AD SPACE

Bubba's Korner by Dan Nordine editor

I love watching politics and the antics of the major parties and their candidates. It is interesting to watch as one candidate loses a little ground to another over an issue. Just watch the change in campaigning once that happens. It usually takes a turn for the worse and mud starts flying in all directions.
But for politics-watchers, there is another really interesting evolution going on. The Libertarian Party is growing with each election year.
I was listening to Minnesota Public Radio the other day as they had a chat with Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate for president. The fact that Libertarians have put forth a candidate is really no big deal, all of the parties outside of the major two biggies seem to find someone to run.
What is interesting about Barr is, he is a former congressman from Georgia and also a former member of the Republican Party. Barr was considered one of the most conservative members of his party at that time.
In the interview, Barr, a social conservative explained that he had become disillusioned with Republican Party’s migration toward record spending.
“...The new Republican Party, the Republican Party of this early twenty first century, has veered so sharply from its fiscal conservancy roots, respect for individual rights and its fighting for smaller government...”, Barr told MPR News.
Barr is an interesting candidate. He espouses many of the same things as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), yet projects himself as being very conservative.
Isn’t there a clash here somewhere? I thought the ACLU was to the far left of liberal politics.
But when you listen to Barr speak, you can see that he is arriving at the same destination as the ACLU on many issues, he’s just travelling a different route to get there.
He speaks of the administration’s “disrespect for the great writ, Writ of Habeas Corpus, believing it can hold individuals, including American citizens, without granting them access to the court, one of the fundamental underpinnings of liberty in our country.”
He also criticized the administration for illegal wiretapping of U. S. Citizens, without warrants under the guise of gathering foreign intelligence.
Barr’s insistence, and that of his party, that allowing markets to take their own course without regulation of any sort, the abolishment of any and all social programs at the federal level. Libertarians believe those types of programs, if needed, will be taken care of by state governments or the private sector, but the federal government has no business taxing for those things.
Listening to Barr, as a self professed moderate liberal, I found myself agreeing with many of the things the man was saying. I do have some questions about the marketplace policing itself because I believe that big corporations really have no moral compass and the only focus they have, with or without regulation, is profit.
Barr said the courts would still be in place and could deal with cases of corporate fraud or other illegal actions taken by these corporations in the name of making more money.
I have my doubts on this one. Look at the U. S. oil companies making obscene profits while Joe Average suffers. And that is taking place with regulations in place. Without regulation in this case, the only people in this country with any income would be CEO’s of the oil companies. Do you think they are going to jump in and create needed social programs to keep the rest of us from starving?
The interview with Barr made for some very interesting listening, and as I said, it came as a big surprise to me that I agreed with him on so many issues. If we get to hear a few presidential debates this year, I hope they let him participate. I doubt if he will be invited, however, he’d eat McCain and Obama alive. I don’t think they’d be able to hold a candle to him.
********
To change the mood a little here...
I think Slim is probably the most even tempered person I have ever known. She doesn’t really like confrontation, and can usually forgive anyone for anything.
But there was one time...
It was many years ago now, some friends asked Slim and I to join them fishing at Lake Bronson. They were staying at a private cabin on the lake and had a boat docked on a private dock.
We fished that morning, then took a break for lunch. Following lunch and a quick snooze we wandered back to the dock to get in the boat.
The boat, all our fishing gear, and even the fish on the stringer were gone!
After what we thought was a respectable amount of time, we notified the Kittson County Sheriff and Roger Thompson, who was a deputy at the time came out to see us. We got in the Sheriff’s boat and drove all over the lake looking for our missing craft, but it was nowhere to be seen.
Roger suggested we head back to the dock where the boat had last been seen, and as we got closer we could make out a boat with two young boys just pulling in to tie up.
And there was Slim.
Slim was standing on the end of the dock wagging a finger at the two boys and the words coming our of her mouth would have driven a sailor for cover.
Those poor boys had no idea what hit them. She harangued them for a solid ten minutes, refusing to let them get a word in in their defense.
As we pulled in alongside them with the sheriff’s boat, Roger smiled, “I don’t think you will need to file charges, they’ve probably had all the punishment they can stand.”
I just chuckled and agreed. Turns out the boys were to borrow a relative’s boat for the day. The relative had told them it would be at the dock with all of the fishing gear on board, so when they saw our boat, just figured that had to be it.
They got to wondering a bit though when they found a stringer of fish tied to the oarlock.
That is probably the one and only time Slim has ever let loose like that. I’ve seen her get a little riled since, but nothing to compare to that explosion.
Good thing too, it makes her pretty easy to live with.

"The Newspaper That Cares"