"When I decided to head home to the Northern Rockies of my childhood after having been active in the Libertarian Party in Nevada, California and finally Texas, I had no plans to ever run for office again," says Allen Hacker. Yet here he is, virtually tied for first place in a three-way race for Mayor.

THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

In the design of America's founders, the states are supposed to be centers of democratic experiment. They're not supposed to be uniform. For example, even though alcohol Prohibition ended in 1933, local laws restricting sales exist in 33 states. In Arkansas, more than half of 75 counties prohibit alcohol sales.

Here's my fantasy: Libertarians are elected to the presidency and to majorities in Congress. What would happen next? Well, if libertarians were "in charge," you'd have more freedom and prosperity.

Imagine a league where players who make it through three seasons could never be cut from the roster.

Imagine the National Football League in an alternate reality. Each player's salary is based on how long he's been in the league. It's about tenure, not talent. The same scale is used for every player, no matter whether he's an All-Pro quarterback or the last man on the roster. For every year a player's been in this NFL, he gets a bump in pay. The only difference between Tom Brady and the worst player in the league is a few years of step increases.

Among the points it makes creatively: Of the 3 million new jobs that are created in a typical year, nearly every one is at a firm that’s been in existence five years or less.  These are real jobs, not government make work, jobs.

Ida May Fuller worked as a schoolteacher and secretary during her long life - a life without marriage, children, political power or business influence yet a life that achieved one of the greatest returns on investment in American history.

The woman who came to be known to family and friends in Brattleboro, Vt., as “Aunt Ida” turned less than $25 into nearly $23,000.

Someone answer this for me: how do you not see the parallels in today's political theater with the more startling component's of George Orwell's "1984"?

Among several storyline components in the book, Oceania's government flip-flops between its announcements of being at war with Eurasia and then Eastasia in a matter of a couple months, but no one seems to take notice.

Contrast with with how today's Republicans and Democrats do the same:

If there is any American principle I have taken for granted since I was a little boy, it is freedom of religion. And indeed, this is one area where the United States comes close to living up to its professed values. Most of the world has state-sanctioned religions and churches. In the United States, ever since the American Revolution and even before, the doctrines of religious liberty have animated the nation’s political ideals.

LOGAN, Utah—Over the past decade or so, China’s policy of export-led growth has triggered double-digit economic gains, leading some commentators to predict that the Chinese economy—already second-largest in the world—would soon eclipse our own.

Meanwhile, beginning with the popping of the real estate bubble five years ago, the United States slid into recession. Although the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the slump ended in June 2009, the recovery has remained weak, with unemployment still hovering around 10 percent.