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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
I find it fascinating that Ron Paul is running for the Republican primary, or that he considers himself a Republican at all. The Republican Party I know supports domestic spying, unilateralism, war in general, power for the sake of power, higher taxes (yes, I said it!), fear mongering, and an across-the-board, wholesale disrespect for the intelligence of the American people. Ron Paul is against all of that.*
Ron Paul has strong beliefs worthy of respect and he stands by them. So why the hell does he want to be the Republican candidate? He calls himself a Constitutionalist. If you look Ron Paul up on Wikipedia, you'll find his economic touchstones are all liberals. But he's also anti-abortion and pro-gun. Why would Ron Paul, who is clearly "his own man," want to be the candidate for the party that despises the very notion of such a thing?
I'd also like to know if anyone can direct me to a site that explains what Paul's plans are if the following policies of his are enacted:
- Elimination of the Dept. of Education
- Elimination of the Dept. of Energy
- Elimination of the IRS
Just post links on here, and thanks in advance for the help!
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*Know who else is against all that? Liberals.
What they want is Utopia. Don't we all? But I'm a pragmatist and I believe any system that takes no account of human fallibility and imperfection won't work. In Ron Paul's world, if you get sick you have to go to your enormous bank account and pay for your treatment yourself. Fine. And if you don't have an enormous bank account? Too bad. You're on your own.
In his world the government is the enemy: not poverty and injustice which his system would set in stone for all time. The proof that his ideas don't work is all around him but of course 'there is none so blind as he who will not see'. He's a process man: get the perfect process and you get the perfect product (the Soviets thought exactly the same) but God doesn't like to be bored watching us ants crawling around, so that don't gonna work! Perfection is inhuman so I always have a healthy fear of an allegedly perfect system that does away with the human need for community and community support and and isolates each of us in our own little hell of individualism and competition. I can only imagine what all those enthusiasts running around campaigning for Paul think he stands for but having had one of those nasty 'humanist' educations I think I can see where he's heading - free market, libertarian crapola. These people are all the same. Margaret Thatcher claimed there was no such thing as society but that didn't stop her having her accomodation, transport, health insurance and income all provided by the society she claimed din't exist. If she really believed what she said she should have dissolved her government and given back all the money. She should have admitted she was a fascist with anarchist overtones on a mission to punish human beings for being -well, human. Ron Paul is firmly in the Thatcher camp. You've been warned. Just remember the story he tells about how doctors used to be paid with chickens when their patients couldn't pay. A great system that worked according to Mr Paul.
He's not even in the 20th century yet.
Wow. Do all of these people who are deriding Ron Paul and his supporters really believe that the government is looking out for their best interests when it comes to health care, education, the water supply, regulation of business?
Do you really expect any rational person in a Post-Enron Post-Halliburton Post-Blackwater age to believe that corporate America has earned our trust?
Enron bankrupted citizens and got caught on tape laughing about it! Haliburton is under so many on-going fraud investigations that it’s impossible to know where to begin with them. Blackwater, Bush’s private mercenaries, are also under so many “unnecessary force/murder” investigation and over billing/fraud investigation that it’s difficult to believe anyone still thinks these corporate for profit mercenaries are better (hell, even equal to!) our United States soldiers!
My goodness! We’ve already turned over government functions to private business and what happened? Murder, torture and literally billions of dollars in cash missing and unaccounted for!
And your theory is that these un-elected and totally unaccountable CEO’s are somehow “better” than democratically elected officials?
So you’d rather eliminate elections and just hand things over to unelected CEO’s under the theory that our democratically elected government officials are somehow not as trustworthy as the CEO’s of Enron and Worldcom?
Really? Seriously?
If I want to treat my kids who are ill at home, I don't want the gov't telling me it's child abuse.
I do. I especially want someone checking up on you to verify that you aren’t crazy. Think how many children could have been saved had someone in Child Protective Services done their jobs properly or those local agencies had been properly staffed and funded?
How many children have been physically abused by their parents because anti-government zealots (like Bush!) have de-funded that agency on the theory that “people should be free to beat their kids in privacy”?
The people screaming the loudest for privacy in family matters (it often seems) are the very ones doing things they ought not be doing. Sorry, but it’s true.
I don’t think turning over our health and welfare to Enron is going to improve our quality of life – I think it will lower it. Substantially. I also don’t think totally de-funding (or eliminating) social services and protective services is going to make anyone “freer” except the child molesters.
and his supporters, give nuts a bad name.
I suggest that you look at the rates of death in childbirth before hospitals. Both maternal and child. A woman does not have to go to the doctor to have her child. So I don't quite know what you are speaking of, that they need to make sure you aren't a nutjob who says birthin babies ain't no thing. Well I'm sure the families of the women who've died during childbirth would not be in such agreement with you. That to assist a woman in childbirth you should be trained and know what to expect in case things don't go as planned. Sure childbirth usually goes smoothly, the doctors are there for if it does not. No one in armed gear takes pregnant women by force to the hospital.
I suggest you look at the percentage of cavaties and tooth decay before fluoride in the water. I suggest you look at how many people ingest parasites from water sources not cleaned by a government agency first. There is a reason you are told not to drink the water in Mexico. I don't know about you but I like that I don't have to boil my water before I drink it. I suggest you find out how likely you were to get sick and die from your food before the FDA, you would probably be surprised. I'm sure you'd also be surprised at the lack of produce available before pesticides and that with our population the way it is, I frankly don't want to be reduced to free market economics when it comes to fruit and vegetables when the crops are either destroyed or there simply aren't enough to go around because all those small organic farms can't produce enough. So the poor suffer again by not being able to afford a 3 dollar apple.
One bag of chips won't kill you, but nothing but chips, yeah not doing so well, but still won't necessarily kill you. This is where you know that stuff about personal responsibility comes in. If you don't want to get fat or eat chemicals, there are tons of other options in the supermarket. Plus not one of those items in the supermarket equals eat then die, that's what the FDA protects you against, a one time or multiple ingestion of product X over time will not kill or harm you in any significant way. You can eat sugar everyday, a naturally occuring product, that can make you sick when consumed in large quantities everyday. Plus may I remind you that it is the corporations whom you would rather put your trust in that make those chips/cookies in the first place.
I suggest you find out what it's like when only those with money can afford to educate their children. Are you seriously suggesting that every average person who bore a child can educated their child in high level science and mathmatics and literature? Are you fucking kidding me? My mom taught me how to read but there is no way she could have taught me biology or calculus. Nor should everyone who has a child be automatically made an unpaid teacher too. YOu know some people do have two income households, or a one parent family. Free public educations main goal is to make sure everyone, rich poor, black white, has equal chance for advancement. Sure as we've seen, the property taxes model for payment of public education is probably not the right one, but I would never be against it. People having to be forced to send their children to school, well so what, nothing has proven to me that tons of people aren't complete dipshits. Just watch Beauty and the Geek. As for homeschooling, nothing prevents you from homeschooling your child, one woman in my office homeschools her child. All you have to do is apply for it, the state still needs to make sure the child is learning at a equal or above the rate of others in their peer group, they also need to know you aren't forcing your child to work instead of learn.
Land costs so much because of the free market you nitwit. There is a finite amount of land that is developable. The population is infinite. When demand outstrips supply, prices rise. So yes, some rich dude with more momey will always be able to buy land a middle class wanna be farmer cannot.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
