What to do and what NOT to do about gas prices

DO- Reduce fuel consumption. Walk or ride a bike to your destination when you can. Drive the smallest vehicle with the smallest engine that suits your needs. Join a car pool if you can.

DON'T- Don't pin your hopes on the federal or state government investigating price gouging. The government doesn't have to investigate what people report regularly. If a gas station were to try and charge $5 a gallon, people would rat that place out. Of course, the libertarian solution to price gouging is to not shop at any place that charges too much for gas. If the gas gauge is on "E" and the next gas station wants to charge higher than average, only buy enough to get to the next gas station.

DO- Build more power plants. There are still oil powered power plants in the US. This strikes me as an incredible waste when electricity can be generated so many other ways.

There is nothing that the government can do to increase the amount of oil that is being pumped out of the ground, nor is there anything that can be done to increase the amount of crude oil in the earth's crust. Now that India and China are rapidly becoming nations of cars instead of bicycles, the demand for oil is rapidly increasing with no increase in supply. I hate to say this, but you all are just going to have to deal with high gas prices.

City County Consolidation

There are some services that should be consilidated. For instance, the 911 services of the city and the county should be merged to provide better services and save taxpayer money.

But a complete city county merger could draw thousands of Allen County residents into Fort Wayne against their will. No neighborhood should be annexed against the will of its residents, just as the United States should not be allowed to annex another country.

I will concede that it may be in the best interests of current Fort Wayne residents to expand this town from the Whitley County line to the Ohio Border. And it may benefit US citizen to expand the American Empire so that it stretches from the Yukon to the Yucatan. But it would be wrong.

Indiana's new slogan

The state of Indiana paid $90,000 for the following slogan: "Re-start Your Engines". Why 30K a word? It seems that the money was spent on focus groups and consultants. (Sometimes I think a consultant is someone you pay to tell you to do what you planned on doing anyway.)

I would have done it for free. My guess is that most out of state tourists would still come from within the region, say the Midwest and Kentucky. How about "Indiana: Culture That's Close to You"

The problem with "Re-start Your Engines" is that it appeals mostly to racing fans. While there is nothing wrong with people who enjoy watching cars go real fast in a circle, my guess is that racing fans don't need a commercial to tell them that the Indianapolis 500 takes place in Indianapolis.

Campaign Update

Monday I was at the tax protest. There weren't as many latefilers this year as there were last year. I think part of that is due to confusion over when the actual deadline is, and part of it is due to more people filing online. One woman said that she liked paying taxes because of the services that she recieves. I propose that she be allowed to pay the portion of my taxes that do not go towards roads, emergency services, and the military.

There is an interesting idea for you all: tax earmarking. You already can check off that box on the 1040 that put $3 toward the Presidential Campaign Fund. I never check it off, because the money always goes to candidates that I don't support. But it would be an interesting thing to see how many people would vote for a program versus how many would be willing to pay for a program.

How many people want to pay for the "Bridge to Nowhere"? Fifty people? That bridge then would consist of large floating chunks of styrofoam. For the price that the government is paying for that bridge, every resident of Gravina Island could just buy a house some place warmer and more accessable. Alaska's Congressman Ted Stevens threatened to quit if the funding was cut for the bridge. I say we should have taken him up on the offer.

Yesterday I went out to distribute more door hangers. I took Mikey Potter with me, but he got tired after about an hour. I'm going out again today, but I have to be at the downtown library at 7pm. Why? To help film "Libertarians at Large".

Yes, "Libertarians at Large" will be on at 7pm tonight on Comcast Channel 57. I don't know what Doug has planned or who will be the guest. You can tune in, then call the show to ask or comment on the topic being discussed. Or you can flick rubber bands at the screen. Hey, it's your TV.

Today is Tax Day.

As I write this, I am planning on going out to the tax protest to hand out pamphlets for my campaign for state representative. So I imagine that tonight there will be a few first time visitors to this blog.
So for all you new people, feel free to post a comment. You can introduce yourself, ask me a question, give a shoutout to your friends at home, or propose a topic for discussion. Say how much you love or hate paying taxes.

Ronald Reagan on Immigration

It seems that this conservative president had a very liberal attitude towards immigration.
http://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/Ronald_Reagan_Immigration.htm

My campaign flyers are in!

I know that the campaign really won't heat up until after the primary. But I ordered them early so that I could hand them out on tax day.

Yes, there is a campaign website, but it is under construction. Basically, right now it has a link to this blog and my email address. I'll let you all know when it's really up and running.