It was a familiar time.

It was a time of a Republican administration waging an unpopular war. It was a war some Democrats said they opposed but seemed to do very little to stop. Inflation was starting to become a problem.

America’s allies thought our president’s economic and political polices were flawed and they were often ridiculed. Anti-Americanism was popular. The Republican president infrequently disagreed with Democrats about the welfare state.

Stories from today’s newspapers? Not exactly.

Let us be honest. I’m only a 93% Libertarian and roughly a 90% patriot. That’s why I curse our Alabama Legislature’s proposal to mount cameras at traffic intersections, but view with calm equanimity the wiretapping of suspects or even suspected suspects who’d like to blow up New York City; or poison Chicago’s water supply or otherwise harm me or my countrymen.

The Orange County Register provides an editorial review of the Mises Institute confererence last weekend in Costa Mesa:

A British high school student seems to be writing other “Harry Potter” books, including one with 90 chapters (”Meetings in the Tower”) that has become an underground classic. It seems to be formatted as a “quiz,” possibly to avoid copyright trouble (but others have put it into .doc and sent it around). HP-starved teens just can’t wait for the real author to finish the next one; they want HP and want it now!

A fascinating report by Jeff Porten in TidBITS on the 16th Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference. An amusing bit comes with his description of a speech given by Stewart Baker, Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Department of Homeland Security:

AOL News (AP) reports on a market solution to rising gas prices: buy gas now and store it for later. That’s right; create your own strategic oil reserve!

One lucky prospector is tapping the 99 cents a gallon gas that he has stored in his private reserve. What a deal! What a solution!

The market always creates solutions for economic issues. Saving gas is the perfect hedge investment for those looking to offset rising fuel prices.

The government has been keeping a secret about automobiles under wraps for the past 30 years. And when it comes to testing cars, Consumer Reports leaves no stone unturned, no lug nut loose.