What did you want to be when you grew up?

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a cowboy. 

Then I went through a phase (when I had a Honda XR-75) where I wanted to be a professional daredevil/motorcyclist like Evel Knievel.

I had other friends who wanted to be professional athletes, farmers, or (occasionally) marijuana distributors. 

One really close friend wanted to be a lawyer.  He's now in jail for mortgage fraud. 

The girls I knew wanted to be nurses, teachers, or mothers. 

But I don't think I knew a single person who grew up wanting to be a household slave.  And if you live in the USA, that's what you're going to be until sometime around April 18th. 

April 18th will be the day you can stop working for Barack, Boehner, Bush and Co. and start working for yourself.  It's called "Tax Freedom Day", and occurs later and later every year. 

You might think that you're working from January 1 through April 18th for the good of society.  Seriously? 

Do you think Cash For Clunkers, TARP, or Porkulus were for the good of "society"?  If so, I need you to come wash my truck.  Partly because I need it done, mostly because you're an idiot, and maybe because you had an adolescent fantasy of being forced into some bondage gear and forced to shine Nancy Pelosi's shoes. 

Who are you working for today?  Did you sign a "social contract" stating that you would give Barack the money you earned through April 18th? 

I didn't think so. 

It's time for a slave revolt. 

The Libertarian Party awaits. 

What A Wonderful World

One of the first things taught in Libertarianism 101 is that "Utopia Is Not An Option". 

Statists often argue that if Farm Bill 2987234-234E doesn't pass, then what would Libertarians do about the kid with Leukemia whose father was diagnosed with Aids after the plague of locusts destroyed the farm because a family of raccoons chewed threw the electric fence, the very electric fence that Farm Bill 2987234-234E would provide along with the cheese subsidy.  What would you Libertarians do about that if you dared touch the funding for Farm Bill 2987234-234E?? 

This reasoning assumes that if John Boehner/Nancy Pelosi didn't take care of the kid with leukemia, no one else would either.  The private sector and charities would step in.  They did it in the past and they could do it again.  Absence of government subsidies made medicine cheaper and doctors less risk-averse.  It wasn't Utopia then, but it's not Utopia now, and it won't be Utopia (Lord hasten the day) in a more Libertarian future. 

But just imagine with me.....

We could end the Drug War.  The Drug Lords would go belly-up.  People could move freely across the Rio Grande.  Texans hopping down to Mexico would be like hopping up to Oklahoma.  Would it be a Utopia?  No.  Some people might become addicts who wouldn't ordinarily become addicted.  But they would probably be more likely to get treatment.  Hundreds of thousands of people wouldn't be in jail.  They recently legalized everything in Portugal, and addiction rates went down!!   One million government jailer/narc/torturer/DEA jobs wouldn't be necessary.  Barack Obama, George W. Bush, John Kerry, Al Gore, and Bill Clinton could all smoke weed openly, the way they did when they were younger.  Another 40,000 Mexican bystanders wouldn't die in the violence.  It wouldn't be a Utopia, but it would be better than the current disaster. 

We could End The Freakin' Federal Reserve.  A dollar saved wouldn't mean 50 cents lost.  Ben Bernanke wouldn't be allowed to do any more counterfeiting.  Would the absence of a Federal Reserve mean that we'd be at the mercy of the ups and downs of the business cycle?  (Which was part of the rationale for The Fed's creation - LOL.)  Yes, we might see some weirdness because of the ups and downs of the business cycle.  It wouldn't be a Utopia.  But I'd bet my bottom dollar that it would be less screwed up than what we have now. 

I've got a friend named Roger who is going to vote for Obama because of Obama's newly discovered support of gay marriage (among other reasons).  Never mind the total cynicism of Obama's new position on this.  The bigger question is what the hell is the government doing in the marriage business anyway?  If it matters to you who gets elected president, then your government is too big.  Would a smaller government be a Utopia?  Heck no.  But it would be infinitely better than the plague of busybodies currently trying to regulate your diet, health, safety, marriage, drug use, alcohol consumption hours, payroll and gun cabinet. 

If you're a taxpayer, your share of the national debt is $80,000.00.  Your share of the unfunded liabilities is a number so staggering that no one can calculate it properly.  Somewhere around 350K to 500K.  This is a lot of money, and we'll never, ever pay it off.  Imagine that it was your brother-in-law who got you into this much debt, mostly for what he considered to be worthwhile causes.  You'd kill him.  Every serious investor knows we're playing a shell game.  We keep acting as if the problem will go away.  When it crashes, it's going to be horrible.  Absolutely horrible.  Civil unrest, hungry people, and a total breakdown of society. 

I haven't mentioned the money we're spending killing women and children in Pakistan, and how we're going to pay a price for that.  There are some 15-year-old boys in Pakistan watching Obama's drones fly over, and they're plotting their revenge.  On you. 

The alternative would't be a Utopia.  There will be problems. 

But it would be so much better. 

Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry on which way to walk

Here are some recent Tweets from Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry (who I first heard perfom in 1977, BTW.  Memphis, Tennessee.  Great show.) 

@AdmiralPerry
All the kids I talk to are into Ron Paul . They like his voting record. He's not a smiling grinning talking head spewing party BS.


@AdmiralPerry
Obama hasn't done anything close to what he promised he'd do.didn't get my vote and I got lotta grief. Well,my votes for Ron Paul.


@AdmiralPerry
Media is trying to crush Paul. It's so transparent. They will smear himevery chance.beware! Get your news from lot of different sources.

Here's what I hope happens....

I hope Ron Paul comes in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida, and then maybe Nevada. 
Then I hope that a truly horrific Statist defeats him for the Republicrat nomination.  Romney, Gingrich, or Santorum.  Flip a coin for the BarackLite of your choice. 

Then I hope Paul comes back into the Libertarian Party fold to run as Veep or Prez with Gary Johnson, having shed any requirements to cooperate with the Demoblican establishment. 

Then we could give voters a choice between true change and more of the same.  Google some timelines of the last 50 years.  Look at government spending, debt, inflation, military spending and wars, or any other horrific metric you can think of.  Has it mattered which "party" was in charge? 

Here's Joe Perry and Aerosmith from the year I first heard them, 1977:



The voice distortion/phase shifter box that Perry is using in this vid was a big deal at the time.  Peter Frampton used one and sold a jillion records, so everyone else felt like they had to do the same.