(The Swamp) - I don't know how many of you have had an opportunity to drive on I-26 or I-385 between Lexington and Greenville counties. If you have, then you may agree with me when I say I have vowed never to drive in the right hand lane in these areas.

Like many holy vows, I may, some day, have to pay for my resoluteness with my time and treasure.

I know a little something about the highway department and traffic, so believe me when I say that this stretch of highway has caused more than an axle or two to be destroyed as cars bumble and bump along the poorly patched excuse for a "Super" highway - not to mention the blown tires.

Now, please understand, I'm not talking about the pathetic part of I-385 called the "Golden Strip." That joke-cum-roadway actually may be repaired this year. And we hope that this occurs before another car is lost forever in another pothole. But this pathetic road is not that pathetic road, although ALL of I-385 could be used as the perfect governmental SNAFU example.

As one glides effortlessly from Greenville county to the "Zone of Lost Causes," one begins to wonder just how much influence that county's legislative delegation has. Another thought that pops up in the mind is about all that tax money we pay per gallon for gasoline to keep up our highways. Although the bookkeeping has become a phantom object, lately, it was never very good, and regardless of the lies told, South Carolina has become the "sucker state," as a little less than 50¢ of every gas tax dollar we collect goes to another state. Since North Carolina gets about 1½ times the amount of gas tax money they collect, and since they have about twice the number of people and roads we do, I like to think that half of our gasoline taxes go to them. (per capita rates, not actual money amounts, tell the tale)

As you know, I am two societal services short of being an anarchist. I believe our taxes should be spent for a large technologically advanced volunteer security force (weapons, cops, soldiers) and infrastructure (highways, bridges, education, interstate & commerce dispute solving). Everything else, and I really do mean EVERYTHING ELSE, should be privately funded. No FDA, no federal Attorney General, not much federal anything, actually. The Tenth Amendment and loser-pays takes care of it all.

So, you can imagine my chagrin each day as I ply the road between Clinton and Greenville.

Our state can't afford a decent education as a requirement for state citizenship? We can't muster the bucks to pave ALL our roads? We can't afford to pay decent wages to cops? Our bridges go unrepaired (for the most part)? Whom are we kidding?

YOU know where the money is going. It's going to proven destructive practices such as indigent medical care, food stamps, you name it! ALL of these things should have been handled by, and actually were, at one time, handled by churches, synagogues, mosques, and charitable societies.