I was a registered Libertarian until the state’s strict ballot access laws decertified our party. I realize that Libertarians shoot themselves in the foot politically by drawing votes away from the least vomitous of two evils. Still, I was pulled over twice last month to get seatbelt tickets. The going rate with court costs is now $100. I am, in fact, the only person I know who has gotten a ticket for wearing their seatbelt the wrong way. I paid a lot of money for a concert ticket in Florida, and was late due to the slow-moving security check in front. Purses had to be searched, and suspicious persons had to be wanded. Three lines admitted about eighteen people in forty minutes. Once inside, during the third song, security motioned for me to show them my ticket. I went to the side of the venue to find it in my purse. Security looked at it, and then they ignored me. I couldn’t go back to my second-row seat because somebody else was sitting there. Security eventually did help me return to the concert. Asheville planners discovered that the public was concerned about pedestrian safety and comfort on Merrimon Avenue when, at a public forum, they asked a question on a par with, “What kinds of pedestrian safety and comfort would you like to see on Merrimon Avenue?” Safety and comfort, we are told, equate to wider sidewalks and street trees, and so we can expect them in the near future. People at work are being accused of criminal conduct for following the instructions of our CPA and attorneys. So, while we can fill the jails with people who hire accountants that get confused on page 2984 of the tax code, encourage paying customers to stay away from concerts or risk public humiliation, support laws to make people wrap themselves in restraints (in a free country) – some poor lady got two to five bullets pumped into her.