I am a retired Unix/Linux computer system administrator and have always been interested in politics and economics. I live in the small town of Gobles, Michigan, USA, which lies about twenty miles northwest of the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan (yes, there really is a Kalamazoo). [;)] My other interests include reading, writing (mainly about politics and economics), history, music, and target shooting. I also collect fountain pens and use them for the vast majority of my writing as I find them to be much more comfortable and expressive to write with than any ballpoint pen. It is my firm belief that the United States is no longer a free nation, in the sense intended by the Founding Fathers, and that it behooves all U.S. citizens who claim to love freedom to do all they can to, peacefully, oppose the continuing expansion of the power and intrusiveness of the Federal government. Because of this belief I did not vote for either of the major candidates as they were both advocates of increasing the size and power of the Federal government. I think that the U.S. is ruled by a one party political system: it's just that the one party has two major wings which compete for access to the benefits that can be gained by allowing their followers to feed at the public trough. I am a libertarian (note the small "l").