Democratic candidates, or between the Republican and Democratic candidates to warrant much attention.

It's usually a case of all of the candidates offering up government solutions for government created problems. Some one may try to convince us that there is a significant difference between Obamacare and Romneycare, or between having troops in Afghanistan or Pakistan, or between giving $3 billion or $2.95 billion to Israel this year, or between trimming 1% or 2% from next years proposed budget increase.

This year, the majority of the Republican hopefuls are pitching themselves as the conservative standard bearer that should be put in power to defeat the Barack Obama, the liberal standard bearer. Republicans and Democrats seem to get caught up in the excitement, and the fall election ends up being promoted as a contest between conservatism and liberalism, when actually it ends up being a contest between the Republicans version of statism and the Democrats version of statism.

I have been paying a little bit closer attention to the GOP race this year.
Ron Paul, the libertarian leaning congressman from Texas, has added a little variety to the mix. While his opponents continue to offer up Republican versions of big government as the solution for problems we face from Democratic versions of big government, Dr. Paul steadfastly offers the libertarian solutions of smaller government, individual freedom and personal responsibility to solve those problems.

For many elections, people have believed they were choosing between liberalism and conservatism, when they were really simply choosing statism. This spring, the GOP has the chance to give voters a chance to choose between the freedom of libertarianism, or the status quo of statism when they go to the polls next fall.

If the Republicans fail to take advantage of that chance, I hope the voters who embraced freedom and limited government in the spring, will continue to embrace them in the fall.

There is a political party that has been offering that choice all along.

www.LP.org

www.LPIN.org

Stepping out of line...

2012-01-04T07:27:00.002-05:00

Back when I was a student at Millville Grade School, there was a restaurant down the road in New Castle called Bud Alexander's Cafeteria. Once in a while, after we got out of church, I was allowed to accompany my old buddy Stinky Wilmont and his family to Bud's for Sunday dinner. We all lined up, walked down the serving aisle, loaded our plates with chicken and mashed potatoes, and when we reached Gladys, the cashier, we pointed back towards the end of the line where Stinky's father was standing with Mrs. Wilmont, and explained that he would be paying for our meals.

And he always did. I understood that he was kind of obligated to feed his family, and I appreciated that he fed me whenever Stinky invited me to come along. I suppose he probably would have paid even if a stranger had managed to sneak into the line.

I recall the panic Stinky and I went through one time when we directed Gladys's attention to end of the line, only to realize that Mr. Wilmont had wandered away from his post. It was our good fortune that Mrs. Wilmont located him before Gladys repossessed our chicken, but I did wonder at the time what might have happened if things hadn't turned out like they did. I guess we could have simply told the cashier that the next person in line would pick up the bill, but I'm not sure he would have felt the same obligation to us that Stinky's dad felt, and there's a better than average chance that Gladys would have ended up with the chicken.

In the last several years, since I have had children and grandchildren of my own, I've spent a lot of time at the end of the line myself. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I figured that was part of the deal when I got married. And sometimes when we go out to eat with our children now, one of them ends up grabbing the bill. I'm not sure why, but I don't want to offend them, so I don't argue about it much. We never really signed a contract or anything. We've just kind of worked things out as we went along.

I have heard a lot of talk the last few years about something called a "social contract". I guess it's something that binds all people to a certain set of rules, even if you never signed it, and regardless of whether you agree with the rules or not. I'm a big fan of certain aspects of social contracts. To be sure, we are all bound, even without a contract, to abstain from initiating violence or force against another person or their property, just as we are bound to refrain from infringing on another person's rights. But unfortunately, social contracts of today have morphed into something much more than that.

Several years ago, our government, and many voters at the time, decided that it would be a good idea to put a bunch of government managed retirement and health insurance programs into place. And, as is the case with most government programs, things didn't work out quite as well as planned. Currently, the federal programs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and hundreds of state and local government pension programs across the country, are underfunded by about $61 trillion, give or take a trillion or two, which means the people collecting from these programs are relying on people a little farther down the line to kick in enough to pay their benefits. And a lot of those people down the line never signed up to do that.
Thomas Paine, the author of colonial America's Common Sense, stated that: "Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and generations which preceded it...Man has no property in man; neither has any generation a property in the generations which are to follow."

If enough people at the end of the line decide old Thomas was correct about today's social contracts, those of us getting ready to step up to the counter might want to start figuring on another way to take care of the bill.

Happy New Year....

2012-01-01T08:55:00.003-05:00

As many of us had feared, President Obama signed the NDAA into law, allowing for the arrest and detention of American citizens without being charged, without the benefit of counsel, and without a trial.

I suppose there is a chance the Supreme Court might rule the law unconstitutional, although they run the risk of being arrested and detained without trial if they do.

I watched a documentary the other evening where soldiers were hauling citizens off to concentration camps and executing them, all according to the law. I wondered then, as I have many times in the past, (and as I did when I first heard of the provisions in this most recent bill), if there ever comes a time when a soldier, or a policeman, or a guard would simply refuse to carry out an order.

Does there ever come a time when the law becomes so corrupt that even people hired by the state to enforce that law refuse to do so.

I haven't seen a lot of evidence of that in the past.

I pray that we start to see some evidence of it soon.

Resolving to endeavor to persevere...

2011-12-31T11:49:00.021-05:00

I've noticed for some time now that the period between New Years Days doesn't seem to be near as long as it used to seem. I read somewhere the reason is that the older we get to be, the less a year amounts to as a percentage of our lives. When we are 10 years old, a year represents a 10th of our lives, but when we are 50, it only represents a 50th of it. I've reached the point where a year represents even a significantly smaller portion than that.

I'm not really complaining. I still manage to fit quite a bit into a year. In 2011, I took Susan on a cruise to Mexico for our 35th anniversary. I promised to go back and get her for our 40th.

We survived a pretty nasty ice storm:

I managed to meet on of my favorite Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson:

I got to watch some really exciting baseball:

And basketball:

We were able to attend several plays and musicals:

And even squeezed in a field trip or two:

I was able to get my first book published:

And kept the family off of motorcycles, for the most part:

Susan was elected Hagerstown Town Court Judge for the third time:

And we started building someone a new house, something that hasn't happened for a couple of years.

All in all, 2011 was a pretty good year, but I thought I better make a couple of resolutions for 2012. I know it's going to go by quicker than last year, so I'm going to try to spend a little more time on what's important, and a little less time on what isn't.

I'm definitely going to spend more time with my grandchildren, as long as they will put up with me.

I'm going to drink more water and less pop.

I'm still going to write and campaign, trying to convince people who will listen that more freedom and less government is more desirable than less freedom and more government. But I'm not going to let people who don't want to believe that upset me quite as much.

Because I don't have as much time as I used to have.

And I'm going to try to remember where I left Susan.

The work force...

2011-12-20T10:15:00.003-05:00

I heard Michael Cloud, one of my favorite libertarian speakers, say one time that if you can get people to ask the wrong question, it doesn't matter what the answer is.

Yesterday, I read a story in a local paper in which Phil Pflum, one of our State Representatives, suggested a question concerning the "Right to work" legislation that will likely be discussed in the upcoming session of the Indiana General Assembly. Pflum's suggestion: "Are we better off with or without unions? That's what you have to ask yourself."

I don't have a problem with people asking themselves that question. I do wonder why the legislature should be asking itself that question.

Certainly everybody has the right to work. An employer and an employee, or an employer and a group of employees should be free to forge any type of agreement that they feel is beneficial to them. Whether or not that agreement requires, allows, or prohibits union membership should be entirely up to them. If they can't reach an agreement, employees have the right to seek other employers, just as employers have the right to seek other employees.

As long as neither party is threatening or using force, the government shouldn't be involved, or even asking a question.

Especially, considering if it does get involved, it will be the one threatening or using force.

I can tell you this...

2011-12-11T19:08:00.002-05:00

I haven't paid much attention to the GOP presidential candidate debates. I've always thought for the most part you can tell more about a person from their actions than you can from their words. My Dad told me once that an honest man doesn't need to tell you that he's honest.

I've kind of adopted that as part of my philosophy. I'm a little leery whenever somebody feels the need to start telling me how hard they work, or how smart they are, or how religious they are.

I did happen to watch this clip from one of the debates the other day:

I met Ron Paul in Atlanta in 2004. I knew before I met him how much character he has. You can tell by his actions.

The same way you can tell about the other guys.

Darned if you do, Darned if you don't....

2011-11-30T19:47:00.002-05:00

Early on in our tenure at Millville Grade School, my old buddy Stinky Wilmont and I learned that there were dire consequences involved whenever we committed some transgression against another student, or one of our teachers, or even the Millville Grade School building or the property upon which that building stood. It was fairly simple concept to understand, even if it didn't always deter us.

Shortly afterwards, we learned that the same misfortune that befell us for doing something wrong could also befall us for not doing anything at all. Sometimes the punishment would come because we didn't do our homework, sometimes it would come because we didn't hold the door open for Bernice Hawkins, and sometimes it would come just because we weren't paying attention to something the Mrs. Terwilliger thought we should be paying attention to. It wasn't always as easy to predict when not doing something would cause as much aggravation as doing something, but it kept things interesting, and helped prepare us for the challenges ahead.

The consequences of our choices to do something or not to do something are with us every day. If you decide to drive to Grandma's house this Christmas, you could end up getting a ticket along the way for speeding, or you could get a ticket for not fastening your seatbelt. I understand why you could get a ticket for speeding, but I've never understood why you should get a ticket for not wearing your seatbelt. I suspect Mrs. Terwilliger had something to do with it, though.

Sometimes the difference between doing something and not doing something involves higher stakes. Up at Penn State University, there has been a lot of fallout among the coaching staff involving both deplorable actions and deplorable inactions. Apparently one of the coaches was molesting children, while some of the other coaches knew about it but didn't do anything, or at least enough, to stop it.

I could probably find it in my heart to excuse Stinky if he neglected to open the door for Bernice from time to time, and I have the utmost sympathy for drivers that have been ticketed for simply not fastening their seatbelts. I have no idea how anyone could make a conscious effort not to prevent child abuse.

Recently, the so-called super committee, comprised of a few Democratic and Republican congresspersons, reported that they weren't going to make any recommendations for decreasing the federal debt. It wasn't like they started out to do much, anyway. At the best, their aim was to reduce federal spending by about 2% over the next 10 years. And I don't imagine there are very many people who honestly expected them to achieve even that modest goal. It's practically impossible to raise taxes enough to pay for all of the government programs both parties hold so dear.

Regardless of whether our current congress does or doesn't do something, our federal debt will probably reach about $20 trillion in the next 6 or 7 years, up from today's $15 trillion. That is a lot of debt to pass on to our children and grandchildren. It comes dangerously close to bordering on abuse.

For years voters have been sending the same people and ideas to Washington, knowing that the size and cost of government was going to increase because of it, and the people who didn't vote allowed it to happen by simply going along for the ride.

I suppose there might be some small degree of difference between malignant intent and callous indifference in such matters, but I wonder if the children who will eventually bear the brunt of our decisions or indecisions will feel obliged to recognize it.

4th down...

2011-11-27T15:22:00.008-05:00

It's been a bad year for individual freedom and the 4th Amendment in Indiana this year. The Indiana supreme court ruled that individuals don't have the right to resist an unlawful police entry into their home. Of course, the court was wrong. We always have had and always will have that right. What the court actually ruled is that the government will no longer protect that right. Since the one of the few legitimate functions of government is to protect our rights, it kind of makes me wonder why we keep it around at all if it can't even do that.

As if the court's decision alone wasn't bad enough, it also has the side effect of contributing to another government injustice. As local governments and police departments everywhere face increasing budget shortages, many have been subsidizing those budgets through asset forfeiture, the practice of seizing a persons property before they have been convicted of committing a crime, and then keeping that property whether that person is convicted or not.

Indiana's own Radley Balko recently relayed this story about the billions of dollars that are now taken through asset forfeiture programs, with some of the most infamous cases taking place in Indiana. Legally, the police can now enter your house without a warrant, grab the butter and egg money out of the cookie jar, and the burden of proof will be on you prove why they shouldn't have entered your home in the first place, and why they shouldn't be able to keep your money.

Luckily, (or unluckily), I don't have enough butter and egg money to make an unlawful entry into my home very profitable for anyone. And I still hold out some hope that there are enough police officers out there who respect the Constitution and individual rights enough that the court's decision won't be as detrimental to freedom as it might be.

But however things turn out, I still maintain that no one is coming into my home without a warrant or an invitation.

At least not without some resistance.

Kneedful things....

2011-11-26T13:51:00.004-05:00

When I started driving nails and building things some 40 odd years ago, I had several of my mentors suggest that I should be wearing knee pads when the project I was working on involved crawling around on a floor or roof. Since I had always found them to be hot and uncomfortable, I considered the notion quite silly at the time. Somewhere in that 40 years my knees reached the point where the notion wasn't so silly anymore.

The knee pads I wear now make the crawling around a little more bearable,and they are certainly better than nothing, but I imagine a little of the suggested preventative knee pad wearing might have saved a lot of wear and tear in the first place. If it hadn't taken so long to decide that I needed them, I probably wouldn't need them quite as much now.

The federal debt is up around $15 trillion now, and the congressional super committee just announced that they couldn't come up with a suitable plan to cut federal spending, the federal deficit, or the federal debt. That doesn't really surprise me, because everybody on the committee benefits somehow from big government, most of the time in the form of money and favors they can hand out to the people that helped them get to Washington in the first place, and stay there now.

Libertarians have been warning for a long time that the government's current level of spending is unsustainable. It's gone on so long now that the taxes we pay as individuals don't raise enough to cover the money the government hands back to us through its social programs. If we are to survive as a free nation, eventually we will have to accept and deal with that fact.

Hopefully while we're still standing.

I'll vote for that...

2011-11-12T09:00:00.004-05:00

I imagine just about everybody who has children and grandchildren has spent a fair amount of time answering "Why?". Sometimes, for varied reasons, the answer ends up being "Because". Sometimes that seems to be a suitable answer, and sometimes it isn't.

I read several stories and editorials this last week about the poor voter turnout during the recent election. Some of the editorials sternly chastised those who didn't take the time to vote. I'm not sure why.

One of our local cities had about a 27% turnout. The implication is that the outcome would somehow have been different if there had been a 54% turnout, or an 81% turnout. I have read studies that a higher voter turnout sometimes favors one party over another. I suppose that might be the case. While working the polls, I did see both Republicans and Democrats hauling voters in. I assumed Republicans were hauling in Republicans and Democrats were hauling Democrats. I would also assume that whichever party hauled the most would benefit the most from the resulting higher turnout.

I also suppose that a different amount of votes might occasionally produce a different outcome, giving the victory to one party over another, at least when the candidate doesn't depend on a politically gerry-mandered district for all of his or her votes. But most of the time that's about it.

If people are choosing between a Republican or a Democrat, the policies after the election won't be significantly different. One tax might be replaced with another, or raised or lowered a percent or two. It might be lowered on on group of people and raised on another. Some government office might be consolidated or expanded, and a government program or two might be expanded or contracted. You might get to choose between Obamacare or Medicare, but in the end result, you're really only choosing whether Republicans or Democrats control your life.

That's not to say that I don't vote. I vote in every election when I find a candidate that doesn't want to control my life. It just so happens that most of the time that candidate is a Libertarian.

That's why I vote.

Not just because.

Like I always said...

2011-11-05T12:41:00.000-04:00

On my very first day of first grade at Millville Grade School, our bus driver, Howard Tucker, picked me up in the morning and brought me back home that afternoon. 12 years later he was still hauling me to school in the morning and bringing me back home in the afternoon. Early on, my Mom had told my old buddy Stinky Wilmont and me that Howard was also her bus driver when she was in school, so Stinky and I kind of assumed that Mr. Tucker had always driven a school bus. I guess "always" isn't near as long when you're six years old.

When I was growing up, one of our farmer neighbors up towards Mooreland raised tomatoes. As far as I knew, he and his family had always raised tomatoes. He told me the other day they weren't going to raise tomatoes anymore. I also found that they hadn't always raised tomatoes. Apparently they had been raising them for 44 years. They raised about 200,000 tons of tomatoes in that amount of time. That's about 400 million pounds of tomatoes. As near as I could figure, that's about 312,454,680 bottles of ketchup, give or take a couple of bottles or so, or about 1 bottle of ketchup for every man, woman, and child in the United States.

I imagine that that a lot of people involved with that farm thought they had always raised tomatoes, or at least thought it seemed that way. Certainly they had been raising them longer than some of those people have been alive. And while they won't be raising them anymore, I'm pretty sure that someone else will. At least I'm confident enough that I'm not going to start stockpiling any ketchup.

I saw a clip from the television show "Meet the Press" the other day, where host David Gregory was interviewing one of the GOP presidential candidates, Ron Paul. When Mr. Paul mentioned getting the federal government out of the housing market, Mr. Gregory replied "But the governments always had a role in housing". I have no doubt that Mr. Gregory believes that. The government has probably been involved in housing for as long as he can remember.

It's hard to think of very much that the government isn't involved in these days, and the government has been involved in most of it for as long as most of us can remember. I don't imagine there are very many people who can remember when we didn't have an income tax. And there are getting to be fewer all the time who can remember when Social Security and Medicare weren't a fact of life.

The federal government is currently the provider and administrator of hundreds of social and service programs. Contrary to what a lot of people believe, it hasn't always been that way. (Prior to 1913, unless we were at war, most people were blissfully unaware of the federal government.) The cost of those programs has put the government currently $15 trillion in debt, with untold trillions of dollars more debt facing taxpayers in the near future, in the form of promised but unfunded benefits and pensions.

Nobody knows for sure when the government will run out of credit, or no longer be able to collect enough revenue to continue funding all of its programs, or which programs will be reduced or eliminated first, but the government can't always continue to do what many people believe it has always done.

When you spend more than you make it eventually catches up with you.

It always does.

I'd vote for that...

2011-10-29T09:18:00.003-04:00

I was delighted to learn this week that the Palladium-Item had endorsed Matt Hisrich for the Richmond Common Council. While it's not the first time the Pal-Item has endorsed a Libertarian, it is a rare enough occurrence to warrant at least some local attention. While Matt is clearly the more qualified candidate in the race, he does face the problem of running as a third party candidate in a gerry-mandered district where the Democrat incumbent hasn't faced an opponent for 16 years.

Being somewhat of a political junkie, I attended a candidate forum in Richmond a couple of weeks ago where all candidates for the council races were given the opportunity to express their opinions on why they were qualified to serve on the council. I think all agreed that Richmond needed more jobs. But then I don't suppose there is anyplace these days that doesn't need more jobs. One candidate thought things would get better if the Greyhound Bus stopped in Richmond again. I'm not sure if he wanted the bus to bring people in or take people out.

I also couldn't help but notice that many the candidates had adopted the buzz phrase "economy of scale", the practice of buying in bulk to achieve a lower per unit cost.

They seemed to be of the opinion that if enough governmental departments join together and buy toilet paper in bulk, somehow all of the departments will become affordable.

I was happy to hear Mr. Hisrich suggest that we need to have an honest evaluation on the proper and necessary role of government in Richmond. That's something the other political parties seem to have forgotten.

We'll be a lot better if we work to make big government smaller, instead of trying to make big government affordable. Less government means lower taxes, and lower taxes means more jobs.

And less paperwork.

What was the question again?....

2011-10-15T10:53:00.003-04:00

I heard Michael Cloud say one time that if you can get people to ask the wrong question, it doesn't matter what the answer is.

Barack Obama recently stated that he was going toallow some states to opt out of the No Child Left Behind requirements as long as they agreed to meet certain other requirements.

Of course, Republican members of Congress immediately accused Obama of exercising too much control over their control of education.

Instead of asking ourselves whether the President or Congress should be controlling our childrens' education, the question we should be asking is where the federal government thinks it gets the authority to be involved in our childrens' education at all.

Once we start asking the right questions, maybe we can come up with better answers.

Wait a second...

2011-10-09T21:52:00.007-04:00

On more than one occasion, I've brought up how most people lose perspective when the discussion of numbers advances from millions to billions to trillions. One of my favorite comparisons is that a million seconds amounts to about 11 days, while a billion seconds amounts to about 32 years, and a trillion seconds amounts to about 317 centuries.

I think that is why most of us have a hard time comprehending the $15 trillion debt the federal government is spending towards, or the $100 trillion or so in unfunded liabilities that the government has to try to come up with eventually.

Money comes and goes pretty fast when the government is involved, and usually goes out faster that it comes in. The other day I read that the government is going to take about $2 billion from Apple CEO Steve Job's estate. It will go through it in about 48 minutes. That takes a second to comprehend.

I take a great deal of comfort in the fact that when my time gets here, my estate taxes won't sustain the government's spending for a nanosecond.

That's a billionth of a second, if anyone's counting.

Bless my sole.....

2011-10-02T20:39:00.005-04:00

Someone at church this morning mentioned that I was wearing my workboots. Actually, I wasn't really wearing my work boots. These are my workboots:

These are the boots I was wearing this morning:
They're the boots I wear most of the time when I'm not working.

I do have some work tennis shoes that I wear in the summer when I'm working, and some other tennis shoes that I wear in the summer when I'm not working. And I have a pair of black shoes that I keep around in case someone dies or get married.

But most of the time it's just boots.

I hope that's alright.

The ins and outs of it...

2011-10-01T20:06:00.003-04:00

I've been to a lot of family reunions in my life. Bell family reunions and Bowman family reunions pretty often when I was growing up, and still once or twice a year. When I got married, I picked up a couple more on my wife's side of the house. I think they were probably better attended when people didn't have so many places to go, and when families stayed together a little better. But we still manage to have them, and we attend as many as we can, and encourage our children to do the same, although I think reunions generally are more important to the older crowd than they are to the youngsters.

One thing that has always been a common factor in the Bell/Bowman/Moyer reunions is the inordinate amount of food that is hauled in and consumed. I imagine that is a common factor in all family reunions.

Speaking of times when people didn't have so many places to go, many years ago, when I was younger, I attended a few reunions with my old buddy Stinky Wilmont. The Wilmont family tended to be fairly large, both individually and collectively. I never did get what I considered to be an accurate count on how many cousins, uncles, and aunts Stinky had, partially because I never knew for sure how many in attendance were actually related, and partially because all of them never stood still or sat down at the same time.

Like our reunions, the Wilmont reunion relied heavily on the moms and aunts to provide the majority of the food, and usually there was plenty to go around. I do recall a time however, when Stinky and his brothers, along with a few guests, had grown older and hungrier. A couple of aunts from Kentucky, who always brought a lot of food and not many mouths, failed to make the journey north. Stinky's mom said something about sciatica, I think. At any rate, I quickly discovered that when you get too many people filling their plates and not enough people filling the bowls, somebody's likely to miss out on the baked beans and a chicken leg. And sugar cream pie.

I read the other day that the federal government was spending about $1.4 trillion more than it is going to take in this year. It did about the same thing last year, and it's going to do about the same thing next year. So far, that has managed to grow our immediate federal debt to about $14 trillion. I guess that's what happens when the people taking money out take out more than people putting in are putting in. Apparently some of the people that are taking out think the people that are putting in should put in more, while some of the people that are putting in think the people that are taking out shouldn't take so much out.

It isn't too hard to figure out how the government got into such a situation. A lot of people that aren't working anymore aren't putting much in, and a lot of people that are still working aren't earning as much as they used to, and subsequently aren't putting in as much as they used to. In just one government program, Social Security, there used to 16 people putting money in for every person that was taking money out. Now there are 2 or 3 people putting money in for every person that is taking money out. In 2009, 64.3 million Americans depended on the government for their daily housing, food, and health care.

Nobody knows for sure exactly when the government will run out of credit and money, just like nobody knew for sure exactly when the Wilmonts were going to run out of potato salad, but if you are one of the people who is depending on government to take care of you in the next few years, it might not be a bad idea to start coming up with an alternative plan.

And if you go to Wilmont reunion this year, you might want to stick a peanut butter sandwich or two in your pocket, just in case.

Pot luck....

2011-09-26T21:44:00.004-04:00

Contrary to popular belief, the flush toilet wasn't invented by Thomas Crapper in the 19th century, although he did manage to make some notable improvements. The original invention honors actually go to Sir John Harrington in 1596. It's a little known fact that on the very day Sir John invented the toilet, his wife gave him a severe scolding for leaving the seat up.

For the last 415 years men have been forgetting to put the seat down, and apparently women have been sitting down without verifying the status of said seat. I never really understood why it was any more difficult for a woman to put the seat down than it was for a man to lift the seat up, but then I guess there's a lot of things I never understood.

Our 4 year old granddaughter Bekah spent the night with us recently. She's almost militant about insisting that the men in the house lower the seat after using the facilities, and to her credit, she almost accomplished in 1 year what women around the world have been battling for for 4 centuries. I'm doing better about remembering to lower it, but I do admit to the occasional slip-up.

The next morning, Bekah was entering the bathroom just as our 3 year old grandson Dawson was coming out of it. Bekah immediately complimented him on lowering the seat, and then proceeded to tell me that I should try to be more like Dawson.

I didn't have the heart to tell her that in actuality, he hadn't ever raised the seat.

Besides, I figured she would find out soon enough.

I'll take the locusts, please...

2011-09-21T19:32:00.006-04:00

We bought our home 25 years ago next month. We've been pretty lucky that nothing too terrible has happened to it in that amount of time. We did get invaded by moles that time, and one time Some guy ran over our flagpole. We also got hit by lightning once, and we had to buy a new telephone and electric blanket. But that's about it. Except for the time somebody stole the wheels off of my truck.

But we bought some insurance when we bought our house, so outside of the mole incident, and minus our deductible, our losses were mostly covered. And if our house burns down in a fire, or gets blown away by a tornado, or even gets eaten by locusts, our insurance company has agreed that they will pay what it costs to replace it. I'm not expecting any of catastrophes, but it's comforting to know we're mostly covered, just in case.

I recently met some people who own a home that is in the way of some road work the government wants to do. For the most part, if some one's home is in the way of something the government wants to do, it will find a way to take it. It's called imminent domain, I think. And in a lot of cases, what the government is willing to pay isn't nearly enough to replace what they are taking.

All of which got me to thinking. Would I rather deal with the government, or a fire, or a tornado, or a swarm of locusts.

It didn't take long to decide. You can't buy insurance to protect yourself from the government.

What's the difference?....

2011-09-17T19:55:00.002-04:00

Governor and presidential aspirant Rick Perry has taken some flak recently for referring to Social Security as a "Ponzi Scheme". While I'm not a Rick Perry fan by any stretch, I would have to say that he is not entirely incorrect on his assertion.

Charles Ponzi was a confidence man from the early 20th century. He bounced in and out of trouble and jail a few times before he hit upon a plan that involved convincing people to invest in purchasing postal coupons in one country and reselling them for a higher price in another country.

In actuality, Ponzi was paying off earlier investors with money he was collecting from current investors, and depending on future investors to keep his scheme alive.

Since the government decided to spend the money on so many unrelated items, Social Security has now fallen into the predicament. People who worked and "contributed" for years and are now receiving money from the Social Security system are doing so on the "contributions" of the current workers, who will have to depend on future "contributors" if and when they are receive any money.

So in that respect, Perry was correct in calling it a Ponzi scheme. The difference is that no one was forced to participate in Ponzi's scheme. He relied on deception to get people to join his program. The government relies on force. That's the main difference.

Shortly before his death in 1949, an unrepentant Charles Ponzi stated "Even if they never got anything for it, it was cheap at that price. Without malice aforethought I had given them the best show that was ever staged in their territory since the landing of the Pilgrims! It was easily worth fifteen million bucks to watch me put the thing over."

I wonder if we will ever get the government to admit that they are just putting on a show also.

Every little bit helps...

2011-09-06T20:14:00.002-04:00

I've long maintained that almost everybody is at least a little bit Libertarian. I believe that in their private lives, most people don't rely on force, or the threat of force, that government depends on when dealing with their neighbors.

And when there is a discussion of political philosophies, a growing number of people seem to be agreeing with Libertarian ideals, especially when discussing them one at a time. Most people hit a stumbling block somewhere along the way, sometimes on one issue, and sometimes on more than one.

It's pretty common for people to be opposed to government handouts, except for the one that they are getting.

I read in the paper today that some in the government are looking to decrease or eliminate farm subsidies. I don't really believe that will happen or amount to much under our current leaders, but I do believe a lot more farmers would be a little more Libertarian if it did.

A lot of them are pretty close already.

Paint and feathers...and lemonade...

2011-08-20T21:09:00.006-04:00

Every August, on the third Saturday, Hagerstown puts on a big celebration called Jubilee Day. Just about every year, we have something going on that day. Some years we are getting ready for an election, some years we have a class reunion, and some years we're just watching the parade.

This year we had a couple of projects going on. I had a booth to sell and sign my book, Stinky Shorts, and our Grandchildren shared the space with their Lemonade Stand, raising money for a group that developes water wells in Kenya, where my brother is a missionary. It worked out pretty nice, since I was able to sell and autograph several books, and the grandkids raised $124.98 for the well.

It turns out Saturday was also "Lemonade Freedom Day", when people across the country opened up lemonade stands without a government permit, in response to a recent rash of government shutdowns of lemonade stands. I'm happy to say we made through the day without incident.

As I've mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of government permits or licensing. I figure people should be able to decide for themselves who they want to do business with. There was however, a young lady in a booth next to us who was spray painting peoples hair, and then tying some type of chicken feathers to it. She was also complaining that there was another person down the street that was doing the same sort of thing, but without the proper license.

Now, I don't hardly have enough hair to paint, and you'd probably have to use some tape to get a feather to stick to it. But if I do decide to get what hair I do have painted, I really don't care if you have a license to paint it.

And I don't care if the kids I buy lemonade from have a permit, either.

So how are things going for you?....

2011-08-13T08:27:00.002-04:00

I know things don't always work out exactly as planned. Some days more so than others. One evening last week, after a particularly trying day, a neighbor asked me how things were going. I told him not very well.

The next morning I ran into an old friend and asked him the same thing. I remembered that his first wife had left him for another woman, and that his current wife was a real moron. I had heard that his daughter was on her 4th live-in, and that he seldom got to see his grand kids. I read in the paper a while back that his son had been arrested for drug possession again.

He told me that he still hadn't been able to find a job, and that he was starting chemo next week.

The next time somebody asks me how things are going, I think I'll tell them things are going pretty well.

You can't get there from here...

2011-07-31T19:12:00.002-04:00

Back when we were attending Millville Grade School, my old buddy Stinky Wilmont used to look forward to visiting his grandmother in Kentucky every summer. I don't recall which part of the state she lived in, but I do recall that we didn't have as many roads back then as we have nowadays, and I remember Stinky telling me that he would enjoy the drive to her house a lot more if the trip could have been started in Jeffersonville.

I never made very many trips to Kentucky, but I did make a trip every summer to Camp Mack up in northern Indiana, and I shared Stinky's sentiments that the trip would have been a lot easier if we had started a little closer to our final destination to begin with.

But Stinky didn't live in Jeffersonville, and I didn't live in Milford, and it didn't take too long to figure out that wherever we were going, we about had to start from where we were.

Several years ago, our federal government started expanding, and it started spending a lot of money on a lot of programs it hadn't spent money on before. As is normal for governments, they tended to spend more money than they had. A lot more. And whenever they spent more than they had, they created the federal debt. Some of the people that were running the government back then thought that we ought to put a limit on how much debt the federal government could have. Some of the people running the government today think the same thing. Most of them don't.

By the time you read this, congress will have most likely raised the debt limit for the 75th time since they started having debt limits. I'm not sure a limit still qualifies as a limit after it has been raised 75 times, but that's what they call it, and I guess if you're running things, you can call it whatever you want to.

In the last few years, a lot of people have decided that we would probably be better off if the government would stop spending more money than it has. Some of those people are even helping run the government. We even sent some of them to congress. Most of them probably just voted to increase the debt limit.

I'm not sure why. Admittedly, the government has gotten used to spending more money than it has, and admittedly it is going to be an arduous task to rein in that spending. But we have to start somewhere, and it would be hard to argue that it would be a lot easier if we were starting with a debt that was only a few billion dollars, instead of 14 or 15 trillion dollars. But it seems they should realize that adding a couple trillion more isn't going to make it any easier, either.

We don't always get to choose where we start, and we don't always get to start at the beginning. Sometimes we don't get to start in Jeffersonville or Milford. Sometimes we just have to start where we are.

Even if it's Millville. Or $14 trillion in debt.

Humble beginings...

2011-07-16T20:33:00.007-04:00

Les Brown says that "You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream". While I learned a long time ago to never say never, I do appreciate Mr. Brown's sentiments.

My bucket list (things I hope to get done before I kick the bucket), by its very nature, consists of things I've never done before. At my age, I try not to add to much to the list at one time. A while back, I added "publish a book" to my list, and recently I was able to cross that item off of the list.

But on my bucket list, much as in life, one thing often leads to another. A couple of weeks ago, Tom Butters, who runs the Hagerstown Museum and The Arts Place, asked me if I would like to do a book signing one evening.

I was a little on the apprehensive side, remembering that one of my publishing mentors, Chuck Avery, had once said that one of the most humbling experiences a person could experience was to have a book signing in their hometown.

To my advantage, I've run for office as a Libertarian a few times, so I'm not totally unaccustomed to being humbled.

I'm happy to say that I was humbled, not because people didn't show up, but because so many of them did. Occasionally some of them even had to wait in line. We sold a lot of books, and signed even more. It's looking like a second printing might be on the horizon. I hope I'm not to old to set that as a goal, anyway.

If you're into first editions, Stinky Shorts is available at www.StinkyShorts.com and the locations listed on the site.

You've got mail...not...

2011-07-11T20:50:00.007-04:00

A while back I wrote This Story about a government office shutting down for lunch. For the most part, I trust that most government offices could shut down altogether without any permanent ill effects, but as long as they require us to do business with them, I don't think it is asking to much for them to keep common hours.

Today I stopped in at our local post office during lunch. Apparently shutting down the government at noon is catching on. The post office is closed from 12:30 until 1:30. So with a heavy heart and an unmailed package I continued my lunchtime errands.

I went down to the local hardware store where the employees were also having lunch. They asked me if I Needed Any Help, which I didn't, until I took my merchandise back to the counter, at which time Carla came up and rang me out, asked about the grandkids, and then went back to her lunch.

Since there is only one hardware store in Hagerstown, I guess Gary could close for lunch if he wanted to, but I think he knows that's not the way to run a business.

I guess the post office doesn't know that.

I was gonna tell them, but they weren't open.

Us and them...

2011-07-06T22:28:00.001-04:00

Since there wasn't a lot of money for uniforms back at Millville Grade School, the preferred method for identifying team members during the basketball games at recess was the time honored "shirts and skins" designation. It was a pretty simple and recognizable system for determining who was on who's team, unless my old buddy Stinky Wilmont ended up on the "skins". Stinky was a good bit older than most on the outdoor basketball court, and by the time he was making his 3rd attempt at the 4th grade, the combination of his age and genetically acquired body hair made it difficult to quickly tell which team Stinky was on, especially on some of those overcast days.

But we always managed to make through the games, and after the "skins" put their shirts back on, it didn't take long to forget which team you had been on anyway. I don't know if people still use "shirts and skins" when they choose sides.

I do know there seems to be a lot more "us and them" than there used to be, and whether someone is an "us" or a "them", emotions and rhetoric can run pretty high on both sides. We saw an example of this recently when the state of Indiana decided to stop giving tax money to the Planned Parenthood organization because it provides abortions.

A lot of the people who support the government decision claim Planned Parenthood is an evil organization because at least one of the services it provides is abortions. Some of the people who support Planned Parenthood claim the government decision is an attack on women. I don't suppose either group of people is exactly right in its assessment of the situation, but it is such a divisive issue that I doubt the government will ever be able to reach a solution that makes both sides happy.

It makes me wonder if maybe we couldn't get along a little better if the government just stepped out of the funding issue altogether. That way the people who like Planned Parenthood could send it a couple of dollars a month, or a few dollars a year, or as much as they choose to send as often as they might like. And the people who don't like Planned Parenthood could send their money to some similar organization that doesn't offer abortions.

I have no doubt that as long as there is an "us" and a "them", we will be arguing about whether or not abortion should be legal, when it should or shouldn't be legal, and why it should or shouldn't be legal. I also have no doubt that no matter how long we argue about it, there will never be a satisfactory government solution to the problem.

But while we're doing all of that arguing, if we just wouldn't force other people to pay for something they really shouldn't have to pay for, maybe we wouldn't get under each others' skin so bad.

Buckle up, buckle under, or buckle down...

2011-06-28T21:05:00.007-04:00

There are a lot of things in our lives that I think are really good ideas. I try to keep my weight at a reasonable limit. I don't drink to much caffeine, and I don't drink any alcohol. I go to church just about every Sunday, and I kiss my wife every morning when I leave for work. Sometimes I even kiss her when I stay home.

Like I say, I think these are some pretty good ideas. I don't think they would make very good laws. I feel the same way about adults wearing seat belts. Good idea, bad law.

Back on July 1st, 2007, one of those really bad laws that required pick-up truck drivers to wear a seat belt took effect. The new law did allow a few exemptions, however. One of those exemptions was for "..a newspaper motor route carrier or newspaper bundle hauler who stops to make deliveries from a vehicle." Since I delivered Libertarian Party newspapers from time to time, I was glad to learn that at at least sometimes I wouldn't be committing a violation if I was driving without my seat belt fastened.

Last February, while I was heading out to deliver a few copies of the January edition of the LP News, a young Wayne County Sheriff's Deputy stopped me for not wearing my seat belt. When I explained the law to him, he told me he thought the law only applied to postal workers in government vehicles. He was wrong.

After four months and three trips to Richmond, I had my day in court. The prosecuting attorney said the motor route didn't start until I made my first delivery. I read the above exemption several times, but I couldn't find that clause in it anywhere. Unfortunately, the judge agreed with prosecutor, and just as unfortunately, they were both as wrong as the young officer. The judge told me to give the clerk $25.00.

Thomas Jefferson said that "It is the natural tendency for government to grow and liberty to yield." I suppose he was right. It's also the natural tendency for government to interpret laws to give the government more power, and to allow the citizens less freedom. Kind of makes you want to buckle down and fight a little harder.

I guess I'll be considered in violation a little more often than I used to consider myself in violation, but life goes on. And I've known for a long time that freedom isn't free.

Sometimes it costs $25.00

Something sold, something new...

2011-06-26T12:58:00.004-04:00

When you get close to 60 years old, the chances of doing something you haven't done before get a little slimmer. And even if you find something you haven't done before, there's a good chance you won't have the energy to do it anyway.

Ive been writing for a long time. The first thing I ever had published was a poem in the Hagerstown Exponent in 1962. I was in the 5th grade at the time. I've had a lot of letters and articles printed since then.

The internet made it a lot easier to get what you write in front of a lot more people. People can write a blog, or participate in an online forum, or just make a comment about at article if you are so inclined. I do all of those from time to time. Sometimes people agree with what I write, and sometimes they don't. One time a reporter from Florida contacted me to let me know that a candidate down there was reposting my blog under his own name. I think the reporter thought I should be upset. Actually, at the time I was kind of flattered.

But getting back to doing things that you haven't done before, last Friday I picked up a bunch of copies of "Stinky Shorts". It's a book of short stories about my old buddy Stinky Wilmont and me that I've been putting together over the last few months.

Friday night I sold one of the books. It was the first time I've ever sold anything that I had written. It felt pretty good for the first time.

By the way, If you're interested, Stinky Shorts is currently available in Richmond at Augustin Printing, in Hagerstown at The Corner Oak and Nettle Creek Hardware, In Cambridge City at Building 125, and in New Castle at Bill's Diner.

Hopefully by later this week it will be available at www.StinkyShorts.com

Right now I'm going to look for something else that I've never done before.

That's kinda what I expected...

2011-06-23T20:29:00.005-04:00

This week we learned that, like so many other government give-away programs, Medicare is expected to go broke even sooner than expected. Actually, I suppose it's only sooner than some people expected. Some of us figure it's already broke.

I also received a notice from the Indiana Department of Workforce Development today. It seems that starting on July 1st, three classifications of individuals that used to eligible for unemployment benefits won't be eligible for them anymore. Then on October 1st, another couple of groups become ineligible.

For quite a while now, the state has been paying out more in unemployment benefits than employers have been paying in. That's another good way to go broke sooner than expected.

Margaret Thatcher once said that the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples money.

And sometimes eventually ends up getting here sooner than anybody expected.

Well shoot....

2011-06-18T10:32:00.009-04:00

The farm I was raised on wouldn't bear a lot of resemblance to most of the farms today. The tractors weren't nearly as big: but then I suppose they weren't nearly as expensive, either.

We ate the eggs from our own chickens when they were still laying eggs, and then ate the chickens with some of Mom's dumplings when they stopped. Our beef came from our own cows and our pork came from our own pigs.

We had a pasteurizer for our milk, too. I don't think there was a law that said we had to have it, but apparently Mom thought it was a good idea, and besides, I'd seen enough in the milking parlor to discourage me from drinking milk right from the bucket, anyway.

I know that there are some people out there that prefer to drink raw milk.

Unfortunately, the FDA takes a dim view of such decisions, and recently conducted an armed raid on a farmer that was providing customers with unpasteurized milk.

Now, I don't drink near as much milk as I used to drink, and the milk I do drink will probably be pasteurized and homogenized, but that's just me. If someone decides they want to drink raw milk, that's okay too. I just wish the government didn't feel the need to pull a gun out over it.

It seems a lot of 3 letter government agencies are using a lot of guns anymore. The Department of Education recently purchased some shotguns, apparently in case someone defaults on a student loan.

I'm not sure when we cross the line that makes our country a police state, but I have to believe that armed assaults on raw milk by the Food and Drug Administration, and raids by the Department of Education at least put us a little bit closer.

What's in store for us?...

2011-06-11T10:00:00.005-04:00

I'm not much of a grocery shopper. I usually start looking around, forget what I went in for, and come out with something I really don't need. My wife Susan complains that it costs to much when I accompany her to the store. I think maybe she said something about impulse buying.

At any rate, occasionally necessity takes me in, and I find what I was looking for, and I make it out of the store before the cart runs over.

Last week I stopped in for a couple of items on my way home from work, and ended up behind a young lady with a full cart at the checkout counter. She was busy talking on her cell phone, and only stopped and appeared quite annoyed when the clerk would pick up an item from the cart and explain to the woman that the certain item wasn't WIC voucher compliant. Her answer to the clerk on every non-compliant item was in that case, she didn't want it.

According to the WIC website, to be eligible to qualify for this benefit program,

"you must be a breastfeeding and postpartum woman, infant or child up to 5 years of age and: (1) are individually determined by a health professional to be at nutrition risk; and, (2) meet an income standard, or are determined automatically income eligible. A person who participates or has family members who participate in certain other benefit programs, such as the Food Stamp Program, Medicaid or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, automatically meets the income eligibility requirement."

You can't always tell just buy looking, but I'm pretty sure this particular woman wasn't at any type of a nutrition risk, and I would worry that any child she was breastfeeding would be emotionally scarred for quite some time.

Never the less, I suppose she qualified for the help, but I can't help wondering why some items were necessary if someone else was paying for them, but not so necessary if she had to pay for them. And I wondered who paid for her cell phone, tattoos and piercings.

Before it was over, I wondered why the heck I went into the grocery store anyway.

No news is no news...

2011-05-17T18:50:00.007-04:00

Apparently Arnold Schwarzenegger fathered a child with a member of his household staff about 10 years ago. I know that because it was the lead story on one of the major TV networks this morning. And tonight. I suspect they will have more in-depth coverage on the story tomorrow morning. And tomorrow night.

I suppose they had to come up with something to on report now that the royal wedding is over and Charlie Sheen has been replaced on Two and 1/2 Men.

There were a couple stories that failed to make prime time news in the last week.
The Indiana Supreme Court took another bite out of our 4th Amendment protections here, and the Supreme Court of the United States did the same thing here.

The consequences of the Indiana decision have already started, with this sheriff chomping at the bit to conduct random searches whenever he's in the mood.

There's been a lot of discussion and analysis concerning the remarkably horrible decisions, mostly on alternative news sites and the Internet. If you want to weigh the options as to how those decisions might affect you, it would probably be a good idea to seek some of those sites out.

If you just want to find out who replaced Charlie Sheen, you can stick with the networks.

FOUR!!!!!!!!...

2011-05-13T17:19:00.004-04:00

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

That's the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. I think it's a good idea that the government should have to justify any intrusion into any citizen's home.

Like a lot of the protections afforded us by the Constitution, the 4th Amendment has been more loosely interpreted than most libertarians and constitutionalists would have approved.

It got a lot looser this week, at least in Indiana. The Indiana Supreme Court ruled that if a police officer decides to enter your home for any reason, you don't have the right to stop him.

"In a 3-2 decision, Justice Steven David writing for the court said if a police officer wants to enter a home for any reason or no reason at all, a homeowner cannot do anything to block the officer's entry."

I'm pretty sure that's what they were concerned about when they put the amendment in there in the first place.

I'm not sure why those judges think it's in there.

Eating up time....

2011-05-13T13:02:00.004-04:00

Gas prices being as they are, I try to stay and work as close to Hagerstown as I can. I related this story about our last venture out of Wayne County last fall. We are getting ready to do a couple of jobs that apparently require building permits over in Henry County.

I've never made it a secret that I'm opposed to the government requiring building permits in the private sector. I figure individual adults should be able to decide for themselves how they want to handle their business arrangements. If one of those individuals feels the need to involve a third party to help them handle the arrangements, that's okay too. I just never thought the government ought to force its way into the deal. Besides, in the 37 years I've been in business, I've never known a permit to do anything more than cost the consumer more money.

Still, I'm learning to better pick the time and place for my battles, so the other day when we broke for lunch, I drove over to New Castle to purchase said permits.

When I walked up to the annex building (I guess like most places Henry County has too much government to fit into just one building)at 11:55, I noticed a sign on the door that read "Closed for Lunch from 12:00 until 1:00". When I walked into the Building Commissioner's offices, I got the distinct feeling that none of the people in the room wanted me to be there any more than I wanted to be there.

I'm still not sure why all of the people in a public office feel the need to close it so they can all go to lunch at the same time, but then, I still haven't figured out what they were all doing there in the first place.

The road to ruin....

2011-05-04T22:27:00.004-04:00

I attended a public hearing in Richmond tonight concerning the Wheel Tax the Wayne County Commissioners want to impose. It seems that since cars are getting better mileage and people are driving less, the county doesn't have enough money to properly maintain the roads.

I can understand how that might be a problem.

Apparently the Wayne County Highway Department budget is $3.2 million for this year. The highway department and the commissioners say that isn't enough. I don't know if it is or not.

I do know that there are about 68,000 people in Wayne County. I'm guessing that about 41,300 of them drive. I'm also guessing that each driver probably averages using about 15 gallons of gasoline a week. Like I said, I'm just guessing.

If those guesses are anyways close to being right, that means Wayne County drivers buy about 32,214,000 gallons of gasoline each year. We pay 52 cents in road use taxes for every gallon we buy. That totals up to about $16,751,280.00 per year. That doesn't include the 28 cents in sales tax we're paying on every gallon also.

You would think they could find $3.2 million somewhere in that amount. I guess not.

The state and federal government gets the lions share of our road use taxes, and they spend them on a lot of projects that don't involve roads.

Before the local government starts demanding more road use taxes from us, we need to demand that all levels of government spend the money they have already taken from us for its intended purpose.

It wouldn't hurt if our local officials started demanding that too.

Millions, Billions, Trillions.......

2011-05-02T21:56:00.003-04:00

Back in my much younger days, I recall a television show named "The Millionaire". On the show, some guy would drive around the country in a car or train, and give a million dollars to some unsuspecting person. I was about 7 or 8 years old at the time, and while I didn't really have any conception about how many dollars were in a million, I remember thinking that it sounded like a lot of money. It still does, but just not as much as it used to.

Millionaires are more common than they were 50 years ago. Last year, according to CNN, about 8.4 million households in the United States had a net worth of a million dollars or more. People can make several million dollars a year playing on a baseball, basketball or football team. Or just by coaching a team. Every week we hear about somebody who just won a few million in a lottery somewhere, even if the odds of winning are over a million. While most of us will probably never own a million of anything, we do at least have some concept of what constitutes a million.

Our federal government has taken to dealing in billions and trillions of dollars over the past few decades. That's a whole different concept. I read a simple explanation of the difference between a million, a billion, and a trillion a while back. If we use seconds as a measure, we find a million seconds amounts to about 11 days. That doesn't seem like so much. But a billion seconds amounts to about 32 years, while a trillion seconds amounts to about 317 centuries. I think that's why most people who can grasp the concept of a million, have a little trouble relating to a billion or a trillion.

It sounded like a lot of money when Congress was arguing about whether to reduce next year's projected increase in the federal debt by $30 billion or $60 billion a couple of weeks ago. It still sounded like a lot of money when they settled on $38 billion. It didn't sound like quite as much when we found out that because of some creative government book keeping, the actual reduction in growth was going to be around $350 million.

As hard as it is to visualize a trillion dollars, it's even harder to imagine 14 trillion dollars. That's how big the immediate federal debt is. The federal governments long term obligations are five times that amount. That makes it even harder to envision.

Even if we have a hard time grasping how much the government spends, we don't have too much trouble understanding how much it costs each of us. If you are 35 years old and earn $45,000.00 per year, you can plan on sending the federal government about $425,000.00 between now and whenever the government finally loses interest in you. The amount will vary if you're older or younger, or if you earn more or less, but you get the picture.

I understand one of the main reasons more people aren't upset about a $14 trillion debt is because it is so hard to comprehend. But we can comprehend $425,000.00, and I can't understand why we aren't more upset about that.

Judge not....

2011-05-01T18:55:00.006-04:00

I'm not a fan of reality TV. I've never watched an episode of "Survivor". I'm aware of the concept, but I could never get past the fact that just a few feet away from somebody who found it necessary to eat a bug in order to survive, was a camera crew with a motor home and and a refrigerator full of ham sandwiches.

My wife and I spent last weekend at the Libertarian Party of Indiana 2011 Convention up in La Porte. We ate a lot of food, listened to a lot of speakers, visited with a lot of friends, and all the other things people do when they have a convention.

On Saturday night, at this particular convention, the LPIN held a Texas Hold'em Poker Tournament. One of the players was Rupert Boneham, who recently decided to throw in with the LP and it's limited government philosophy. "Survivor" fan or not, you've probably seen Rupert in some capacity or another in the past few years. At least I have, but I never paid much attention. I've always had a hard time taking somebody seriously if they didn't seem to take themselves seriously. From a distance, and at least for me, Rupert's wardrobe and coiffure seemed to put him in that category.

I had a chance to visit with Rupert after my short stay at the tables. It turns out he's a serious guy. Aside from running a successful business, he also runs a program called Rupert's Kids. It gives young people that have run afoul of the law a better chance to get straightened out before they run afoul of the law again. He runs it with his own money, and corporate and private donations. I was impressed enough to make one. I was also impressed that he doesn't seek or accept tax money.

So I was wrong, and as part of my penance, I going to ask you to visit his website at http://rupertskids.org/ and send him some money or other help if you're so inclined.

But I'm not going to watch "Survivor".

When a word is worth a thousand pictures...

2011-04-27T22:06:00.003-04:00

When I got my first cell phone about 15 years ago, it was about as big as one of my boots, and I had to keep it plugged into the cigarette lighter in my truck to keep it charged up. Sometimes I had to put the base of the phone on the dashboard and hold the handset out the window if I wanted to make a call. Still, it saved a lot of time when it came to getting material to a job site.

The last phone I had didn't resemble the first one in any way, shape, or form. It fit in and fell out of my shirt pocket easily. I could talk to it and it would talk back, and if it didn't understand what I was saying, I could punch a couple of buttons until a list of functions appeared on the screen and I could make my wishes known in that fashion.

But when it fell out of my pocket for the last time a couple of days ago, and it seemed we just couldn't talk anymore, I decided it was time for a new one.

I'm a big fan of the written word. I know that some ancient cultures used picture drawings, or hieroglyphics, to communicate, but I always figured we had it all over them when we came up with the alphabet. (We did come up with the alphabet, didn't we?) Imagine my disappointment when I punched a couple of buttons on the new phone.

It has a bunch of pictures on it. I suspect the picture of the mailbox will take me to my voicemail, and probably the the picture of the hammer and pliers is supposed to represent tools. And the picture of some pictures is probably about pictures, but I don't know why they couldn't call voicemail voicemail, and tools tools, and pictures pictures. I don't know what the sideways pointy mask is for, or the smiley face with an arrow for a nose is for, and I'm not sure I want to know what the abstract picture of the toilet is for.

I suppose I could get the owners manual and check them out. They probably wrote something beside the pictures in it telling me what the pictures mean.

It would have saved me a lot of aggravation if they would have just wrote it on the phone in the first place.

Or if the last one would have just stayed in my pocket.

Look at them beans...

2011-04-23T08:46:00.007-04:00

Back in my younger days, I often spent time at the home of my good buddy, Stinky Wilmont. When noon approached, Stinky would sometimes ask Mrs. Wilmont if I could stay for dinner. She always replied that it would be okay, and then proceeded to add another cup of water to the bean soup. I remember that on days when there were several neighbor kids visiting, the soup got pretty thin, and the beans got a little harder to find.

Just like watering down the soup, the Federal Reserve is now pumping $200 billion a month into the economy. Of course, the same action that made the soup thinner also makes the dollar weaker. You might notice how many more dollars it takes to fill up your cars gas tank: You might notice that land you could buy for $1000.00 an acre not too many years ago now costs $5000.00 or $6000.00 per acre or more. $300.00 per ounce gold is now $1500.00, and $6.00 an ounce silver is now $45.00.

Maybe you've noticed that 12 ounces of bacon this month costs the same as a pound of bacon cost a few months ago.

Since the Federal Reserve starting "managing inflation" in 1913, the dollar has lost about 96% of its purchasing power. The political party that is in control, regardless of which one it is at the time, likes to deny that inflation is a problem when they are running things.

But I could sure tell the difference when the soup got too thin, and I can tell the difference when my truck's gas tank gets empty.

Conventional thoughts...

2011-04-14T08:30:00.003-04:00

Every couple of election cycles or so, the percentage of voters that alternate between Republicans and Democrats replace a few incumbents, hoping that it will bring about some sort of change in government spending or policy. In 2010, those voters helped the Republicans gain control of the U.S. House of Representatives, who in turn compromised us into adding another $1.6 trillion to the federal debt.

Here in Wayne County, a Republican who ran for office in 2010, and won, claiming that it was not a good time to add or raise taxes, apparently decided that 2011 might be a better time.

If you are one of the growing number of voters that has decided switching your votes between Republicans and Democrats really isn't going to change things all that much, you might want to take a closer look at the Libertarian Party.

The Libertarian Party of Wayne County will hold its 2011 Convention on Saturday, April 16th, at 6:30 P.M., at Carver's Restaurant, 2270 Chester Blvd., Richmond IN 47374.

The public is invited to attend.

The LPWC will be accepting nominations for candidates for the 2011 City and Town Elections at the convention, along with offering a short program called "Liberty 101, What Libertarians Believe".

We will also be electing party officers for 2011, so make sure you are there if you want a position. It's also a good idea to be there if you don't wan't a position!

If you are interested in limited government, lower taxes and personal freedom, or if you are interested in running for office or helping some one else run for office, or if you would like to find out more about the Libertarian Party, or even if you just like good food and stimulating conversation, please plan on attending.

For more information, contact LPWC chairman Rex Bell at (765) 969-0086, or lpwc@msn.com

Several local Libertarian candidates received national recognition for their vote totals and percentages from the 2010 election, and one candidate achieved a total that hadn't been reached by a third party candidate for over 85 years:

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/361/061/Libertarian_Party_of_Indiana_Exhibits_Surprising_Strength.html

http://lpin.org/2010/11/16/2010-by-the-numbers-a-final-look/#more-2369

http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/2011/01/green-libertarian-constitution-party-legislative-candidates-beat-records-going-back-decades/

These are the offices that are up for election in Richmond and Wayne County towns this year. There will also be openings in cities and towns in the surrounding counties. We don't want to let our momentum weaken. Please consider running for one of these offices this year, and/or recruiting limited government advocates to join us, by running for office, and/or supporting our candidates.

(Incumbents listed in brackets)

City of Richmond:

Mayor: (Sally L. Hutton)

City Clerk: (Karen Chasteen)

Common Council District 1: (Howard “Jack” Elstro)

Common Council District 2: (Kelley J. Cruse-Nicholson)

Common Council District 3: (R. Bruce Wissel)

Common Council District 4: (J. Clayton Miller)

Common Council District 5: (Bing Welch)

Common Council District 6: (Larry L. Parker)

Common Council At-Large (3 Seats) (Bob Goodwin, Diana J. Pappin, Phil Quinn)

SMALL TOWN ELECTION:

Cambridge City:

3 Town Council Seats – Wards 3,4,5

Clerk/Treasurer

Centerville and Dublin:

5 Town Council Seats – Centerville all 5 Wards, Dublin 5 Seats all At-Large

Clerk/Treasurer

East Germantown/Pershing:

5 Council Seats – All At-Large

Clerk/Treasurer

Fountain City:

5 Council Seats-Ward 2 and 2 At-Large

Clerk/Treasurer

Hagerstown:

3 Council Seats – All At-Large

Clerk/Treasurer

Town Judge

Milton:

5 Council Seats – All At-Large

Clerk/Treasurer

I been thinkin'...

2011-04-12T20:27:00.003-04:00

Susan and I had a babysitting gig in Mississippi last weekend. About 1100 miles, round trip, but well worth it to get to spend some time with our newest grandson, Jackson. He seemed awfully glad to see us, and we were sure glad to see him.

A long drive gives you a lot of time to think, and I got to thinking about how members of a family a few decades ago would move across the country and never see other members of their family ever again. I don't like to travel all that much, but I'm glad we have the option.

Of course, in 1100 miles, I had time to think about a lot of things. I have a lot of friends that drive motorcycles, and I try to watch out for motorcycles when I'm driving. I think sometimes motorcycle riders should do a little bit better job of looking out for themselves, too.

I also think we could save a lot of money if we didn't put so many speed limit signs up along the interstate. It's not like anybody pays any attention to them anyway. And I think they've been working on the same entrance ramp in Terra Haute for the last 14 years that I've been driving through there.

I don't like to see dead animals along the freeway, except maybe opossums, and even though I feel sorry for the deer and coyotes that don't make it across, I always figured they at least had a fighting chance. I mean, if they even made the slightest effort to check the traffic they could probably time things to get through.

But the south has had a lot of rain this spring, and with all the high water, apparently a lot of turtles also decided to cross the road. I have no doubt that they all probably stopped and looked both ways before they started their mad dash across the road. But you know people probably aren't paying attention to those speed limit signs anyway.

You gotta feel sorry for those turtles.

At least that's what I think.

Talkin' Trash...

2011-04-08T18:58:00.004-04:00

I saw a clip on the news this morning that some people in Washington D.C. were threatening to take their trash over to the yard of John Boehner. Apparently if there is a federal government shutdown, which is possible if Boehner stands his ground on making some meager budget cuts, the government won't be picking up the trash in Washington.

Some of us have thought for a long time that government was doing things it really shouldn't be doing. That's why our federal budget is $3.4 trillion a year, and why our federal debt is over $14 trillion. It's also why so many local governments are running out of money, and looking to raise taxes.

A lot of the people we know pay to have their own trash picked up. And some people who don't want to pay to have their trash picked up, recycle what they can and haul the rest of it to the transfer station or landfill themselves. I'd much rather look after my own trash and not have to deal with quite as much government.

I guess a lot of people would rather have the government do it for them. But I'd think that if you had already loaded your trash into your car, the logical thing would be to take it to the tranfer station or landfill.

I guess people who expect the government to pick up their trash don't think that.

Going down the hard road, again...

2011-04-05T07:24:00.000-04:00

If you spend much time driving in or through the bordering counties, it doesn't take long to develop an appreciation for our Wayne County roads. Most people understand that quality roads need adequate funding to be both built and maintained. It is reasonable, I believe, to expect that people who use the roads should pay for their construction and maintainence. Everytime you buy a gallon of gas in Indiana, you pay over 52 cents in road use taxes to do just that.

You would think that charging 52 cents on every gallon of gas that is sold would be sufficient to build and maintain our roads, and maybe it would, if the government actually spent all of the money on the roads. Unfortunately, federal, state, and local governments spend our road use taxes on a myriad of projects unrelated to roads. They manage to spend billions of dollars on everything from hiking trails, to horse trails, to museums, to government pensions.

A proposal is being introduced this week to the Wayne County Council by the Wayne County Commissioners to adopt a new Wheel Tax to add to that 52 cents you're already paying.

Now, maybe 52 cents per gallon isn't enough to pay for our roads, but why don't we give it a try before we allow the government to add yet another road use tax. Who knows where that money might end up, anyway?

Did you want cheese on that cheeseburger?...

2011-04-01T15:51:00.006-04:00

There have been a few times when I've looked at a picture on a menu and said, mmmmmm!, that's what I'm ordering.

Then, when the waitress brings it out it looks more along the lines of:

I understand that orders get mixed up sometimes, and I understand that cooks and waitresses can have a bad day from time to time, just like everybody else. I've had more than a few bad days myself. But if everytime I went into that restaurant and the same thing happened, I suspect I would take my business elsewhere.

In the 2010 elections, voters that were fed up with government over-spending threw a lot of Democrats out and replaced them with a lot of Republicans who said they were fed up with government overspending, too. Of course, Republicans are always fed up with government overspending. During elections,of course.

To date, Republicans have proposed $61 billion in cuts from a $3.4 trillion budget. That's not even 2% of the budget. And it's starting to look like they may be willing to settle for even smaller cuts than that.

You have to wonder how long people will keep ordering from the same menu and keep accepting the same disappointing results before they finally stand up and say, "Where's the Beef?!"

If you're not at the Libertarian Party table, it's not even on the menu.

Almost persuaded...

2011-03-31T09:54:00.002-04:00

I would guess it would be accurate to assume that everybody has been influenced by another person at sometime in their lives. I remember that back at Millville Grade School, my old buddy Stinky Wilmont influenced me and a few others into trouble on more than one occasion. Invariably, when a questionable activity was discovered by a non-participating student who was on the playground safety patrol, and we were pleading our case before Principal Baker, the first line of defense was usually "Stinky made us do it!". That line of reasoning never carried much weight with the powers to be at the time, and as I grew a little older, and hopefully a little wiser, it started to carry a little less weight with me.

I think what the principal knew at the time, and what I figured out later, is the difference between persuasion and coercion. Admittedly, Stinky could be pretty persuasive, but as long as he didn't threaten us with bodily injury or some other measure of force, we were at liberty to walk away and join Bernice Hawkins on the maypole or some other less controversial means of entertainment.

My parents, who raised 8 of us kids just up the road from Millville, were always pretty good at persuasion, too, although when persuasion failed, they weren't above a little coercion if the situation or attitude made it necessary. Like most families, once we reached adulthood, the use of coercion and force gave way to persuasion and logic.

I think that's how things ought to work. Most of us in our day to day lives rely on persuasion. I operate a small construction business, and I spend part of my time trying to persuade people to hire us for the job they want done. If I can't come up with a way to persuade them to do that, then I start looking for people with another job that I can persuade.

Sometimes people try to persuade us to work for them, and sometimes we just can't work it in to our schedule. I assume they end up persuading someone else to work for them. However things work out, it's all based on persuasion. I don't get to force anybody to hire us, and no one gets to force us to work for them.

Every Sunday, the newspapers are chock full of advertisements that try to persuade us to buy from one store or another. It's been my experience that some stores are more persuasive than others, and certainly some people are more easily persuaded than others, but you likely won't see a store employee dragging a customer in from the street and forcing them to make a purchase.

That's how people generally deal with other people. Government, however, doesn't quite work that way. George Washington correctly pointed out that: "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master."

Every law, regulation, rule or tax that the government adopts is backed with force or the threat of force. While on a personal level we might try to persuade our friends to wear their seatbelts or donate to a charity, when the government gets involved, persuasion gives way to coercion and force, in the form of fines and jail sentences. Or worse.

Libertarians believe that the proper role of government is to protect us from the initiation of force and fraud, and otherwise allow adults to make their own decisions based on peaceful persuasion. We think limiting government to its proper role is the best way to limit the amount of force and coercion it can inflict on its citizens.

I hope eventually we're able to persuade more people to feel the same.

Between the lines...

2011-03-15T16:25:00.004-04:00

Our house is located in with a row of houses along the highway, and when I'm telling someone who is trying to locate our house how to identify it, along with telling them the address, I usually say "There is a flagpole in the front yard".

I guess I can still do that, but after a driver apparently dozed off and ran off of the road, the description "flagpole in the front yard" has taken on a different meaning.

We were glad, of course, that no one was injured, but we did hate to lose that flagpole. And then there's also the matter of the flagpole being stuck to the front of his truck as it continued across the driveway, hooking on the telephone and cable television lines as it went.

I figured I could live without the internet for a few days until the phone company was able to get out and hook the lines back up, and cell phones have replaced the land line for the most part, anyway. I guess we keep the land line for the fax machine that we don't use all that much anymore.

We still had the TV stations that come in over the satellite dish, which we kept because of the channels our children and grandchildren like, that we couldn't afford from cable TV, which we got because we couldn't get local news stations on the satellite.

But since the usual option of getting most of my news from the internet and local TV stations didn't exist, I tried a couple of satellite TV options. Briefly.

We've been trying to teach our grandchildren, as we were taught, and as we tried to teach our children, that it's proper and polite to allow another person to finish speaking before you speak. Apparently nobody taught the people at FOX or MSNBC anything along those lines.

At any rate, I'm glad I still get newspapers, and I'm glad the cable guy and the telephone guy showed up today.

And I thanked them when they were done.

Seems to me...

2011-03-10T18:01:00.003-05:00

A couple of decades ago, we built a new house for Wally and Sarah on their farm north of Hagerstown. Shortly after we started the project, I noticed Sarah was carrying around a huge alarm clock while she was working in the yard.

When I scolded Wally soundly for being too frugal to buy her a wrist watch, Sarah spoke up and explained that she had turned on the water to fill the tank for the cattle, and she wouldn't put the alarm clock down until she remembered to turn the water off.

Things aren't always as they seem.

Lee Wrights wrote today that Democrats can't sleep because they are worrying that someone somewhere is making to much money, and Republicans can't sleep because they are worrying that someone somewhere is having to much fun.

I'm not sure that's true, but sometimes that sure how it seems.

Sounds fair to me...

2011-03-10T08:24:00.004-05:00

I guess it doesn't take much to make some people mad. A lot of the public employees in Wisconsin are upset because the legislature in Wisconsin has proposed a bill that would require government employees to pay 5.8% of their own pensions & 12.6% of health care, and allow government employees the freedom to choose to not join the union.

I've always figured the fairest way to handle such things would be to pay people a reasonable wage for the service they perform, and then allow them to decide how to handle their own pensions and heath care. And I always figured people have always had the right to decide whether or not they wanted to join a union. Of course, I also figured people have the right to decide whether or not they want to deal with someone that is in a union.

But sometimes just thinking that seems to be enough to make some people mad,too.

More or less...

2011-03-05T19:59:00.002-05:00

Susan and I went out for a sandwich tonight, and a young man approached our table and told us that he found my name on the wall of a house that he had just purchased. He was stripping wallpaper that I had hung in 1977 according to the diary that I wrote on the wall.

I started signing the walls before I papered them because I always enjoyed uncovering the dates, along with the signatures and thoughts of Merton Grills and Russell Werking, a couple of Hagerstown paperhangers that preceded me in the trade. I wrote on the walls of a lot of homes and businesses in Wayne and Henry counties. If you want to know what the weather was like on November 12th, 1976, I imagine it's recorded on a wall somewhere. Maybe in Martha's kitchen or dining room. Or maybe Thelma's.

When I started hanging wallpaper 40 years ago, a roll of wallpaper contained 36 square feet. We usually bought it in double rolls, 72 feet if I did my gazinta's right. Somewhere along the line they started selling wallpaper in bolts. 28 square feet. 56 in a double bolt. Then, after a few years they started calling the bolts, rolls. I think they just figured out a way to beat us out of 8 feet of paper.

I imagine most people today think a roll of wallpaper is supposed to contain 28 square feet, but Merton and Russell and I know better. They're probably over it by now. Me, not so much.

Sometimes when I wasn't hanging wallpaper, I was nailing on shingles. When I first started nailing on shingles, you could buy them at Losantville Lumber for $7.00 per square. Back then a square was 100 square feet. I always figured that was something we would be able to count on for a long time, and I guess we did count on it for quite a while.

But the other day I was nailing on some shingles, and I noticed on the wrapper that a square now contains 98.4 square feet. Of course, now they call it a "sales square", and they charge $83.90 for it.

And probably before too long they'll just call it a square.

But I'll know better.

Say watt?...

2011-03-02T20:24:00.004-05:00

From the "Glimmer of Hope" department, I saw the other day that a couple of legislators from South Carolina have introduced a bill that would allow people to manufacture and sell incandescent light bulbs in South Carolina. That normally wouldn't be such a big deal, except that a couple of years ago the federal government passed a law making incandescent light bulbs illegal starting in 2012.

You might ask just where the federal government thinks it gets the authority to tell us what kind of light bulbs we have to use. Good question. They'll tell you that the interstate commerce clause, which was inserted into the Constitution to prevent individual states from adopting protective tariffs, now gives the federal government the power to regulate everything from soup to nuts, to health care. Of course, they'd be wrong.

So if the bill in South Carolina passes, light bulbs made in South Carolina and used in South Carolina won't be subject to federal regulation on interstate trade, just as guns made in Montana and sold in Montana won't be subject to federal law.

Hopefully, if this catches on, we'll end up with all 50 states thumbing their collective yet individual noses at every over-reaching law or mandate Washington throws our way.

That would be a switch.

The writing on the wall...

2011-03-02T07:32:00.002-05:00

There are a lot of things that I don't remember from high school. I don't remember much from Mrs. Warner's Latin I or Latin II. Sometimes I think I can remember things that I really can't, and then sometimes I just remember them wrong. I guess as soon as I realized that I probably wasn't going to be accepted to medical school, Latin just didn't seem quite so important.

I do tend to remember things that I think are important a little bit better. In Driver's Education, Mr. Harrison taught us that we should stay behind the car we were following the distance of one car length per each 10 miles per hour we were traveling, so that if you were driving 60 miles per hour, you would be six car lengths behind. He said that even if you couldn't get stopped in that distance, at least you would have time to swerve and avoid a crash, or slow down enough that the damage wouldn't be as great. I always thought that sounded like a pretty good idea. My old buddy Stinky Wilmont always thought it was just a waste of road.

I guess cars are a lot shorter now than they were when I was in high school, so I'm not sure that strategy would be as effective nowadays. I heard a commercial a while back from an insurance company, and they recommended staying three seconds behind the car in front of you. That sounded like a good idea too, but the last time I left three seconds between me and the car in front of me, two semi's, a motor home, and a Good Humor ice cream truck managed to squeeze into the opening.

I'm convinced we could save ourselves a lot of misery if we paid a little more attention to what was happening in front of us, and reacted a little better before we reach that point.

We've known for a long time that the federal government has been spending more money than it is collecting. Some people see this and think the federal government ought not to spend so much money. Some people just think it ought to collect more. And while we were watching that, but not really doing anything about it, the individual states started doing the same thing.

This year California is on pace to spend $25 billion more than collects. Illinois is looking at $13 billion. New Jersey is at about $11 billion. Some states decided that it might be time to put a check on some of their spending, but once you're $25 billion in the hole, it's about like hitting the brakes after you've already hit the wall. And then there are some people in some of those states don't believe they have a problem, just like Stinky Wilmont never believed it was possible he could ever have an accident.

Indiana's budget gap is still in the millions instead of billions. I'm not sure that qualifies us to consider ourselves lucky, but it does give us a little more braking time than some of the other states have allowed themselves.

Hopefully we can take advantage of that and start making the necessary adjustments before we hit the wall.

Right on!...

2011-02-27T11:30:00.004-05:00

I have a hard time understanding all of the discussion that is going on about peoples' right to work. It's not nearly as complicated as we try to make it. Of course everyone has the right to work. A person has the right to work for themselves, and they have the right to work for anybody or any company that wants to hire them.

An individual and his or her employer can make any agreement they choose that affects them, or a group of individuals can get together and make any demands that their employer or potential employer is willing to accept. If one of the demands the group makes is that all employees join their group, and if the employer agrees to that demand,that's simple enough. If the employer doesn't agree, the employees can use any peaceful means to try to change his mind, or, barring any success with that, they can find an employer that does agree with them.

Employees have no more right to force their employer to accept their terms than the employer has to force the employees accept his terms. That way nobodys's rights get violated.

It's a pretty fair system. Out side of making sure no one violates another person's rights, I don't understand for sure why people want to get the government involved in it. I suspect it is because they don't understand what constitutes a "right", or that one person's right can't conflict another person's right, and still be considered a right.

Understanding what qualifies as a right has been a passion of mine for a long time. I wrote This Story concerning rights a few years ago. Here is an excerpt from it concerning rights:

Your rights cannot conflict with someone else’s rights. If something you decide to do requires or leads to the initiation of force against another person, then it isn’t a right.

Yes, you have the right to join with any number of people and pool your resources for your retirement. No, you don’t have the right to force someone to join your group.

Yes, you have the right defend yourself against violence. No, you don’t have the right to initiate violence.

Yes, you have the right to donate to any cause or charity you choose. No, you don’t have the right to force anybody else to donate.

Yes, you have the right to seek an education. No, you don’t have the right to take someone’s home if they decide they don’t want to pay for your education.

Yes, you have the right to own and control your property. No you don’t have the right to control someone else’s property.

Yes, you have the right to prevent people from smoking on your property. No, you don’t have the right to prevent people from smoking on their property.

Rights belong to individuals. While every person in a group has rights, belonging to a group does not give you more rights than a single person.

This group of people that is our government needs to realize they cannot grant or take away our rights. They can only protect those rights, or prevent us from practicing them. I’d prefer a government that protects them.

I think if we all understood a little more about rights, we wouldn't be so anxious to have the government walk all over them.

Who's in charge here?...

2011-02-26T08:17:00.005-05:00

I heard that the Democratic Party of Indiana is soliciting funds from its supporters to help keep its elected representatives over in Illinois. I hope they are successful in that quest.

A lot of people are upset that the legislators have left the state to avoid acting on proposed legislation. I'm not one of those people. I'm in agreement with Mark Twain when he said that "No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the congress is in session."

I listen to the Democrat and Republican officials bashing each other and going through their antics, and I am constantly amazed that these same people feel not only qualified, but compelled, to dictate to the rest of us how to run our lives and our businesses, how to educate our children, and where to spend our money.

I'd be happy if the Democrats raise enough money to stay in Illinois for a long time. I'd be even happier if the Republicans raised enough money to join them.

And then we could set about making a few decisions for ourselves.

Red, White and Blue Ribbons....

2011-02-12T13:37:00.006-05:00

I spent a lot of time at the 4-H fair when I was a kid, and I spent a lot of time at the 4-H fair when my kids were kids, and I suspect I'll spend a lot of time at the 4-H fair when my grand kids get a little older. I never won a lot of blue ribbons, but I always felt 4-H was a worthy program, for people that were interested in that sort of thing. I also understand that there are people who don't feel that way.

This week, The Wayne County Commissioners decided not to replace a retiring person who worked with the 4-H program. People who want to use tax dollars to support 4-H quickly pointed out that there were other programs that should be trimmed before 4-H was trimmed. Of course, people who want tax dollars spent on those other programs were quick to disagree.

We see that a lot when government takes money from people and funds things it really shouldn't be funding. Especially when it starts running out of money. It's not a new phenomenon by any means. I wrote this piece a few years ago, and things are still about the same, so I thought I'd say it again. The issues may change, but the principle remains the same:

Several years ago, there was a rather animated woman who attended our church regularly. On one particular Sunday, she was caught up in the spirit when the preacher began lambasting the evils of strong drink, promiscuity and adultery. However, when he scolded the use of snuff, she let him know in no uncertain terms that he had crossed the line of preaching, and he was now simply meddling.

In the Libertarian crusade for smaller government, we run into that same line of thinking quite often. I think it’s safe to say that most people are justifiably upset when the government gives McDonalds, (a company that earns $40 billion a year), $1.6 million taxpayer dollars to help them advertise overseas. People also take offense when giant corporations like IBM receive billions, or when Ernest and Julio Gallo pull down a cool $5 million.

When we get a little closer to home, however, people get a little more selective in their disapproval. A friend of mine used to be adamant in his condemnation of able-bodied people who drew welfare payments. He was also quite defensive if someone brought up the fact that he received more subsidies than any other farmer in Wayne County. Likewise, a lot of people who are opposed to farm subsides have no objections when public monies are used to bribe a business to locate in their community. Unless, of course, those monies are given as grants and subsidies to a company that produces ethanol, in which case all bets are off.

Truth be told, most of us probably have a few government programs that we would like to keep around, and several that we would like to see abolished. And most of those programs, like them or not, require tax dollars to operate. Usually a lot of tax dollars.

A long time ago, voters decided to give the government the power to seize money from one group or individual, and give it to another group or individual, in order to fund these programs. The problem is, when you give one group of legislators the power to take your neighbors money and give it to you, you also give them the power to take your money and give it to somebody else. You lose the power to choose. As a result, the American taxpayer on average now spends 47% of his or her income supporting those programs, or paying the increased cost the programs create through over-regulation and red-tape.

Here in Indiana, we’re experiencing a property-tax meltdown. In search of a solution, elected and prospective legislators are scrambling to come up with different ways to raise enough money to fund everyone’s pet programs in the state, while their federal counterparts do the same. But maybe that’s not the solution we need to be looking for. Maybe the best solution lies in limiting the role of government, and in turn limiting the number of programs it can create.

For starters, let’s get the federal government back to what it was intended to do. Simply put, protect us from force and fraud, foreign and domestic. Otherwise, stay out of our personal lives. Stay out of my home, stay out of my school, and as long as I’m not defrauding anybody, stay out of my business. I’m sure there will be a lot of discussions and arguments about what constitutes force and fraud, and what we should do to protect against them, but surely we can agree that giving money to Ronald McDonald doesn’t qualify. At the least, it’s a place to start.

Next stop, state and local government. I have to believe we can come up with a better way to fund the constitutionally mandated duties we have given to our governing bodies other than property taxes, which deny the right to really own property, or income taxes that serve to punish hard work and success. Along with lessening the questionable duties that government has assumed, we need to start transferring the funding of those duties to sales taxes and user fees, capped at reasonable limits, which would more evenly distribute the load, and give people at least a modicum of control over the amount of taxes they pay.

It won’t happen over night, and it won’t happen without resistance. It will take a change in attitude, an attitude that personal freedom and personal responsibility are more important than government control. And it will take eternal vigilance, because there will always be citizens and bureaucrats that believe they have a prior claim to your money and property.

But when enough people decide they are no longer capable of supporting every program that our legislators are capable of dreaming up, and vote accordingly, at least we will have a fighting chance.

Turn left in 500 feet...

2011-02-09T09:41:00.004-05:00

I took a road trip Mississippi last weekend. I usually have my wife beside me on such trips, and I rely on her to read the maps and tell me when I need to make a turn. Since she was already in Mississippi this time, I decided I'd get some directions from MapQuest to study before I left. And since I probably wouldn't be able to read the MapQuest instructions while I was driving, I also plugged one of those talking GPS machines into the cigarette lighter, just in case I forgot an exit number somewhere along the way.

It worked out pretty well for the most part, except that the lady on the GPS telling me what to do didn't always agree with the guy that works at MapQuest. I guess there's more than one way to get to Mississippi, and I'm still not sure which one of them had the best plan. I will say the lady on the GPS got awfully upset whenever I pulled off of the road to get some gas, or to get a Mountain Dew, or to get rid of one. Or when I decided to listen to the MapQuest guy instead of her.

We tend to get a lot of advice in our lives, both solicited and unsolicited, good and not so good, relevant and irrelevant. I think it's good to have some idea about where you are and where you want to end up before you decide which of it to take.

Run, Rahm, Run....

2011-02-06T19:29:00.006-05:00

Several years ago, my wife Susan and I took the family to Chicago for the weekend. We tried to make an adventure out of it by riding the train up and back. The real adventure started when we were boarding the train to come back to Hagerstown on Sunday afternoon.

Turns out that Amtrak had sold more tickets than they had seats on the train, and after the girls climbed on, the conductor closed the door and informed the boys that we would have to find an alternative way home. When Susan explained to him that I had already spent way too much time in Chicago, and that it would be in everybodys' best interest to get me out of town as soon as possible, he found a couple of fold-down seats and a 5 gallon bucket for me and my sons so we could make our escape.

I never had any desire to return to Chicago. Still don't. But a couple of years ago I went out to Washington D.C. On the way back, the plane I was on had to land in Chicago. As it turned out, Chicago wouldn't let my plane leave Washington on time, and when I did manage to make it to Chicago, they had sent my flight to Indianapolis on without me. I finally made it home in about the same amount of time it would have required to drive from Washington to Hagerstown. And I wouldn't have had to go through Chicago.

Last weekend, I took Susan to the Dayton airport so she could fly to Memphis to babysit for our newest grandson for the week.
Of course, her flight had to make a quick stop in Chicago. 13 hours later she arrived in Memphis.

I drove to Memphis to pick her up in under 10 hours. And I stopped to get something to eat. Twice.

I read the other day that the courts had decided that Rahm Emanuel was qualified to be the mayor of Chicago. I was glad to hear it.

I hope he runs, and I hope he wins.

Chicago deserves him.

How revolting...

2011-01-30T11:44:00.005-05:00

JFK reportedly said that "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable." Looking back, I probably wouldn't have agreed with John on a lot of topics, but I think he was pretty close to the money on this one.

Some people over in Egypt who have been living under a virtual dictator for 30 years decided it was time for a change, and since peaceful revolutions don't seem to carry a lot of weight with dictators, some of their demonstrations have turned out to be pretty violent. I don't know if it qualifies as a full blown revolution yet. Hopefully their ruler, Mr. Mubarak, will step aside and make a peaceful revolution possible. Peaceful revolutions don't seem to create as many hard feelings and funerals as the violent ones.

I hope the people in Egypt decide they want true freedom, and not just a different dictator. Time will tell, I suppose. Of course, any time you get a large group of people together, you're bound to have a few that lose sight of the goal. While some were protesting against the government, others were looting, stealing and destroying property. (They'll probably be the ones working for the new government).

I'm holding onto hope that the majority of the demonstrators, and the majority of people in Egypt envision less government and a more free society than they currently have. I'm not sure the ones that just wanted to take other peoples stuff share that vision.

We saw demonstrations last year, in Greece and England, where the protestors wanted more government and less freedom. Those governments were running out of money, and when they started cutting back on handouts, the protestors demanded higher taxes on the taxpayers to keep their funds flowing. I had a little less sympathy for those protests.

Here in the United States, we have a lot of different types and groups of people. Some of those people want more government, and some want less government. Some want more freedom, and some want less freedom. Some people want to control other people, and some people don't. There isn't always a distinct line between groups, but over the years, the groups that tend to want more government seem to have gained the upper hand. This has tended to upset the group that wants less government. Of course, when they start working to bring about less government, that tends to upset the group that wants more government.

Most of the time these differing groups have been able to co-exist, even if they
get mad at each other a lot. The problem is, our officials have been spending to much money and making to many promises, and before to long, the government is either going to have to take even more money from the people that want less government, or quit giving so much money to the people that want more government.

That's the kind of things that bring about revolutions.

I pray that it is peaceful.

Control issues....

2011-01-29T20:45:00.002-05:00

My wife Susan and I recently took a little vacation to either celebrate or commemorate our 35th wedding anniversary. I’m not sure which. I guess it depends whose point of view you’re looking from. The first part of the trip consisted of getting on an airplane and flying to California. I’ve never been a big fan of flying.

I’ve read all the statistics about how flying is safer than driving based on the number of miles traveled, and I have no reason to doubt that those statistics are accurate. But for me, it’s not just about being safe. For me, it’s more about having some control over my life. I know every time I get behind the wheel of my truck, I run the risk of someone else pulling out in front of me, or crossing the centerline and running into me, or even crashing into me while I’m sitting at a stop sign. But I also know that as long as I’m behind the wheel, I have the option of paying enough attention to avoid being caught up in any of those scenarios. Not to say that I will, but at least I have the option.

I didn’t see that option when I was on the airplane. I’m sure the pilot was very qualified, but I couldn’t be sure he wasn’t changing the radio station, or thinking about what he was going to get his wife for their anniversary, instead of watching for that airplane that might be pulling out from behind that big cloud up ahead on the right.

I’ve always preferred to have as much control over my life as possible. That’s probably why I decided to start my own business years ago, and it’s also why I’m a Libertarian.

I’ve seen government expand a great deal in the 59 years that I’ve been around. Every expansion has taken a little more control away from the individual and given a little more control to the government. Slowly but surely we have moved closer to what Ayn Rand called the ultimate inversion, where government is free to do as it pleases, and citizens may act only with permission. We may disagree on how close we are to that situation, but most would agree that we have less control over our lives than we had 59 years ago. Or ten years ago. Or two years ago.

Some people don’t seem to have a problem with that. Just like some people don’t seem to have a problem with flying. And it doesn’t particularly bother me if some people want the government to control their retirement, or their health care, or how big their bedroom windows have to be, or how much education their barber or hairdresser has to have before they can be a barber or a hairdresser. Just like it doesn’t particularly bother me if someone wants to fly everywhere they go.

It does, however, bother me that people who want somebody else to control their lives feel the need to have someone else control mine. Regardless of how much control other people want the government to have over their lives, I've never understood their compulsion to have it control everybody else.

I hope that doesn’t make me sound like I'm out of control.

The state we're in...

2011-01-26T07:20:00.003-05:00

You really didn't have to listen to President Obama's State of the Union speech last night to know what he said. And you didn't have to listen to the Republican response to know what it said.

Just as the President's speech was written beforehand, so was the Republican response.

We all know what a state our Union is in. The problem is the Democrats and Republicans either don't know or won't admit how it got there, and they certainly are not willing to take the steps necessary to fix it.

I imagine Wes Benedict, over at Libertarian Party Headquarters, also had his response prepared ahead of time. Libertarians have realized for a long time what caused the state we are in, just like they've realized for a long time that doing more of the same thing we've been doing won't fix the state we're in.

Here is Wes's response. I know it makes more sense than what I suspect those other guys said.

A transcript of Mr. Benedict's speech follows:

Good evening and thank you for your interest in the State of our Union.

My name is Wes Benedict. I'm the executive director of the Libertarian National Committee here in Washington, DC. The Libertarian Party stands for free markets, civil liberties, and peace.

Tonight we heard from President Barack Obama and a response from Republican Congressman Paul Ryan.

President Obama says he wants a freeze in non-security, discretionary spending. In the unlikely event that happens, it won't really matter, because to make a real dent in the deficit, it's necessary to cut spending on the military and entitlements. The president promised big government in the past, and he delivered. I expect more of the same.

However, Obama has truly been a hypocrite on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a candidate, he promised to end them. Tonight we heard more hollow promises. The fact is, as president, he has kept those wars going, and has greatly escalated the war in Afghanistan. As a percentage of GDP, military spending is higher now than it was during any year of the George W. Bush administration.

Unlike President Obama, Libertarians would bring our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan, and reduce the military budget.

On the Republican side, I found Congressman Paul Ryan's hypocrisy appalling. He claims to want big cuts in government spending. But he didn't seem to be too worried about cutting spending when Republicans were in charge. He supported the huge Medicare expansion in 2003, and the expensive No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. He supports the expensive War on Drugs. In 2008, he put hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars at risk by voting for the massive TARP bailout, and he even voted to spend billions on the GM and Chrysler bailout.

Just one month ago, Congressman Ryan voted for the tax compromise that included a big increase in unemployment spending, and even extensions of government spending on ethanol.

Republicans don't want to cut spending -- they want to talk about cutting spending.

Congressman Paul Ryan is a perfect example of why Republicans are bad for America.

Republicans' plans for Social Security and Medicare are little more than a distraction. It's time for someone to have the guts to tell seniors the truth: You were promised way too much, and now we've got to make major cuts. I'm asking retirees to think about the enormous debts piling up on your children and grandchildren.

Libertarians would stop spending billions on bailouts, the War on Drugs, federal education programs, and we would end mandatory Social Security and Medicare.

Today, America is a country that attracts hardworking immigrants from Mexico and around the world, leaving countries that are less free and prosperous. Libertarians welcome these immigrants warmly. But I often wonder if -- in 20 years -- America will still be a great place to live, or if it will be another declining civilization fraught with poverty and abuse that your children want to leave.

The future of America may depend on the Libertarian Party steering us towards liberty and away from tyranny.

The Libertarian Party is America's third-largest party, and one of the most successful alternative parties in American history.

We are recruiting bold, principled men and women dedicated to freedom to fill leadership positions and to run for office as Libertarians.

You don't have to agree with every single Libertarian position to join the Libertarian Party. You can still make a difference and help us move our country towards freedom.

The Libertarian Party has more information at our website, LP.org. Please visit LP.org and join the Libertarian Party today.

Thank you and good night.

Tales and snails...

2011-01-22T10:59:00.007-05:00

For the most part, my comfort zone is pretty close to Hagerstown. I do venture out occasionally, and so far I have survived most of those junkets with minimal emotional scarring, but usually the best part of any trip is getting home.

Susan and I went on a cruise for our 35th anniversary a couple of weeks ago. We flew to the west coast to get on the ship. I've never been a big fan of flying, probably because I like to have a little bit of control over my own fate. I never really feel like I do once the plane is in the air. It's the same feeling I get whenever congress is in session.

I did enjoy the cruise, though. I think it is the only place anybody ever called me sir, and then didn't follow that by saying "We're going to have to ask you to leave."

We met a lot of nice people and learned a few things that we might not have learned if we hadn't left Hagerstown.

I learned that most people from California don't think California is going to make it, and that people from up north think I talk like I'm from down south.

I learned that this is what one guy in Mazatlan thinks the Statue of Liberty looks like:

I found out a lot of waiters from Indonesia have names that I can't pronounce, but that the waiter that was taking care of our group was named Willis. That was simple enough. I think he appreciated that my name was Rex, too.

I also learned that if you can't read the menu, you had better ask someone who can, or you're liable to end up with a bunch of snails on your plate.

And that's way out of my comfort zone.

Whew!!!.....

2011-01-19T16:53:00.003-05:00

Proverbs 16:18 says: "Pride goeth before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall."

I guess that means we need to keep a proper perspective on our blessings and accomplishments, and remember where they really come from. And I'm okay with that, although I will admit to the occasional slip-up.

Last weekend, I was walking through the San Diego Airport, 2176 miles from home, lost in a place I had never been before, frantically searching for A-15,(or was it A-17?), when I came face to face with a couple I knew from Hagerstown.

I'll have to say that I was awfully proud that I was with my wife!

Light reading...

2011-01-16T15:06:00.001-05:00

I had a discussion the other day with a friend who was worried that with a more libertarian government, there might not be enough tax money to maintain a public library. I’m sure he was correct. But that doesn’t mean there wouldn’t be a library.

We have several churches in the Hagerstown area. Some of them are bigger than the public library. Some of them have grown larger over the years, and some of them have grown smaller over the years. None of them rely on tax dollars or forced contributions to survive.

And as long as people feel there is a need, I’m confident they will continue to survive.

Apparently my friend has less faith in libraries.

Ports of exemption..

2011-01-16T13:56:00.003-05:00

I had the occasion to journey through the Indianapolis International Airport the other day. They have a lot of rules about going into the airport, parking your car, unloading your luggage, loading your luggage, standing in line, getting on your plane, and getting off of your plane. They also have a rule about not smoking. They have a lot of signs up about not smoking, and every few minutes some guy gets on the PA system and reminds us that we can’t smoke anywhere, inside or outside, on airport property.

Since I’m not a smoker, it didn’t create any hardship on me particularly, and besides, I’ve always figured that whoever owned a property had the right to decide if people could smoke on it or not, although I’ll have to admit I’m not sure who made this particular decision on this particular property.

I did happen to notice, however, that while we were sitting on the plane, getting ready to take off, the gentleman who was spraying the de-icer on the airplane’s wings was puffing contentedly away. That didn’t particularly concern me, although it did remind me a lot of the lawmakers we send to Indianapolis and Washington every election.

Congress and our state legislatures are fond of making laws that apply to about everyone except themselves, as well as granting favors that apply to themselves but few others. Congress required that about everybody participate in the Social Security program, save themselves and a few other selected groups and individuals. Our state legislature granted themselves a retirement program that takes $4.00 from the taxpayers for every dollar they contribute.

More recently, the government has been exempting certain groups from the health insurance bill that was passed last year. So far, I haven’t been able to be in one of those groups.

I don’t know about the guy that sprays the de-icer on the planes at the airport.

Bills, bills, bills....

2011-01-08T08:43:00.004-05:00

There isn't very much in our lives that the government doesn't tax or regulate. Most people can't name even three things. A lot of that comes from our politicians' need to pass a new law with their name on it every time they get together. This is a list of proposed bills this year just in Indiana. Multiply that by 50 states, and then throw in the Federal government's contribution to the mess.

I wish they didn't get together so often.

Senate

SB 0002 -- Authority to solemnize marriages.
SB 0003 -- Grandparent and great-grandparent visitation.
SB 0004 -- Suicide prevention training for school personnel.
SB 0005 -- Synthetic cannabinoids.
SB 0006 -- Interstate mutual aid agreements.
SB 0007 -- Juvenile DNA testing.
SB 0008 -- Use of DNA evidence.
SB 0009 -- Consumer protection matters.
SB 0010 -- Annexation remonstrance waivers.
SB 0011 -- Income tax rate adjustment.
SB 0012 -- PERF and TRF administrative matters.
SB 0013 -- Income tax withholding.
SB 0014 -- Representation of judges in mandate litigation.
SB 0015 -- Low carbon and noncarbon dioxide emitting plants.
SB 0016 -- Notice of insurance after fire or explosion.
SB 0017 -- Exotic animals.
SB 0018 -- Handheld communication devices while driving.
SB 0019 -- Invasion of privacy by photography.
SB 0020 -- State contracts and grants.
SB 0021 -- Notice of appropriation and revenue measures.
SB 0022 -- Drug and alcohol abuse and commitments.
SB 0023 -- Hoosier commission for communities for a lifetime.
SB 0024 -- Indiana brain injury study commission.
SB 0025 -- Notification of substitution for epileptic drugs.
SB 0026 -- Local government reorganization and merger.
SB 0027 -- Local debt petition and referendum process.
SB 0028 -- Habitual offender charge filing deadline.
SB 0029 -- Child solicitation.
SB 0030 -- College and university police officers.
SB 0031 -- Local option taxes for counties, cities, and towns.
SB 0032 -- Vote centers.
SB 0033 -- Sheriff's department survivor benefits.
SB 0034 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0035 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0036 -- Horse racing permits.
SB 0037 -- Indiana state dairy association license plates.
SB 0038 -- Commendation for valor license plates.
SB 0039 -- Taxation of civil service annuities.
SB 0040 -- Bail.
SB 0041 -- Gary riverboats.
SB 0042 -- Council on Evansville state hospitals.
SB 0043 -- GPS monitoring and parole.
SB 0044 -- Homestead assessed value growth cap.
SB 0045 -- Coverage for smoking cessation drugs.
SB 0046 -- Identification for alcohol purchases.
SB 0047 -- Various riverboat matters.
SB 0048 -- State highway closings.
SB 0049 -- Civil penalties for certain disclaimers.
SB 0050 -- Ultrasound before an abortion.
SB 0051 -- Identification requirements for alcohol purchases.
SB 0052 -- Unauthorized adoption facilitation.
SB 0053 -- County employment opportunity fee.
SB 0054 -- Local regulation of video service franchises.
SB 0055 -- No smoking public question.
SB 0056 -- Child care regulation.
SB 0057 -- Synthetic cannabinoids.
SB 0058 -- Executive sessions.
SB 0059 -- Credit agreements.
SB 0060 -- Local government issues.
SB 0061 -- School board elections.
SB 0062 -- Local option income tax adoption dates.
SB 0063 -- Suspension of local officeholders from office.
SB 0064 -- Government reorganization.
SB 0065 -- Out of network health provider payments.
SB 0066 -- Amend definition of "renewable energy resources".
SB 0067 -- Procedures in administrative proceedings.
SB 0068 -- Changing a town into a city.
SB 0069 -- Annexation.
SB 0070 -- Public access issues.
SB 0071 -- Coal bed methane and other oil and gas issues.
SB 0072 -- Carbon dioxide pipelines and eminent domain.
SB 0073 -- Thirteenth check.
SB 0074 -- Guardianships.
SB 0075 -- Presidential electors.
SB 0076 -- PERF administrative matters.
SB 0077 -- Adult guardianships and protective proceedings.
SB 0078 -- Identification requirements for alcohol purchases.
SB 0079 -- Motor fuel theft.
SB 0080 -- Public inspection of provisional ballot materials.
SB 0081 -- Challenges to a candidate's eligibility.
SB 0082 -- Age of candidate for state convention delegate.
SB 0083 -- Child concealment.
SB 0084 -- Confidentiality of motor vehicle accident reports.
SB 0085 -- Study of schools with low graduation rates.
SB 0086 -- Unemployment benefits qualifications.
SB 0087 -- Contracts for dental services.
SB 0088 -- Various mental health issues.
SB 0089 -- EMS provider criminal history checks.
SB 0090 -- Criminal law and sentencing policy study committee.
SB 0091 -- Henry and Madison unified circuit courts.
SB 0092 -- Use of telecommunications device while driving.
SB 0093 -- Concussions and head injuries in student athletes.
SB 0094 -- Purchase of rifles and shotguns.
SB 0095 -- Towing services.
SB 0096 -- Cass County deputy prosecuting attorneys.
SB 0097 -- Funding of lawsuits.
SB 0098 -- Logansport State Hospital staff and patient levels.
SB 0099 -- State contractor accountability.
SB 0100 -- Actions based on exposure to hazardous substances.
SB 0101 -- Driver education issues.
SB 0102 -- Utility recovery of federally mandated costs.
SB 0103 -- Schedule methamphetamine precursors.
SB 0104 -- Barrett law funding for retention pond barriers.
SB 0105 -- Adjustments of debt of a political subdivision.
SB 0106 -- Computer facility property tax exemption.
SB 0107 -- Disposal of state owned real estate.
SB 0108 -- Sales of motorcycles on Sunday.
SB 0109 -- Vote centers.
SB 0110 -- Voyeurism.
SB 0111 -- Child seduction.
SB 0112 -- Alcoholic beverage wholesalers.
SB 0113 -- Confined feeding operation approvals.
SB 0114 -- Qualifications of presidential candidates.
SB 0115 -- Don't Tread on Me license plate.
SB 0116 -- Abortion coverage by qualified health plans.
SB 0117 -- Damage from methamphetamine lab as arson.
SB 0118 -- Ordinances regulating fertilizers.
SB 0119 -- Covenant marriage.
SB 0120 -- Antique motor vehicle issues.
SB 0121 -- Allen circuit court.
SB 0122 -- Election day per diem.
SB 0123 -- Use of private services for tax bill delivery.
SB 0124 -- Sales tax on vehicle discounts.
SB 0125 -- Public records and public meetings.
SB 0126 -- Public education donation tax credit.
SB 0127 -- Driver education.
SB 0128 -- City and town courts.
SB 0129 -- Parole eligibility for certain crimes.
SB 0130 -- Media production expenditure tax credit.
SB 0131 -- Possession of firearms at petroleum refineries.
SB 0132 -- Charity gaming workers.
SB 0133 -- Identification requirements for alcohol purchases.
SB 0134 -- Grandparent and great-grandparent visitation.
SB 0135 -- Maximum property tax levies in Lake County.
SB 0136 -- Legislative mailings.
SB 0137 -- Maximum property tax levies in Lake County.
SB 0138 -- Physical examination before cosmetic surgery.
SB 0139 -- Fire protection district per diem.
SB 0140 -- Employment noncompetition clauses by hospitals.
SB 0141 -- Texting while driving.
SB 0142 -- Expungement of certain conviction records.
SB 0143 -- Corporal punishment by parents.
SB 0144 -- Retailer permits in annexed areas.
SB 0145 -- Sunday sales of motor vehicles.
SB 0146 -- Disposition and interment of human remains.
SB 0147 -- Handgun licenses and shooting ranges.
SB 0148 -- Inheritance tax and estate tax.
SB 0149 -- Allen superior court elections.
SB 0150 -- State party campaign expenditures.
SB 0151 -- Precinct committeemen.
SB 0152 -- Synthetic cannabinoid.
SB 0153 -- Disabled veteran hunting and fishing licenses.
SB 0154 -- Firearms on off-road vehicles or snowmobiles.
SB 0155 -- Tax liens.
SB 0156 -- Public intoxication.
SB 0157 -- Great Lakes task force.
SB 0158 -- Local income tax reports.
SB 0159 -- Air pollution tailoring rules.
SB 0160 -- Employer purchased insurance.
SB 0161 -- Ballot placement of public questions.
SB 0162 -- Enforcement of wage requirements.
SB 0163 -- Siting of composting facilities.
SB 0164 -- False statements to state agencies.
SB 0165 -- Economic development incentive accountability.
SB 0166 -- Local government employment.
SB 0167 -- Nepotism; public employee holding elected office.
SB 0168 -- State contracting with disabled veterans.
SB 0169 -- Probate, trusts, and transfer on death transfers.
SB 0170 -- Health coverage for certain disabled officers.
SB 0171 -- School start date and calendar.
SB 0172 -- PERF board membership.
SB 0173 -- Property tax deduction for new homes.
SB 0174 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0175 -- Hospital employee influenza immunization.
SB 0176 -- Teacher training.
SB 0177 -- Unused medication.
SB 0178 -- Outpatient treatment requirements.
SB 0179 -- Applications for federal grants.
SB 0180 -- Limited partnerships and liability companies.
SB 0181 -- Fire protection territories.
SB 0182 -- Evaluation of agencies and programs.
SB 0183 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0184 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0185 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0186 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0187 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0188 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0189 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0190 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0191 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0192 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0193 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0194 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0195 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0196 -- Head Start employment and unemployment benefits.
SB 0197 -- Alcoholic beverage matters.
SB 0198 -- Student health measurements.
SB 0199 -- County hospital matters.
SB 0200 -- Environmental general permits.
SB 0201 -- Libraries.
SB 0202 -- Environmental approvals and other issues.
SB 0203 -- Henry County courts.
SB 0204 -- Environmental crimes.
SB 0205 -- Capital ratio requirement for public depositories.
SB 0206 -- Court reporter licensing.
SB 0207 -- Use of consumer reports for employment purposes.
SB 0208 -- Public intoxication.
SB 0209 -- Access to supplemental nutrition assistance.
SB 0210 -- Minority and women's business enterprises.
SB 0211 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0212 -- Trial court jurisdiction; county courts.
SB 0213 -- Courts and court officers.
SB 0214 -- State use of contingency fee counsel.
SB 0215 -- Forfeiture.
SB 0216 -- Access to child pornography in criminal discovery.
SB 0217 -- Official misconduct.
SB 0218 -- Developmental disabilities.
SB 0219 -- Evaluation of appointments of major agency heads.
SB 0220 -- Use of consumer reports for employment purposes.
SB 0221 -- Explanation of proposed constitutional amendments.
SB 0222 -- Transportation and logistics income tax credit.
SB 0223 -- Medical licensing board investigations.
SB 0224 -- Physical therapists.
SB 0225 -- Occupational therapist changes.
SB 0226 -- Payment plan for driver's license reinstatement.
SB 0227 -- Licensure of heating and cooling industry.
SB 0228 -- Legislative study committees and commissions.
SB 0229 -- Battery on a security officer.
SB 0230 -- Transferring a child at a neutral location.
SB 0231 -- Motor vehicle repair insurance claims.
SB 0232 -- Public mass transportation fund.
SB 0233 -- Homestead assessed value growth cap.
SB 0234 -- Homestead property tax bill cap.
SB 0235 -- Regional water, sewage, or solid waste districts.
SB 0236 -- Septic tanks and sewer systems.
SB 0237 -- Digital photographs on state identification cards.
SB 0238 -- Public transportation corporation tax levies.
SB 0239 -- License plates on trucks with forklifts.
SB 0240 -- Speech-language pathologists.
SB 0241 -- Coverage of elective abortions.
SB 0242 -- County sheriff compensation.
SB 0243 -- Common construction wage on school projects.
SB 0244 -- Penalty for serving alcohol to minor patron.
SB 0245 -- Prenatal substance abuse commission.
SB 0246 -- Class action consent.
SB 0247 -- Volunteer fire department recovery of costs.
SB 0248 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0249 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0250 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0251 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0252 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0253 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0254 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0255 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0256 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0257 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0258 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0259 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0260 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0261 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0262 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0263 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0264 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0265 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0266 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0267 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0268 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0269 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0270 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0271 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0272 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0273 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0274 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0275 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0276 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0277 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0278 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0279 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0280 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0281 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0282 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0283 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0284 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0285 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0286 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0287 -- Adult education.
SB 0288 -- Hoosier youth corps program.
SB 0289 -- State purchasing preferences.
SB 0290 -- Prohibition of abortion.
SB 0291 -- Indiana firearms freedom act.
SB 0292 -- Preemption of local firearm regulation.
SB 0293 -- License branch contractor insurance.
SB 0294 -- Probationary teacher contracts.
SB 0295 -- Technical corrections bill.
SB 0296 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0297 -- Vehicle Bill.
SB 0298 -- Application of foreign laws.
SB 0299 -- Library boards.
SB 0300 -- Automatic renewal clauses in consumer contracts.
SB 0301 -- Automated record keeping fee.
SB 0302 -- Nepotism; public employee holding elected office.
SB 0303 -- County government reorganization.
House

HB 1013 -- Immunity for fast responders.
HB 1014 -- Standing committee appointments.
HB 1015 -- Long term care insurance commissions.
HB 1016 -- Juvenile alcohol offenses.
HB 1017 -- Unused medication.
HB 1018 -- Smoking ban in public places.
HB 1019 -- Training for child suicide prevention.
HB 1020 -- Extends commission on mental health for five years.
HB 1021 -- Indiana brain injury study commission.
HB 1022 -- Officeholder qualifications.
HB 1023 -- Insurance proceeds set aside.
HB 1024 -- Notice of foreclosure to property insurers.
HB 1025 -- Public official bonding.
HB 1026 -- Transferring a child at a neutral location.
HB 1027 -- Policy change notices.
HB 1028 -- Employee's right to work.
HB 1029 -- Evaluation of appointments of major agency heads.
HB 1030 -- Ephedrine and pseudoephedrine.
HB 1031 -- Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.
HB 1032 -- Video service options.
HB 1033 -- Police and firefighter residency.
HB 1034 -- Immunizations by pharmacists.
HB 1035 -- Logistics development incentives.
HB 1036 -- Exemption from hunter education course.
HB 1037 -- Adoption subsidies for children in foster care.
HB 1038 -- Industrial development fund.
HB 1039 -- Nanotechnology initiative.
HB 1040 -- Support obligations while incarcerated.
HB 1041 -- Lake superior court county division.
HB 1042 -- Dissemination of sexual material.
HB 1043 -- Employee's right to work.
HB 1044 -- Motor vehicle occupant restraint systems.
HB 1045 -- Veterans' home.
HB 1046 -- Property tax deduction for new unsold residences.
HB 1047 -- Study audit requirements for service providers.
HB 1048 -- 1977 fund.
HB 1049 -- Environmental review of hydraulic fracturing.
HB 1050 -- Texting while operating a motor vehicle.
HB 1051 -- Versailles Lake task force.
HB 1053 -- Law enforcement academies.
HB 1054 -- Crimes outside Title 35.
HB 1055 -- Adult guardianships and protective proceedings.
HB 1056 -- Variable local option income taxes.
HB 1057 -- Real property reassessment.
HB 1058 -- Homeowners associations.
HB 1059 -- Chromated copper arsenate treated wood issues.
HB 1060 -- Sales tax holiday.
HB 1061 -- Paramedic licensing.
HB 1062 -- Basic health insurance coverage.
HB 1063 -- Individual out-of-state health insurance.
HB 1064 -- Burial of veterans.
HB 1065 -- Property taxation of annexed agricultural land.
HB 1066 -- Abandoned housing.
HB 1067 -- Public works projects.
HB 1068 -- Public safety officer personal information.
HB 1069 -- Straight ticket voting.
HB 1070 -- Flu shots for child care center workers.
HB 1071 -- Anatomic pathology services.
HB 1072 -- IURC review of certain water rates.
HB 1073 -- Immunizations by pharmacists.
HB 1074 -- School board elections at general election time.
HB 1075 -- Do not resuscitate declarations.
HB 1076 -- Panhandling.
HB 1077 -- PERF board membership.
HB 1078 -- Application of foreign law.
HB 1079 -- Veteran's records.
HB 1080 -- Health plan access to providers.
HB 1081 -- Farm wineries and direct wine sellers.
HB 1082 -- Off-road vehicle registration.
HB 1083 -- Child solicitation.
HB 1084 -- Nursing home employee and resident protection.
HB 1085 -- Public employee paid leave.
HB 1086 -- Deduction for blind or disabled dependent.
HB 1087 -- Motor vehicle operation penalties.
HB 1088 -- Identification requirements for alcohol purchases.
HB 1089 -- Referenda on hospital bonds and leases.
HB 1090 -- Off-road vehicle and snowmobile facilities.
HB 1091 -- Exempt farm drainage components from sales tax.
HB 1092 -- Charity gaming.
HB 1093 -- Serving alcohol during the Indiana state fair.
HB 1094 -- Public work projects.
HB 1095 -- Property tax deduction for mortise and tenon barn.
HB 1096 -- Fire protection territories.
HB 1097 -- Lake management work group.
HB 1098 -- Regional water, sewage, or solid waste districts.
HB 1099 -- Compression release engine brakes.
HB 1100 -- Ban sex offenders from public libraries.
HB 1101 -- Reporting student absence from school.
HB 1102 -- Possession or manufacture of synthetic cannabinoid.
HB 1103 -- Tax sales.
HB 1104 -- Battery on a utility worker.
HB 1105 -- Vote centers.
HB 1106 -- Park superintendent qualifications.
HB 1107 -- Preventative programs for at-risk children.
HB 1108 -- Certain sex offenders and school property.
HB 1109 -- Military service information on BMV documents.
HB 1110 -- Driver education.
HB 1111 -- Drug regimen protocols.
HB 1112 -- Land application of industrial waste products.
HB 1113 -- Authorized emergency vehicles.
HB 1115 -- Notice to landlords of delinquent utility bills.
HB 1116 -- Collection of DNA evidence.
HB 1117 -- Display of license plates.
HB 1118 -- K-12 school building plans.
HB 1119 -- Joint legal custody.
HB 1120 -- No smoking public question.
HB 1121 -- Unused medication.
HB 1122 -- Assessed value cap for veteran's deduction.
HB 1124 -- Railroad statutes.
HB 1125 -- Motorized bicycle financial responsibility.
HB 1126 -- Tenant's right to terminate lease.
HB 1127 -- Environmental litigation expenses compensation.
HB 1128 -- Hydrogen as a renewable energy resource.
HB 1129 -- Use of telecommunications device while driving.
HB 1130 -- Opportunity to correct violation.
HB 1131 -- Video service franchise fees.
HB 1132 -- Farm wineries and direct wine sellers.
HB 1133 -- Agritourism liability.
HB 1134 -- Confined feeding operation manure.
HB 1135 -- Fox or coyote hunting within enclosed area.
HB 1136 -- Injuries to or death of an employee.
HB 1137 -- Extra heavy duty highways.
HB 1138 -- Continuation of wages when serving as a juror.
HB 1139 -- Declaration of party affiliation.
HB 1140 -- Recall of elected and appointed officials.
HB 1141 -- Protective headgear for minors on bicycles.
HB 1142 -- Access to supplemental nutrition assistance.
HB 1143 -- Credit time for behavior management programs.
HB 1144 -- Fire protection districts.
HB 1145 -- Lake Station school board election date.
HB 1146 -- Flavored tobacco products and cigarettes.
HB 1147 -- Employer tax credit for report card conferences.
HB 1148 -- Tax sales and penalties.
HB 1149 -- Repeal of valuation method for certain property.
HB 1150 -- General assembly license plate registration date.
HB 1151 -- Physical therapy services without a referral.
HB 1152 -- Concussions and head injuries in student athletes.

Something to shoot for.....

2011-01-02T11:14:00.004-05:00

(left to right)Steve Coffman, Liberty Township Advisory Board, Cheryl Heacox, Clay Township Advisory Board, Judge Susan Bell, Hagerstown Town Court

While it wasn't a first, it still may have qualified as somewhat unique. On 1/1/11, at 1:11 P.M., a judge performed a swearing in ceremony for 2 other officials. One of the things that made it unique is that the judge was an elected Libertarian, and the officials that were sworn in were elected Libertarians. Susan Bell became the first elected Libertarian judge ever in Indiana in 2003 when she was elected to the Hagerstown Town Court. She was re-elected in 2007. On January 1st, at the Hagerstown City Building, two more recently elected Libertarians stopped by to repeat the oath of office. Steve Coffman was re-elected to the Liberty Township Advisory Board in the 2010 election, and Cheryl Heacox was elected to the Clay Township Advisory Board.

This was only the second time this has happened. The first time was January 1st, 2007, when Susan administered the oath to two newly elected Libertarian officeholders.

One of things that gives me hope is that shortly after Susan was elected as a Libertarian, the legislature proposed legislation that would effectively eliminate town courts. And shortly after Conley Tillson and Steve Coffman were elected to their respective township advisory boards, the legislature proposed legislation that would eliminate township advisory boards.

I figure if we keep electing Libertarians, the legislature will keep eliminating government.

That in itself is a worthy goal.

Promises and Resolutions...

2010-12-31T19:20:00.000-05:00

I ran into my old buddy Stinky Wilmont the other day, and in the course of our conversation, the subject of New Year's resolutions came up. I asked Stinky if he was going to make any, and he replied that in 2011, he was going to resolve to gain 20 pounds and acquire a few more credit cards.

When I pointed out that those resolutions ran afoul of conventional resolutions, Stinky said that he realized they did, but that he had never had much luck with plans that involved losing weight or trimming his budget. He said he thought he would feel better about himself if he could keep whatever resolutions he made it, and since gaining weight and spending money kind of came naturally for him anyway, it just seemed like the logical way to go.

I started to explain to him that those resolutions probably weren't in his best long term interest, but Stinky didn't tend to think that far ahead. Besides, resolutions are kind of like promises to yourself by yourself, so Stinky's resolutions probably weren't any of my business, anyway.

But there is a difference between resolutions and promises. For years, politicians have been getting elected by making promises to the voters. A lot of those promises were about money. Sometimes they promised money they didn't really have yet. Sometimes they had the money and spent it on something they had promised to somebody else. Sometimes they never had the money at all. Most of the time they were promising somebody else's money anyway.

That's what happened down in Prichard, Alabama. A while back, Prichard told about 150 city retirees that the city didn't have enough money to pay them the pensions they were promised. They can still find the people that made the promises, but apparently they're having trouble finding the people that will keep them.

Prichard, Alabama is just one of many entities across the country that has made promises it cannot keep. Public employee pensions have promised $3.2 trillion that they don't have. Social Security and Medicare are in the same shape, but on a larger scale, and every day, another 10,000 citizens will turn 65, and get in line for their share of the promises the government made, and hope there are still enough people around willing to keep those promises somebody else made for them.

Over the next few years, we are going to hear a lot of stories about pension plans from all levels of government that have run out of money. Most of the problems will be the result of the government making promises to other people for other people.

We could solve a lot of those problems if we could just take on some personal responsibility, and start making and keeping our own promises.

Maybe that would be a good New Year's resolution for all of us.
Right, Stinky?.....Stinky?..........Stinky?

Well, I'll swear....

2010-12-28T20:00:00.003-05:00

On January 1st, 2011, you will have the opportunity to witness an event that has only happened once before in recorded history.

You may remember that on January 1st, 2007, in Hagerstown, an elected Libertarian Judge swore in two more newly elected Libertarians. It had never happened before, and it has never happened again. Until now.

This Saturday, January 1st, at 1:00 P.M., twice elected Libertarian Judge of the Hagerstown Court, Susan Bell, will swear in newly elected Libertarian Clay Township Advisory Board member Cheryl Heacox, and newly re-elected Libertarian Liberty Township Advisory Board member Steve Coffman.

If you would like to join us in witnessing and celebrating this historic event (again), come on over to the Hagerstown City Building, 49 East College Street.

How's the view from there?...

2010-12-24T12:34:00.007-05:00

I've penned more than one article about the unsustainability of government pension programs. Recently we heard that Prichard, Alabama had become the first city in the United States to default on its pension plan for retired city workers.

A lot of people preferred to stick their heads in the sand and pretend that this would never happen. But it did happen, and it's going to happen again.

We have the option of taking the hard stand and weaning people away from unkeepable promises and unmanageable programs, of fully funding and protecting peoples' retirement accounts, or better yet, allowing people to handle their own retirement.

Or we can keep doing what we've been doing.

Merry Christmas!!!!

2010-12-24T07:46:00.004-05:00

Four of our five grand children were part of a Christmas program last weekend. (The fifth, Jackson, was still under contractual obligations with another nativity scene.)

During this particular program, the 5 month old that was playing the part of baby Jesus in the manger began to cry, even though that wasn't in the script. Our little shepherd, Dawson, moved up to the manger and patted the baby's head trying to console him. That wasn't in the script either.

I know the best part of Christmas was planned, but some of the best moments aren't.

I hope you all have a Blessed and Merry Christmas.

Give and take....

2010-12-21T21:24:00.004-05:00

I read this story the other day about a couple that willed $6 million to some local charities in Wayne County. The general concensus around the area seemed to be "Wow!".

It reminded me of a question that John Fund of the Wall Street Journal posed a while back:

"Imagine you won the lottery or otherwise came into a large sum of money, and you wanted to help the poor. You could give $100,000 to a private charity of your choice. Or you could write your check to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Which would you choose -- and why?"

So far, everybody I've discussed it with has opted for the private charity route.

If I had been in the Kluters' shoes, I would have chosen different charities. But it was their choice to make, as it should have been.

And I'm sure it will last longer than the two minutes it would take the government to take and spend it.

Show me your papers...

2010-12-19T09:51:00.008-05:00

I haven't done a lot of traveling in my life. Outside of an occaisonal convention or meeting in some distant state, I stay pretty close to Indiana, and I work pretty close to Hagerstown. Susan and I did manage to take a short cruise for our 30th wedding anniversary a few years back, and we're planning on another one for our 35th anniversary next year.

The first one wasn't too big of a big deal. We got on a plane and flew to Florida, and then we got on a boat and floated around the ocean for a few days. Then we got on a plane and flew back home.

The next time, they say I have to have a passport. It kind of looks like my drivers license, so I thought maybe that would work. But they said it wouldn't, so I gave them some money and they sent me some more papers. I'm not sure if I need it to get on the boat or off of the boat. Maybe both. And we're supposed to have some more papers to show them at the airport if we decide to fly to the boat again. I'm still up in the air about that one.

Like I said, most of the time we work pretty close to Hagerstown, although occasionally we do venture into neighboring counties. We hadn't worked in Randolph county for a while, but we started a job up there this week. In the snow:

The last time we worked in Randolph county things were pretty simple. The customer hired us, we did the job, and came back home. This time they told us we had to go up to Winchester and give the county $50.00 for a Certificate of Registration. Well, here it is:

It's awful official looking, but I'm not sure what it amounts to, other than that Randolph county wanted $50.00 from us. Susan won't let me tack it up on the living room wall, and I don't have any more room in my office, so I'm not sure anybody's going to appreciate how official it looks, or know that we're duly registered anyway. But we are, just in case anyone asks. I guess eventually it will end up in one of the boxes I keep of a lot of other papers the government told me I needed. I never really knew what most of them amounted to, either.

Thomas Jefferson said that there is a natural tendency for government to grow and for liberty to yield.

And the bigger it gets, the more paper it takes.

I'm afraid one of these days it will wipe us out.

Warmer thoughts...

2010-12-19T08:13:00.004-05:00

Due to a series of unfortunate events, and probably some poor planning on my part, we started framing a project in mid-December this year. A combination of thinner blood and colder than usual temperatures have made it a little tougher for this old man to enjoy the winter so far, and I don't expect things to get much better when it officially arrives next week.

I have some friends that actually look forward to winter and the change of seasons, and while I have learned to live with it, I can't really say I look forward to it.

This is the view of the grand kids tree house in our back yard this morning:

This is the view of the grand kids tree house in our back yard last summer:

I think I much prefer it when the tree house is full of grand kids and green leaves.

And the sooner it fills up with them again, the better.

Sorry Virginia....

2010-12-12T17:50:00.001-05:00

I absolutely love watching my grandchildren interact with Santa Claus. From their first Christmas, they all started out not wanting to have much to do with him, but by last Christmas, they were comfortable enough to sit on his lap and place their orders, except for Dawson, who even this year prefers to shout his requests from a safe distance. I wonder how long it will be before once again they decide they don't want much to do with Santa.

Many years ago, on one particular Christmas, I remember receiving a CO2 Gas Powered Crossman BB and Pellet Rifle. It had a wooden butt and fore stock, and a canvas sling, and was, I believed at the time, the most powerful weapon mankind had ever created. I couldn't believe my good fortune when I opened it on Christmas morning.

When I circled it and wrote my name next to it in the Sears-Roebuck catalog, it was just something to dream about. I was long past the age of believing in Santa Claus, and I knew it was too expensive for Mom and Dad to buy for me, being that there were 7 other brothers and sisters figuring in on the equation.

Still, even though I knew Santa and his Elves didn't magically make it appear, I was awful happy to have it, and I didn't give much thought to what it took for my parents to get it for me, or whether I'd even done anything to deserve it. All things considered, I probably appreciate more now than I did even then.

I don't know when I came to the conclusion that Santa wasn't real, but I've come to realize that apparently a lot of people in this country, in addition to my grandkids, still believe that he exists.

That might be because our government has been playing Santa Claus for a number of years. It's been giving away a lot of money to a lot of people. And as long as a lot of people were handing a lot of money over to the government, things went along pretty well. The problem started when it began handing out more than it took in. So far it's handed out about $14 trillion more than it's taken in.

I read an article the other day about a 55 year-old government employee who is retiring after Christmas this year. A shot at a 40 year-long retirement is a pretty nice gift by most standards. Unfortunately, many of the funds that were set up to pay for some of those long term retirements have been left severely underfunded because of our governments tendency to give away gifts it really couldn't afford to give away. Indiana's Public Employee Retirement Fund alone is short by about $10 billion. Publicly funded retirement accounts across the nation are estimated to be short by about $4 trillion.

The government would have us believe that if we wish real hard somebody will replace the missing money in those accounts. And somebody probably will. But it won't be Santa Claus. Every time the government gives away another gift, or borrows and spends another dollar, it hands the bill to the taxpayers.

It doesn't really matter if our grandchildren continue to believe in Santa Claus for a while longer, but since a whole lot of baby boomers are ready to get in line, it would behoove both the gift givers and the gift receivers to take a reality check.

And the sooner, the better.

A Growing Concern...

2010-12-04T11:36:00.004-05:00

It sounds simple enough. Senate Bill 510 is called the "Food Safety Modernization Act". I think somebody decided we needed a new law because of some bad eggs that made the rounds this year. People that like a whole lot of government claim that it will protect us from bad eggs. People that don't like quite as much government point out that it will give the the government more power to regulate roadside vegetable stands and farmer markets.

In true government form, the Senate passed it the other day, before discovering that it should have originated in the House of Representatives. So now the House has to pass it, and send it back to the Senate to pass it again. And then, according to some people anyway, the states will have to agree to enforce it.

It's a shaky law that's getting off to a shaky start. But we know from experience it will probably somehow survive, and sometime in the future we'll start to notice the bills effects.

A few years ago, Harry Browne wrote some thing he called "The 7 principles of government".

Here's principle #4:

"4. Every government program will be more expensive and more expansive than anything you had in mind when you proposed it. It will be applied in all sorts of ways you never dreamed of."

Regardless of how or when the Food Safety Modernization Act is adopted, and regardless of its good intentions, and regardless of its effect roadside vegetable stands and farmer markets, we know it's not going to turn out like anything the "limited government" crowd would want, or even imagine.

May the workforce be with you...

2010-11-27T11:15:00.004-05:00

Seems like about every time I go to the mailbox, there's a bill for some type of insurance. House, car, truck, business, life, or health. We just keep paying it and hope we never have to use it. But hope as we might, we have occasion to use it a few times over the years, once when lightning won the battle with most things electronic in the house, and a couple of times when somebody decided to help themselves to some of our tools.

I was glad for the coverage at the time, but truth be known, I've paid the insurance companies a lot more than I've ever collected. But I'll probably keep on paying them, just in case Mother Nature or some ne'er-do-well decides to up the ante someday, or I come down with something that can't be cured with aspirin or liniment.

Still, expensive as it is, I always figured it was my business, and I didn't expect anybody else to pay for the insurance on my truck or home. Or life.

I received a letter from the Indiana Department of Workforce Development the other day. I'm not sure how they came up with that name, but I guess it has a nice ring to it, and probably fits on the letterhead better than if they called it the Indiana Department In Charge of Collecting and Re-Distributing Unemployment Insurance.

Anyway, it seems the state unemployment fund, which is funded by employers, has run out of money. In order to get by, Indiana has been borrowing money from the federal unemployment fund, which is also funded by employers. And since there are fewer employers paying in and and more employees taking out, the government has decided to remedy the situation by making the employers pay more into each account.

I guess that's one way to handle it, but it always seemed to me that the common-sense way would be to let the employees that stood to benefit from the unemployment insurance purchase and pay for it if they so choose. We know there are a lot more employees than employers, and employees could choose the amount of coverage they were willing to pay for. And they could purchase it from an insurance company, and the Indiana Department of Workforce Development could get on with the business of developing a workforce.

Or not.

What's good for the goose...

2010-11-25T10:00:00.004-05:00

My friend Mark Rutherford always said that the best way to get a bad law off of the books is to enforce it evenly. I saw the other day that a lot of government officials aren't subject to airport searches. I'm pretty sure the TSA would modify its current screening techniques if Nancy Pelosi were subjected to them. (I imagine a lot of TSA agents would be demanding it.)

I wrote this piece a while back about the government granting favors and exemptions to certain businesses and groups.

I read this week that the government has started a list of businesses and organizations that will be exempt from the newly passed health insurance laws. According the Department of Health and Human Services, these are the ones that qualify so far:

■Protocol Marketing Group
■Sasnak
■Star Tek
■Adventist Care Centers
■B.E.S.T of NY
■Boskovich Farms, Inc
■Gallegos Corp
■Jeffords Steel and Engineering
■O.K. Industries
■Service Employees Benefit Fund
■Sun Pacific Farming Coop
■UFCW Allied Trade Health & Welfare Trust
■HCR Manor Care
■IBEW No.915
■Integra BMS for Culp, Inc.
■New England Health Care
■Aegis Insurance
■Alliance One Tobacco
■Asbestos Workers Local 53 Welfare Fund
■Assurant Health (2nd Application)
■Captain Elliot’s Party Boats
■Carlson Restaurants
■CH Guenther & Son
■CKM Industries dba Miller Environmental
■CWVEBA
■Darden Restaurants
■Duarte Nursery
■Employees Security Fund
■Florida Trowel Trades
■Ingles Markets
■Meijer
■O’Reilly Auto Parts
■Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 123 Welfare Fund
■Sun Belt
■UFCW Local 227
■Uncle Julio’s
■United Group
■US Imaging
■Vino Farms
■Advanta
■Agricare
■Alaska Seafood
■American Fidelity
■Convergys
■Darensberries
■Gowan Company
■Greystar
■Macayo Restaurants
■Periodical Services
■UniFirst
■Universal Forest Products
■UFCW Maximus Local 455
■AHS
■GuideStone Financial Resources
■Local 25 SEIU
■MAUSER Corp.
■Preferred Care, Inc.
■Ruby Tuesday
■The Dixie Group, Inc.
■UFCW Local 1262
■Whelan Security Company
■AMF Bowling Worldwide
■Assisted Living Concepts
■Case & Associates
■GPM Investments
■Grace Living Centers
■Mountaire
■Swift Spinning
■Belmont Village
■Caliber Services
■Cracker Barrel
■DISH Network
■Groendyke Transport, Inc
■Pocono Medical Center
■Regis Corporation
■The Pictsweet Co.
■Diversified Interiors
■Local 802 Musicians Health Fund
■Medical Card System
■The Buccaneer
■CIGNA
■Greater Metropolitan Hotel
■Local 17 Hospitality Benefit Fund
■GS-ILA
■Allied
■Harden Healthcare
■Health and Welfare Benefit System
■Health Connector
■I.U.P.A.T
■Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc.
■Transport Workers
■UFT Welfare Fund
■Aegis
■Aetna
■Allflex
■Baptist Retirement
■BCS Insurance
■Cryogenic
■Fowler Packing Co.
■Guy C. Lee Mfg.
■HealthPort
■Jack in the Box
■Maritime Association
■Maverick County
■Metro Paving Fund
■PMPS-ILA
■PS-ILA
■QK/DRD (Denny’s)
■Reliance Standard
■Tri-Pak
■UABT
■The Service Employees Benefit Fund
■United Food and Commercial Workers Allied Trade Health & Welfare Trust Fund
■International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union No. 195
■Asbestos Workers Local 53 Welfare Fund
■Employees Security Funds
■Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 123 Welfare Fund
■United Food and Commercial Workers Local 227
■United Food and Commercial Workers Maximus Local 455
■Service Employees International Union Local 25
■United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1262
■Musicians Health Fund Local 802
■Hospitality Benefit Fund Local 17
■Transport Workers Union
■United Federation of Teachers Welfare Fund
■International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (AFL-CIO)

Again I say, more power to them. They're lucky they're not getting all of the government they're paying for.

But maybe if all laws were enforced equally, even more of us could say that.

It don't matter to me...

2010-11-20T20:04:00.005-05:00

Earlier this year, the folks over at NASA informed us that an earthquake had slowed the rotation of the earth by about a millionth of a second per day. I thought maybe I noticed a difference at first, but now I'm not so sure. I guess if I want to believe the earth is slowing down, I'll just have to take their word for it.

Last week, I read that some scientists had isolated some anti-matter. I started reading about what anti-matter is, but it gave me a headache. So I'm still not sure it is, but according to the story, these scientists isolated 38 anti-matter atoms for two tenths of a second. Then they lost them. I think one of the scientists thought there were actually 39 atoms, but one of them was hiding behind another atom and they just didn't know it.

I looked at the picture they said they took, and I couldn't see any of them, so I think I'll just go with the guy that said there were 39. When it comes right down to it, who's to say if there were 38, or 39, or any at all?

I've also heard a lot of people claim recently how the government bailout of General Motors saved GM and possibly the entire nation from economic collapse. I've also heard people claim that the government had no business loaning or giving taxpayer dollars to a private company, and that if GM failed because of poor business practices, another company would have taken up the slack by using better business practices.

I tend to agree with the second notion. I've always believed that capitalism without failure is a lot like religion without hell. We need something to keep us honest and convince us to try a little harder.

If and when we recover as a nation, I'm sure there will be people who are convinced it was because of what the government has done. And there will also be people like me, who are convinced it was in spite of what the government has done.

But government and economics aren't exact sciences. They're not as simple as counting atoms, anyway.

17,543,940,979,332,434, more or less...

2010-11-14T13:16:00.004-05:00

I read the other day that there are 17,543,940,979,332,434 gallons of water in the Atlantic Ocean. There's about twice that much in the Pacific Ocean. Sounds like a lot of water to me, and it sounds like whoever figured that out has way too much time on their hands.

In my younger days, whenever I made an effort to help out on a project, my Dad always encouraged me by saying "Well, like the little old lady said when she peed in the ocean, 'Every little bit helps!'". (I don't think he said it if there were any little old ladies around, though.) Of course at the time, I didn't know how many gallons of water were in the ocean, and I wasn't sure about the urinary output of little old ladies, but I did get the gist of his meaning.

I imagine some people might think I have too much time on my hands, because I've spent some time in the last week going over the results of this years general election. Some of the results reminded me of Dad's "little old lady" comment.

I ran for the Indiana House of Representatives District 54 seat on the Libertarian Party ticket. In that particular race, I was able to win 4 precincts in Wayne County. I also won a couple of precincts in Henry County.

Then comes the "little old lady" part. I lost 1 precinct by 1 vote. I lost another precinct by 8 votes. It was a three-way race, and I was able to finish 2nd in Wayne County, 7% ahead of the Democrat. I finished second in a precinct in Henry County, and missed finishing second in 5 more precincts by a total of 28 votes. I missed finishing 2nd in Randolph County by 7 votes. Just a few more votes here and there would have made a big difference. A few more would have made a even bigger difference.

Across the region and across the state, Libertarian candidates continue to gain votes and support with each election. Sometimes a lot. Sometimes just a little bit.

More voters are beginning realize to that we can't afford for government to keep growing at it's present rate. When they realize that the Libertarians are the only party advocating smaller government, we'll gain a little more.

And like Dad always says, every little bit helps.

Truth or Consequences...or both....

2010-11-07T17:24:00.002-05:00

When I was a kid back at Millville Grade School, you could always count on a few things. You could count on my old buddy, Stinky Wilmont, pulling some kind of prank to aggravate one of the teachers at least once a week, and you could count on one of the teachers applying the consequences of that prank to the seat of Stinky's britches. While those consequences never seemed to deter Stinky too much, they did manage to at least get the attention of most of the other kids in school.

I think that's what consequences are supposed to do. They're nature's way of letting you know when you've made a bad decision. Or a good one. It's a system that works pretty well, I think, when we let it. At least most of the time.

A lot of high schools are trying to figure out how to reduce their dropout rates. A worthy goal, no doubt, but apparently also a daunting task. I would imagine a lot of the difficulty in convincing young people not to drop out of school is the result of the lack of consequences if they do.

When I was in high school, conventional wisdom was that if you dropped out of school, you wouldn't be able to get a good job, and you might end up going hungry. And while I wasn't really looking for a job at the time, somehow the threat of not being able to get one in the future, and possibly missing a meal or two, motivated me to try to get through one more day of Mrs. Warner's Latin 101.

I suppose one of the consequences of quitting school today might still be the inability to land a good job. Of course, if you're planning on quitting school, you probably weren't setting your sights too high in the first place, and the consequences sort of end there.

Yes, if you drop out of school, your employment opportunities might narrow, but for the most part, if you have gumption enough to get yourself down to the city or county building and sign up, you won't have to worry about going hungry. You won't have to worry about having a place to live, or about keeping the place heated in the winter and air-conditioned in the summer.

In fact, if any of us decided that we weren't going to turn a tap for the rest of our lives, the government would still provide for our basic needs. It will pay for our birth, and it will pay for our funeral. Granted, the housing it provides might not be as elaborate as someone's who decided to stick with it, and the car we can afford might not be as new, and the health care we receive might not be as advanced. The cell phone the government provides might not be as fancy as some, and the free minutes it provides might be limited. But the basic needs are met, and the consequences aren't near what they used to be.

We wouldn't amount to much as a society if we didn't have compassion and charity for those that are unable to provide for themselves. But we also lose a lot as a society when we remove the consequences for people that simply don't want to provide for themselves.

There's a line that needs to be drawn somewhere between the two. I'm not convinced we've found it yet.

First and Third....or Second....

2010-11-06T15:18:00.005-04:00

Avis Rent-A-Car used to have a commercial that claimed "We're number 2, We try harder!" I don't know if they really tried any harder than the number 1 company was trying in order to stay number 1, or if they were really trying any harder than the number 3 company that was trying to make it to number 2.

In the 10 years that I have been associated with the Libertarian Party, it has always been considered a "third party". I've never considered that a bad thing. It just meant that we are operating under a two party system, and that the Democrats and Republicans were the two parties. And anybody that didn't feel like they were a Democrat or Republican, and wanted to change things by running for a political office, had to play by a different set of rules. So, being Libertarians, everybody told us we were a third party, and we accepted that we were a third party, and we even called ourselves a third party.

I live in Wayne County, and the first year the Libertarian Party of Wayne County took part in a mid-term election, we had more candidates on the ballot than the local Democratic Party. We thought that wasn't too bad for a third party.

The next year, the LPWC fielded candidates for all of the positions in the Hagerstown town election in which the Democratic Party put up one candidate. (That was the year the first Libertarian judge was elected in Indiana. In Hagerstown.)

Since then, the Libertarians have consistently finished second in many state and county legislative office races, usually due to the fact that they were one of only two parties represented in those races.

This year, we gained a little more ground. Along with multiple Libertarian candidates winning multiple precincts in Wayne and Henry counties in more of those 2-way races,the Libertarian candidate for the District 54 seat in the Indiana House of Representatives, (that would be me), came in second in a 3-way race in Wayne County. Along with a couple of township wins in Wayne and Henry counties, we also had 6 candidates finish in second in Wayne County, and a couple more each in Henry and Rush counties, and several more in counties across the state.

I'm not sure how many times you have to finish second before you're no longer considered third.

On the statewide level, our Secretary of State candidate, Mike Wherry, received over 100,000 votes, the most any Libertarian candidate has ever received in a 3-way race in Indiana. 1801 of those votes came from Wayne County, which amounts to a little over 11% of the SOS vote total here. According to Indiana election law, when we get 10% across the state, we won't be a third party anymore.

Libertarian candidates in Wayne County received over 19,000 votes this year. Our vote totals and percentages continue to increase across the county and across the state, and I strongly suspect that two more years of the current two parties running things will increase those totals and percentages even more by 2012.

Libertarians may not be considered the second party yet, but we're not as third as we used to be, either.

And we're gonna keep on tryin'.

None of the above...

2010-10-27T14:49:00.004-04:00

Whenever the Libertarian Party holds a convention and elects its officers, one of the choices on the ballot is always NOTA, or None Of The Above. It's a perfectly legitimate option.

There may be times when none of the candidates suit your fancy. The Palladium-Item recently selected NOTA in the District 54 race when it made its endorsements for the 2010 general election.

I have been questioned a few times about why Libertarian Party candidates who don't run active campaigns are on the ballot. Sometimes it is to provide an option.

You won't find NOTA on your ballot when you go to vote this November. In most places you will find a Republican and a Democrat, or maybe just a Republican, or maybe just a Democrat. And of course, if you are happy with the way the Republicans and Democrats have been running the government, you probably don't have a problem.

The problem comes if you would like for the Republicans and Democrats to stop spending so much of your money and running so much of you life. Your only option then is to abstain from voting for them. But the problem with that is they don't know why didn't vote for them. It could be that you're not happy with them, or it could be that you were just to busy, or it could be that you just don't care. Either way, they get 100% of the votes that are cast. That's not much of a deterrent.

However, having a Libertarian candidate on the ballot gives people that want a less expensive and less intrusive government a chance to vote for it.

Most Libertarian candidates run active campaigns, and certainly the LP is looking forward to the day when it has grown to the point that in every election, all positions are filled with active candidates.

Until that day arrives, every candidate that runs on the Libertarian ticket, whether that candidate receives 5%, 15%, or 51% of the vote, allows a growing number of voters to say that they believe limited government is a viable option, and that they would like to vote for it.

And then if you're still not happy with the choices, we'll see about getting NOTA on the ballot.

What's it gonna take?...

2010-10-25T20:08:00.004-04:00

A country is a big thing to turn around, and undoubtedly, turning ours around will be a daunting task. But it might not be as daunting as some would have us believe.

Consider that when Barack Obama was elected President in 2008, the population of the United States was around 305 million. That puts the number of eligible voters at about 240 million, more or less. That means the 69,456,897 people that voted for Obama represent about 29% of possible voters, or about 22% of the total population.

Not to say that that's not a lot of people, but at least it's not all of them.

When you run for office as a Libertarian, you find out that a lot of people don't want to turn the country around. A lot of people want to keep it going in its current direction. And if you're running for office as a Libertarian, you realize that people who are satisfied with the direction our country has taken probably aren't going to vote for you. Ever.

And used to, when you ran for office as a Libertarian, you were probably going to get 1% or 2% of the vote. But we've seen those percentages increase over the years, and hopefully we will see them increase more this year. But probably not to 100%. And probably not to 50%.

But as more and more people decide they can't afford any more of the current direction, and start voting for a change in direction, it's not out of the realm of possibility that someday 25% or 30% of the population could decide that the Libertarians are right.

And sometimes that's all it takes.

You've come a long way, baby.....

2010-10-23T17:08:00.000-04:00

"Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.".... Galatians 6:9

Back in 2004, when the Libertarian Party was still new in these parts, the Wayne County party had three solid candidates for the county council seats that were up for election that year. Two were business managers, and one had worked in production in Wayne County for over 30 years. A couple of weeks before the election, one of the Democratic Party candidates for council was arrested for shoplifting cold medicine at a local drugstore.

When election day came, the Democratic candidate that had just been arrested received more votes than the 3 Libertarian candidates combined.

I don't mind telling you, that made candidate recruitment a little tougher the next time around.

But recruit we did, and each election the LP's vote totals increased, and our candidates became a little better versed in campaigning. Around the state, some candidates began to receive endorsements from service organizations, and even the FOP.

In 2008, The Libertarian candidate for Wayne County Commissioner, Cheryl Heacox, received the endorsement of the Palladium-Item. Over a seated Republican.

Earlier this month, over in Ohio, the Cleveland Plain Dealer endorsed Matthew Cantrell, the Libertarian candidate for State Treasurer.

This morning, the Indianapolis Star endorsed Chard Reid, the Libertarian candidate for Indiana District 5 of the U.S. House of Representatives. Over a seated Republican.

Of course, the endorsement didn't produce a win for Cheryl, and I don't know what effect it will have on Cantrell or Reid's race, but it sure feels better than being ignored.

Or getting defeated by a shoplifter.

May I take your order?...

2010-10-20T21:25:00.006-04:00

I'm not a big fan of poached eggs. If we go out for breakfast, I don't order poached eggs. I know that if I do order poached eggs, I'm going to get something I don't really want.

On November 2nd, we get to place an order with our government. There is a good possibility that you don't want your tax dollars going to wealthy corporations at the federal, state, and local levels. There is also the possibility that you don't want your tax dollars being spent to provide stadiums for millionaire professional sport team owners. Or maybe you don't want your road use taxes spent on things that have nothing to do with roads.

Maybe you don't want the government to have the ability to tax your parents out of their home, or maybe you don't want the government to tax and regulate job producing businesses completely out of the country.

Unfortunately, if you vote for either of the major parties, that is exactly what you are ordering.

Perhaps you would prefer a government that concentrates more on its proper role of protecting its citizens, instead of redistributing their earnings, that offers better and more affordable choices in education, and allows you the freedom to distribute more of your income as you see fit.

If that is the case, you will need to place your order with your Libertarian candidates. Those choices are not on the Republican or Democratic menu.

But if enough people started ordering them, they might be.

Are we there yet?!?!

2010-10-15T18:36:00.009-04:00

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." - -- Mahatma Gandhi

10 years ago, when I happened across Harry Browne on C-Span speaking at their national convention, I had never heard of Libertarians or the Libertarian Party. I liked what Mr. Browne had to say, and the more I read about the Libertarians, the more I liked what they stood for. It was quite a change from the Republican ideology that I had become comfortably accustomed to, and required a re-examination on my views of the proper role of government, but after a couple of years I was pretty much converted.

Third parties face an uphill battle in Indiana and the United States. The major parties place obstacles to keep them off of the ballot. Even after achieving ballot access, the Libertarian Party has struggled in many areas of the country to be included in debates and election coverage. There have been a few exceptions, and local newspapers in this area have been very fair and accommodating to our candidates.

Anyway, what started as an unheard of political party with a few candidates getting 1% or 2% of the vote, has become a party that this year is running over 100 candidates across the state. Libertarian candidates have won local elections, and many candidates finish with 30% or more of the vote.

We can't say that we have won yet. We haven't reached major party status, and we haven't started winning at the state level. We don't have as many candidates as we would like to have, and some of our candidates aren't as engaged as we would like them to be.

But Libertarians aren't being ignored as much as they used to be, and as more and more people gain an understanding of Libertarian positions, it's getting a little harder to ridicule them.

As for the fight part, I keep a blog over at the Palladium-Item website called TheBellCurve 3.14159. In the last week there were a couple of pretty nasty attacks against Libertarians. One couldn't understand the national platform, and another one tried to blame a failed government operation on them. While their attacks were misguided and ill informed, I guess it's better than being ignored.

I was heartened by the number of people who stepped up to point out the errant bloggers mistakes. I don't know if that would have happened just a few years ago.

I don't suppose either one of those bloggers will ever accept the personal freedom and personal responsibility that Libertarianism both offers and requires.

But that's okay. When we finally win, they can get together and live their lives as they see fit.

As long as they let me do the same.

Fairly even...

2010-10-02T21:17:00.002-04:00

I've been encouraged this election season by the increased comments regarding the unfairness of the Economic Development Income Tax. While not everyone agrees on the specific duties of government, it seems more and more are deciding that it isn't right to tax the wages of employees, and give the money to selected and favored business owners.

While we need to create a business friendly climate to attract jobs to the area and state, we don't need our government giving one company an unfair advantage over another. And we see this in more than just the EDIT.

Let me preface this next statement by saying that I have a lot of respect for the Amish community, their work ethic and their way of life. My concern is not with the Amish, but again with the government.

The Amish have long been exempted from paying Social Security taxes. I congratulate them on this victory. I believe every citizen should have the ability to opt out of the system if they so desire. The problem is everybody doesn't have that ability under the law.

If a company is bidding on a project against an Amish company, the Amish have a 15.3% advantage on labor costs because of this discrepancy.

I have no problem with any business underbidding another business. Competition is good for everyone.

I do have a problem when government starts playing favorites.

That isn't good for anybody.

We're not gonna take it...

2010-10-01T18:59:00.003-04:00

My old buddy Stinky Wilmont was, without a doubt, shoes off or shoes on, the best tree climber at Millville Grade School. Even the big knobby Hackberry that was the corner marker between the school playground, Summit Taylor's back lot, and Fred Harrison's corn field, and stood 15 feet to the first limb was no match for Stinky's prowess.

Most of Stinky's buddies, who fancied themselves accomplished tree climbers also, held a deep appreciation for his abilities. Bernice Hawkins, however, upon seeing Stinky up in the tree, would assume her duties as a Junior Volunteer Safety Patrol Captain and inform Principal Baker, who in turn would come out and unleash a torrent of invective against poor Stinky for climbing the tree, and against the rest of us for encouraging his behavior with our praise.

Afterwards, Stinky felt bad, his buddies felt bad, Principal Baker went back and joined the other teachers in the furnace room/smoking lounge, and Bernice went back to playing on the maypole, and keeping a watchful eye in case anybody started to enjoy themselves again.

I never really understood why it bothered them so. While our gang wasn't really into maypoles, we didn't mind if Bernice and her friends enjoyed them. And most of us were still at least a couple of years away from taking up smoking full time, but it didn't bother us too much that most of the teachers had the habit. Besides, everybody knew that climbing trees wasn't nearly as dangerous as maypoles and cigarettes.

That's one of the things that attracted me to the Libertarian Party. I've never had a Libertarian tell me I couldn't climb a tree. Or tell me I had to.

Many of the discussions I have about Libertarianism involve peoples' concerns about what they think Libertarians want to take away from them, and why most of the time those people are wrong.

Libertarians are opposed to the initiation of force. That means if an adult decides to enter into an arrangement with another adult, or group of adults, and if that arrangement doesn't require force, then Libertarians probably aren't going to use force to keep you out of that arrangement.

If you choose to pool your retirement savings with another person's savings, or with a million other peoples' savings, and dole it out as the group sees fit, Libertarians have no desire to take that choice away from you. You get to choose how it's managed, and who manages it. The only thing you won't get to do is force somebody else to join or fund your arrangement.

And if you want to join together with some people and invest in a new business that wants to come to your town, you can do that too. You just won't be able to force your neighbors to invest if they don't want to.

Libertarians aren't going to try to deprive you of your right to associate with whoever you choose to associate with, and they won't try to deprive you of your right to support any charity or project you deem worthy of support, as long as you remember that your neighbor may not share your feelings about the worthiness of a particular charity or project.

The only thing Libertarians will take away from you is the ability to initiate force against another individual.

And that's a heck of a lot less than what the government is taking away from you now.

The best of the worst...

2010-09-28T17:10:00.004-04:00

I wrote this back in January about a Reason Magazine article on Indiana's Asset Forfieture Laws and its relevence in Richmond.

In a follow up article that I discoverd today in Reason Magazine, and subsequently on their website, author Radley Balko points out that only one county in Indiana is even coming close to complying with the law, which requires that the questionably seized assets must be turned over to the school fund.

Our own Wayne County qualifies for that dubious honor.

I'm reminded of the scene from the Paul Newman movie, "Cool Hand Luke", when one of the guards put Luke in "the box" for the night, and apologized that he was only doing his job, to which Luke replied,

"Yeah boss, that don't make it right."

Under the bus....

2010-09-12T19:27:00.001-04:00

Imagine for a moment that you were standing in St. Louis, and wanted to travel to Boston. Checking with the Blue Bus Company, you discovered that their only bus was headed for Seattle at 70 MPH, and checking with the Red Bus Company, you found that their only bus was headed for Seattle at 50 MPH . When you protested that you didn't really want to go to Seattle, the Red Bus driver replied, "Well, at least we won't take you where you don't want to go as fast as the Blue Bus ."

We are approaching another election season, and those who vote will get to help decide which direction our country will be heading in the next few years. Certainly if you approve of the direction we are currently headed, and want to get there as quickly as possible, voting for the philosophy espoused by the Democratic Party is the best way to get there. If you approve of where we are headed, but want to get there a little slower, or just with a different driver, the Republican Party offers that option. (Those who don't believe that should check the growth of government and its debt under the last few Republican administrations.)

If, however, you want to reverse the growth of government instead of simply slowing that growth, and if you want to change the direction of government back to one of personal freedom and personal responsibility, you have the option of voting for the Libertarians. This year the Libertarian Party of Indiana is fielding over 100 candidates, along with the national LP fielding 168 candidates for the U.S. House, and 20 for the U.S. Senate.

Sometimes it's not enough just to take your foot off of the gas. Sometimes you have to turn the wheel.

Well then, don't do that!!!!...

2010-09-02T14:26:00.004-04:00

Last Valentine's Day I bought each of my grandchildren a teddy bear. They were fairly simple teddy bears, claiming to contain no toxic chemicals or choking hazards. And they weren't very expensive, and I thought the kids might enjoy them when they came over to spend the night at Grandma and Papaw's.

When I gave the bears to them, my oldest granddaughter, Hannah, who is 4, said, "Thanks, Papaw. What does it do?" I proceeded to tell her that it was a teddy bear, and that it didn't do anything. She gave me that same look of disbelief that I get when I tell her we're out of popsicles.

I get that same look a lot when somebody asks me about the Libertarian plan for funding some of their favorite existing government programs, and I tell them Libertarians don't have any plans on funding some of their favorite existing government programs.

That's not to say that Libertarians believe that government shouldn't do anything. Libertarians believe that government should protect peoples' rights, and protect them from force and fraud. And if the government is going to collect taxes to build and maintain roads, they think that money ought to be spent building and maintaining roads. And if the government is going to collect taxes for education, then that money ought to spent on education. It's not very good at doing much more than that.

Anytime the government tries to do more than that, it ends up costing the taxpayers a lot of money. The government recently decided it was going to do something to create some jobs. It didn't do very well. It spent about $160 billion to create about 640,000 jobs, or about $250,000.00 per job. It could do better. If it really wanted to help create jobs, the best thing government could do to is to get out of the way of the private sector and let it create the jobs. That's where the real jobs come from anyway, and as long as no one is being subjected to force or fraud, the government should just sit there out of the way, and don't do anything. Kind of like a teddy bear.

I get a lot of questions from people about what Libertarians would have the government do about retirement. I think one of the best things we can do is consider what the government has already done about retirement.

The government, at the federal, state, and local level, has borrowed and spent from Social Security and pension funds, leaving trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities, and is depending on the generosity or submission of future generations of taxpayers to cover the shortfalls and make the payments when they come due. Some of those payments will fund the retirements of government employees who can draw payments for 50 years after working only 30. How much better off would current and future generations be if people looked after their own retirement, instead of expecting the government to do it for them?

Some things the government does ought to last forever. The natural rights government should protect transcend generations. The debt it incurs shouldn't.

We have a lot to do when it comes to fixing how our government operates. Some of those solutions involve getting government to do what it should do, better. And some of those solutions involve getting government to stop doing things it shouldn't.

Over the next couple of months I'll be offering up some ideas on how we can make government do more of what it should do and less of what it shouldn't do.

That's what Libertarians do.

That's hard to believe...

2010-08-23T21:31:00.005-04:00

I suppose if you say something often enough, some people might start to believe it. I suppose you might even start to believe it yourself. For the next couple of months, we are going to hear a lot of Republican candidates tell us we need to elect them to office so that they can stop the runaway spending we are presently experiencing. I think some of them actually believe that we didn't have runaway spending when they were in charge.

Wes Benedict, up at the National Libertarian Party Headquarters made this observation about one of the GOP's go-to heroes:

"As the 2010 election approaches, a lot of Republican politicians are trying to posture as government-cutters, and they often hold up Ronald Reagan as an example.

But although Reagan often talked about supporting smaller government, most Libertarians know that in practice he did exactly the opposite. For example:

*Reagan boosted import tariffs and trade restrictions.

*Reagan cut marginal income tax rates, but he also raised Social Security taxes.

*Reagan increased farm subsidies.

*Reagan sent the federal debt through the roof.

*Federal spending under Reagan grew from $678 billion to $1.14 trillion.

*Reagan set the record for the highest average spending as a percent of GDP over his administration. (Obama may beat him.)

Many people are complaining right now about unemployment under Barack Obama. In the first 18 months of Obama's presidency, unemployment has increased from 7.7 percent to 9.5 percent.

Did you know that during the first 18 months of Reagan's presidency, unemployment increased from 7.5 percent to 9.8 percent? That's even worse, but I don't hear a lot of Republicans mentioning it."

I got a fundraising letter that my Republican opponent for the District 54 Representative seat, Tom Saunders, sent out the other day. In it, he says that he relies on friends and fellow Republicans to help buy the paper, envelopes and stamps for his campaign. Here's where most of the $207,033.00 he spent on his 2006 campaign came from:

HOUSE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN CMTE OF INDIANA $64,480
INDIANA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE $40,300
INDIANA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS $5,000
BUSINESS FURNITURE LLC $5,000
FRIENDS OF DAVID YOUNT $4,400
INDIANA REPUBLICAN PARTY $3,505
INDIANA FARM BUREAU $3,000
FEHSENFELD, BARBARA J $3,000
INDIANA CABLE TELECOMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATION $2,250
THE SIX-PAC $2,000
CITIZENS FOR WORKING COMM $2,000
ROBERTS, TERRI $2,000
MIKE MURPHY CMTE $2,000
CITIZENS FOR WOLKINS $2,000
RANDOLPH COUNTY REPUBLICAN CENTRAL CMTE $1,500
GEO GROUP $1,500
PAUST PRINTERS $1,220 0.59%
INDIANA HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION $1,050
BEVERLY GARD FOR STATE SENATE CMTE $1,000
RANDOLPH COUNTY FARM BUREAU $1000.00

He also promises in the letter to use his friends money to make a strong case for limited government in Indiana. This is the same man who said he was opposed to property tax caps because he didn't want to limit future legislators ability to raise taxes.

I'm not sure what to believe.

Symbolic of our jubilation...

2010-08-22T18:49:00.006-04:00

One of the best parts of campaigning for the District 54 Representative seat is when my four oldest Grandchildren help hand out candy and literature at the parades we attend. It's a little symbolic, too, since one of the major reasons I'm involved with the Libertarian Party is so my Grandchildren have a chance to enjoy and afford a limited government.

It happens that there was a lot of symbolism in Saturday's Jubilee Day Parade in Hagerstown. For starters, when the parade organizer put the Libertarians in line behind the Republicans, he told me that we might have to help clean-up any mess that the Republicans made. I told him we already knew that. That's why we're in the race.

I also found it symbolic that my Republican opponent for the District 54 seat was handing out empty plastic bags, and depending on somebody else to come along later in the parade and furnish the candy to fill them up. Turns out it was same kids that are going to be paying on all the government spending that is going on today.

I also had the chance to meet my Democratic Party opponent for the District 54 seat, Bruce Gaylor:

Seemed like a really nice guy. I wished him luck and told him I hoped he finished a strong second. I also noticed that the palm cards he was handing out made no reference to the political party he represents. I can't say as I blame him for that.

My new great-nephew, Austin, came up from Texas for the weekend. This was his reaction when we told him his share of the federal debt is over $170,000.00. Talk about child abuse!

Anyway, I think the kids and the babies and Ray's basset hounds got more attention than the candidates, but I figure that's what parades are for.

See you next weekend at Archway Days in Centerville.

Fair Enough...

2010-08-16T19:42:00.007-04:00

I spent last week campaigning at the Mooreland Fair. I've been attending the fair for 58 years. I don't think I ever attended one that was as hot as this one. Mooreland isn't a very big town, but they put on a heck of a fair every year. It's kind of a big homecoming and getting reacquainted event for thousands of people.

Having a booth at the fair, I get to visit a lot of people I've known all of my life, but usually don't see until the fair. I also get to meet and visit with people i didn't know before. I was especially happy that my old buddy Stinky Wilmont stopped by and agreed to have his picture taken with me: That's Stinky on the right. Hopefully it will satisfy those who have questioned Stinky's existence.

I had some help from four of my grandchildren who handed out "Elect Rex Bell" stickers, and then took a break for some rides:

Henry County candidates Jon Bell and Bill Claar helped out at the booth, along with the Libertarian Secretary of State candidate Mike Wherry:

I was encouraged by the number of positive comments I received about the campaign, and especially those from elected Republicans.

I was a little discouraged by person who walked around the crowded fair in the 95 degree heat and complained that he wasn't receiving enough disability assistance to take care of his kids.

And I was mildly amused to see that not one candidate over at the Democrat Party booth had any kind of word or symbol on their yard signs identifying themselves as a Democrat.

And what would the Mooreland Fair be without a Grand Finale parade! We handed out about 20 pounds of melted Tootsie Rolls:

I hope all of our campaign events are as much fun as the Mooreland Fair. I also hope they're not as hot.

You decide...

2010-08-07T08:39:00.011-04:00

This past week, over 70% of voters in Missouri decided that they didn't want to be forced to buy health insurance as required by the recently passed federal health insurance law. It's encouraging that people are taking a stand against the new law, and it's encouraging that more states are moving in that direction. It's an exercise of the Tenth Amendment, which gives the states and people the remedy of nullifying any law the federal government makes which exceeds the boundaries of its Constitutional authority. One of the lines in the above Reuters article wasn't as encouraging. It states, "Experts said because federal law typically supersedes state laws, the state efforts could ultimately be largely symbolic, although it is likely the debate will make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court." I suppose an expert can be mistaken, although I'm not sure they could still be considered an expert afterwards. The assumption by these experts is that the United States Supreme Court has jurisdiction over Tenth Amendment issues.

While I was glad to see Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller jumping into the game, he was off base when he made the following statement: “The unprecedented claim that the federal government has the right to require individuals to purchase a private health insurance product is a question that ultimately ought to be decided by the United States Supreme Court.”

While the Supreme Court certainly has some important duties, also enumerated in the Constitution, deciding who gets to decide on what qualifies as a Tenth Amendment issue isn't one of them. The court is a branch of the federal government, and the Tenth Amendment says that "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people."

Imagine for a moment that you and I signed a contract authorizing me to put a roof on your house and to charge you for that service. Then, at some point in time, I decided that your house needed painting, and I informed you that I was also going to paint your house and charge you for that service. When you protest that painting your house wasn't part of the contract, I inform you that I had shown the contract to my wife, and she had decided that roofing and painting were kind of related, and since you had already agreed to the roofing, I was right and you were out of luck.

You could and should justifiably call foul. You could also justifiably ignore any second or third opinions.

The federal government has broken its contract with the states many times over the years. It's breaking that contract more frequently and to a greater extent recently.

And it's not up to federal government to decide when it's breaking the contract.
It's up to the states. And the people.

Nicknames and Nullification

2010-08-02T20:43:00.003-04:00

There used to be a guy up in Mooreland who went by the nickname "Banjo". I don't know why people called him by that name. There were a lot of people with nicknames when I was growing up, but I didn't always know where the names originated. I was pretty sure how Stinky Wilmont got his name, and Fat Brown was pretty well self explanatory, as was Slim, Blubber and Shorty. I'm not so sure about Ginky, or Crowbar, or Skeeter.

However the names came about, after a period of time they became so commonly used that a lot of people didn't know the person's given name. I never knew Banjo as anything but Banjo.

Whatever his real name was, Banjo had a way of getting the better end of a deal. I recall a time when Banjo and another friend of mine, Charlie, (a nickname for Charles, I suspect,) decided to raise some chickens. The deal was they would buy 100 chicks, Charlie would furnish the feed, and Banjo would board and tend to the flock until they were big enough to be turned into fried chicken.

Whenever Charlie would inquire as to the progress of the chicks, Banjo always replied, "Mine are doing really well, but two of your died last night." I don't know how many chickens Charlie ended up with, but it didn't take too long to figure out that letting one guy keep all the chickens and make all the decisions about them might not work out so well for the other guy.

Back when our nation was first formed, the individual states decided that a federal government might be useful when it came to performing certain duties. So they all got together and wrote up a Constitution describing what those duties would be, and what the federal government was supposed to do. Then, just to be on the safe side, they threw in the Bill of Rights, ten amendments to the Constitution listing some of the things the federal government couldn't do. The tenth of those amendments states that, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

I don't suppose anybody really thought that everybody would always agree on exactly what the Constitution empowered the federal government to do, or made sure it wouldn't do. And as a nation, we've certainly had our disagreements over the years. Even a war, at one point. And I suppose we'll continue to have disagreements as long as we exist. One of the biggest disagreements has been over who gets to decide who gets to decide.

People who like a lot of federal government think that the federal government, and the United States Supreme Court, a branch of the federal government, should get to decide. They think the Tenth Amendment doesn't amount to much. People who don't like a lot of federal government think that's a lot like letting your ex mother-in-law decide on your divorce settlement. They think the Tenth Amendment is pretty important.

If an individual state decides that a federal law is unconstitutional, a lot of people believe the Tenth Amendment gives them the authority to nullify that law. A lot of people don't believe that. The people who don't believe that often point out that some states used that argument in defense of slavery. The people who do believe that often point out that some states used that argument to nullify the Fugitive Slave Act, which required states to return escaped slaves to their supposed owners.

Given the growth of the federal government in recent years, I suspect the interpretation of the Tenth Amendment will become increasingly important in the next few years, and in the next few elections. It would behoove us all to make an informed decision on it. As someone who places a lot of importance on the Tenth, I'd recommend reading the book, NULLIFICATION, by Thomas E. Woods, Jr., for a well reasoned history and defense of it. I'll leave it up to someone who doesn't think it is important to recommend something to read in opposition.

Like nicknames, the current interpretation of the Tenth Amendment has been around so long, we've forgotten what it used to be and why it was put in the Constitution in the first place.

Banjo would say it's like putting all your chickens in one basket. Or maybe he said eggs.

I'll ask Stinky next time I see him.

Oops!!!....

2010-07-31T13:54:00.005-04:00

Back in April, I blogged about one of the unforseen consequences when Congress passes a bill that they haven't read.

Apparently, somebody in Congress finally got around to reading it. This morning I saw this story about how Congress is trying to deal with their latest mistake.

Buried in the new health care bill is a provision that requires businesses to file 1099's on any business that provides them more than $600.00 in goods or services for the year. If you have operated a large business, small business, non-profit or charitable organization in the last few years, you already know the amount of time it takes to comply with required government paperwork. Now consider the possibility of doubling that paperwork. Even the IRS won't be able to keep up (without hiring more employees, of course).

Right now they're trying to come up with a bill to fix the last one they passed.

I wonder if any of them will read it.

Jackson 5

2010-07-25T20:16:00.006-04:00

We had a real good week. We jumped in the car Wednesday morning and drove down to Mississippi to meet our 5th Grandchild, Jackson Tyler Bell,

Mom and Dad and Jackson are doing fine,

although I did get accused of being a baby hog. A completely unfounded claim since it was clear Jackson loved it when Papaw held him,

and he seemed to get along with Grandma pretty well, also.

And to top it all off, while driving through Tennessee and Mississippi, I finally figured out why the chicken crossed the road. I think the chicken just wanted to show the armadillo that it could be done.

What was the question again?....

2010-07-24T07:37:00.006-04:00

Michael Cloud once said that if you can get people to ask the wrong question, it really doesn't matter what the answer is. The Republicans and Democrats are currently debating on whether or not some government employee is to much of a racist to be able to fairly redistribute confiscated taxpayer dollars to farmers.

The question we as taxpayers should be asking is "Why is any government employee in the position to arbitrarily decide who is entitled to the fruits of our labor?"

Jacob Hornberger makes a solid argument and asks the right questions here.

He also points out that for generations we have accepted that we have to have these government ran welfare programs in order to survive.

That doesn't make it true, and it doesn't mean that this or future generations have to accept it.