This article was originally published at americanchronicle.com on October 6th, 2007
It is my opinion that taxes are nothing more than extortion. The income tax is especially heinous. I see no difference between the government demanding money from me and telling me if I don’t pay a band of armed men will come into my house, kidnap me and throw me in a cell (or perhaps kill me if I resist), or a group of armed thugs representing a mobster organization coming into my business or home and telling me if I don’t pay X amount for protection than something “terrible” might happen. The similarities between these to situations is obvious, the differences are subtle. Force in used in both cases, but with the mobsters it is more blatant than with the government. One would say that with the mobsters the money taken is used solely to enrich themselves and that with the government the money goes to the “greater good.” But do you truly believe that politicians don’t use tax money to enrich themselves? If nothing else, what do you think pays their salaries? And do you mean to say that if the mobsters were to build a playground or a park nearby, or put up streetlamps, or fix the roads in front of the businesses they just ripped off, or provide a place for some homeless folk to stay, are you suggesting that these things would somehow make their extortionist activities ok?
Some would say that we voted the politicians into office, so that they have the “right” to steal from us. Are these people suggesting that if we voted for which mobster we wanted to shake us down that this would legitimize their crimes? On top of that, only individuals have rights. Governments do not have rights over and above the individual. Groups of people do not have rights over and above the individual. Interactions between people should be voluntary, not forced, but that is a discussion for another essay.
Some might point to the court system and say that fairness and justice can be found there and that we should trust in their judgment. What good is a court system that is owned by the mobsters? Taxes pay the judges’ salaries. Do you think a judge who is making a living off the extortionist’s money is going to tell the extortionist to stop? Do you believe he will be fair and impartial when his livelihood is threatened? Judges have families to feed, too. They have mortgages to pay and children to send to college. I’m certain there are a few who are principled enough to be fair and impartial and listen to all arguments from both sides, but I’d bet the majority of them are biased toward the hand that feeds them.
I’ve probably missed a couple of points, but I think you get the idea. Most people are pretty smart and understand what’s going on, they just don’t have the courage to do anything about it. I’m one of those people. I pay my taxes simply because I’m afraid. I’m afraid of our government. I’m frightened to death of those men with guns who will come arrest me if I don’t pay my extortion money, I mean taxes. I don’t want to be thrown into a prison and made to depend on people I don’t know for my survival. These are powerful humans we’re talking about here, with lots of guns and they’re willing to use them. They even feel justified in doing so. I’m just one man and I feel impotent against the system, so I continue to pay the extortionists for the right to be able to work in this country, I continue to pay my income taxes.
Ed and Elaine Brown were different. They refused to knuckle under to the bullies. They refused to give the fruits of their labor to the extortionists. They tried to work through their system and were stonewalled. Now they are sitting in jail. The government made good on their threats, kidnapped them from their home and imprisoned them. The government was apparently able to infiltrate the circle of trust the Brown’s had built. This just goes to show how treacherous our government is. People who did no harm to anyone are now removed from society. Now we, the taxpayers, both the willing and the unwilling, are forced to pay for the food, clothes, housing, and security of two people who were otherwise contributing in a positive way to society. Is this truly what we want for our citizens? Is this what it means to be free? Are we to be ruled by the force of the mob and devolve into group mentality, or are we to reclaim our legacy for our posterity and once again come to recognize that the rights of the individual are paramount if we are to be a truly free society?
I was on a radio program with Ed and Elaine the day before they were arrested. Elaine was a kind and gracious host. She thanked me for my efforts in support of a freer society. I thanked her for showing us the way, for I am not brave like the Browns are. I could not stand up to the Goliath as they did. They are like the little kid on the playground who finally has enough and stands up to the bully. I am just a kid who helps form a circle around the combatants. I only served to cheer them on. Unfortunately for the Browns, this time the bully won the fight. He is still king of the playground. The rest of us little kids can do nothing but shake are heads and walk away as the Browns lie bloody on the cold concrete. Ed said that he knew of only one way to defend his property, that words and paper weren’t enough, and perhaps he’s right. Unfortunately, words and paper are all I have, and they seem woefully inadequate. Unless all the kids on the playground decide they’ve had enough, unless they all decide the time has come to stop giving the bully their lunch money and to defend each other, I’m afraid the bully will remain king of the playground. Ed and Elaine Brown really have shown us the way, the question is, are we brave enough to follow?
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Ron Paul Detractors Still Don't Get It
This article was originally published in americanchronicle.com on Octorber 3rd, 2007
So, I’m a Ronbot. According to certain denizens of the web lurking in their shadowy corners of the blogosphere, there are many of us Ronbots out there, but not too many. No, if there were too many if us, if we were more than say one or two percent of the population, then that would shatter the world view of some of these Internet denizens. We are a small Ronbot army, somehow controlled by this mystical deity and granted the magical ability to be able to hijack Internet, phone and other polls meant to give viewers of debates a voice of who won said debate. Come to think of it, according to some pundits, there are only a few of us who are very smart and know how to spam these polls. Ok, ok, I admit it, I’m the only real Ron Paul supporter and I’ve been creating all this hubbub and spam on my old turbo charged Atari 800 computer.
But seriously, think about this term Ronbot for a minute. It’s a term some clever blogomatic coined in an attempt to minimize the power of Ron Paul’s message. It’s a term that intimates that Ron Paul supporters aren’t real people, that they are some form of mindless zombie sent into the cyber world to disrupt and distract from the normal operations of the Internet. It’s meant to suggest that Ron Paul supporters have been programmed by his campaign to infiltrate the Internet encampments of the establishment and shake them up a little. What strikes me as ironic is that Ron Paul detractors will accuse his supporters of blindly following without thought, when it seems to me it is they who have blindly followed the establishment for years without question. It is they who continue to follow the leader down the road paved with corporate dollars as they support one candidate or another who get the majority of their contributions from special interests. They are the ones supporting candidates that have been bought and paid for by the corporate elite. They are the ones supporting the candidacies of the very rich who know nothing of what it’s like to struggle to earn a living.
There is something else that seems to be happening. On the streets, real people with real lives are showing their support for Ron Paul. These are not keyboard pundits sitting behind their monitors hurtling insults into cyber space at those who disagree with them, these are men and women with real jobs and real families making real decisions about their future. They don’t want the government in it. They want to make their own choices. They want real freedom. I’ve talked to people. I’ve talked to the mechanic at the oil change place. I’ve talked to the farmer in the waiting room there. I’ve talked to the clerk behind the counter at the drugstore. I’ve talked to my coworkers. These are common folk, but they still have their dreams. They have silently pledged their support for Ron. They understand his message and realize it is a message of hope and of positive change. They realize that the best thing for the common good, the best way to protect our children and their progeny, is to respect the individual’s rights and the God given freedoms spelled out for us in the constitution. They understand that it is best for all concerned for the United States of America stop trying to be an empire, to stop building nations, to end the wars, and to bring its soldiers home. These are not Ronbots, but they are the politically dispossessed that the system and the pundits have left out of the equation. They are the people the talking heads on TV are forgetting about when they spew out their artificially low numbers in their poll results. How else is it that Ron Paul could win or place in so many straw polls if not for such people? How else is it he could raise so much money so quickly without corporate backing? That’s what Ron Paul detractors don’t get, that he is more than just some Internet phenomenon due to fade. He is the real choice of the real common man, not the choice thrust upon on by the elite, self appointed guardians of the American body politic. Real people with real brains who are able to make real choices like his message of a limited, less intrusive federal government that follows the mandates set forth by our founding fathers in the Bill of Rights instead of dictating to us what to think and do. Now that they finally have a candidate that espouses these views instead of pandering to try to be everything to everyone, they are going to support him.
The people using the term Ronbot will in the same breath use the same tired old axioms that have gone unquestioned for far too long to support a policy of war, or of taxes, or of any number of socialistic policies meant to tie down the common man and keep his face pressed to the teat of mommy government. These people have been arguing conservative v liberal in meaningless blogs and now that a candidate shows up with a substantive message of restoring individual liberty, individual responsibility and governmental non-interference in both the markets and personal lives, a message that tears apart both liberal and conservative paradigms, a message that the common man can truly back, they call foul. They cry, “Get out of our face. Don’t come around here screaming about individual liberty and responsibility. We don’t want to hear it. We want the government to take our money and spend it on the war. We want the government to take care of us. We want the government to tax us to the max so we can have free health care. We want to be told what to do. We want to give up our freedom so the terrorist boogie-men don’t get us. We want to be shaken down in the airport by TSA agents. We want dissenters corralled into free speech zones where we don’t have to hear them. Please keep the status quo. We don’t want the government to change. We want the government to decide for us. We’re scared of freedom.” Well now you are going to hear it. The message is being shouted from the rooftops now that a viable candidate is touting that message. It is reverberating across the country and as more people hear and understand it, more people add their voices to the chorus until soon the song will come to a crescendo and we will bring a true measure of freedom back to this country. That, my friends, is not the clamoring of a few mindless followers known as Ronbots, that is the roar of an oncoming tidal wave crashing upon the shores of 21st century America carrying an ideal that was born over two hundred and thirty years ago, an ideal that was thought lost in the socialistic propaganda of the last century but is quickly re-emerging with a force to be reckoned with. The concept of freedom is not easily held back, and given time it will swell and wash away the sands of fascism and socialism that seek to contain it.
I am not a bot of any kind. I have been a believer in freedom and liberty since I can remember. I have been writing about freedom oriented themes since before I even heard of Ron Paul. My writings are archived and available for all to see. I don’t write about Ron Paul because he’s running for president, I write about him because he embodies the ideas I believe in, ideas that made this nation great. I have no delusions that he will obtain office and everything will magically change. He is just one man trying to achieve a position of power that is supposed to be held in check by many other men. He would need the support of many more in congress before smaller government and the repeal of oppressive laws could be accomplished. His supporters would not only have to vote for him as president in 2008, but would also have to vote in other freedom oriented candidates as their representatives and senators. If nothing else, Ron Paul’s candidacy has given us the opportunity to once again discuss the issues of freedom and liberty both in the marketplace and in our personal lives. It would be a wonderful thing to see America once again become a beacon of freedom, a place where one can live by one’s own will without the oppressive yolk of government dragging one down. A Ron Paul presidency would at least be a good start.
So, I’m a Ronbot. According to certain denizens of the web lurking in their shadowy corners of the blogosphere, there are many of us Ronbots out there, but not too many. No, if there were too many if us, if we were more than say one or two percent of the population, then that would shatter the world view of some of these Internet denizens. We are a small Ronbot army, somehow controlled by this mystical deity and granted the magical ability to be able to hijack Internet, phone and other polls meant to give viewers of debates a voice of who won said debate. Come to think of it, according to some pundits, there are only a few of us who are very smart and know how to spam these polls. Ok, ok, I admit it, I’m the only real Ron Paul supporter and I’ve been creating all this hubbub and spam on my old turbo charged Atari 800 computer.
But seriously, think about this term Ronbot for a minute. It’s a term some clever blogomatic coined in an attempt to minimize the power of Ron Paul’s message. It’s a term that intimates that Ron Paul supporters aren’t real people, that they are some form of mindless zombie sent into the cyber world to disrupt and distract from the normal operations of the Internet. It’s meant to suggest that Ron Paul supporters have been programmed by his campaign to infiltrate the Internet encampments of the establishment and shake them up a little. What strikes me as ironic is that Ron Paul detractors will accuse his supporters of blindly following without thought, when it seems to me it is they who have blindly followed the establishment for years without question. It is they who continue to follow the leader down the road paved with corporate dollars as they support one candidate or another who get the majority of their contributions from special interests. They are the ones supporting candidates that have been bought and paid for by the corporate elite. They are the ones supporting the candidacies of the very rich who know nothing of what it’s like to struggle to earn a living.
There is something else that seems to be happening. On the streets, real people with real lives are showing their support for Ron Paul. These are not keyboard pundits sitting behind their monitors hurtling insults into cyber space at those who disagree with them, these are men and women with real jobs and real families making real decisions about their future. They don’t want the government in it. They want to make their own choices. They want real freedom. I’ve talked to people. I’ve talked to the mechanic at the oil change place. I’ve talked to the farmer in the waiting room there. I’ve talked to the clerk behind the counter at the drugstore. I’ve talked to my coworkers. These are common folk, but they still have their dreams. They have silently pledged their support for Ron. They understand his message and realize it is a message of hope and of positive change. They realize that the best thing for the common good, the best way to protect our children and their progeny, is to respect the individual’s rights and the God given freedoms spelled out for us in the constitution. They understand that it is best for all concerned for the United States of America stop trying to be an empire, to stop building nations, to end the wars, and to bring its soldiers home. These are not Ronbots, but they are the politically dispossessed that the system and the pundits have left out of the equation. They are the people the talking heads on TV are forgetting about when they spew out their artificially low numbers in their poll results. How else is it that Ron Paul could win or place in so many straw polls if not for such people? How else is it he could raise so much money so quickly without corporate backing? That’s what Ron Paul detractors don’t get, that he is more than just some Internet phenomenon due to fade. He is the real choice of the real common man, not the choice thrust upon on by the elite, self appointed guardians of the American body politic. Real people with real brains who are able to make real choices like his message of a limited, less intrusive federal government that follows the mandates set forth by our founding fathers in the Bill of Rights instead of dictating to us what to think and do. Now that they finally have a candidate that espouses these views instead of pandering to try to be everything to everyone, they are going to support him.
The people using the term Ronbot will in the same breath use the same tired old axioms that have gone unquestioned for far too long to support a policy of war, or of taxes, or of any number of socialistic policies meant to tie down the common man and keep his face pressed to the teat of mommy government. These people have been arguing conservative v liberal in meaningless blogs and now that a candidate shows up with a substantive message of restoring individual liberty, individual responsibility and governmental non-interference in both the markets and personal lives, a message that tears apart both liberal and conservative paradigms, a message that the common man can truly back, they call foul. They cry, “Get out of our face. Don’t come around here screaming about individual liberty and responsibility. We don’t want to hear it. We want the government to take our money and spend it on the war. We want the government to take care of us. We want the government to tax us to the max so we can have free health care. We want to be told what to do. We want to give up our freedom so the terrorist boogie-men don’t get us. We want to be shaken down in the airport by TSA agents. We want dissenters corralled into free speech zones where we don’t have to hear them. Please keep the status quo. We don’t want the government to change. We want the government to decide for us. We’re scared of freedom.” Well now you are going to hear it. The message is being shouted from the rooftops now that a viable candidate is touting that message. It is reverberating across the country and as more people hear and understand it, more people add their voices to the chorus until soon the song will come to a crescendo and we will bring a true measure of freedom back to this country. That, my friends, is not the clamoring of a few mindless followers known as Ronbots, that is the roar of an oncoming tidal wave crashing upon the shores of 21st century America carrying an ideal that was born over two hundred and thirty years ago, an ideal that was thought lost in the socialistic propaganda of the last century but is quickly re-emerging with a force to be reckoned with. The concept of freedom is not easily held back, and given time it will swell and wash away the sands of fascism and socialism that seek to contain it.
I am not a bot of any kind. I have been a believer in freedom and liberty since I can remember. I have been writing about freedom oriented themes since before I even heard of Ron Paul. My writings are archived and available for all to see. I don’t write about Ron Paul because he’s running for president, I write about him because he embodies the ideas I believe in, ideas that made this nation great. I have no delusions that he will obtain office and everything will magically change. He is just one man trying to achieve a position of power that is supposed to be held in check by many other men. He would need the support of many more in congress before smaller government and the repeal of oppressive laws could be accomplished. His supporters would not only have to vote for him as president in 2008, but would also have to vote in other freedom oriented candidates as their representatives and senators. If nothing else, Ron Paul’s candidacy has given us the opportunity to once again discuss the issues of freedom and liberty both in the marketplace and in our personal lives. It would be a wonderful thing to see America once again become a beacon of freedom, a place where one can live by one’s own will without the oppressive yolk of government dragging one down. A Ron Paul presidency would at least be a good start.
Human Labeling and the Punishment of Public Perception
This article was originally posted at americanchronicle.com on October 3rd, 2007.
We do not live in a perfect society. People are not always nice to each other. They don’t always follow the golden rule. They don’t always do what’s best for the greater good. They don’t always do what’s best for their family. They don’t always do what’s best for their own selves. This is not earth shattering news. This is life, pure and simple. It is the same in China as it is in the US. It is the same in Africa as it is in Australia. When it gets down to a personal level, to a human level, we all have our faults, and we all have our positive traits. Every interaction comes down to a very personal level. And yet we have a tendency to judge people with only the tiniest bit of knowledge about them, knowing minimal facts which aren’t necessarily the most accurate.
One way this is done is by labeling. As humans, we like to categorize things. We categorize everything from plants to animals, from rocks to clouds. We find similarities in things and group them together such as animals with hair, woody plants, rocks made of certain minerals, clouds with a certain amount of fluffiness. Everybody has a certain idea or picture in their head as they hear these categories. The same is true when we categorize humans. We create labels that instantly put ideas in people’s heads as to what these people are like. People carry a pre-conceived perception of what a person is like when that person is categorized in a certain way. Sometimes that perception can be good, other times it will be bad. Label someone a genius and the perception of a kind, old Einstein might be in order, label someone an adulterer or a Jezebel and the association is not so positive.
Sometimes a label will be give some a positive perception of a person while others will have a negative perception. That is especially true with political labeling. Label someone a conservative and many will think of a rich business man. Some may believe he is a greedy thief ready to prey upon the poor and downtrodden while others will believe he is a hard working guy just trying to do the best he can for his family. The same is true when one is labeled a liberal. Some people might imagine a pot smoking lazy hippie living off the welfare state while others might perceive a rich philanthropist full of genuine concern for the handicapped, the dispossessed, all the single mothers, and the rest of the dregs society has cast aside. Your personal perception of these groups depends on what you’ve been taught and perhaps on where your beliefs fall in terms of the political spectrum.
There are some labels, however, we can all agree have negative connotations. For instance, we label certain people “sex offenders.” Each state has a huge registry filled with these miscreants. They are everywhere. Some may even be your neighbors. Of course, we must ostracize these people. We can’t let them live in certain areas, for we all know these people are uncontrollable. We know they are all the type that will hide behind the nearest bush and just wait for the weakest and most innocent among us so they can pounce on them, run off with them, and take them away to do unspeakable things to them. Certainly none of them are just young men that had a young girlfriend whose mother may have become angry with him for one reason or another and reported him to the authorities. Certainly the registries contain none that may have made a mistake like relieving himself behind a tree when he thought no one was looking. Certainly the registries don’t list anyone that may have been innocent and didn’t have the money to afford a lawyer or took a plea deal to avoid the prospect of being thrown in prison. Certainly no one on the registry has ever been set up. Most certainly there are no over zealous prosecutors in this country who want to make a name for themselves by throwing as many of these perverts in prison as possible. These prosecutors would never consider entrapping a person through devious means to get a conviction. All these deviates most certainly deserve to be listed in these registries, because we all know the government never makes mistakes. We all know the government never abuses its power. We all know that government positions are filled by angels who know exactly what’s best for us and not by humans who are fallible. And we know that listing these people for all the world to see is not really punishment because human perception is such a marvelous thing and everyone looking at the registry is simply going to use it for information purposes and never, ever to ostracize, harass, or otherwise punish someone who is listed on it.
Of all the labels we can give a person, arguably the worst is that of terrorist, AKA “illegal enemy combatant.” These people are the lowest of the low. Their bombs destroy indiscriminately. They kill and maim innocent men, women and children for no real reason. We all know these people are nothing but religious zealots. We all know terrorists are only doing this so they can go to Heaven and receive their seventy virgins. We know they hate us for our freedoms and that they believe ours is the culture of the devil. There’s no way they were just trying to defend their homes. They can’t possibly see us, the bringers of the light of freedom and democracy, as a foreign occupation force. Anyone living over there is, of course, a terrorist. They deserve to be put into a prison compound forever. They deserve to be tortured. These terrorists are sub-humans. They couldn’t possibly cooperate with us unless we tortured them. And of course everyone knows that a tortured person is going to give out nothing but true and accurate information. These people couldn’t possibly be just farmers or normal, everyday people who were trying to get along in life as best they could when they were arrested. Our military, like our government, couldn’t possibly make a mistake. And, of course, these people don’t deserve a fair, impartial trial because we know with such certainty that they are the evilest, most vile of creatures, those labeled terrorists. It’s a good thing they’re not Americans, otherwise the constitution might apply to them. The words “all men are created equal” carry no weight for these terrorists, for everyone knows that Thomas Jefferson meant to include only Americans when he wrote his great declaration. It’s a good thing that no American will ever be accused of being an enemy combatant and that should any citizen ever be arrested he will be assured a fair, impartial trial right away long before he could be subject to torture in some American run prison on foreign soil. We, of course, have nothing to fear from a nation with the power to oppress so, as long as that nation is ours.
Human perception is a funny thing. There are people who are color blind and they do not know it. There are thought processes going through some people’s heads that stop short of reasoning through something completely. Laws should be considered on a case by case basis. One size fits all is never a correct path, for everyone and every situation is unique. To legally label a person is punishment, whether the establishment wants to believe it or not. It is the vilest, most humiliating of punishments. It allows not only the legal system, but the general public to dehumanize these people. Registry laws and the ability to wantonly label people with no oversight not only violates the rights of these people, but it opens the door for the government and their agents to violate the rights of everyone, and there’s more than a good chance that once the door is open the government will step into the home. Those with power will seek to exercise said power. These laws should be opposed vehemently.
We do not live in a perfect society. People are not always nice to each other. They don’t always follow the golden rule. They don’t always do what’s best for the greater good. They don’t always do what’s best for their family. They don’t always do what’s best for their own selves. This is not earth shattering news. This is life, pure and simple. It is the same in China as it is in the US. It is the same in Africa as it is in Australia. When it gets down to a personal level, to a human level, we all have our faults, and we all have our positive traits. Every interaction comes down to a very personal level. And yet we have a tendency to judge people with only the tiniest bit of knowledge about them, knowing minimal facts which aren’t necessarily the most accurate.
One way this is done is by labeling. As humans, we like to categorize things. We categorize everything from plants to animals, from rocks to clouds. We find similarities in things and group them together such as animals with hair, woody plants, rocks made of certain minerals, clouds with a certain amount of fluffiness. Everybody has a certain idea or picture in their head as they hear these categories. The same is true when we categorize humans. We create labels that instantly put ideas in people’s heads as to what these people are like. People carry a pre-conceived perception of what a person is like when that person is categorized in a certain way. Sometimes that perception can be good, other times it will be bad. Label someone a genius and the perception of a kind, old Einstein might be in order, label someone an adulterer or a Jezebel and the association is not so positive.
Sometimes a label will be give some a positive perception of a person while others will have a negative perception. That is especially true with political labeling. Label someone a conservative and many will think of a rich business man. Some may believe he is a greedy thief ready to prey upon the poor and downtrodden while others will believe he is a hard working guy just trying to do the best he can for his family. The same is true when one is labeled a liberal. Some people might imagine a pot smoking lazy hippie living off the welfare state while others might perceive a rich philanthropist full of genuine concern for the handicapped, the dispossessed, all the single mothers, and the rest of the dregs society has cast aside. Your personal perception of these groups depends on what you’ve been taught and perhaps on where your beliefs fall in terms of the political spectrum.
There are some labels, however, we can all agree have negative connotations. For instance, we label certain people “sex offenders.” Each state has a huge registry filled with these miscreants. They are everywhere. Some may even be your neighbors. Of course, we must ostracize these people. We can’t let them live in certain areas, for we all know these people are uncontrollable. We know they are all the type that will hide behind the nearest bush and just wait for the weakest and most innocent among us so they can pounce on them, run off with them, and take them away to do unspeakable things to them. Certainly none of them are just young men that had a young girlfriend whose mother may have become angry with him for one reason or another and reported him to the authorities. Certainly the registries contain none that may have made a mistake like relieving himself behind a tree when he thought no one was looking. Certainly the registries don’t list anyone that may have been innocent and didn’t have the money to afford a lawyer or took a plea deal to avoid the prospect of being thrown in prison. Certainly no one on the registry has ever been set up. Most certainly there are no over zealous prosecutors in this country who want to make a name for themselves by throwing as many of these perverts in prison as possible. These prosecutors would never consider entrapping a person through devious means to get a conviction. All these deviates most certainly deserve to be listed in these registries, because we all know the government never makes mistakes. We all know the government never abuses its power. We all know that government positions are filled by angels who know exactly what’s best for us and not by humans who are fallible. And we know that listing these people for all the world to see is not really punishment because human perception is such a marvelous thing and everyone looking at the registry is simply going to use it for information purposes and never, ever to ostracize, harass, or otherwise punish someone who is listed on it.
Of all the labels we can give a person, arguably the worst is that of terrorist, AKA “illegal enemy combatant.” These people are the lowest of the low. Their bombs destroy indiscriminately. They kill and maim innocent men, women and children for no real reason. We all know these people are nothing but religious zealots. We all know terrorists are only doing this so they can go to Heaven and receive their seventy virgins. We know they hate us for our freedoms and that they believe ours is the culture of the devil. There’s no way they were just trying to defend their homes. They can’t possibly see us, the bringers of the light of freedom and democracy, as a foreign occupation force. Anyone living over there is, of course, a terrorist. They deserve to be put into a prison compound forever. They deserve to be tortured. These terrorists are sub-humans. They couldn’t possibly cooperate with us unless we tortured them. And of course everyone knows that a tortured person is going to give out nothing but true and accurate information. These people couldn’t possibly be just farmers or normal, everyday people who were trying to get along in life as best they could when they were arrested. Our military, like our government, couldn’t possibly make a mistake. And, of course, these people don’t deserve a fair, impartial trial because we know with such certainty that they are the evilest, most vile of creatures, those labeled terrorists. It’s a good thing they’re not Americans, otherwise the constitution might apply to them. The words “all men are created equal” carry no weight for these terrorists, for everyone knows that Thomas Jefferson meant to include only Americans when he wrote his great declaration. It’s a good thing that no American will ever be accused of being an enemy combatant and that should any citizen ever be arrested he will be assured a fair, impartial trial right away long before he could be subject to torture in some American run prison on foreign soil. We, of course, have nothing to fear from a nation with the power to oppress so, as long as that nation is ours.
Human perception is a funny thing. There are people who are color blind and they do not know it. There are thought processes going through some people’s heads that stop short of reasoning through something completely. Laws should be considered on a case by case basis. One size fits all is never a correct path, for everyone and every situation is unique. To legally label a person is punishment, whether the establishment wants to believe it or not. It is the vilest, most humiliating of punishments. It allows not only the legal system, but the general public to dehumanize these people. Registry laws and the ability to wantonly label people with no oversight not only violates the rights of these people, but it opens the door for the government and their agents to violate the rights of everyone, and there’s more than a good chance that once the door is open the government will step into the home. Those with power will seek to exercise said power. These laws should be opposed vehemently.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Why are Ron Paul Detractors so Frightened?
This article was originally posted on September 26th, 2007 at americanchronicle.com
The other day I was driving past a very busy Intersection in my neck of the woods and I noticed a Ron Paul Revolution sign had gone up. There were a couple more on the toll way that some farmer had put up. These were put there on private property by people that most likely were not paid to do so. That’s the way Ron Paul supporters are. They don’t have to be asked to do something for their candidate. They don’t have to be told to go out and campaign. They simply do what they can, or what they think needs to be done. Most are extremely enthusiastic about Ron Paul, and some would say they are too enthusiastic. Perhaps they are right and in some cases Ron Paul supporters get a little overbearing in their zeal, but that is to be expected. After all, when was the last time we saw an honest politician in this country? When was the last time a politician spoke of adhering to the constitution? Oh sure, they’ve always been there, lurking on the outside of the establishment, staring through the windows of the halls of power at two major parties like bums passing a mansion and longing for just a taste of the good life as the Democrats and Republicans pass laws making it harder and harder for them to ever get elected. This is the first time in a long time a major party candidate has come out with a message of hope and freedom and of smaller, limited, less intrusive government. It is a message that he backs up with his voting record. It is this message that has gotten his supporters so excited. Many of Ron Paul’s supporters might not have supported anyone in this campaign had Ron Paul decided not to run. No other candidate, either Republican or Democrat, espouses the principles Ron Paul supports. All the other candidates support big government programs and proclaim big government is the answer to everything that ails our society. Those of us who realize this is not true and who simply want to be left to decide for ourselves what paths we will take in our lives have found a champion in Ron Paul. His candidacy has given many of us someone to vote for rather than someone to vote against. His candidacy has given many of us something to vote for other than the lesser of two evils.
Yet the enthusiasm and excitement expressed by Ron Paul’s supporters seems to have spawned a community of fellows vehemently opposed to Ron Paul. As I go through posts and read through blogs, it seems to me that many of these people are frightened by something. There’s something about their insistence, their passion about the "evil" of Ron Paul and the seemingly supernatural power of his “few” supporters to be able to hijack opinion polls, phone polls, and dominate Internet blogs, there’s something about the demeanor of these folks that suggests to my mind that they are terrified. There’s something even more disturbing about the way the mass media ignores or portrays him. All this has caused me to wonder, what are these Ron Paul detractors so frightened of? I have spent some time in the blogosphere in an effort to ascertain the answer to this question and to assuage their fear. Of course, I don’t expect to be able to convince everyone that there is nothing to fear from a Ron Paul victory, there are people who no matter how hard you argue, no matter how much reason you apply to the argument, will simply refuse to listen. They will not give up their beliefs. I hope to reach those who are on the fence, who are intrigued by Ron Paul’s ideas but are worried about all the negative rhetoric spewed forth by those afraid of real change.
One of the first things I notice about Ron Paul detractors is how often they call Ron Paul and his supporters names. To be fair, I’ve also seen Ron Paul supporters calling his detractors names, which I also think is wrong. As Ron Paul supporters, we should be able to recognize name calling for the juvenile practice it is and avoid that tactic. I know that’s hard to do when the mud starts flying. I realize that when someone insults you it is a natural tendency to insult them back, but we need to remember that name calling accomplishes nothing and serves only to inflame the emotions of those involved. We should let Ron Paul’s detractors show their true colors with their cutesy, middle school barbs like Paultards and Ronbots. Let them label us “crazy”, “conspiracy theorists” and whatever else they want to label us as. So what? Take a deep breath and let the name calling roll off your shoulders. It is more important to get Ron Paul’s message of personal responsibility and smaller, less intrusive government out there. It is time for us to grow up. It is time for us to reclaim out freedoms, to demand them back, and in the process get our lives back, free from government intervention.
Still, some Ron Paul detractors do talk about the issues. They have addressed their fears and stated why they are against Ron Paul. I’d like to address some of these. One of the big ones is that he’s against abortion. This is true, Ron Paul is against abortion. More specifically, he believes it should not be a constitutional issue and that the individual states should be able to decide abortion laws. He is, after all, an ob/gyn and as such has his own personal opinion on the miracle of life. Still, this is an issue where he and I actually disagree. I see abortion as a decision that should be left to the woman and her doctor and perhaps her family. Government should not be involved. But all this is beside the point. In my opinion, this country has far, far more important issues to worry about. And those who worry about women losing the right to an abortion, fear not. President Bush is also against abortions and he was not able to make them illegal in this country even with a Republican congress and a supreme court leaning his way.
Some detractors have expressed fear that Ron Paul is an isolationist. That is not so. Sure, he wants to bring our troops home from around the world. This is something he would actually have the power to do, should he become president. He wants to end our wars of aggression and bring the troops back home to protect our borders. Isn’t that what the military is for? Do we have to police the world? I don’t believe we should. I say it’s time we stopped trying to dictate to the world how to run their countries and remove the threat of force our military poses. I say it's time we stopped nation building. Just because he wants to bring the soldiers home does not mean he is an isolationist. He would still want to do business with the rest of the world. The difference is, he would not be doing business at the point of a gun, rather we would all be interacting on a voluntary basis. Sure, competition would increase, but fear not. I have faith in the American people. I think we can take on competition and come out ahead. We don’t need to force our will upon others in order to remain on top of the heap. We can lead by example and show the world that free markets are the way to improve the quality of everyone’s life. I believe that left to our own devices our ideas and innovations will help improve the world for all mankind.
I read one detractor claim that Ron Paul is racist. When I see the label “racist” used, I instantly question the author’s motive. When one uses such a name it seems to be an attempt to evoke emotion in the reader and cause one to instantly ostracize the subject on the basis that this person has an opinion that is so onerous as to be socially unacceptable. Now, I don’t know Ron Paul personally, so I can’t say for certain whether he is or isn’t a racist, but I can say that I seriously doubt it. Apparently, the claim that he is a racist came from some sort of newsletter that he sent out where one of his people made an unseemly comment that some interpreted as racist. Ron Paul apologized for the comment and fired the offending staffer. I would bet that just about everyone has said something at some point in time that could be considered racist. This does not make the person racist. As it is, Ron Paul has himself addressed this issue. Some of his thoughts on racism can be found here:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul381.html
I believe that fear is unfounded.
Some detractors have expressed fear that Ron Paul’s stance on taxes and the Federal Reserve will lead to economic collapse. First off, why should a privately owned organization have a monopoly on our money when the constitution explicitly gives the House of Representatives the power “To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures.” Why should our tax dollars go to pay the interest on trillions of dollars in loans when congress can order the creation of treasury notes interest free? Personally, I’m tired of seeing the value of the dollar shrink to nothing and I’d rather have a steady, stable currency that keeps its value as we had for hundreds of years before this fiat banking system took hold around the world. There might be a short period of adjustment in the economy if Ron Paul was able to implement such a change, but sound fiscal policy and the power of free, open markets would soon right the ship. Then there are those who would ask “What about the poor?” when income taxes are done away with. Well, not having to pay taxes will certainly give you more money in your pocket. You could give the extra money you’d have to some worthy charity that helps the poor. Private enterprises taking care of charity can certainly do a better job than any government organization or plan for wealth redistribution. Again, I have faith in the American people. We are, after all, perhaps the most generous nation in the world. You should not fear changing our money system, for sometimes change is for the best and often times it comes whether you plan it or not. It’s best if that change can be controlled rather than suddenly thrust upon us.
I could go on, but I think I’ve covered the basics. Try to remember, we are in the process of selecting a president here, not a dictator or a decider. Ron Paul is the only candidate who is for a smaller government with the voting record to prove it. All the other candidates are for increasing the size of government and government’s power and control over you. Ron Paul is against the war in Iraq, and any war of aggression. He is in favor of bringing our troops home to protect our borders. He voted against the Patriot Act. He voted against the Military Commissions Act. He does not believe we should engage in entangling alliances. He believes we should maintain our national sovereignty. And, should the citizens of the United States elect him as our next president, we would be sending a clear message to our politicians that we understand what freedom is and what it means and that we want to keep our freedoms and liberties rather than letting them die under the oppressive boots of a police state. We would also be sending a message that we appreciate honesty and openness in government and we will no longer tolerate the corruption that has plagued our government for decades now. Ron Paul should frighten no one, except maybe the establishment which has been feeding at the pig trough of political power for far too long.
The other day I was driving past a very busy Intersection in my neck of the woods and I noticed a Ron Paul Revolution sign had gone up. There were a couple more on the toll way that some farmer had put up. These were put there on private property by people that most likely were not paid to do so. That’s the way Ron Paul supporters are. They don’t have to be asked to do something for their candidate. They don’t have to be told to go out and campaign. They simply do what they can, or what they think needs to be done. Most are extremely enthusiastic about Ron Paul, and some would say they are too enthusiastic. Perhaps they are right and in some cases Ron Paul supporters get a little overbearing in their zeal, but that is to be expected. After all, when was the last time we saw an honest politician in this country? When was the last time a politician spoke of adhering to the constitution? Oh sure, they’ve always been there, lurking on the outside of the establishment, staring through the windows of the halls of power at two major parties like bums passing a mansion and longing for just a taste of the good life as the Democrats and Republicans pass laws making it harder and harder for them to ever get elected. This is the first time in a long time a major party candidate has come out with a message of hope and freedom and of smaller, limited, less intrusive government. It is a message that he backs up with his voting record. It is this message that has gotten his supporters so excited. Many of Ron Paul’s supporters might not have supported anyone in this campaign had Ron Paul decided not to run. No other candidate, either Republican or Democrat, espouses the principles Ron Paul supports. All the other candidates support big government programs and proclaim big government is the answer to everything that ails our society. Those of us who realize this is not true and who simply want to be left to decide for ourselves what paths we will take in our lives have found a champion in Ron Paul. His candidacy has given many of us someone to vote for rather than someone to vote against. His candidacy has given many of us something to vote for other than the lesser of two evils.
Yet the enthusiasm and excitement expressed by Ron Paul’s supporters seems to have spawned a community of fellows vehemently opposed to Ron Paul. As I go through posts and read through blogs, it seems to me that many of these people are frightened by something. There’s something about their insistence, their passion about the "evil" of Ron Paul and the seemingly supernatural power of his “few” supporters to be able to hijack opinion polls, phone polls, and dominate Internet blogs, there’s something about the demeanor of these folks that suggests to my mind that they are terrified. There’s something even more disturbing about the way the mass media ignores or portrays him. All this has caused me to wonder, what are these Ron Paul detractors so frightened of? I have spent some time in the blogosphere in an effort to ascertain the answer to this question and to assuage their fear. Of course, I don’t expect to be able to convince everyone that there is nothing to fear from a Ron Paul victory, there are people who no matter how hard you argue, no matter how much reason you apply to the argument, will simply refuse to listen. They will not give up their beliefs. I hope to reach those who are on the fence, who are intrigued by Ron Paul’s ideas but are worried about all the negative rhetoric spewed forth by those afraid of real change.
One of the first things I notice about Ron Paul detractors is how often they call Ron Paul and his supporters names. To be fair, I’ve also seen Ron Paul supporters calling his detractors names, which I also think is wrong. As Ron Paul supporters, we should be able to recognize name calling for the juvenile practice it is and avoid that tactic. I know that’s hard to do when the mud starts flying. I realize that when someone insults you it is a natural tendency to insult them back, but we need to remember that name calling accomplishes nothing and serves only to inflame the emotions of those involved. We should let Ron Paul’s detractors show their true colors with their cutesy, middle school barbs like Paultards and Ronbots. Let them label us “crazy”, “conspiracy theorists” and whatever else they want to label us as. So what? Take a deep breath and let the name calling roll off your shoulders. It is more important to get Ron Paul’s message of personal responsibility and smaller, less intrusive government out there. It is time for us to grow up. It is time for us to reclaim out freedoms, to demand them back, and in the process get our lives back, free from government intervention.
Still, some Ron Paul detractors do talk about the issues. They have addressed their fears and stated why they are against Ron Paul. I’d like to address some of these. One of the big ones is that he’s against abortion. This is true, Ron Paul is against abortion. More specifically, he believes it should not be a constitutional issue and that the individual states should be able to decide abortion laws. He is, after all, an ob/gyn and as such has his own personal opinion on the miracle of life. Still, this is an issue where he and I actually disagree. I see abortion as a decision that should be left to the woman and her doctor and perhaps her family. Government should not be involved. But all this is beside the point. In my opinion, this country has far, far more important issues to worry about. And those who worry about women losing the right to an abortion, fear not. President Bush is also against abortions and he was not able to make them illegal in this country even with a Republican congress and a supreme court leaning his way.
Some detractors have expressed fear that Ron Paul is an isolationist. That is not so. Sure, he wants to bring our troops home from around the world. This is something he would actually have the power to do, should he become president. He wants to end our wars of aggression and bring the troops back home to protect our borders. Isn’t that what the military is for? Do we have to police the world? I don’t believe we should. I say it’s time we stopped trying to dictate to the world how to run their countries and remove the threat of force our military poses. I say it's time we stopped nation building. Just because he wants to bring the soldiers home does not mean he is an isolationist. He would still want to do business with the rest of the world. The difference is, he would not be doing business at the point of a gun, rather we would all be interacting on a voluntary basis. Sure, competition would increase, but fear not. I have faith in the American people. I think we can take on competition and come out ahead. We don’t need to force our will upon others in order to remain on top of the heap. We can lead by example and show the world that free markets are the way to improve the quality of everyone’s life. I believe that left to our own devices our ideas and innovations will help improve the world for all mankind.
I read one detractor claim that Ron Paul is racist. When I see the label “racist” used, I instantly question the author’s motive. When one uses such a name it seems to be an attempt to evoke emotion in the reader and cause one to instantly ostracize the subject on the basis that this person has an opinion that is so onerous as to be socially unacceptable. Now, I don’t know Ron Paul personally, so I can’t say for certain whether he is or isn’t a racist, but I can say that I seriously doubt it. Apparently, the claim that he is a racist came from some sort of newsletter that he sent out where one of his people made an unseemly comment that some interpreted as racist. Ron Paul apologized for the comment and fired the offending staffer. I would bet that just about everyone has said something at some point in time that could be considered racist. This does not make the person racist. As it is, Ron Paul has himself addressed this issue. Some of his thoughts on racism can be found here:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul381.html
I believe that fear is unfounded.
Some detractors have expressed fear that Ron Paul’s stance on taxes and the Federal Reserve will lead to economic collapse. First off, why should a privately owned organization have a monopoly on our money when the constitution explicitly gives the House of Representatives the power “To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures.” Why should our tax dollars go to pay the interest on trillions of dollars in loans when congress can order the creation of treasury notes interest free? Personally, I’m tired of seeing the value of the dollar shrink to nothing and I’d rather have a steady, stable currency that keeps its value as we had for hundreds of years before this fiat banking system took hold around the world. There might be a short period of adjustment in the economy if Ron Paul was able to implement such a change, but sound fiscal policy and the power of free, open markets would soon right the ship. Then there are those who would ask “What about the poor?” when income taxes are done away with. Well, not having to pay taxes will certainly give you more money in your pocket. You could give the extra money you’d have to some worthy charity that helps the poor. Private enterprises taking care of charity can certainly do a better job than any government organization or plan for wealth redistribution. Again, I have faith in the American people. We are, after all, perhaps the most generous nation in the world. You should not fear changing our money system, for sometimes change is for the best and often times it comes whether you plan it or not. It’s best if that change can be controlled rather than suddenly thrust upon us.
I could go on, but I think I’ve covered the basics. Try to remember, we are in the process of selecting a president here, not a dictator or a decider. Ron Paul is the only candidate who is for a smaller government with the voting record to prove it. All the other candidates are for increasing the size of government and government’s power and control over you. Ron Paul is against the war in Iraq, and any war of aggression. He is in favor of bringing our troops home to protect our borders. He voted against the Patriot Act. He voted against the Military Commissions Act. He does not believe we should engage in entangling alliances. He believes we should maintain our national sovereignty. And, should the citizens of the United States elect him as our next president, we would be sending a clear message to our politicians that we understand what freedom is and what it means and that we want to keep our freedoms and liberties rather than letting them die under the oppressive boots of a police state. We would also be sending a message that we appreciate honesty and openness in government and we will no longer tolerate the corruption that has plagued our government for decades now. Ron Paul should frighten no one, except maybe the establishment which has been feeding at the pig trough of political power for far too long.
Friday, September 21, 2007
The Illusive Light of Freedom
This article was originally published at americanchronicle.com on Sept. 18th, 2007.
“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one,
I hope some day you’ll join us, and the world will live as one.”
John Lennon
What is freedom? This is a question mankind has asked since we stopped our wandering and strapped ourselves to the land via agriculture. Since the dawn of civilization, man has wistfully longed for removal of the chains of the civilization he built. Even though civilization and the advent of large settlements led to more security for those living in them, there was something about the unfettered wilderness that called to the human spirit. Even back in our earliest days we as a race must have realized what we were giving up in order to conquer nature. And yet we carried on, developing better methods of farming, better housing, better transportation, and on the dark side, better ways of making war. And as technology improved and civilization became more and more complicated, freedom became more and more illusive.
In the modern world, we’ve built cities and countries and economies that have made us prisoners of our own design. We struggle for the almighty dollar so that we may live better lives. We seem to work more despite the advent of “time saving” devices. We seem to have less leisure time than our ancestors did. We don’t take the time to meet face to face with people as much as we used to, preferring instead to email or instant message. We seem to be isolating ourselves, and yet our reach is now worldwide. As we are reaching out more, we are being monitored more, and so we have lost our privacy. I’m not suggesting these things are necessarily bad, there is a lot of good coming of this, but there needs to be a balance. It is a strange and fascinating dichotomy we have created. There is so much control over our lives and yet we call ourselves a free society.
I am not so sure I know what freedom is, for I was born into this society and I only know how to survive within the bounds it sets. I do believe, however, that I know what freedom is not. Freedom is not a free for all bombardment of another country because it “might” be harboring someone with hostile intentions. Freedom does not mean forcing another country to accept a form of government it does not wish to accept. Freedom is not being forced to use a monopolistic currency based on debt. Freedom is not “free” health care that in reality someone else paid for in the form of taxes on their hard earned money. Freedom is not tomes filled with so many laws and regulations so as to fill an entire library. Freedom does not mean allowing big government to control every aspect of your life, to have it burgeon and metastasize into such a cancerous growth that the institution created by our forefathers to protect our freedoms becomes the death of those very freedoms. These things are antithetical to freedom. Freedom should be about the ability to make one’s own choice for one’s own self. That is something I feel less and less able to do.
Freedom is the light humans flock to. It is the longing to make one’s own way in the world. I doubt very much that many people in today’s world want to give up their modern conveniences and go back to a time when we were running through the forests naked, but we would like to be able to conduct our business with others without having to maneuver through the forest of paperwork governments require. We would like to be able to conduct our personal lives without government intrusion into everything from our finances to what we decide to put into our bodies. As a society, have we become so enamored with being told what to do and how to think that we have lost the ability to reason for ourselves? Have we become like the people in Plato’s cave watching shadows cast by firelight play across the wall and believing this to be reality? Perhaps the talking heads we see on television are the shadows dancing across the wall as we sit in our living rooms and believe what they tell us is reality. Perhaps we have grown so comfortable in our cages we can no longer recognize the bars surrounding us. Perhaps we have become apathetic as we muddle through our daily lives to the point where we don’t care when reality intrudes upon our neighbors and their worlds crumble to dust. We become uncomfortable if the illusion is exposed and begins to vaporize before our eyes. We prefer to sit in our easy chairs and watch the dancing shadows rather than peeking out at the bothersome light shining through the cave opening. That light is the light of freedom. Yes, it will hurt our eyes for a moment, but once they become accustomed to it the pain will ease. The time has come to shrink our government down to size, to bring our soldiers home from around the world, to stop trying to maintain an empire, to reclaim our money, our treasures and the fruits of our labors, and to let it be known to those who would try to strip our rights away that we will not let that happen. We can all step out of the cave of socialism we have built. We can join together in liberty. We can show those who would be our leaders that we understand reality, and that we chose the light of freedom. We can vote for Ron Paul and other freedom oriented candidates. It is time to toss out those who support big government, be they Democrat or Republican, and replace them with those who will let us live our lives the way we chose. It is time for us to take back what should never have been taken from us in the first place. It is time to demand that the constitution be adhered to and honored, which is the vow our elected officials take when they swear their oath to hold office. In this way, as each individual takes on personal responsibility for his own life, the light of freedom will brighten and grow, and America will once again become the beacon of hope to the rest of the world that it once was.
“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one,
I hope some day you’ll join us, and the world will live as one.”
John Lennon
What is freedom? This is a question mankind has asked since we stopped our wandering and strapped ourselves to the land via agriculture. Since the dawn of civilization, man has wistfully longed for removal of the chains of the civilization he built. Even though civilization and the advent of large settlements led to more security for those living in them, there was something about the unfettered wilderness that called to the human spirit. Even back in our earliest days we as a race must have realized what we were giving up in order to conquer nature. And yet we carried on, developing better methods of farming, better housing, better transportation, and on the dark side, better ways of making war. And as technology improved and civilization became more and more complicated, freedom became more and more illusive.
In the modern world, we’ve built cities and countries and economies that have made us prisoners of our own design. We struggle for the almighty dollar so that we may live better lives. We seem to work more despite the advent of “time saving” devices. We seem to have less leisure time than our ancestors did. We don’t take the time to meet face to face with people as much as we used to, preferring instead to email or instant message. We seem to be isolating ourselves, and yet our reach is now worldwide. As we are reaching out more, we are being monitored more, and so we have lost our privacy. I’m not suggesting these things are necessarily bad, there is a lot of good coming of this, but there needs to be a balance. It is a strange and fascinating dichotomy we have created. There is so much control over our lives and yet we call ourselves a free society.
I am not so sure I know what freedom is, for I was born into this society and I only know how to survive within the bounds it sets. I do believe, however, that I know what freedom is not. Freedom is not a free for all bombardment of another country because it “might” be harboring someone with hostile intentions. Freedom does not mean forcing another country to accept a form of government it does not wish to accept. Freedom is not being forced to use a monopolistic currency based on debt. Freedom is not “free” health care that in reality someone else paid for in the form of taxes on their hard earned money. Freedom is not tomes filled with so many laws and regulations so as to fill an entire library. Freedom does not mean allowing big government to control every aspect of your life, to have it burgeon and metastasize into such a cancerous growth that the institution created by our forefathers to protect our freedoms becomes the death of those very freedoms. These things are antithetical to freedom. Freedom should be about the ability to make one’s own choice for one’s own self. That is something I feel less and less able to do.
Freedom is the light humans flock to. It is the longing to make one’s own way in the world. I doubt very much that many people in today’s world want to give up their modern conveniences and go back to a time when we were running through the forests naked, but we would like to be able to conduct our business with others without having to maneuver through the forest of paperwork governments require. We would like to be able to conduct our personal lives without government intrusion into everything from our finances to what we decide to put into our bodies. As a society, have we become so enamored with being told what to do and how to think that we have lost the ability to reason for ourselves? Have we become like the people in Plato’s cave watching shadows cast by firelight play across the wall and believing this to be reality? Perhaps the talking heads we see on television are the shadows dancing across the wall as we sit in our living rooms and believe what they tell us is reality. Perhaps we have grown so comfortable in our cages we can no longer recognize the bars surrounding us. Perhaps we have become apathetic as we muddle through our daily lives to the point where we don’t care when reality intrudes upon our neighbors and their worlds crumble to dust. We become uncomfortable if the illusion is exposed and begins to vaporize before our eyes. We prefer to sit in our easy chairs and watch the dancing shadows rather than peeking out at the bothersome light shining through the cave opening. That light is the light of freedom. Yes, it will hurt our eyes for a moment, but once they become accustomed to it the pain will ease. The time has come to shrink our government down to size, to bring our soldiers home from around the world, to stop trying to maintain an empire, to reclaim our money, our treasures and the fruits of our labors, and to let it be known to those who would try to strip our rights away that we will not let that happen. We can all step out of the cave of socialism we have built. We can join together in liberty. We can show those who would be our leaders that we understand reality, and that we chose the light of freedom. We can vote for Ron Paul and other freedom oriented candidates. It is time to toss out those who support big government, be they Democrat or Republican, and replace them with those who will let us live our lives the way we chose. It is time for us to take back what should never have been taken from us in the first place. It is time to demand that the constitution be adhered to and honored, which is the vow our elected officials take when they swear their oath to hold office. In this way, as each individual takes on personal responsibility for his own life, the light of freedom will brighten and grow, and America will once again become the beacon of hope to the rest of the world that it once was.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Ron Paul Detractors Need a Wake Up Call
This article was originally published at americanchronicle.com on Aug. 17th, 2007
“That’s what you get for pretending the danger’s not real.
Meek and obedient , you follow the leader
down well trodden corridors, into the valley of steel.
What a surprise! A look of terminal shock in your eyes!
Now things are really what they seem. No, this is not a bad dream.”
Excerpt from the song Sheep by Pink Floyd
I’ve noticed a number of people on the Internet complaining about Ron Paul supporters recently. Many of them have the same complaint, that Ron Paul supporters are too pervasive. They call them Ron Paul spammers. They claim that a very few people are so dedicated to Ron Paul’s candidacy that they have skewed all the polls and made it appear as if Ron Paul has more support than he actually does by voting for him again and again. On Digg, they claim that there is a core of supporters that wait for a Ron Paul article to come out so they can Digg it and catapult it to the front page. If that were the case, they were taking time off when my articles came out.
These detractors need to think for a moment. I don’t know which candidates they support, but those candidates are getting support of very few people in the online community. One must wonder why some of these candidates don’t have that kind of support. One must wonder why Mitt Romney doesn’t have dozens of technologically savvy supporters going online to spam the polls or to create a buzz on Digg. One may wonder the same about John McCain or Rudy Giuliani supporters also, or the supporters of any of the other republican candidates. Could it be that the supporters of the other candidates simply aren’t as excited about their candidate as Ron Paul’s supporters are? Doesn’t it make you wonder why Ron Paul supporters are so excited? And I personally don’t think that it is in fact true that Ron Paul supporters are low in numbers and spamming the Internet. In fact, I think the number of Ron Paul supporters is growing day by day despite the fact that the Ron Paul detractors have tried to keep this from happening.
Another tactic some Ron Paul detractors use is name calling. They claim Ron Paul supporters are crazy. Since when is it crazy to speak out about someone you believe will make a difference, especially if that someone is doing something as important as running for president? Since when does following a dream make you crazy? They claim his supporters are on the fringe of society, that they are mostly 9/11 truthers and conspiracy theorists. Well, I don’t think that’s so true. I think a lot of everyday regular people are supporting Ron Paul. I’ve talked with a number of people who support Ron Paul and the subject of 9/11 or conspiracies hardly come up. And even if some of them are 9/11 truthers or conspiracy theorists, what’s wrong with wanting to know the truth? What’s wrong with asking questions, especially when those questions haven’t been answered satisfactorily? What’s wrong with not believing everything you see on the TV news? Do you believe everything the television news people tell you to believe? If you do, you might want to rethink that position and start getting information from other sources. There’s nothing wrong with comparing and contrasting different points of view to try to get a better understanding and a more complete picture of the world around you. They claim Ron Paul’s policies are too impractical, that he is too much of an idealist. Since when is being an idealist a bad thing? Isn’t that what our founding fathers were? Since when is it impractical to speak of freedom and liberty? Again, our founding fathers risked their very lives speaking out about such radical ideas. How long ago was it that the United States of America became a place where dreams died? When was it that spies were unleashed to see to it those same dreams could not be resurrected?
There’s something else Ron Paul detractors don’t seem to understand. Ron Paul supporters are supporting more than just Ron Paul, they are supporting ideas. Oh sure, Ron Paul is a very amicable person. Unlike most politicians, he answers questions straight on and doesn’t dodge them. He doesn’t try to answer in a way that everyone agrees with. He speaks his mind and it doesn’t matter to him if he loses votes doing so. He is that rarity of rarities, an honest politician. Perhaps that’s why they are so angry, because they know they support someone who is not honest. Perhaps that’s why Ron Paul’s supporters are so excited, because this is something they’ve never seen in their lives. But his honesty is not the idea I was talking about earlier, the idea is freedom. The idea is a smaller, less intrusive government. The idea is to give the people back control in their lives rather than having the government decide everything for them. It is the ideas of freedom and liberty that Ron Paul supporters are supporting. It is these ideas that have gotten them so excited.
The main stream media tries to ignore Ron Paul, as do the other candidates. Why do you suppose this is? He scores first in many online polls and still the media ignore him. His supporters generate a loud buzz and still the media ignores him. He came in fifth in a questionable Iowa straw poll and still the media ignores him. Today he came in third in the Illinois straw poll and the media will still probably try to ignore him. Why are they so afraid to report on him? Could it be because they don’t want his ideas to get out? Could it be because they’re afraid his ideas will resonate with the general public? Could it be that, for whatever reason, they’re trying to push someone on us that will somehow promote their interests? Perhaps the main stream media is just behind the times and really doesn’t realize what a phenomenon Ron Paul is becoming. I really don’t know, but I do know that Ron Paul is everywhere on the Internet and nowhere on the main stream media, with the exception of a couple of cutting edge shows. That simply seems strange to me.
Whatever reason one may decide to berate Ron Paul or his supporters, it might be helpful to step back and consider what you’re really against. Are you honestly just mad because there are so many articles out there praising Ron’s policies and his stances on the issues? Then why are you reading them? Is there someone with a gun at your head forcing you to read them? Then don’t read them and leave the rest of us who want to read about Ron Paul alone. Are you mad because your candidate isn’t able to generate the kind of grass roots support and Internet buzz that Ron Paul is able to generate? Then write articles about how great your candidate’s big government tax and spend programs are going to be and try to create that buzz yourself. Perhaps you’re against a certain issue that Ron Paul is for. Fine, then make that argument and make an intelligent, well thought out argument supporting your point of view, don’t simply dismiss those who support an opposing point of view by calling them names. Or, perhaps you’re against freedom and liberty. Perhaps you’re against the constitution. Maybe you’re one of those who feel the constitution is a quaint antiquity and the bill of rights just gets in the way of your security. Perhaps you simply don’t want to make your own decisions in your life and feel the government should mandate everything for you from what you learn in school to the kind of job you do to what doctor you see for your health care. Perhaps the idea of an endless war on terror appeals to you. Whatever the reason, you’re going to have to defend your position. Ron Paul has rubbed the magic lamp and now the genie is out. The ideas of freedom and liberty are once again loosed upon the world and they are gaining support. Name calling and ignoring Ron Paul and his supporters will not make them go away. People care again. If nothing else, politics in America has changed because of Ron Paul, and I think that’s a good thing.
“That’s what you get for pretending the danger’s not real.
Meek and obedient , you follow the leader
down well trodden corridors, into the valley of steel.
What a surprise! A look of terminal shock in your eyes!
Now things are really what they seem. No, this is not a bad dream.”
Excerpt from the song Sheep by Pink Floyd
I’ve noticed a number of people on the Internet complaining about Ron Paul supporters recently. Many of them have the same complaint, that Ron Paul supporters are too pervasive. They call them Ron Paul spammers. They claim that a very few people are so dedicated to Ron Paul’s candidacy that they have skewed all the polls and made it appear as if Ron Paul has more support than he actually does by voting for him again and again. On Digg, they claim that there is a core of supporters that wait for a Ron Paul article to come out so they can Digg it and catapult it to the front page. If that were the case, they were taking time off when my articles came out.
These detractors need to think for a moment. I don’t know which candidates they support, but those candidates are getting support of very few people in the online community. One must wonder why some of these candidates don’t have that kind of support. One must wonder why Mitt Romney doesn’t have dozens of technologically savvy supporters going online to spam the polls or to create a buzz on Digg. One may wonder the same about John McCain or Rudy Giuliani supporters also, or the supporters of any of the other republican candidates. Could it be that the supporters of the other candidates simply aren’t as excited about their candidate as Ron Paul’s supporters are? Doesn’t it make you wonder why Ron Paul supporters are so excited? And I personally don’t think that it is in fact true that Ron Paul supporters are low in numbers and spamming the Internet. In fact, I think the number of Ron Paul supporters is growing day by day despite the fact that the Ron Paul detractors have tried to keep this from happening.
Another tactic some Ron Paul detractors use is name calling. They claim Ron Paul supporters are crazy. Since when is it crazy to speak out about someone you believe will make a difference, especially if that someone is doing something as important as running for president? Since when does following a dream make you crazy? They claim his supporters are on the fringe of society, that they are mostly 9/11 truthers and conspiracy theorists. Well, I don’t think that’s so true. I think a lot of everyday regular people are supporting Ron Paul. I’ve talked with a number of people who support Ron Paul and the subject of 9/11 or conspiracies hardly come up. And even if some of them are 9/11 truthers or conspiracy theorists, what’s wrong with wanting to know the truth? What’s wrong with asking questions, especially when those questions haven’t been answered satisfactorily? What’s wrong with not believing everything you see on the TV news? Do you believe everything the television news people tell you to believe? If you do, you might want to rethink that position and start getting information from other sources. There’s nothing wrong with comparing and contrasting different points of view to try to get a better understanding and a more complete picture of the world around you. They claim Ron Paul’s policies are too impractical, that he is too much of an idealist. Since when is being an idealist a bad thing? Isn’t that what our founding fathers were? Since when is it impractical to speak of freedom and liberty? Again, our founding fathers risked their very lives speaking out about such radical ideas. How long ago was it that the United States of America became a place where dreams died? When was it that spies were unleashed to see to it those same dreams could not be resurrected?
There’s something else Ron Paul detractors don’t seem to understand. Ron Paul supporters are supporting more than just Ron Paul, they are supporting ideas. Oh sure, Ron Paul is a very amicable person. Unlike most politicians, he answers questions straight on and doesn’t dodge them. He doesn’t try to answer in a way that everyone agrees with. He speaks his mind and it doesn’t matter to him if he loses votes doing so. He is that rarity of rarities, an honest politician. Perhaps that’s why they are so angry, because they know they support someone who is not honest. Perhaps that’s why Ron Paul’s supporters are so excited, because this is something they’ve never seen in their lives. But his honesty is not the idea I was talking about earlier, the idea is freedom. The idea is a smaller, less intrusive government. The idea is to give the people back control in their lives rather than having the government decide everything for them. It is the ideas of freedom and liberty that Ron Paul supporters are supporting. It is these ideas that have gotten them so excited.
The main stream media tries to ignore Ron Paul, as do the other candidates. Why do you suppose this is? He scores first in many online polls and still the media ignore him. His supporters generate a loud buzz and still the media ignores him. He came in fifth in a questionable Iowa straw poll and still the media ignores him. Today he came in third in the Illinois straw poll and the media will still probably try to ignore him. Why are they so afraid to report on him? Could it be because they don’t want his ideas to get out? Could it be because they’re afraid his ideas will resonate with the general public? Could it be that, for whatever reason, they’re trying to push someone on us that will somehow promote their interests? Perhaps the main stream media is just behind the times and really doesn’t realize what a phenomenon Ron Paul is becoming. I really don’t know, but I do know that Ron Paul is everywhere on the Internet and nowhere on the main stream media, with the exception of a couple of cutting edge shows. That simply seems strange to me.
Whatever reason one may decide to berate Ron Paul or his supporters, it might be helpful to step back and consider what you’re really against. Are you honestly just mad because there are so many articles out there praising Ron’s policies and his stances on the issues? Then why are you reading them? Is there someone with a gun at your head forcing you to read them? Then don’t read them and leave the rest of us who want to read about Ron Paul alone. Are you mad because your candidate isn’t able to generate the kind of grass roots support and Internet buzz that Ron Paul is able to generate? Then write articles about how great your candidate’s big government tax and spend programs are going to be and try to create that buzz yourself. Perhaps you’re against a certain issue that Ron Paul is for. Fine, then make that argument and make an intelligent, well thought out argument supporting your point of view, don’t simply dismiss those who support an opposing point of view by calling them names. Or, perhaps you’re against freedom and liberty. Perhaps you’re against the constitution. Maybe you’re one of those who feel the constitution is a quaint antiquity and the bill of rights just gets in the way of your security. Perhaps you simply don’t want to make your own decisions in your life and feel the government should mandate everything for you from what you learn in school to the kind of job you do to what doctor you see for your health care. Perhaps the idea of an endless war on terror appeals to you. Whatever the reason, you’re going to have to defend your position. Ron Paul has rubbed the magic lamp and now the genie is out. The ideas of freedom and liberty are once again loosed upon the world and they are gaining support. Name calling and ignoring Ron Paul and his supporters will not make them go away. People care again. If nothing else, politics in America has changed because of Ron Paul, and I think that’s a good thing.
Monday, August 6, 2007
Ron Paul and the War on Terror
Nearly six years ago, on September 11th, 2001, a criminal act occurred in New York, New York. It was broadcast around the world. I remember that on that day I called my mother and told her to turn on the TV while I could only listen to the radio because I was at work. I remember telling her that we were at war. It was a very frightening day I’ll never forget. Many people will never forget that day. A couple of days later President Bush declared a war on terror. As of this moment, it looks like a war that will never end.
The question arose as to why these people would want to attack us. The answer, according to President Bush, was that they hate our freedoms. They are jealous of us. If we take President Bush at his word, then the terrorists are winning the war on terror. They have already managed to get us to relinquish some of the freedoms they so hated us having. What was one of the first things our legislature did after the terror attack? They passed the Patriot Act. Have you read the Patriot Act? Neither have I, because it’s so long and full of legalese. How anyone could have read and understood it in the short time our legislators had to do so is beyond me. I have read parts of it, though. I know that it infringes upon some of the rights that the constitution guarantees us will not be infringed upon. It tramples all over the fourth amendment which reads: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” The Patriot Act allows the FBI to come into your house without permission, while you’re not there, and go through your things without a warrant. I don’t know about you, but that sounds more like the KGB than the FBI to me. After the Patriot Act came a host of other laws granting the police power to violate our rights. The terrorists managed through a single criminal act to get us to turn our country into a police state.
Now there are warnings about another imminent terror attack. Secretary Chertoff has a “gut feeling” that another attack is about to take place. What would the purpose to such an attack be? Well, the purpose of any terror attack is to terrorize. It is to make the people scared. It is to frighten the populace. What would we do if such an attack took place? How would America react if a horrific event took place causing massive casualties? Would we allow even more of our freedoms that they hate so much to be taken from us? Would we allow the police to start putting people in jail because they protest or question the government? Would we let the current ruling class stay in power if they decided to suspend elections due to the emergency? Would we quiver and cower like scared little children and pray for the government to help us, allowing armed, militant police on every corner as they stop and check us and demand to see our papers anytime we want to go somewhere? Would we gladly submit to having chips implanted under our skin so that we could be easily identified as God fearing, good Americans if that is what was asked of us? Would that be the new freedom? Should such a thing come to pass, the terrorists would have nothing to be jealous of anymore. In fact, should this come to pass, the terrorists could end up having more freedom than us. After a few months of tyranny, government crackdowns and round ups, and having to ask for permission from the government for our most basic needs, we might be the ones that are jealous. At that point, the terrorists will have basically won the war. Our freedoms will be gone, and they will have nothing more to be jealous of. Or maybe I’m just paranoid, but should we really take such a chance?
Seems to me a better strategy would be to demand more freedom. If that’s what the terrorists are mad about, if that’s what they want to destroy, then we should stand tall and bravely demand we be allowed the freedom to forge our own destiny. Rather than cowering in fear and letting terror take over our lives, we should courageously demand that we not be looked after like little children while we go about our daily lives. We are adults that can take care of ourselves and we need to let our politicians know that. We need to stop living in fear. Aside from this, I don’t really believe that the terrorists fighting us are too worried about our freedoms. I doubt very much they are jealous of us. More likely they just want to be left alone. More likely they just want to go about their daily lives without being asked for their “papers” everywhere they go. More likely they don’t like foreign troops in their country telling them what to do.
Ron Paul understands this, as he has publicly stated, and so does the CIA. No other candidate wants to end the war on terror. They want to maintain the status quo and thus their power. Ron Paul wants to bring our troops home. He doesn’t want to commit them to a never ending war with no goals and unlimited casualties. Getting the troops home is how we win the war on terror. By doing so, we remove the terrorists’ reasons for attacking us. By doing so we start the process of restoring our freedoms. By doing so we open the door to once again doing business with the world in an honest fashion and not at the end of a barrel of a gun. By bringing the troops home we can also use them to patrol our borders and help minimize the threat posed by undocumented foreigners entering our land. We don’t need our own people spied upon. We don’t need our police milatarized. We need strong leadership that understands that freedom is a reward unto itself, and that free people should not cower in fear whenever criminals threaten our way of life. We need lawmakers that understand that the best way to lead is by example. We need to keep America a shining light of freedom for the world to see. That is Ron Paul’s message, and we should listen.
The question arose as to why these people would want to attack us. The answer, according to President Bush, was that they hate our freedoms. They are jealous of us. If we take President Bush at his word, then the terrorists are winning the war on terror. They have already managed to get us to relinquish some of the freedoms they so hated us having. What was one of the first things our legislature did after the terror attack? They passed the Patriot Act. Have you read the Patriot Act? Neither have I, because it’s so long and full of legalese. How anyone could have read and understood it in the short time our legislators had to do so is beyond me. I have read parts of it, though. I know that it infringes upon some of the rights that the constitution guarantees us will not be infringed upon. It tramples all over the fourth amendment which reads: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” The Patriot Act allows the FBI to come into your house without permission, while you’re not there, and go through your things without a warrant. I don’t know about you, but that sounds more like the KGB than the FBI to me. After the Patriot Act came a host of other laws granting the police power to violate our rights. The terrorists managed through a single criminal act to get us to turn our country into a police state.
Now there are warnings about another imminent terror attack. Secretary Chertoff has a “gut feeling” that another attack is about to take place. What would the purpose to such an attack be? Well, the purpose of any terror attack is to terrorize. It is to make the people scared. It is to frighten the populace. What would we do if such an attack took place? How would America react if a horrific event took place causing massive casualties? Would we allow even more of our freedoms that they hate so much to be taken from us? Would we allow the police to start putting people in jail because they protest or question the government? Would we let the current ruling class stay in power if they decided to suspend elections due to the emergency? Would we quiver and cower like scared little children and pray for the government to help us, allowing armed, militant police on every corner as they stop and check us and demand to see our papers anytime we want to go somewhere? Would we gladly submit to having chips implanted under our skin so that we could be easily identified as God fearing, good Americans if that is what was asked of us? Would that be the new freedom? Should such a thing come to pass, the terrorists would have nothing to be jealous of anymore. In fact, should this come to pass, the terrorists could end up having more freedom than us. After a few months of tyranny, government crackdowns and round ups, and having to ask for permission from the government for our most basic needs, we might be the ones that are jealous. At that point, the terrorists will have basically won the war. Our freedoms will be gone, and they will have nothing more to be jealous of. Or maybe I’m just paranoid, but should we really take such a chance?
Seems to me a better strategy would be to demand more freedom. If that’s what the terrorists are mad about, if that’s what they want to destroy, then we should stand tall and bravely demand we be allowed the freedom to forge our own destiny. Rather than cowering in fear and letting terror take over our lives, we should courageously demand that we not be looked after like little children while we go about our daily lives. We are adults that can take care of ourselves and we need to let our politicians know that. We need to stop living in fear. Aside from this, I don’t really believe that the terrorists fighting us are too worried about our freedoms. I doubt very much they are jealous of us. More likely they just want to be left alone. More likely they just want to go about their daily lives without being asked for their “papers” everywhere they go. More likely they don’t like foreign troops in their country telling them what to do.
Ron Paul understands this, as he has publicly stated, and so does the CIA. No other candidate wants to end the war on terror. They want to maintain the status quo and thus their power. Ron Paul wants to bring our troops home. He doesn’t want to commit them to a never ending war with no goals and unlimited casualties. Getting the troops home is how we win the war on terror. By doing so, we remove the terrorists’ reasons for attacking us. By doing so we start the process of restoring our freedoms. By doing so we open the door to once again doing business with the world in an honest fashion and not at the end of a barrel of a gun. By bringing the troops home we can also use them to patrol our borders and help minimize the threat posed by undocumented foreigners entering our land. We don’t need our own people spied upon. We don’t need our police milatarized. We need strong leadership that understands that freedom is a reward unto itself, and that free people should not cower in fear whenever criminals threaten our way of life. We need lawmakers that understand that the best way to lead is by example. We need to keep America a shining light of freedom for the world to see. That is Ron Paul’s message, and we should listen.
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