"Stuart & Kathryn Fields" wrote in message
.. .

snip

Ed: We are driving a 2003 Jetta TDI at least one occasion have seen 55mpg
on a 500mile trip. The worst was 47mpg driving 80mph into a 25mph
headwind. However, California made them illegal in 2004.

I saw your comment about that before, Stuart, and it's remarkable. If diesel
wasn't so ridiculously overpriced I'd consider it. My former neighbor has a
turbodiesel New Beetle of about that vintage and he says he gets 45+ mpg
with it, too.

Also BTW I will take the "illegal profiteering" if it means the bloody
incompetent federal government will keep their bureacratic noses out of
our everyday business: FEMA is dictating building codes out in the desert
and establishing "Flood Plains" where there is no record of anykind of
flooding in the past 75 years. I was told that I might be required to
raise my existing structure (40X72 steel building setting on a concrete
slab) 1.5' above the existing ground grade!!! Libertarian? You bet.
After seeing the government in action with Star Wars (I was involved in
Star Wars for 6 years), the current Iraq farce, BATF, DEA etc etc. I
don't see how anyone could avoid Libertarian leanings.

Leanings, yes. Most Americans have a little streak of libertarian in them.

Political party or ideology, no. Political candidates -- well, it keeps the
libertarians from voting for jerks like Bush. g

I'm reminded of one of the complaints registered in the Declaration of
Independence: "He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither
swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance." If
that doesn't describe our BLM, FEMA, BATF, DEA etc. etc. We interfaced
directly with FEMA in support of disaster relief in the Marshall Islands
for two years and were sick and tired of apoligizing to the Marshallese
people for the stupid, arrogant behavior of FEMA. Libertarian? And the
alternatives are?

It depends on what you want. If you want to grumble and have nothing happen,
libertarianism is great. It's the ideology for people who won't be happy no
matter what happens.

But it's a mish-mash of different ideas that just don't fit together.
Basically, self-styled libertarians are pure moralists, who have a patchwork
quilt of moral principles that depend on everyone else thinking precisely
like them. Of course, this is the opposite of what libertarians claim. But
look at the current example: calling a fortuitous profit "profiteering," and
favoring making it illegal. If those same gas stations got caught short with
long-term oil purchases, while one guy in town was buying spot-market oil
when it was on the way down and dropped prices below the cost of the other
guys, and they all took a bath, the anti-profiteering "libertarians" would
just shrug and say "that's the market for you."

It's a moralism of convenience. Libertarians will claim that it isn't true,
but few of them think it through sufficiently to recognize what they're
doing.

--
Ed Huntress