Each election I find myself wanting another choice for candidate for president of the United States. I'm tired of voting for the least offensive. Here's what I want:

• Not too old, not too young.

• Not too elitist, not too low class.

• Not so smart he thinks the voters are stupid, not so stupid he thinks he's smart.

• Not so liberal he has no common sense. Not so conservative he has no common sense.

Is that too much to ask??

When I was twenty years old, I thought I was mature and ready for marriage. When I was twenty-five I looked at friends from school who had little kids and thought, "I'm soooo glad I'm not stuck there!" By the time I was thirty, the bigotry had started. I was seen as less of a person than those with children. I wished I had a chance for children. I would be a good parent. But it didn't happen. Now in my forties, I'm sooooo glad I'm not there. Maybe I'm set in my ways now but I enjoy the freedom to come and go without worrying about someone else.

Last night I attended a minor league baseball game with some coworkers and their families. I was the only one who could stay for the end of the game. The others had to get the kids home and in bed. They missed the triple. They missed the opposing team's short stop getting hit in the face with a line drive. They asked me this morning who won. Poor, sad parents.

I expressed my unhappiness about federal regulations making it inconvenient for me to purchase an over-the-counter medication to the stupid young man behind the counter at the pharmacy. Instead of a yes, I understand and sympathize attitude, he was all Pollyanna and gave me permission to be annoyed. Why do people do that?

I don't need your permission to disagree with anything, whether it is government policy or the added red tape a store adds on themselves.

We need clean air to breathe. We need clean water to drink. We have to find something to replace oil because it is a finite resource. We need to be prudent and frugal with the earth's resources.

I don't believe in global warming. I believe in science, not retoric. The earth has been gradually warming since the end of the last ice age. We are nearing historic peak temperatures before cooling again for the next ice age. There have been smaller peaks and valleys throughout the centuries.

I have little patience with fad science. Fad science said African Americans were more closely related to apes than Causcasians. Fad science said the earth was flat. Fad science said men were smarter than women. A little common sense please.