Out of the cold....

  My old buddy, Stinky Wilmont, was fond of telling stories back when we were attending Millville Grade School. I remember one particular story he told one recess concerning his younger brother, Luther. No one had ever heard Luther speak, and since the Wilmonts didn't do a lot of doctoring, everybody just assumed that he was unable to do so.

  One morning, while the family was gathered around the breakfast table, Luther shocked them all when he blurted out, "The eggs are cold." When Mrs. Wilmont regained her composure, she asked the question the whole family was wondering. "Luther," she said, "you're almost 7 years old, and you've never spoken a word until now. Why is that?".  "Well",  he replied, "everything had been okay up until this morning."

  I suppose we all have different tolerance levels for different things, but I imagine most of us found something to complain about before we were 7 years old. Most of us have known someone who seems to complain about everything, and we've probably known a few people who seem capable of quietly taking about anything in stride.

  I think most of us fit in somewhere in between. We might complain about the cost of gasoline and groceries, but we seem to get over it and continue to buy both. Once in awhile we complain about our jobs, but we still go to work about every day. Believe it or not,  I've even heard some people complain about their spouses from time to time.

  A lot of people complain about the weather, but as Charles Dudley Warner pointed out long ago, "nobody ever does anything about it."

  A lot of people also complain about the government. Being a Libertarian, and therefore favoring a limited government, I probably complain about it more than the average person, although I do believe we're hearing more complaints from the rank and file of the other two parties of late.  Just about everybody thinks the government is doing too much of something at some level, and the bigger government gets, and the more it tries to do, the more likely it is that more people will find something to complain about. But, like the weather, most people don't really do anything about it.

   About 90% of voters vote the same way every election, with about half of them voting for the Republicans, and the other half voting for the Democrats. That leaves it up to the other 10%, along with the occasionally excitable occasional voters, to decide on the outcome of the elections.

  I have been encouraged lately, however,  by a few opinion polls. It seems that only about 10% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the Republicans and Democrats in Congress. (That puts them just a couple of approval points ahead of Charles Manson.) A Gallup Poll in USA Today recently reported that both the GOP and the Democratic Presidential candidates are held in lower esteem than they were 4 years ago. The favorable rating  for each has slipped to around the 50% neighborhood. 

  If you are one of the growing number of people who are unhappy with our federal government's spending and interference in your life, and if you understand that voting for one of the old parties is pretty much just a silent nod of approval, and you really want to do something about it, this might be an excellent year to speak up by voting for another party.

  Naturally, I'm hoping you will choose to speak up by voting for the Libertarians.

  We've been complaining that the eggs have been cold for years.

The Road Less Taken...

  "If you come to a fork in the road, take it."...Yogi Berra.  

  Mr. Berra  offered a lot of fractured advice over the years. Most of his advice was  entertaining, even if it wasn't always what we would consider "sound". I thought about Yogi's "fork in the road" quote a couple of days ago when my wife Susan and I were driving around searching for a friend's house in southern Owen County. Our Global Positioning System device, who I call Maggie, was shouting  road numbers at me, while all of the roads in the area were marked with names like "Goose Creek Run" or "Stump Ridge".

  At one point, after traveling a few miles down a one lane gravel road, we came upon the proverbial fork. Maggie, whose usual advice in situations such as this is to "make a U-turn at the first available opportunity", instead blurted out something about not having any idea where we were, followed by an obscenity, then glowed bright orange for a second and then turned herself off.

  Striking out on our own, Susan and I traveled the right fork until it dead ended at a big pile of rocks and a clump of metal which I suspect might have been a tractor at one time. We managed to get turned around and drove back to the left fork, which was longer and a little more crooked than our first choice, but there was at least a house alongside the road, and a fellow sitting in the driveway working on what appeared to be a pick-up truck.

  When we stopped and asked him where this road would take us, he explained that there were only two more houses on it up the way. One was his brother-in-law's, and no one had lived in the other one since that tree fell on it and knocked the chimney over.  He said after that the road just kind of quit. He also said he hadn't ever heard of the friend that we were looking for, or the road that he lived on. He did offer to holler for his brother to come over so we could all go in the house and have a cool drink, but we said "No thanks", opting instead to go back to the fork in the road and discuss other options, such as not taking either fork. Options like maybe going back a ways and starting over, and getting headed in the right direction, because sometimes when you come to come to a fork in the road, both of them are going the wrong way.

  There's an election coming up this November, and there are a lot of people who have convinced themselves that there are only two paths available, in the form of the older political parties. I talk to folks every day  who feel that government spends too much, and gives too much of our tax money to businesses, or gives to much of our tax money to other people. Sometimes they feel government is too involved in our personal lives, or sometimes they feel the government is too involved in the affairs of other countries around the world.

  While they might not always agree on where government needs to be reduced, most people would agree that it needs to be reduced somewhere. The problem with limiting their choices to just Republicans and Democrats  is that each of those parties has, does, and will increase the size and cost of government. Maybe not always  in the same areas, or by the same amount, but history has proved time and again that taking either right or left path is going to result in an  increase in the scope of government.

  This fall, there is another option on the ballot in the Libertarian Party. It's not an option for making the government a lot bigger, or a little bigger. It's not simply an option for simply not allowing government to get any bigger. It's about allowing people the chance to vote for making the government a lot smaller than it is today.

  There are other paths available to us. We just have to take them.

Are we there yet?!?!

"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.

We aren't always what we were...

Apparently my campaign for District 54 Representative on the Libertarian ticket worked its way into the conversation at a local coffee shop the other morning. Reportedly, a man who has been a staunch Republican all his life asked another man who has been a staunch Democrat all of his life why he was supporting a Libertarian.

The second man replied, "Well, I'm not as good a Democrat as I used to be.", to which the first man replied, "Yeah, I'm not as good a Republican as I used to be, either."

That's change we can live with.

Thanks a lot, but....

I've eaten a lot of pizza in my life. The first I remember were the ones Mom would make. I think Chef Boyardee was the name of mix, and you had to mix the dough for the crust. I think it included a can of tomato sauce and a can of cheese. As I remember, you were on your own if you wanted anything else on it. We all thought it was quite a treat at the time. Do they still make that stuff?

When I found my way to Hagerstown a few years later, I discovered Dale's Pizza. Their thin crust sausage, mushroom and onion was the best pizza ever, in my opinion. It still is, in my opinion.

They knocked down the original Dale's Pizza a few years ago and built a bank on that corner, and Dales moved up on Main Street for a while, and then a couple of years ago they moved across the street and added a dining room.

But that's not what I wanted to talk about.

Dale's is adding a bar to their operation. The other night, we were discussing the the new addition with the owner. I was happy to hear that it was going to be smoke-free. Even though I won't be frequenting the bar section, I appreciate the fact that there won't be any smoke from the bar wafting over into the pizza part. Aside from my personal preference, I think it makes good business sense. Non-smokers out number smokers nowadays, so there's a larger pool of customers to draw from, besides the fact that you don't have to wash the windows quite as often.

Then he told me he figured the government was going to outlaw smoking in all businesses before to long, so he might as well get a jump on that by going smoke free right from the start. Now, like I said, I'm glad he's not allowing smoking in his business, but I hate it that, like so many other Americans, he expects and accepts that our government is going to continue to grow and extend its reach into our everyday lives and decisions.

That's one of the things that attracted me to the Libertarian Party. Libertarians don't expect government to continue to grow.

Or accept that it has to.

How about some neat stuff?...

About seven years ago, our county Libertarian Party started holding a Labor Day weekend garage sale. It gets a little bigger and better every year. We depend on donated items to stock the sale, and I'm amazed every year at what some people will donate, and at what some people will buy.

When I came home from work Wednesday evening befor the sale, I made the unfortunate discovery that some one had dropped off 14 old window sashes. We've thrown away hundreds of them when we install new windows in peoples' homes. My first thought was that I would have to pay to throw these away also. I left them beside the garage and put a piece of plywood in front of them so they would'nt get broken, and make more of a mess for my wife to clean up.

Then, one of the first customers at the sale asked if we had any old window sash. She explained that she used them as a background for painting. I told her that we had just received a special shipment that we hadn't uncovered yet, and I took her to the window sash department. She agreed to buy 8. After some creative pricing enhancements, she agreed to buy 14. Life is good.

When I was younger, before the age of electronic games, Mr. Machine was a popular little robot with a clear body so that you could see all of the gears and springs that made him walk around, move his arms and toot (in the original definition of tooting). I always wanted one when I was a kid, but I never got one. Someone donated one (although it was a 1970's reproduction), and I thought one of my prayers had been answered, however belatedly. One of our most faithful helpers sold it out from under me. Life may be good, but it isn't always fair.


Even with 4 tents this year, some items had to sit outside. Luckily, concrete dogs were in high demand, and this one didn't have to sit in the sun to long.

I wasn't sure how black boxes were going to go this year. We had a whopper. It was 6 feet wide, 7 feet tall and 4 feet deep. And really heavy. It had 6 casters under it, and it used to contain a big screen TV that was used in hospitality rooms at NASCAR races. We didn't get the TV. Just the black box. Towards the end of the sale, I was getting worried that I was going to end up with a big black box in my front yard. Forever. It was a great relief when somebody stopped in and decided it was just what they were looking for. It was more of a relief when they paid for it, loaded it up, and hauled it away.

Two days after the sale we recieved a call from a man in Kentucky, who had heard about the black box from a friend who was at our sale. He said it sounded like just what he was looking for. I told him I'd try to find another one before next year.

This is what was left after "Give-Away Charlie" worked his magic on four tents of neat stuff.

(That's "Give-Away Charlie" on the left)

We've already started collecting even neater stuff for next Labor Day.

See you then.

Great Expectations...

My youngest brother is a missionary with Christ's Hope in Kenya. He reports a lot of native Kenyans are convinced their lives are going to get much better now that Barack Obama has been elected the next President of the United States. On the other side of the coin, I know a few people that are convinced the world is coming to an end now that Barack Obama has been elected the next President of the United States.

There's also a rush by a lot of people to buy firearms. Apparently they believe guns are going to become harder to get once Obama takes office. Given John McCain's less than stellar defense of our Second Amendment protections, I'm not sure how many of these same people would have went out purchased weapons had he won the election. Not near as many, I suspect.

Now, I don't know what's going to happen in Kenya, although I suspect the people there will be better off due to the efforts of people like my brother than because of the election of Barack Obama. And I'm not as giddy as the Obama supporters who view him as a savior, or as worried as the opponents who believe that policies as they envision them are going to change drastically.

I think we'll see the total amount of taxes that some people pay will increase, and the total amount of taxes that some people pay decrease. I think we'll see a different direction in how our tax dollars are redistributed, and I think we'll see a push for some expensive programs we can't afford to be added to the already existing expensive programs we can't afford. Hopefully most won't make it.

I also think in the next 4 years the Republican party will move to adopt a lot of the liberal policies that helped Barack Obama win the election, and in 4 or 8 years, the 4% of the voters that decide national elections will probably put another big government Republican in for President.

And after it all shakes out, the Libertarians that want a limited government will have a little bit bigger fight on their hands, a few more reasons to fight, and a few more allies in the fight.

Something refreshing from the Barr....

I've made some mistakes in my life. I'd be the second to admit that. My wife would be the first. The worst thing about making mistakes is the problems that accompany them. The best thing about making mistakes is that, if you live through them, you have the chance to learn not to make them again. That's a good thing, I think.

I caught a clip of Libertarian Presidential candidate Bob Barr on the Colbert Report tonight. As expected, Colbert made some humorous straw man suggestions about Libertarians,(e.g., equating opposing the FDA to drinking lead based paint) and then moved on to some more serious questions about Mr.Barr's past votes on some less than libertarian bills in Congress concerning the Patriot Act and the Drug War.

It was refreshing to hear a politician say that some of the things he had supported weren't right, and that we need to change directions. That's probably as close as we're going to come to hearing a politician say that he made a mistake, and I doubt that we'll hear it from anybody else.

But wouldn't it be nice to hear the Republicans (and Democrats) admit that their aggressive foreign policy is bankrupting our nation, and that their oppressive domestic policies have cost us more freedom than the nations we fight with?

How much better off would we be if the Democrats (and Republicans) would admit that the social and entitlement programs they have created to provide all things for all people are unsustainable, even if we count on our grandchildren and great-grandchildren to pay for them?

Wouldn't it be refreshing if they all would admit that they had made mistakes, but were now willing to make amends?

Wouldn't it be nice if a few of them would follow Bob Barr's lead?

Wouldn't that be refreshing?

Guilty as charged...

In a recent Courier Times article, my honorable Republican opponent for this fall's District 54 race, Tom Saunders,
states that "Rex wants you to do away with a lot of government, but I'm not sure that's what the public wants." He's right about me wanting to do away with a lot of government.

Here in Wayne County, the Economic Development Commission is getting ready to take $50,000.00 from the taxpayers and spend it on a feasibility study to see if we need another industrial park next to our industrial park. Last year the EDC took money from workers that were making $7.50 per hour and gave it to a company that grossed $2 billion the year before. The year before that taxpayers paid to build a road through a county commissioner's business development property. In Indianapolis, the government took $625 million from the taxpayers to build a stadium for a multi-millionaire NFL team owner. They also took $3.5 million to demolish the old stadium that the taxpayers still owed $70 million on.

You can't build a shelter for your family without asking for the government's permission. Your barber can't cut your hair unless the government gives it's permission. It's nearly impossible to find three things that the government doesn't tax or regulate.

So yes, I have to plead guilty. I do want to do away with a lot of government. I want to do away with a lot of government agencies that exist simply to transfer wealth from one person to another. I want to do away with a lot of government agencies that exist only to protect us from ourselves, even if it is for our own good.

I certainly don't want to prevent people from investing in businesses or stadiums if they so desire, and if a person wants to find someone to oversee his or her personal affairs, I don't want to stand in their way. But those of us who prefer to make our own financial and personal decisions should be able to do so with a lot less government interference than we have currently.

As far as to Tom's opinion of what the public wants, I'll have to admit that in past elections, people haven't been voting to do away with a lot of government. But then again, they haven't really had the opportunity to vote that way. They could either vote for the Democrats version of a lot of government, or they could vote for the Republican version of a lot of government. Or they could not vote at all.

And I'll grant you that there are a lot of people out there that like a lot of government. Somebody once said that a government that robs Peter to pay Paul will always have the support of Paul. I'm pretty sure those people won't vote for me.

But there are also a lot of people out there that are tired of being robbed and managed, and whether they have been voting for something they didn't want, or not voting at all, I plan to give them a chance to vote for what they do want. Less government.

That's what Libertarians do.

Can I get an Amen?!?!...

Third party candidates usually face an uphill battle. For one thing, incumbents get re-elected about 95% of the time, and third party candidates are rarely the incumbent. For another thing, districts are often designed as safe havens for one of the major parties through a process called gerrymandering.

There is also the money thing. I was tickled to raise almost $12,000.00 for my campaign for the Indiana House District 54 seat in 2006. Unfortunately for me, my Republican opponent raised and spent over $200,000.00. He also won the election.

Still, I believe that our government needs some radical changes, and I believe the Libertarian Party has the best ideas for change, so I'll keep working for change, even if the odds are long.

That doesn't mean that Libertarian candidates shouldn't work to cut those odds, if possible. With that in mind, I called Reverend Paul aside after church this morning, and asked him if he had plans to appear on national TV over and over again, ranting and raving like a crazy man about something that displeased him.

He said he had no such plans.

I thanked him kindly.

Libertarians need all the help they can get.