Lance, I will vote for you if you promise to say things like, "When the Big Government Shit hits the Critical Mass Fan", on TV during and after the elelction. Talk like that would go a long way toward the "demystification" of political office. People take politicians so seriously, it really is pathetic.

(emphasis added)

I plan to be nearly as brash as Howard and Rush, but as solid and well-communicated as say, Larry King or William F. Buckley.

I think I maintain a decent balance of real-person jargon and intellectual dialogue. I have always been ahead of my age level educationally, and am probably a near-Mensa type. Yet I have been living a very "real-world" life, and near poverty level for much of it. I have been working since I was 14, and have been responsible for the purchase of my secondary material objects (stereos, cars, etc.) since then. Name a grunt job, and I've done it.

Check it out:

Laundry attendant, cook, dishwasher, delivery driver, furniture stripper/refinisher, furniture mover, register operator (x10 or so), convenience store clerk, dressing room attendant, proofreader, house cleaner, industrial cleaner (x2), carpet cleaner, dispatcher, airport shuttle driver, housing desk clerk, telemarketer, vacuum cleaner salesman, copy shop clerk (x2), laborer, factory worker.

I have picked up cigarette butts for 3 hours in the line of duty. I have crawled beneath a dishwasher (where no one had been for 8 years), and cleaned it up.

I am not of the bourgeoisie.

Nevertheless, I must (and will) rise to wealth for my plan to succeed. I'm pretty sure I could live a fairly happy life on a $100,000-and rising salary, with a wife and kids and a plot of land. I know for sure that I could cruise on up one of a number of tracks to head me there, and it would be easy, if not drawn out and boring.

But I've decided to spend my 75.1 years a little differently. I'm quite happy with my past ten years in grunt-worker conditions. I've gained a great sense of work in general, and I can relate to most blue-collar jobs very well. I've learned plenty about white collar jobs as well, not least from my past 1.5 years driving an airport shuttle.

I've also learned that I don't want to work for an employer any more, and have spent the past two years crafting an entrepreneurial plan to "make my millions." It generally seems to have coalesced around my idea for a free school on the internet, and my New Enterprise Project (trying to turn workers into home office/independent contractor/entrepreneurs), both of which are (hopefully) in the last 6 months of development, to be fully born when I move to California (hopefully) by the end of the year.

Generally, I plan to go from being Joe Public to being Steve Forbes (figuratively, please!) fairly quickly (5-7 years). In this way, my "roots" will be a lot harder to forget. Plus, I plan to work with people who can't afford education, and regular working people looking for independence- two good ways to stay in touch with the common man/woman.

Bess, your positive qualities are such that an attempt to quantify them is guaranteed to be insuffiecient. You are kind, patient, loving, giving, open-minded, and devoted to the idea that inside every human being there is, well, a human being! There are a lot of people who have given up on the notions that seem to comprise your spirit. They are wrong, and you are right. Everybody is worth saving. I hope to hear from you for the rest of my campaign.

ormond, you are often arrogant, uncommonly blunt, and seem to think a lot of yourself. I admire those qualities in a person. You have approached me with relatively few words, but those words have been a significant influence to me in my 8 months here at TT. I like the way you conduct yourself (although I wouldn't mind a few more words from you on average). Again, thank you.

Fred, if you're here- despite your recent leftist ravings, I have found you to be a provocative contributor to these discussions, with strong, well-considered beliefs, and a talent, not unlike Mr. Stout's, of mixing the whimsical with the dramatic. Your contribution of months ago was a tremendous morale booster in what can be a quite lonely job.

I will happy to polish the egos of anyone else who dares to post in my thread. ;)

Seriously, though, I extend my thanks and applause to all that venture forth into reasoned discussion. Double applause to those who have been patient enough to still like me. It's not easy. I don't go down smooth; I'm stubborn, a severe egotist, and not the greatest of listeners. There's even those who have said that I am insensitive and cold; but they'll be wormfood in the end, just like the rest of us.

But really seriously though, I am sane enough to know that anyone who even takes me somewhat seriously as a presidential candidate is taking a hefty leap of faith. You'd be silly if you didn't chuckle about it every now and then. I never have the slightest idea what people think when I tell them I'm running for president. At this point I tend to think that most are politely nodding and smiling, and then laughing it off as they turn away. With luck they might pass the encounter on to a friend with a chuckle.

But by the time I barge my way onto the national scene, there will be millions of people who have heard about "that president guy" over 14 years. And they just might remember that chuckling moment of yore, and how that guy was talking about running for president 10 years ago. And then there he is. Really running for president!

"Now there's someone who means what they say," they'll say. "He was talking that crazy libertarian shit back then too. Maybe we ought to give him a listen."

What a speech. I would usually get on my war-horse and take up my mace and chain and dispatch the unwashed for such incoherent utterances. Here, I see too much in the mirror.

I don't go down smooth; I'm stubborn, a severe egotist, and not the greatest of listeners.

All this to your credit. Stand your ground.

Bess, your positive qualities are such that an attempt to quantify them is guaranteed to be insuffiecient. You are kind, patient, loving, giving, open-minded, and devoted to the idea that inside every human being there is, well, a human being!

No further comment on this. 110 points.

ormond, you are often arrogant, uncommonly blunt, and seem to think a lot of yourself. I admire those qualities in a person. You have approached me with relatively few words, but those words have been a significant influence to me in my 8 months here at TT.

Me too. I have been stalled for hours by OO. Haven’t had such troubles in 40 years. Met my match? Perhaps.

But by the time I barge my way onto the national scene, there will be millions of people who have heard about "that president guy" over 14 years.

I will be there.

Don't you folks think that if you see me running for president in 2007-8, you'll talk to your friends about our times here at TT '97?

I've finished "Ain't Nobody's Business if You Do," by Peter McWilliams. A fine book, and an excellent representation of the libertarian perspective. Very easy to read, and friendly. Humorous, well-researched, comprehensive. I recommend it to anyone seeking a palatable perspective on most Libertarian issues.

The text of the book is available free online, and I would be very, very interested in discussing anything in the book here with anyone who has read it, or does.

In other news, I am firming up plans to move from Western MA to the San Francisco Bay Area around the end of February/beginning of March. I will most likely be driving across the country over a period of a week.

If anyone has any location advice for the Bay Area, cross-country travel pointers, or would like to set up a meeting along the way, let me know, please. My route, and specific destination, are up in the air still, so I'm open to suggestions.

I would like to put a question on the floor.

I would like to know what it would take for me to earn your vote in 2008.

First of all, I will be only 36 years old. What would it take for you to vote for a 36-year-old candidate for President? Or, is there absolutely no way you would possibly vote for a 36-year-old candidate?

If possible, try to picture the you of ten years from now, in the land of ten years from now.

Secondly, I'm likely to either be a Libertarian or an Independent with a hard libertarian stance. What would have to occur, or what would you have to be convinced of, to vote for a Libertarian candidate in 2008? What are your prerequisites for thinking about voting Independent? Or, would you NEVER vote Libertarian, or Independent, for that matter.

How do you see the position of the Libertarian Party, and libertarian movement, in ten years? Do you think it will grow or dwindle, and why? Do you think it is at all possible that Libertarians could be a significant factor by 2008?

Do you think an Independent candidate can win the Presidency? Do you think the odds will be better or worse in ten years?

Do you think a national candidate will be able to firmly denounce the Drug War by 2008? Do you think a candidate who advocates marijuana legalization could win the Presidency in 2008? If not, why not?

Spencer e-mailed me lately and asked me what I do for a living. Being a public kinda guy, I figured I'd let you all get a picture of Lance's world.

I'm super-busy lately, shuffling a bunch of different job schedules, and working on like ten different projects at once.

I currently make my living working a combination of independent contractor/consultant type jobs. The main one, in terms of time, is my regular 'ol food delivery driving job, which I'm doing 4-7 nights a week lately. It's quick cash, and I basically choose my work schedule. Next would be my job that starts next week, doing Quark to HTML conversion for a local free weekly paper. That'll be 15-20 hours a week, in three days. I get to do that at home on my computer, mostly. Next would be overseeing a marketing project as a consultant for the owner of the company I deliver food for. That runs around 10 hours a week. And, for a few weeks I will be doing legal research for hire, also from my home. Probably about 20-25 hours a week.

Those are my straight pay jobs. I also do Media and Internet consulting for a couple of my friends' web enterprises, a few hours each a week. And I volunteer training people on computers at a homeless shelter off and on.

In my free time, I work on my own projects, which include my plans for a free K-12 school on the internet, my plans for a homeworkers' union (sort of), my creative works, and the founding of my nascent non-profit organization, Future Solutions. I'm also developing a business plan for presentation to a venture capitalist.

Well, I'm not done, and I'm keeping track of the loose ends I've left in this and other threads. I'll be spouting my views for the next ten to twenty years, and I plan to answer every question I can. If I seem to be avoiding something particular, please remind me. I'm not looking to hide from the answers to any questions about my grandiose plan, or about the future of the country and the world. I just don't always have the resources to put together a sufficiently bulletproof answer to every question as it comes.

As usual, I have to go to bed.