Initial Post

Ok, lemme give this thing a try. I reckon I'll just introduce myself a bit--just in case someone surfs in here by accident. It's generally considered unsporting to not post "Beware of Dog" signs and such, so consider this fair warning.

My name is Mike Ruff, I'm 32, male, 6 foot, gray eyes that change to various shades of blue and green for no apparant reason, about 230 lbs, and I shave my blond hair off because I have no patience with it. I joined the Army at 17, I've lived in every state on the East Coast of the US plus a few others, I've traveled around a good bit of the world, and I just moved to Alabama from North Carolina in March of 2004. I read voraciously, and actually go through withdrawal symptoms if I haven't read a book in the past 16 hours. I've got an A.A. degree from a community college, a Doctor of Divinity thru mail order, and a little more than 240 credit hours towards a B.A. in Philosophy, History, Classical Studies, Literature, and so forth. I did my freshman year in college in Augsburg, Germany, about a year after finishing active duty in the US Army and doing a few other things in between.

After I came back to the States, I was in the Nasty Guard until I finally came to my senses in 1998. The only thing I was ever really good at was being a soldier. I knew that I was going to be a soldier from the time I was about 8 years old, and spent a lot of my childhood preparing myself for that life. I miss the life all the time--but I realized that I could not be true to my oath and remain in the US Army at the same time--more on that later.

These days I make my living as on office manager, which provides me with 1) plenty of frustration (without which I would probably curl up an die from lack of opposition) ; 2) plenty of horror stories for anyone who complains about how bad they have it; and 3) plenty of amusement at the expense of less intelligent and educated life-forms--i.e. university faculty and administration, college seniors who aren't literate, etc. Hey--it's either laugh or cry. "The world is a tragedy to those who feel, and a comedy to those who think." I think that was Oscar Wilde, but I don't remember.

Anyway, to shorten this already long story, I'm a Libertarian/Anarcho-capitalist. I'll explain that later. But I'm basically an anti-government gun-nut (I carry The Pistol. In the beginning there was the 1911, and it was good. And God said: "Thou shalt not hang all manner of foul implements on this good product of my disciple, John Moses Browning, lest it malfunction in thy hour of need."). In addition, I believe everyone owns their own body and life, and therefore interfering in the decisions of consenting adults with regards to their choices in sexual partners, recreational pharmacology, life-styles, and so forth is wrong. The principle is the "Zero-Aggression Principle" or "ZAP." More on this later.

More on everything later. I'm going to see whether the Communist or the Fascist won this stupid damn election for President of the US. The only decent human up for election might pull 1% if he's lucky (i.e. Michael Badnarik).