Back in the saddle.

I have been very remiss the last week or so with my postings here, I hope my 2 or 3 readers will excuse me.

It has been a busy couple of weeks, too many things going on and no time to stop to take a breath let alone write, but things are calming down, so I am back.

We've had fairly nice weather for late October by Michigan standards, although it was totally overcast last night for the lunar eclipse, which I really wanted to get pictures of. Well that's life in Michigan.

As for CamPAIN 2004 it truly has went from really bad to horrific in the last couple of weeks.

Why is it that people that will not abide with people in their everyday lives lying to them, (their kids, co-workers, merchants…), are not only willing to turn over the most powerful post in the world to one of two bald faced liars, but are actually fighting tooth and nail over which of these liars is the best liar?

Well here is something that might explain it:

New Study: Shocking Voter Ignorance

A new study by the libertarian Cato Institute indicates that a shockingly large number of U.S. voters are almost totally ignorant about the issues and candidates they vote on.

"Overall, close to one-third of Americans can be categorized as 'know-nothings' almost completely ignorant of relevant political information," writes Ilya
Somin, a law professor at George Mason University, in "When Ignorance Isn't Bliss: How Political Ignorance Threatens Democracy."

"Most of the time," Somin notes," only bare majorities know which party has control of the Senate, some 70 percent cannot name either of their state's
senators and the vast majority cannot name any congressional candidate in their district at the height of a campaign."

Overall, voters tend to be "abysmally ignorant of even very basic political information... the sheer depth of most individual voters' ignorance is shocking
to observers not familiar with the research."

A few examples from many in the report:

* The Patriot Act? What's that? Three-fourths of Americans say they know little or nothing about it. 58 percent say they've heard "nothing" or "not much" about
it.

* Seventy percent don't know about the $500 billion new drug benefit added this year to Medicare, which Somin describes as "probably the most significant domestic legislation passed during the Bush administration."

* A majority cannot make even a rough estimate of how many Americans soldiers have been killed in Iraq.

* 61 percent believe that there has been a net loss of U.S. jobs in 2004.

* Over 60 per cent don't know that, during President Bush's term, there has been an explosion in domestic spending (about 25 percent above previous levels) that has enormously increased the national debt.

* Last year, 58 percent of Americans could not name a single federal Cabinet department.

And such voter ignorance is, alas, nothing new:

* In 1964, at the height of Cold War tensions, only 38 percent of the public knew that the Soviet Union was not a member of NATO.

* In 1994, after Republicans took control of Congress under the highly-publicized leadership of Rep. Newt Gingrich, 57 percent of Americans said
they'd never heard of Gingrich, despite the avalanche of press coverage.

* In 1996, 67 percent couldn't name their congressman, and only 26 percent knew that senators serve six-year terms.

* In the 2002 elections, only 32 percent of voters knew that the Republican Party controlled the House.

In 1816, Thomas Jefferson wrote: "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."

Looking at the grave threats to liberty now facing America, one can only conclude Jefferson was right.

(Source: Cato Institute study:
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-525es.html )

The only argument I have with that is I do not find it "Shocking" that the voters are ignorant, they are educated to be that way.

So see our education system is working all to well!

In the last couple of weeks I have had a number of people ask me "What is a Libertarian?

That should explain anything you want to know.