Welcome to my home page. I am Carl Milsted, physicist/programmer by day, and former Libertarian activist by night. I snatched up this URL on the off chance that I might run for office one day. There isn't much here, but I have several other sites that you may find of interest.

If you got to this location by a link, you are probably looking for my site on Holistic Politics. I use the term "holistic politics" in a technical sense, not in a New Age sense. All too often political factions are out to promote a particular value, such as freedom, the environnment, helping the poor, promoting morality and so on. There are trade-offs between these values. However, in the fight over which values are more important, many synergies get overlooked. It is possible to dramatically cut the size of government and increase equality; socialism is not necessary to reduce the power of the rich. It is possible to grow the economy and preserve the environment. It is possible to empty half the prison cells and reduce crime and promote Christian values.

Holistic Politics

Once upon a time, I was chairman of the Libertarian Party of Buncombe County, N.C. The word "bunk" comes from "Buncombe", and if you saw the wild mix of political factions there you would see why: hippies, hardcore conservatives, fundamentalist Christians, New Agers, and even a former NAACP leader with a penchant for waving the Confederate flag.

This was a great place to live and a great place to promote new political ideas. But still, the LP was a hard sell...

After seeing what could be done with hard work, press coverage, etc. most of us in the Buncombe County LP decided that it was the overly radical LP Platform that was holding the party back. So, we formed the Libertarian Reform Caucus, in an attempt to convert the LP from a club of borderline anarchists to a real political party. I was the webmaster for the first couple of years, and led a successful effort in 2006 to scrap most of the old LP platform. The membership oath and bad branding remain; however, so I have handed over leadership of the Caucus to others. They are making strides, but there is much left to do, and I think starting a new political party from scratch is the easier option.
My earliest site is The Enhanced Precision Political Quiz in 2D. Back in 1999 I had concluded that the World's Smallest Political Quiz was too small. The small size made it impossible to detect moderate libertarians. So I developed a longer quiz for old Windows machines and in 2001 made a web version. This site also has a collection of old essays on Libertarian political strategy, many of which are applicable to third parties in general.

A more recent project is a new blog on how the rich get paid, including the gigantic hidden government subsidies which pump up those payments. Get rid of the subsidies for the already well off, and we can cut back on the taxes and welfare programs for the rest of us. I was trying to see how a more focused site as a blog would compare with my old static sites in terms of getting traffic. The results were disappointing so I don't update this blog all that often.

Men Collecting Interest

My latest project is Free Money for All. I'm going to try taking some of my message to people who aren't looking for a political site, but are instead looking for free money from the government. Just as the Republicans pitched their Contract for America on TV Guide, I am pitching tax simplification and a citizen's dividend to replace the welfare state to the not so politically active.