Sometimes I surprise even myself.....

I don't claim to be a great cook, but I whipped up a BBQ chicken calzone this evening that was TOTALLY kickin'.

OK, next I think I'll try to provide a VERY simple answer about why I consider myself a Libertarian.....

Folks often ask me why I'd vote for Libertarians when they have no chance and then proceed to suggest voting for the "lesser of two evils". They'll definitely have no chance if people who generally believe in Libertarian principles and policies vote solely based on who is going to win. As for the "lesser of two evils", I will vote for my general principles. At the heart of the matter (for me) is one simple philosophy:

I TRULY believe that most people can live their own lives and make their own choices without excessive government (federal, state, local) intervention in the freedom to make those choices.

We are lucky enough to live in a place where we are extraordinarily free. But, we can always get better. I consider this especially true after the last eight years!

As we know by now (for those who mind that sort of thing), the last time a third party candidate was included in a Presidential debate was in 1992. Bob Barr had an interesting method of getting his word out as an alternative to the debate. Here's a Q&A session with questions submitted via the internet:



I think he's doing it right. Now here's someone who (hey, just my opinion) is doing it ALL WRONG. Maybe I don't "know" the things she "knows", but there's been so much CRAP spread about the Senator from Illinois that I wouldn't have the slightest doubt if some of the info the "letter" she speaks about is infused with the dominant "internet lore" propaganda.

Last words? Something else done right....

I already knew that Lindt made excellent chocolate. A friend had mentioned something about chocolate infused with chili pepper and I knew I had to try it. I found some when I went to the store the other day. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! I didn't expect excessive "heat". There was just the faint aftertaste of heat. However, I wouldn't necessarily take my word for it. My taste buds are probably desensitized to a lot of that hot stuff. Anyway, the chocolate left a nice warming sensation. Heck, I think I'll eat a square or two right now.

Peace, y'all!

Wayne Allyn Root talks with Neil Cavuto....

September 16, 2008 - $85 billion loan to AIG
September 22-30, 2008 - $440,000 top performing agent trip to St. Regis Resort
October 10, 2008 - AIG seeks additional $36 billion loan

I realize that the AIG executives weren't directly involved and the little junket had been planned for months, but the current business operating environment that AIG finds itself in should probably lead to some belt tightening. This whole debacle raises some question on what kind of waste (other than the widely known "tax earmarks") the $700 billion bailout will create. By the way, here's an interesting blog...

Ye olde Federal Government has established some new guidelines for physical activity for American adults. Two of my favorite activities (sanitized of course):

A couple of hours of hiking
A couple of hours with the trusty old sack

Gotta love those folks at Google....

They are testing a new Gmail feature (you have to turn it on) to help you make sure you want to send that e-mail if you might be slightly blitzed or not thinking straight. They call it "Mail Goggles"....

I will start with some of the more important things in life....

Namely, food! Non-chain local food at that....

We tried the Athens location of Village Pizza with some friends this evening. We arrived fairly early. That ended up being a good thing because by the time we left, folks were waiting outside to be seated. There's more space in the Athens restaurant AND they serve beer. The food was great (not unexpected)! If you live in Athens, give Village Pizza a shot. Here's the map again:


View Larger Map

Well, the bailout has passed and been signed into law. Bud Cramer (Alabama District 5 Representative) voted yes. It's a good thing he's not up for re-election.

Check out the latest television ad for Bob Barr:

Even as I type, legions of pundits and fact checkers and political aficionados/operatives are slicing and dicing and analyzing tonight's debate....

My two cents...

I think that Sarah Palin did OK. I say OK because I don't think it was exceptional. She may have "saved some face" given some recent trouble, but I don't think she came anywhere near hitting it out of the park. To me, she seemed more engaging than Joe Biden, but not extraordinarily more. Both sides did OK with the standard party talking points (and half-truths). Hey, what's to be expected, the VP is essentially a glorified cheerleader anyway, right? However, all that being said, I'm glad I'll be voting for Bob Barr. McCain isn't a far cry from George Bush and, sadly, Sarah Palin reminds me more of George Bush (philosophy) than John McCain. As for Obama-Biden....YUCK!!!

The Senate voted yes on the "investment"/"bailout" and it's looking as if the House will vote yes as well. Why is the bailout DANGEROUS for American national security?



Let's not forget, the statutory limit on the public debt ceiling will be going up to $11.3 trillion under the current "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008". Here's a history of the changes to the statutory limit on the public debt from the United States Code. The page (or the various other government pages) doesn't have the $10 trillion (9.815) limit enacted last year......

Of course both of the VP candidates sound like talking points parrots......

But, I think it's funny that Palin continues to attack the Obama/Biden ticket on energy. Why? Oh, I don't know......

Listed at the link in the body of this post.....

are the Senators who voted yea (or nay) for the American taxpayer to take a huge bite out of a multi-billion dollar cow patty. I was extraordinarily happy to see that the Senators from my state voted nay. The House hasn't voted yet and I will CERTAINLY (right after I'm done with this) be contacting my Representative (Bud Cramer) asking for him to come to his senses and vote against the current piece of tripe floating around in Congressland....

As a slight (and trust me.... short) break from the finance/economy fiasco....

Bob Barr talks about civil liberties....



Now back to probably one of the bigger matters at hand...

My take on the "new and improved" bailout plan is that it's still a "cow patty". In fact, this one's even sillier. It's still designed to help the banks and raise the public debt but the "new and improved" version includes some tax breaks and other beans to appease the GOP and the Democrats. As a Libertarian, I'm all for tax breaks, but they are CRAP if you don't curb government spending. I tend to supplement my thoughts with links to professionals who believe the same thing. Sorry....

I, for one, was happy to see that the "bailout" was voted down.......

I believe that Bob Barr was happy as well...



I'm not necessarily happy about the economic downturn that will inevitably follow, but this provides a little bit of breathing room for the Congress to clear their heads and THINK if they (and hence, WE THE PEOPLE) want to dabble in excessive state meddling in the business process with taxpayer money. Additionally, the original package would have raised the public debt ceiling to 11.315 trillion dollars. It was just raised to 9.815 trillion dollars in September of 2007. So, as part of the 700 billion dollar package, this administration (and McCain and Obama if you accept their tepid support as legitimate) and 205 House members wanted to raise the future taxation burden on you and your children and your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren (and so on and so on) by 1.5 trillion dollars. When does it end? I was never overly happy with the Clinton administration but at least the budget was balanced for a few years (on paper, at least). Those folks in DC right now are kind of scaring me! What a time for a protest vote...

I never thought I would see the phrase "cow patty" in the Congressional Record but here (top left of the document) it is.

And now for the latest video from Bob Barr.....

Q&A at Reason with Bob Barr



Other stuff? We enjoyed finding Village Pizza (East Limestone location) and dining there occasionally. FWIW, the East Limestone location has a presence on MySpace.



It was VERY cool to hear that they had opened a new restaurant in Athens, AL. I believe that the address is 222 W. Market St. Athens, AL. It's the northeast corner of the intersection of W. Market St. and N. Jefferson St.

See the Google Map below....


View Larger Map

Today's video from Bob Barr was from the first week of August....

Barr was so right to call both of the major party candidates out on the "politics as usual" attacks on fluff when they needed to be addressing issues like the ones that have led to the "necessity" for a big government bailout plan like the one we are hearing about now.

I've mentioned CRS reports here at least once or twice before. There's some decent reading about the events of the past week at a subsite of the State Department. Another decent spot to find some CRS reports is the Naval Postgraduate School's library site. Click here and then click the digital archive link near the top of the page. That will launch a new window with various electronic media links. One of them is titled "Congressional Research Service Documents". That's the link you'll want to click.....

After doing a SMALL amount of further research....

One of the members of Congress holding out on the Bush administration's version of "ze plan, ze plan" is Senator Richard Shelby. I absolutely believe that he's doing the correct thing in this case. His position can be viewed here and he provides a link to a list of over 200 economists who want, at the very least, a reasonable discussion of the policy issues and effects of the proposed dramatic government intervention in the market.

A third party (Libertarian, of course) view of the bailout provided by Bob Barr...

One might be tempted to dismiss what Bob Barr or Art Metcalf think about the current state of affairs as we are not economists. Here are some articles from economists William A. Niskanen (cato.org) and Pierre Lemieux (Université du Québec en Outaouais) about the big money mess.....

The final plank of the Libertarian Party platform:

"4.0 Omissions

Our silence about any other particular government law, regulation, ordinance, directive, edict, control, regulatory agency, activity, or machination should not be construed to imply approval."

-http://www.lp.org/platform

Although slightly dated, here was Bob Barr's take on the Russia/Georgia conflict....

"3.7 Self-Determination

Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of individual liberty, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to agree to such new governance as to them shall seem most likely to protect their liberty."

-from http://www.lp.org/platform

This is what can happen when there's not much good programming on television during primetime....

I've remained silent on the current economic plague that is apparently a huge threat to the American system.....

In part, this is because I don't claim to understand the entirety of the situation and I, for one, don't truly believe that any one person has a full grasp of the effects of all of the variables involved and what will happen when some (or none or many or all) of them are changed. I am not an economist and wouldn't even want to pretend to be one. With all of that being said, I don't like the idea of the current plan to bail out the ailing finance industry. Ben Bernanke and Les Paulson are trying to sell "the plan" like crazy and warning of dire consequences if Congress doesn't push it through. My gut says (and libertarian inclinations) that, if the economy must be steered AT ALL, it must be done only with the lightest of touches. In all truth, I generally fall right along the lines of laissez-faire capitalism with a slight anarchist tendency. I tend to think that the course correction that will probably be implemented at the hands of the government (your tax dollars at work to stabilize at least a decade of questionable business practices by the biggest names in the game) will be overly heavy and potentially worse for the economy AND your (and my) pocketbook. There is a much better (and more eloquent) explanation of why this plan is problematic here.

Getting away from the economy for the moment, check out this Bob Barr video regarding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act:



Keep in mind that Barack Obama voted to approve the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008 and John McCain didn't even vote.

The daily plank.....

"3.6 Representative Government

We support electoral systems that are more representative of the electorate at the federal, state and local levels. As private voluntary groups, political parties should be allowed to establish their own rules for nomination procedures, primaries and conventions. We call for an end to any tax-financed subsidies to candidates or parties and the repeal of all laws which restrict voluntary financing of election campaigns. We oppose laws that effectively exclude alternative candidates and parties, deny ballot access, gerrymander districts, or deny the voters their right to consider all legitimate alternatives."

-from http://www.lp.org/platform

Happy autumnal equinox!

Though it's a couple of weeks old, check out the vid of Bob Barr discussing the end of the Republican convention.....



As for the daily "plank"...

"3.5 Rights and Discrimination

We condemn bigotry as irrational and repugnant. Government should not deny or abridge any individual's rights based on sex, wealth, race, color, creed, age, national origin, personal habits, political preference or sexual orientation. Parents, or other guardians, have the right to raise their children according to their own standards and beliefs."

-excerpt from http://www.lp.org/platform

Libertarian Presidential Nominee Bob Barr weighs in on John McCain and Barack Obama's impact on the Constitution

"3.4 Free Trade and Migration

We support the removal of governmental impediments to free trade. Political freedom and escape from tyranny demand that individuals not be unreasonably constrained by government in the crossing of political boundaries. Economic freedom demands the unrestricted movement of human as well as financial capital across national borders. However, we support control over the entry into our country of foreign nationals who pose a threat to security, health or property."

-from http://www.lp.org/platform

As you all have probably gathered by now, I am not an Obama supporter. However, if the only choices I had (at the present point in time) were McCain and Obama, I probably wouldn't vote for McCain. Anyway, there's a headline that has been on my Yahoo! News page for the past day or so talking about the negative racial impact on Obama's run for office. I hate to say it, but if we're not over that crap by now, we've got serious issues. I'd much rather see people NOT vote for Obama because of his stances on things.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/specials/interactives/wdc/yahoo_poll_race/index.html?SITE=YAHOO&SECTION=HOME

I must start the day out with a hearty......

Happy Birthday Daddy-o!

McCain and Obama have both had their funny moments....

Here is one (on purpose) from Bob Barr:



"3.3 International Affairs

American foreign policy should seek an America at peace with the world and its defense against attack from abroad. We would end the current U.S. government policy of foreign intervention, including military and economic aid. We recognize the right of all people to resist tyranny and defend themselves and their rights. We condemn the use of force, and especially the use of terrorism, against the innocent, regardless of whether such acts are committed by governments or by political or revolutionary groups."

-from http://www.lp.org/platform

Change, reform, change, reform, change, reform, I put it on eBay, I told them thanks but no thanks......

Both of the major parties are promising change and reform and better times for America. I still believe that their minds are muddled and all that can happen (with either Obama or McCain) will be more of the same....

A Real Choice



"3.2 Internal Security and Individual Rights

The defense of the country requires that we have adequate intelligence to detect and to counter threats to domestic security. This requirement must not take priority over maintaining the civil liberties of our citizens. The Bill of Rights provides no exceptions for a time of war. Intelligence agencies that legitimately seek to preserve the security of the nation must be subject to oversight and transparency. We oppose the government's use of secret classifications to keep from the public information that it should have, especially that which shows that the government has violated the law."

-from http://www.lp.org/platform

Bob Barr talks to an Atlanta Fox affiliate....

"3.1 National Defense

We support the maintenance of a sufficient military to defend the United States against aggression. The United States should both abandon its attempts to act as policeman for the world and avoid entangling alliances. We oppose any form of compulsory national service."

-excerpt from http://www.lp.org/platform

Other things....

I use OpenDNS. You might ask what in the world that is. Visit here for more information. If you like what you see, you can follow the instructions here to start using OpenDNS yourself (home users with that link).

We're thinking about checking out the Monte Sano Art Show on Saturday. It looks like it could be pretty fun! I will, of course, be carrying multiple footbags.

Last, but not least.....

Lest ye forget, tomARRRRRRRRRRRow be International Talk Like A Pirate Day, me hearties!