(no subject)
i hopped on facebook today and saw another one of my friends supporting ron paul. he appears to be the latest fad in the "Let's Vote For the Craziest Guy in the Election and Call It a Revolution" movement. so i thought to myself maybe it's about time i take a look at what exactly ron paul is saying. who knows, maybe he has some good ideas. i went to his website and read what he had to say about the issues. and these are my thoughts on ron paul:
1) From American Independence: "NAFTA’s superhighway is just one part of a plan to erase the borders between the U.S. and Mexico, called the North American Union." economic unions are good for free trade. so if you're so in favor of free trade, why would be again a north american economic union?
"Let’s not forget the UN. It wants to impose a direct tax on us." the UN is not a government body and therefore can't tax anyone, turd.
2) From Border Security and Immigration Reform: "Physically secure our borders and coastlines. We must do whatever it takes to control entry into our country" and being the crusader of low taxes that you are... tell me, how do you plan on putting up a physical barrier without raising taxes?
"End birthright citizenship." WHAT?! ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?! listen, asshole, america is a country made of immigrants. without birthright citizenship, i might not be a citizen today. do you understand how rediculous that is? hell, without birthright citizenship, YOU might not be a citizen today. you're family had to come from somewhere, just like everybody else's.
3) From Debt and Taxes "We are nine trillion dollars in debt as a nation. Our mounting government debt endangers the financial future of our children and grandchildren. If we don’t cut spending now, higher taxes and economic disaster will be in their future - and yours." again, those 9 trillion aren't going anywhere. if you cut spending and taxes, the 9 trillion won't just magically disapear. how do you plan on replacing those 9 trillion without raising taxes?
"The Fed is a private bank..." that's just not true "...run by unelected officials" well, we can't elect everybody. if we did, everybody would spend an hour in the voting booth. election would have be held in shifts over the course of a week.
"Worse, our economy and our very independence as a nation is increasingly in the hands of foreign governments such as China and Saudi Arabia" it's called globalization. welcome to the 21st century.
4) From Health Freedom "Americans are justifiably concerned over the government’s escalating intervention into their freedom to choose what they eat and how they take care of their health." well would you like to eat rat poison? because when countries don't have an FDA, rat poison ends up in food. when we were having problems with dog food, PEOPLE were dieing in south america.
"FDA has consistently failed to protect the public from dangerous drugs, genetically modified foods, dangerous pesticides and other chemicals in the food supply." first of all, all the food you eat is genetically modified. since humans started farming, they tried to make sure that the seeds from the best plants were the ones that grew the next season, and not the seeds from the crappy plants. that's genetic modification right there. have you ever seen a 100% natural ear of corn? it doesn't look anything like what you would think it, because corn has been genetically modified slowly for hundreds of years. what we're doing in labs these days is just speeding up the process.
"I also opposed the Homeland Security Bill, H.R. 5005, which, in section 304, authorizes the forced vaccination of American citizens against small pox" i read it. it doesn't talk about forcing everyone to get shots tomorrow. it says that in the event that someone weaponizes small pox, plublic employees and students cannot return to work or school until they've gotten the shot. if you don't want it, fine. quit your job and get small pox.
5) From Home Schooling: "I am committed to guaranteeing parity for home school diplomas" i sure hope that includes a standardized graduation test because otherwise there's no way to ensure that the parents aren't stupid turds who shouldn't be teaching their kids in the first place.
"I will veto any legislation that creates national standards or national testing for home school parents or students." oh, then scratch that last thing i said. i forgot how stupid you are. i just don't know what to say. i really don't. i've read a lot of really stupid ideas so far, but this just trumps them all. this is a terrible, terrible idea. our education system is going to shit. every country that has a better education system has standardized tests. so what would make you think that eliminating them would make anything better?
halfway done.
6) From Life and Liberty: "In Congress, I have authored legislation that seeks to define life as beginning at conception, HR 1094." weren't you just saying how you want the government to limited and strictly constitutional. and if that is the case, why do you now was the government to define when life begins? contradictory, no?
"[Roe v Wade] is a practical, direct approach to ending federal court tyranny which threatens our constitutional republic" if roe v wade is federal court tyranny with threatens our constitutional republic, then what is defining when life begins? freedom?
7) From Privacy and Personal Liberty: "We must stop the move toward a national ID card system. All states are preparing to issue new driver’s licenses embedded with “standard identifier” data - a national ID. A national ID with new tracking technologies means we’re heading into an Orwellian world of no privacy." a national ID card doesn't means a bouncer in florida won't be looking at a drivers license from wyoming wondering whether or not it's real. it means that if you get stopped at an airport you can show your ID and you won't be questioned for hours (once we tack birthday onto the names of the no-fly list). without a SSN, i could point to anybody and say they're osama bin laden. looks like he's had some plastic surgery, but he's got the terrorist look and i'd never mistake it. and if i had some friends higher up, they might just say you're osama bin laden, too. and before you know it, you wind up in a prison cell with no way to prove that you're not osama bin laden.
"Financial privacy? Right now depositing $10,000 or more in cash in your local bank account will generate a federally-mandated report to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network at the United States Department of the Treasury." yeah, because $10K is a lot of money for one person to be depositing at one time. so if you're a securities trader, who moves hundreds of thousands of dollars on a daily basis, the government knows who you are and is making sure you're following the rules. what's wrong with that?
About his views on the patriot act: ok, ok, ok. i agree with you here. the patriot act is a serious infringment on the privacy of americans. however, i don't think that repealing it all together is a good idea. america will always have enemies. even if we just try to stay out of world afairs, we're going to have enemies. and these days, our enemies are trying to attack us from the inside. so we need some system of keeping an eye on some people. and yes, sometimes, they will be bonified american citizens. it's unfortunatel but it's true. i don't know exactly what to do about this, but i don't think that scrapping the patriot act all together is a good idea.
8) From Property Rights and Eminent Domain: "Today, we face a new threat of widespread eminent domain actions as a result of powerful interests who want to build a NAFTA superhighway through the United States from Mexico to Canada." first of all, the two aren't related. second of all, weren't you FOR free trade?
OK, in general, i don't think ron paul understand what private property is. he said something about if you can't own a printing press, freedom of press is meaningless. but most people just have printers instead of the whole damn press. if you want a press, go buy one. but personally, i think it's a bit of overkill.
9) Social Security OK, i agree with him on a lot of what he had to say about SS. we don't have very many options here. we can raise taxes, cut benefits, or bury our heads in the sand and hope the problem is gone by the time we have to come up for air. he says we should cut benefits. his position is radical, but at the same time not a terrible idea. he says we should cut all the payroll SS taxes and if someone chooses to pay into the system, then they receive the benefits. i'm normally against cutting benefits from a govenment-sponsored system, but the thing is that if we continue to have more people taking money out than are putting money in, we're all in for a world of hurt. so if someone decides they don't want to pay SS and they want to take that money and find something else to do with it, then they should be allowed to do it.
i'll say it again: i think ron paul has a good idea about social security. see? i'm being fair.
10) From The Second Amendment: "H.R. 1897 would end the ban on carrying a firearm in the National Park System, restoring Americans’ ability to protect themselves in potentially hazardous situations." what hazardous situation?? if you don't get between the cub and it's mother, nobody gets hurt.
"H.R. 3305 would allow pilots and specially assigned law enforcement personnel to carry firearms in order to protect airline passengers, possibly preventing future 9/11-style attacks." i agree with the specailly assigned law enforcement personnel, but not pilots. ElAl has 6 armed guards on every flight and everbody knows it. subsequently, they've never had a problem on any flight ever.
"H.R. 1146 would end our membership in the United Nations, protecting us from their attempts to tax our guns or disarm us entirely." i'm not even going to bother with this anymore.
11) War and Foreign Policy he said he doesn't like the iraq war, but didn't say what he plans to do about it.
"Too often we have supported those who turn on us" i agree, we need to stop doing that. the problem is that nobody's invented a time machine yet, so we can't go into the future and see whether or not they'll turn on us.
When all is said an done, Ron Paul contradicts himself every step of the way. He says he is for free trade, yet wants to put up physical borders and does not want to see a highway from Mexico to Canada. He says he is not an isolationist, yet he wants to drop out of every international organization. He says he wants a limited government, yet he wants the government to decide when life begins.
He has a good idea about Social Security and safety on airplanes. But that's pretty much where it ends.
1) From American Independence: "NAFTA’s superhighway is just one part of a plan to erase the borders between the U.S. and Mexico, called the North American Union." economic unions are good for free trade. so if you're so in favor of free trade, why would be again a north american economic union?
"Let’s not forget the UN. It wants to impose a direct tax on us." the UN is not a government body and therefore can't tax anyone, turd.
2) From Border Security and Immigration Reform: "Physically secure our borders and coastlines. We must do whatever it takes to control entry into our country" and being the crusader of low taxes that you are... tell me, how do you plan on putting up a physical barrier without raising taxes?
"End birthright citizenship." WHAT?! ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?! listen, asshole, america is a country made of immigrants. without birthright citizenship, i might not be a citizen today. do you understand how rediculous that is? hell, without birthright citizenship, YOU might not be a citizen today. you're family had to come from somewhere, just like everybody else's.
3) From Debt and Taxes "We are nine trillion dollars in debt as a nation. Our mounting government debt endangers the financial future of our children and grandchildren. If we don’t cut spending now, higher taxes and economic disaster will be in their future - and yours." again, those 9 trillion aren't going anywhere. if you cut spending and taxes, the 9 trillion won't just magically disapear. how do you plan on replacing those 9 trillion without raising taxes?
"The Fed is a private bank..." that's just not true "...run by unelected officials" well, we can't elect everybody. if we did, everybody would spend an hour in the voting booth. election would have be held in shifts over the course of a week.
"Worse, our economy and our very independence as a nation is increasingly in the hands of foreign governments such as China and Saudi Arabia" it's called globalization. welcome to the 21st century.
4) From Health Freedom "Americans are justifiably concerned over the government’s escalating intervention into their freedom to choose what they eat and how they take care of their health." well would you like to eat rat poison? because when countries don't have an FDA, rat poison ends up in food. when we were having problems with dog food, PEOPLE were dieing in south america.
"FDA has consistently failed to protect the public from dangerous drugs, genetically modified foods, dangerous pesticides and other chemicals in the food supply." first of all, all the food you eat is genetically modified. since humans started farming, they tried to make sure that the seeds from the best plants were the ones that grew the next season, and not the seeds from the crappy plants. that's genetic modification right there. have you ever seen a 100% natural ear of corn? it doesn't look anything like what you would think it, because corn has been genetically modified slowly for hundreds of years. what we're doing in labs these days is just speeding up the process.
"I also opposed the Homeland Security Bill, H.R. 5005, which, in section 304, authorizes the forced vaccination of American citizens against small pox" i read it. it doesn't talk about forcing everyone to get shots tomorrow. it says that in the event that someone weaponizes small pox, plublic employees and students cannot return to work or school until they've gotten the shot. if you don't want it, fine. quit your job and get small pox.
5) From Home Schooling: "I am committed to guaranteeing parity for home school diplomas" i sure hope that includes a standardized graduation test because otherwise there's no way to ensure that the parents aren't stupid turds who shouldn't be teaching their kids in the first place.
"I will veto any legislation that creates national standards or national testing for home school parents or students." oh, then scratch that last thing i said. i forgot how stupid you are. i just don't know what to say. i really don't. i've read a lot of really stupid ideas so far, but this just trumps them all. this is a terrible, terrible idea. our education system is going to shit. every country that has a better education system has standardized tests. so what would make you think that eliminating them would make anything better?
halfway done.
6) From Life and Liberty: "In Congress, I have authored legislation that seeks to define life as beginning at conception, HR 1094." weren't you just saying how you want the government to limited and strictly constitutional. and if that is the case, why do you now was the government to define when life begins? contradictory, no?
"[Roe v Wade] is a practical, direct approach to ending federal court tyranny which threatens our constitutional republic" if roe v wade is federal court tyranny with threatens our constitutional republic, then what is defining when life begins? freedom?
7) From Privacy and Personal Liberty: "We must stop the move toward a national ID card system. All states are preparing to issue new driver’s licenses embedded with “standard identifier” data - a national ID. A national ID with new tracking technologies means we’re heading into an Orwellian world of no privacy." a national ID card doesn't means a bouncer in florida won't be looking at a drivers license from wyoming wondering whether or not it's real. it means that if you get stopped at an airport you can show your ID and you won't be questioned for hours (once we tack birthday onto the names of the no-fly list). without a SSN, i could point to anybody and say they're osama bin laden. looks like he's had some plastic surgery, but he's got the terrorist look and i'd never mistake it. and if i had some friends higher up, they might just say you're osama bin laden, too. and before you know it, you wind up in a prison cell with no way to prove that you're not osama bin laden.
"Financial privacy? Right now depositing $10,000 or more in cash in your local bank account will generate a federally-mandated report to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network at the United States Department of the Treasury." yeah, because $10K is a lot of money for one person to be depositing at one time. so if you're a securities trader, who moves hundreds of thousands of dollars on a daily basis, the government knows who you are and is making sure you're following the rules. what's wrong with that?
About his views on the patriot act: ok, ok, ok. i agree with you here. the patriot act is a serious infringment on the privacy of americans. however, i don't think that repealing it all together is a good idea. america will always have enemies. even if we just try to stay out of world afairs, we're going to have enemies. and these days, our enemies are trying to attack us from the inside. so we need some system of keeping an eye on some people. and yes, sometimes, they will be bonified american citizens. it's unfortunatel but it's true. i don't know exactly what to do about this, but i don't think that scrapping the patriot act all together is a good idea.
8) From Property Rights and Eminent Domain: "Today, we face a new threat of widespread eminent domain actions as a result of powerful interests who want to build a NAFTA superhighway through the United States from Mexico to Canada." first of all, the two aren't related. second of all, weren't you FOR free trade?
OK, in general, i don't think ron paul understand what private property is. he said something about if you can't own a printing press, freedom of press is meaningless. but most people just have printers instead of the whole damn press. if you want a press, go buy one. but personally, i think it's a bit of overkill.
9) Social Security OK, i agree with him on a lot of what he had to say about SS. we don't have very many options here. we can raise taxes, cut benefits, or bury our heads in the sand and hope the problem is gone by the time we have to come up for air. he says we should cut benefits. his position is radical, but at the same time not a terrible idea. he says we should cut all the payroll SS taxes and if someone chooses to pay into the system, then they receive the benefits. i'm normally against cutting benefits from a govenment-sponsored system, but the thing is that if we continue to have more people taking money out than are putting money in, we're all in for a world of hurt. so if someone decides they don't want to pay SS and they want to take that money and find something else to do with it, then they should be allowed to do it.
i'll say it again: i think ron paul has a good idea about social security. see? i'm being fair.
10) From The Second Amendment: "H.R. 1897 would end the ban on carrying a firearm in the National Park System, restoring Americans’ ability to protect themselves in potentially hazardous situations." what hazardous situation?? if you don't get between the cub and it's mother, nobody gets hurt.
"H.R. 3305 would allow pilots and specially assigned law enforcement personnel to carry firearms in order to protect airline passengers, possibly preventing future 9/11-style attacks." i agree with the specailly assigned law enforcement personnel, but not pilots. ElAl has 6 armed guards on every flight and everbody knows it. subsequently, they've never had a problem on any flight ever.
"H.R. 1146 would end our membership in the United Nations, protecting us from their attempts to tax our guns or disarm us entirely." i'm not even going to bother with this anymore.
11) War and Foreign Policy he said he doesn't like the iraq war, but didn't say what he plans to do about it.
"Too often we have supported those who turn on us" i agree, we need to stop doing that. the problem is that nobody's invented a time machine yet, so we can't go into the future and see whether or not they'll turn on us.
When all is said an done, Ron Paul contradicts himself every step of the way. He says he is for free trade, yet wants to put up physical borders and does not want to see a highway from Mexico to Canada. He says he is not an isolationist, yet he wants to drop out of every international organization. He says he wants a limited government, yet he wants the government to decide when life begins.
He has a good idea about Social Security and safety on airplanes. But that's pretty much where it ends.