Yarbrough: Meeting a Libertarian with a sense of humor

Hard to believe, but some people actually get their knickers in a wad over observations that emanate from this space. After a careful analysis of critical comments, I've decided that the vast number of complainants suffer from a serious case of humor deficiency. This is not unlike being deficient in your intake of omega-3 whatevers, except that eating fish doesn't improve the situation. It just makes your breath smell bad.

My list of the humor-deficient respondents is impressive in its diversity. It includes flaggers who act as if it's still 1861, loud-talking Yankee expatriates who like to criticize us but wouldn't move back north if you bought them a bus, Baptists who think women in the pulpit are worse than a toe fungus and Catholics who see nothing wrong with denying an innocent child her first communion because she couldn't tolerate wheat.

I have long considered the Libertarian Party among the humor-deprived. Sure enough, after relentlessly twitting Bob Barr's dud of a presidential campaign last year, Jim Serrate, a Cobb County Libertarian and a member of their state executive committee, let me know of his displeasure with my smart-alecky comments. No surprise there.

What was surprising is that Serrate invited me to join him for a cup of coffee (which he bought) and a generous helping of Libertarian philosophy. He turned out to be imbued with a great sense of humor and a noticeable lack of self-importance. Rats.

Say what you will about the Libertarians and their head-in-the-clouds approach to today's issues, but they have a smart political operative in Jim Serrate. The man knows his politics, and is realistic about the kind of obstacles his party faces in becoming relevant in Georgi