Perhaps the most fun one event I've been at in this campaign season was the rally on the Statehouse steps in Indianapolis on Friday, 10-27. I was on a mission to shave the animals, but we'll get back to that.

This rally was in protest against the new-terrain I-69 proposal that's been on the boards for some years now. Kenn Gividen, our Libertarian gubernatorial candidate, has made opposition to this plan to build an extension of the interstate from Indianapolis to Evansville a centerpiece of his campaign.

I freely admit that this is not the top issue on my plate. I haven't studied this issue that close. I was there in large part to support Kenn, who has run perhaps the finest campaign I've ever seen from any Libertarian.

I would tend to be opposed to it though just on general principles. For starters, it's a huge lot of money being spent, a "boondoggle" as Kenn calls it. That's a lot of money being taken away from taking care of all the other roads in the state.

Personally, my biggest beef with this would be the eminent domain issues. I generally think that it is totally wrong for the government to seize people's property by eminent domain. Governments across the country have become FAR too willing to invoke eminent domain.

The most compelling sign I saw invoked Amish farms that would be taken and paved over for this project. There aren't very many real family farms left. At this point, religious communities such as the Amish probably represent a pretty good percentage of them. We definitely shouldn't be forcibly uprooting them from their homes and land unless it is absolutely necessary. It's not.

Anyway, we had a couple of dozen Libertarian Party people there, holding up Gividen for Governor signs. Not too bad.

Also, there's a specific organization behind this anti-interstate activity called CARR, Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads.

However, it turns out our infantry in this scene was a bunch of danged dirty hippies from Bloomington. They came out opposed more on the count of environmental issues, destroying wildlife habitats and such.

For one thing, there was an outfit there called the Bloomington Circus Collective. I think they were responsible for the bongo drums and face paint and giant puppets. For one thing, they sure helped to make the event colorful and entertaining. Looking for identifying hippie marks, such as dredlocks and pony tails and bongo drums and such, I'd estimate that there were a hundred odd people from different groups that might be likely grouped as the Bloomington hippy crowd.

They also managed to bring some delightful pre-voting age kids with them who really gave me great personal delight. I was standing along the curb with my Gividen sign with a couple of very charming teenage girls. Naturally, I started ranting about danged dirty hippies for their benefit.