Quickly! To The-Ron-Paul-Mobile Batman!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 9:14pm

     Inspired by all of this voting hullabaloo...I decided to actually follow up on a politician that I first heard about in the 2008 Presidential election: Ron Paul. Yes, I know it's two...almost three years later...four if you count the primaries...aw crap! -But at least I finally did it. It's a moot point with regard to today's election (Sorry Ron, I suck.) but at least I am actually expanding my view on the world around me. And who knows? I may be just in time for the next primary election. Some call it late...I call it EARLY! (alright so I'm totally late.)

     One of my best friends first brought Mr. Paul to my attention when she arrived in town for a visit, with her car completely decked out in Ron Paul decals. Her Volvo station-wagon had become...The Ron Paul-Mobile. (To The-Ron-Paul-Mobile! Post-haste!) After I stopped laughing, I of course asked the question that I'm sure this form of support was intended to elicit "Who is Ron Paul?" She then referred me to her husband, who as it turns out is the avid RP fan...she was one too...but it was his *brainchild* to make the Volvo that *she drove* into the Ron-Paul-Mobile. Hahaha (Oh that's good!) Anyhoo...Her husband told me a bit about him, about how one of his big things is returning to the Gold Standard...and how he refused his congressional pention. -Which I must say...does make some sense to me. I mean, for most of us, if we worked in a position for 5 years, it would hardly seem reasonable to expect a retirement pension. Especially one that would pay out somewhere in the neighborhood of $85,000 a year with full medical benefits for...um...ever.

     Anyhoo...I still don't know much about him, so please don't interpret this to be a message of support. I just thought I'd share this one thing that I read today on his website. It was thought provoking. And I can see the appeal to Congressman Paul. Also, no matter how one feels on Ron Paul, it's important to consider the points that he is bringing to the foreground. It seems whollly unreasonable to purport that one belongs to the ideology of fostering world peace, and standing up *against* terrorist tactics (as many of our politician and citezenry do), while also supplying a vast battery of implements of war to an already tenuous and war-torn region. I find that morally repugnant. And functionally at odds with the aformentioned philosophy of peace.

Here's the link:

http://www.ronpaul.com/2010-11-01/ron-paul-no-weapons-for-saudi-arabia/

It's worth a read. Ya know...If you have the time...

OK...so *no* I didn't take this picture...with my point-and-shoot.

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    Michael Roland Ron Paul says some good stuff. Then he mucks it up by insisting on going back to the gold standard, eliminating modern financial regulation, giving corporations the same rights as citizens, and dropping all social programs from existence. Silly man. =)
    

    November 2, 2010 at 9:18pm · 
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    Vanessa Medina Agh! I *knew* that if I posted this someone (apparently you Mike) would give good counter Ron Paul arguments. Thanks for adding balance to the discussion. :) I appreciate that.
    

    November 2, 2010 at 9:19pm · 
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    Michael Roland He's a conflicted dude. Libertarians get my support when it comes to social regulation, but lose it on the fiscal (non)regulation and really super crazy restructuring ideas.
    
    Non-war messages, even when they come from isolationist weirdos, need to be heard more frequently from representatives, though. So good post.
    

    November 2, 2010 at 9:23pm ·  ·  1 person
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    Ted C. Roland 
    

    He's a Nozick libertarian. The problem is that Nozick never anticipated the level of exploitation an individual would face in the late 20th/early 21st century. Right libertarians place their politics firmly in Nozick's system of distributive justice, but they fail to account for the holes in Nozick's arguments, while simultaneously ignoring Locke's Proviso ("leave as much and as good for your successor"), which Nozick says is the only way a libertarian system is just.
    
    For example: your average right-libertarian will be in favor of deregulation, but deregulation in the US has been exploited to where most of the wealth is controlled by an extreme minority of the population. Nozick would say that not only have those people exploited the greater population, and are sopping up prosperity and wealth, thus you *have to* regulate them based on their unjust, exploitative ways.
    
    I like Rawls.
    
    Also, Vanessa, you should have know it would be Mike.

    
    

    November 2, 2010 at 9:36pm ·  ·  1 person
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    Vanessa Medina Ya gotta love the Roland brothers!
    

    November 2, 2010 at 9:38pm · 
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    Ted C. Roland If you really like Ron Paul you should read Nozick's Anarchy, The State & Utopia. He's a really good writer, and he makes his points very well. Real libertarianism (which, if you read Philippe Van Parijs is a term under contention) is far less atrocious than reality libertarianism.
    

    November 2, 2010 at 9:40pm · 
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    Vanessa Medina And Ted...you gave me something new to look up: Nozick and Locke's Proviso. :) I love how you just whittle that into your language...as if everyone knows what you are talking about. -Smartypants! :)
    

    November 2, 2010 at 9:40pm · 
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    Vanessa Medina I will. Thanks for the read. :)
    

    November 2, 2010 at 9:41pm · 
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    Ted C. Roland Locke's Proviso is basically the only thing I agree with Locke on, so I tend to smash and grab it from his theories. :P
    

    November 2, 2010 at 9:41pm · 
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    Michael Roland Also good to read up on: FIAT currency, gold standard, and dollarization. Reading up on what the Fed actually is would be a good start, too. Libertarians tend to glorify the good ol' 19th century without looking at the accelerated boom/bust cycle, ridiculous periods of inflation/deflation, and the purpose of money regulated money.
    

    November 2, 2010 at 9:43pm ·  ·  1 person
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    Imran Khan The other advantage to fiat currency is that, when needed, we can buy ourselves out of a recession (sort of) by printing money. Like the fed is doing now.
    
    One of the things that I really like in all this discussion is the recreation of local currencies backed up by an hour of work, or something like that.: like http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread414422/pg1
    

    November 4, 2010 at 10:34pm ·