[Part One][Part Three][Part Four][Part Five]
In middle school on the first day of an American history class, our
teacher handed out a small piece of paper with descriptions of three
people on it, and we were supposed to choose which one we would vote for
based on these descriptions. While I forget the whole descriptions
(maybe there are some history teachers reading who can help me to
clarify), I'll give it a shot:
This is an article about Ron Paul, and this story is pertinent for two reasons. First, any feelings of excitement I have of seeing a politicians who truly moves people to action and makes them believe that they still have a voice are immediately tempered with the nagging fear that I'm caught up in some fascist movement and I don't know it.
It may be unreasonable, but I have the words from a hundred Nazi documentaries ringing in my ears, "We didn't know what we were doing. It seemed so wonderful."
The other reason this story is relevant is because the teacher that gave this little quiz -- one of the best teachers I ever had -- was murdered a little over a year ago, three blocks from my house in his car. To this day, I don't know if anything is known about who killed him, because my hometown's newspaper is a pay-per-view site.
Ron Paul is an avid supporter of gun-ownership rights. I'm not necessarily against one's right to own a gun (my family alone has three). Rather, I'm fed up with what I see every day. I've lived long enough now outside of the US to have lost that feeling that gun violence is just something that happens. When I see news of school shootings and university massacres -- or just watch CSI -- I'm watching with the knowledge that this kind of thing just doesn't happen in other developed countries. The last time I went home, people were noticeably more worried about the growing violence in our normally quiet neighborhood. This reached a climax when my teacher was murdered in the middle of the night in his car in front of multi-million dollar, historic houses that overlook the Ashley River.
I'm not against one's right to own a firearm, but I'm sick and tired of people acting like there shouldn't be much stricter controls on who is allowed to have them. For instance, certain things just don't make since -- as Robin Williams said -- "Why the hell does the NRA allow licensed hunters to have armor piercing bullets? Is there one big deer out there saying 'I'm ready for yo' ass!'"
Conclusion:
Yes, there it is in all of it's movie-trailer-like glory. Most everything that is good about Ron Paul. I'm writing this first, though, to be clear to everyone that I have grave concerns about certain aspects of Paul's philosophy. It goes beyond gun rights -- can we really get rid of the Dept. of Education?* Isn't the gold standard just crazy talk?*
- A raging alcoholic.
- He has polio, can hardly walk. He's also an adulterer.
- He's a vegetarian. He doesn't drink or smoke. He exercises
regularly, and listens to classical music.
This is an article about Ron Paul, and this story is pertinent for two reasons. First, any feelings of excitement I have of seeing a politicians who truly moves people to action and makes them believe that they still have a voice are immediately tempered with the nagging fear that I'm caught up in some fascist movement and I don't know it.
It may be unreasonable, but I have the words from a hundred Nazi documentaries ringing in my ears, "We didn't know what we were doing. It seemed so wonderful."
The other reason this story is relevant is because the teacher that gave this little quiz -- one of the best teachers I ever had -- was murdered a little over a year ago, three blocks from my house in his car. To this day, I don't know if anything is known about who killed him, because my hometown's newspaper is a pay-per-view site.
Ron Paul is an avid supporter of gun-ownership rights. I'm not necessarily against one's right to own a gun (my family alone has three). Rather, I'm fed up with what I see every day. I've lived long enough now outside of the US to have lost that feeling that gun violence is just something that happens. When I see news of school shootings and university massacres -- or just watch CSI -- I'm watching with the knowledge that this kind of thing just doesn't happen in other developed countries. The last time I went home, people were noticeably more worried about the growing violence in our normally quiet neighborhood. This reached a climax when my teacher was murdered in the middle of the night in his car in front of multi-million dollar, historic houses that overlook the Ashley River.
I'm not against one's right to own a firearm, but I'm sick and tired of people acting like there shouldn't be much stricter controls on who is allowed to have them. For instance, certain things just don't make since -- as Robin Williams said -- "Why the hell does the NRA allow licensed hunters to have armor piercing bullets? Is there one big deer out there saying 'I'm ready for yo' ass!'"
Conclusion:
"We stood up to the soviets. They had 40,000 nuclear weapons. Now, we're fretting day in--and day and night about third world countries that have no army, navy or air force, and we're getting ready to go to war."
- Ron Paul
Yes, there it is in all of it's movie-trailer-like glory. Most everything that is good about Ron Paul. I'm writing this first, though, to be clear to everyone that I have grave concerns about certain aspects of Paul's philosophy. It goes beyond gun rights -- can we really get rid of the Dept. of Education?* Isn't the gold standard just crazy talk?*
* I'll talk more about these later.
2 comments:
Yikes. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be a lone voice on these issues, too.
My high school teacher offered us the same vote, and it was one of the few fluff activities I enjoyed-- I picked the "raging alcoholic", and was pleased to hear I'd chosen FDR or Winston Churchill, while my classmates had gone for Hitler! On the other hand, it was a little difficult to explain why to the teacher why I figured the "vegetarian exerciser" would "probably be a prick" in my words.
"Why the hell does the NRA allow licensed hunters to have armor piercing bullets? Is there one big deer out there saying 'I'm ready for yo' ass!'"
Gun rights aren't about hunting. They're about the balance of power between the state and the individual. George Orwell wrote a great essay about how some weapons (such as muskets) were inherently libertarian, whereas others (such as tanks and aircraft carriers) are inherently authoritarian.
Getting rid of the Dept. of Education would be great. I don't know of a single instance in which a federal program has been an overall improvement over allowing local school boards to use their own judgment. One or two terrible districts may improve, but many, many more excellent districts are hurt. You need look no further than the "No Child Left Behind" program to see how damaging it is to let people in Washington mandate to the entire country how their schools should be operated.
On the gold standard, I think you're mistaken. Paul does not support the gold standard. He wants to use a basket of hard assets. Maybe you're thinking of Alan Greenspan. He's for the gold standard.
You know, as I was writing this yesterday, I was thinking about how if I took the test today, I probably would have picked one of the less savory fellows. I think it's just that I now have the impression that people who seem flawless probably go home to make smut films or something.
How mature of me, I know.
About gun rights, I'm not arguing that people should have the right to have guns, but I honestly think that people who believe so fervently in this right should have more incentive to work with the government to find out how make sure guns don't get in the hands of people who shouldn't have them.
Moreover, the lack of certain restrictions really baffles me, like the aforementioned armor piercing bullets, or how the Bush administration and Congress let the federal assault weapons ban "sunset" in 2004:
http://www.bradycampaign.org/facts/faqs/?page=awb
Do we need assault weapons?
I'm not going to lie. I'm very torn over the issue. But I just can't reconcile myself with the fact that this stuff just doesn't happen in other industrialized countries. Am I wrong?
About the other two issues. I haven't gotten to those yet. I just mentioned them as issues that make people go "Woh! This guy's crazy."
I'm starting to see what he's saying.
As far as the gold standard goes, I must have understood wrong. I know he doesn't like our use of fiat money, and he wants, like you said (I think), to back it up with "hard assets."
I'm going to get to some of this in the next post, that I'm starting now. Hopefully, I'll finish before I go to work.