libertarians

What is a libertarian? In the specific political case, this refers to a member of the Libertarian Party (http://www.lp.org/). I am not a member of their party (I am a registered Republican) but I like much of what the Libertarian party believes in. Unfortunately, while the Republicans talk about smaller government, in reality it seems that our federal government still grows under recent Republican administrations (just grows a little slower than under Democrats). I agree with the Libertarians on all major issues except abortion. The Libertarian party thinks we should keep abortion legal; I don't see any reason why a civilized country should permit parents to murder their children. But aside from that, they have many excellent ideas and their core beliefs are right down my alley. Here are some excerpts from their web site:

Libertarians believe in, and pursue, personal freedom while maintaining personal responsibility. The Libertarian Party itself serves a much larger pro-liberty community with the specific mission of electing Libertarians to public office.

Libertarians strongly oppose any government interfering in their personal, family and business decisions. Essentially, we believe all Americans should be free to live their lives and pursue their interests as they see fit as long as they do no harm to another.

In a nutshell, we are advocates for a smaller government, lower taxes and more freedom.

I am a strong believer that we should shrink the size of our national government, that government should not act as parents to the population, and that adults should be allowed to live in freedom and make their own peaceful decisions. The government should not be in the business of providing ever more costly entitlements, and should endeavor to encourage economic growth through the freedom brought by low taxes. I believe that the federal government has usurped many of the powers that the Constitution gives to the states, and that this trend should be reversed. Our government should reduce spending with a goal of paying off the national debt in a reasonable timeframe (maybe 20 or 30 years). Of course none of this will happen, because people have been coddled by the government for too long. The attitude of entitlement with which we are burdened makes any real change very difficult. But I can always hope.

debates

Did any of you see the YouTube Democratic debates? It was really interesting. Individual YouTube users posted a variety of questions for the candidates, someone picked the ones they liked the best and asked them at a televised debate. The Republican version will be in September I believe. I did not see it on TV, but have watched a few of the responses on YouTube. For those of you who don't know, I lean Libertarian on many issues and vote Republican. Ok, lets be realistic, only 3 people actually read this bog and you already knew that. Oh well.

I hate the way that politicians will never give you a straight answer to a question. Of course, this is not a problem specific to Democrats; they all do it. I can just pick on the Democrats now for two reasons. First, their debate just happened and second, I think they have a lot of horrible ideas and really bad candidates.

Lets look at an example, picking on Sen. Biden. A question was asked about what would you do as president to lower taxes?
See the question and Sen Biden's response: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdTv4huOtNA
To sum it up, when asked how you would lower taxes he said that he would do it by raising taxes? Huh? Maybe he lives in opposite land. Lets see who else is out there.

Maybe Kucinich can offer us some wisdom. OK Dennis, here is your shot, this is an easy one. Are you in favor of reparations for the descendants of African slaves? He answered yes. He actually thinks that is a good idea. So, your plan is to reduce racial discrimination in this country by creating a whole new form of government-sponsored discrimination? Are you trying to tear the country apart? There are so many reasons why this is a bad idea that I think my blog would crash if I listed them all. Is there anyone in this debate who has any common sense? If I have time in the next few days I will continue the search.

monkeys

Today, Gina is having a play group with several kids here at the house. I am hiding in the computer room working and posting to the blog. At the moment, I can't tell if there are children playing or if our house has been taken over by an army of thousands of rabid monkeys. This many children should not be permitted inside a single building, unless sufficient soundproofing were first installed. Days like today make me very thankful for Jenna - she is so good. She never runs around screaming while breaking everything in sight, as these children seem to want to do.

fun with baseball

Yesterday, I drove to Cleveland to see the Red Sox play the Indians. The Red Sox won 6-2! Woohoo! I was surprised by the large number of Boston fans at the game in Cleveland. People in the stands were shouting "Lets Go Red Sox", and lots of people had Boston jerseys/hats. Maybe the world is starting to see the beauty of the Red Sox. We can only hope. That was lots of fun. Unfortunately I am tired today since I drove back home from Cleveland last night and I had to do some work for a client at 7:30 this morning. But it was well worth it. I can always sleep later.

Misfortune

I had the misfortune to be sitting at my computer in the computer room when Gina discovered Grease on TV. I had never seen Grease. It is a truly awful movie. I hope it will end soon.