My Quest for Truth and Liberty
Posts tagged Ron Paul
Life = Busyness
Aug 19th
So far I haven’t done a very good job of accomplishing many things since returning from Mises U. Last week I worked 36 hours and this week was probably not too much less than that. And it is really work. Which means I’m pretty tired when I get home and just don’t have the mental energy to study. That’s frustrating because there’s so much I want to do but it just isn’t happening. I need to develop a new schedule that will hopefully help me get things done.
I’m really excited though because starting next week I’m going to be teaching at Classical Conversations, a sort of homeschool co-op that meets once a week. I’ll be teaching economics once a month and I’m really happy about that. At first I was a little disappointed that nothing had worked out for me to teach a complete class, but I think this is going to be much better. Considering how much else I’m doing, I don’t think I would have time to prepare a lesson each week.
I’m also so excited about Ron Paul and how well he did in Iowa, considering all who were against him. I was just talking to a friend tonight who was saying, “well, how is your man, Ron Paul, doing in his campaign?” So I started talking about the straw poll. My friend admitted that he hasn’t heard much from Ron Paul, most people commenting on him say, “he makes some good points and then he’ll throw something really radical and off-the-wall in there and that’s going to ruin his chance of winning.” And I just replied with, “well, Ron Paul is radical because he tells the truth 100% of the time and his voting record and consistent life is more than any other candidate can claim.” My friend said, “I respect your opinions and I know you’ve researched this, so I’m going to find out some more about Ron Paul.” That was a fun conversation 
All for now…I really wish I had more time for blogging and hope to revive this poor, neglected website eventually.
Review of “Taking Chance”
Feb 21st
This isn’t really a proper review, just my own rantings on the subject.
I was all excited to watch Inception tonight…but it was a little too chaotic for my parents, so we watched Taking Chance instead. It is the story of a Marine who volunteers to take the body or “remains” (as they say in the movie) from the East Coast to a little town in Montana.
As I said on Facebook, it was a heartbreaking movie. Why? Because the message was so clear: War is good. War is noble. Go sacrifice your life for the “greater good,” give up your individuality, your uniqueness, and join the ranks of others who must give all, for our “interests.” And when you die, you’ll come home a hero and everyone at the airports will pause as your coffin is being carried by. And the VFW groups will hold parties in your honor. And hundreds of people will come to your funeral. Everyone will admire your courage and bravery.
What really annoyed me is how they never showed the Marine’s face. Now, come on…Hollywood has no qualms whatsoever when it comes to obscenities (I’m using this in the classic Greek sense, of things that ought to stay “off scene” because they are too graphic or violent) and moviemakers never flinch when it comes to portraying blood and guts and gore. But no, when it is a soldier we can’t do that! We’ll only give some beautiful shots of his crisp and bright uniform, his shiny buttons and pure white gloves. But not his face, because after all, the government said it was not recommended for viewing. Since when does Hollywood care if things are too terrible to be viewed? But no, if young people saw the ugliness and the violence, they might not want to join the military! And then what good would the movie be?
So throughout the whole movie, every time the casket was being transported, people would stop and put their hands over their hearts. Airport workers stopped. Passengers on the planes stopped. Cars slowed down for them on the road. Come on? Really? That’s not realistic, it doesn’t seem. It is like everyone “sensed” something special and stopped. Since when does that happen in real life? Now I know, I don’t exactly get around much, but it just doesn’t seem right. Everyone was bending over backwards to honor this Marine. It seems that in real life people would just tend to ignore a person in uniform, treat them like everyone else, or say something negative to the Marine…if they were one of those awful leftist anti-war people (just being sarcastic…).
And none of the military officers seemed to understand the futility and tragedy of the war. Oh yeah, this is based on a true story of a soldier in the War in Iraq. That’s the specific war we’re talking about, Bush’s war. Anyways, either everyone was proud of their “service” or regretted that they had not given more to the cause. I think that in real life veterans come back either haunted by their experiences or disillusioned by the reality of war. There was none of that in this movie.
And I don’t think the government gives each fallen soldier such elaborate and detailed attention. It was really quite ridiculous to think of the all time spent on one body and coffin, when you multiply that by all the deaths that occur each month in the war. No wonder we’re not winning the war, everyone is too busy escorting caskets home!
However, I don’t want this to sound harsh or ungrateful. I have deep respect for anyone who is willing to give their lives in any way. I’m not that brave. The tragedy is that these poor souls got caught up in this great net of power struggles and government interests. This trap is deadly for many. And for those who live, the scars haunt them forever. The tragedy is that anyone has given their life for such a futile purpose. I mourn with the family of those who have fallen. I mourn so much for the dead that I wish to find a way to keep others from that fate. Instead of saying, “It is a terrible tragedy that Chance died. He was a good young man, he will be deeply missed. Now I’m going to go over there too” (in the movie Chance’s sister and her fiancee were both in the military) I say, “It is a terrible tragedy that Chance died. He was a good young man, he will be deeply missed. Let’s keep others from dying there as well. Let’s not go on repeating this tragedy ad infinitum, but stop the killing and stop the hatred.”
There is a very fine line between government-worship and disrespect for those who have died in the war. I wish to maintain a balance between opposing a pointless war and respecting the individuals who gave their all, no matter what their cause.
So I told my dad we need a good Ron Paul speech (I was thinking of the neat remix of his speech to Congress, “What If?”) to straighten things out again.
A Sunday Afternoon Adventure
Nov 29th
I promised my friends that I would make this into a blog post, so we’ll see how I do…
Our church in Rockford is starting a church plant on the south side of Chicago, around Tinley Park, to be exact. So yesterday I was generously given a ride there by my pastor’s family. When we reached the residential area of Tinley Park the boys in the back began shouting, “Christmas lights!! I see Christmas lights!!” in a very loud voice. And then…”Christmas lights!! I see Christmas–I see a family eating dinner! With spiked hair!” I assume that it was the family (or perhaps just one of them) who had spiked hair, and not that the dinner had spiked hair. So that was an amusing variation…but we were soon back to, “Christmas lights! I see Christmas lights!!”
We were rescued from a fate of Christmas lights when we reached the building where the church is meeting. It was a very nice study, they are going through the London Baptist Confession of 1689. I think 1689. Maybe it is 16??, but I’m not sure. Anyways, Pastor Y. (who will remain Pastor Y. lest anyone search him down and say, “so it was YOUR son screaming ‘Christmas lights!!’ all through our town on Sunday night”) taught on the Providence of God and how this relates to some tough questions like, “If God has everything planned, why should I bother doing anything? If God wants me to get a job, why should I bother looking?” and others.
Afterwards we had a fellowship time and some snacks. My friend Elizabeth M. made the most delicious snickerdoodle cookies (she will remain Elizabeth M. lest anyone kidnap her and force her to make 1,000 snickerdoodle cookies in order to gain freedom. Yes, they are that good) which I heartily enjoyed.
And then we had a nice long ride back to Rockford. This time seemed to fly because I was busily engaged in critiquing possible presidential candidates. So Pastor Y. asks, “who would you vote for in 2012 as president?” and my answer: “RON PAUL!!!” (all-caps and 3 exclamation marks means that I was practically shouting this.) And Pastor Y. is a sensible person and so realized there isn’t much chance that Ron Paul would actually be elected president. So he thought perhaps I should have some other backup possibilities. “Sarah Palin?” Me: “NOOOO!!!!” (this means that I was very loud and emphatic) “She’s a neo-con!!” And then, “John Boehner?” Me: “Um….” (this means I was thoughtfully thinking) “I don’t know much about him. He must be a neo-con.” So their family was quickly introduced to what neo-con means, and they soon discovered that if a person is not Ron Paul or super-liberal, they are a neo-con…at least in my mind. They were informed that if anyone was on Fox News (besides Judge Napolitano) then I could definitely not support them, for Fox News is NEO-CON!!!” And by the end of it all he was trying to come up with the most neo-con-ish of all neo-cons in order to hear me exclaim in a horrified voice, “no!!! Not that person!!!!! They are NEO-CONS through and through!!! There isn’t a drop of blood in their body that isn’t tainted with the poison of neo-con ideology.”
All in all it was a very enjoyable time, my family rarely lets me rant and bash all the politicians like I enjoy doing. And attending the study and fellowship time at HRBF (Hope Reformed Baptist Fellowship, soon to be Hope Reformed Baptist Church) was very fun and interesting. At Grace Reformed we’re on Chapter 20 of the 1689 Confession, and at Hope Reformed they are on the early chapters…I don’t really remember going through those chapters at Grace, which means that 1) I heard it, but it was so long ago I don’t remember or 2) they haven’t even taught on it since we’ve been there. I think possibility 1 is more likely, but it doesn’t sound quite as good for me.
So if you happen to be in the Chicago area and want to hear a most interesting and knowledgeable pastor teach on the doctrines of the Bible (the pleasant and unpleasant ones both)…let me know, and I’ll give you more details. There should be a website up soon I will link to as well.
In conclusion, I had a wonderful Sunday. Good preaching, good food, good times.
Bush: The Greater Threat to Liberty
Nov 10th
Note: This statement is made in relation to the former president and the current President Obama. There are some who have come before and some who will probably come after who are greater threats to our liberty.
Last night after walking out on the Nightly News (I figured I’d be kicked out of the room anyways…for my adamant yelling at the TV screen) I made the extraordinary statement that Bush was a far worse president than President Obama. After reflection I realize that it wasn’t all that extraordinary, but it sounds better that way, doesn’t it? So I had to explain this puzzling statement to my audience, namely, my mother. Bush and Obama are both wolves, but Bush is in sheep’s clothing, so he’s obviously more dangerous, with such a clever disguise. Just think about it. You won’t hear any pro-lifers protest the innocent blood shed in the Mideast to find the elusive and paradoxical Bin Ladin who is sometimes captured, sometimes killed, and sometimes prowling the world to murder Americans because we are free. You won’t hear the conservative pro-lifers protesting the killing of babies, children, women, and elderly folks in other countries…because of our invasive and out-of-control wars. You will hear the conservatives and Tea Partiers longing for the “good old days” when we had such a nice-looking, kind, compassionate, Christian president. Never mind that he instigated the murdering of thousands. Never mind that he was responsible for one of the most intrusive bills that have nearly entirely stripped away the Bill of Rights and given the government unlimited power to watch, search, arrest, and detain Americans, the Patriot Act. Never mind that he didn’t really make the government smaller and decrease spending. Never mind that he didn’t lower the taxes. But those were the good old days…I find it interesting to compare Bush and Obama. The former is as American as American can get. His nice accent, his down-to-earth-ness…”here is one of us,” in other words. And on the other hand you have Obama who, as we recently discovered from his trip, grew up in Indonesia and probably relates to that culture more than the American culture. Lest I be called a xenophobe, let me explain. It really makes no difference to me, I don’t think Bush is superior to Obama because he grew up here. I don’t care where a president grew up, if for the sole reason that I don’t want a president.
And I wonder if somehow Bush is actually the model American, in all he does and all he says. Not the American of the American Revolution, for that’d be Ron Paul. But perhaps Bush is the manifestation of all that is truly modern America. This “modern” mindset goes back to the dear President Teddy Roosevelt…and probably even farther back to Lincoln. This mindset that we know what is best for all people in all places and times, that it is our duty, even our God-given duty to make everyone do just as we believe they ought to do. From Prohibition to the War in Iraq, this self-righteous, “I’m better than you, so you must listen to me, and if you don’t, look at all my guns and tanks…” has pervaded our culture. I don’t think it is done on purpose. I think that the average American has good intentions, and only those at the very top realize what is going on. We probably have some of that “City on the Hill” stuff left over, secularized and kidnapped by the government. It is the mindset that America is better than the rest of the world. This type of talking makes me very upset. I’ve never even traveled outside the United States. This anger isn’t based on my own personal experience. It is based on the knowledge that America has some very grave faults and that no one can claim that their country is better than another. What are your standards? What is your criterion for judging? And these standards are purely subjective, they differ from person to person. Contrary to popular belief, God did not give His special “approval” to America so that somehow everything we do becomes a mission on behalf of God. “This is God’s special nation, so we can go to other countries and kill their people.” People point to the miraculous interventions of God during the founding of our nation to support their beliefs. But have they bothered to check up on the founding of all the other nations in the world? We might find some similar interventions by God, I simply don’t know. And even if God did play a special and unique role in the founding of our nation, does that give us the right now to do those things which are universally recognized as being wrong? The Old Testament Israelites got express directions from God to do what they did. As far as I know, God didn’t speak to America and tell us to go out into all the world and make them live as nicely as we do.
So that’s why I think Bush epitomizes modern America. And that’s why he’s so dangerous, because he mentions God, and has a good family, and stopped drinking when he was 40, and all those things that make him so much like us hide the hard and tragic truth that Bush is in fact a wolf and is one of the most anti-life presidents we’ve had in the last 20 years. But I think Americans are afraid of realizing this truth and discovering, “we have met the enemy and he is us.”
Victory!
Nov 3rd
Why? Because the Republicans have won, of course!
Okay, I’m just being sarcastic. But a lot of people aren’t sarcastic when they proudly extol the Republican victories. Ugh. As someone over at LewRockwell.com noted, that just means more war and more spending.
I’m glad I spent my November 2nd in a more productive way. I finished up the first lecture for my online class. It was a little tricky, a lot of reading for me and more running around the internet than usual. I’ve lectured on much of this before, so it is familiar. The first lecture, however, is about Aristotle, the Scholastics, Cantillon, and Adam Smith. It took me quite a few days to finish it, but that is done now, and I’m excited to move on to the next lecture which is going to be really fun. Don’t get me wrong, the first one is going to be just fantastic to teach, but the second one is about all the stuff I’ve lectured on a dozen times and it is one of my favorite parts of Austrian economics.
At any rate…an election report:
So Rand Paul won his Senate seat. I’m happy about that, we need a Paul in the Senate. I wish his views were more inline with his father, but I guess you can’t have your cake and eat it too. But speaking of Rand…I think the most exciting election result I heard was that Ron Paul kept his seat.
Locally…the incumbent won the sheriff’s position, 57% to 43%. I had almost dared hope that Aaron Booker would win, but that was not to be. In consideration, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the voting was rigged in Rockford. It seems that the smaller the election, the easier it would be to rig it. Each vote has more “power” in a local election as opposed to a presidential election. So you’d have to rig less votes to get your desired outcome. But it also seems that it is easy to rig larger elections as well, especially with this new electronic voting. So I don’t think there is much chance of actually getting anyone really, really good into office. Like, can you imagine Ron Paul actually being elected president? IF a total media blackout didn’t prevent it, and IF their horrific smearing and dirt-throwing didn’t stop him, then they could just rig the votes. And IF that didn’t work, for some reason, they could just assassinate him, as others have been. And that reminds me, Lew Rockwell has a new podcast out today about JFK and that whole story. They actually recorded this last week…I stood in the studio the same day that they recorded this, and I actually got to hear part of the interview from the computer where my friend did the audio editing of it. So you should listen to it, if only for my sake.
A friend of mine was running for County Forest Preserve Commissioner, and she did not win. I was really hoping she would. She was running on the platform that the County Forest Preserve has plenty of land already and doesn’t need to keep taking land out of private hands.
And I was made a little hopeful to see that for the most part, people voted against an increase in taxes, or bans on alcohol, or any other increase in the size of the state.
I don’t even know about the other big races, haven’t seen yet about Pelosi or some of the others. It doesn’t really matter, in the end. Whoever wins Pelosi’s seat will just have to talk the talk better than she did and not be quite so ostentatious with their use of taxpayer money and the Tea Party and the rest of the conservatives will be happy.
“What If?”
Oct 2nd
This is one of my favorite videos ever. I hope we never forget the truths that Ron Paul points out. It is a matter of life and death. Perhaps not for us, but for other innocent human beings.
Ron Paul 2012!!
Jul 9th
Tariffs: Good or Bad?
Jul 8th
Warning: This first paragraph is a bit of a digression from the topic at hand, but I feel it is necessary…you can skip it if you’d rather. A few months ago (May, to be precise) I started what we call a Mises Circle. We (usually 8-10 people) get together at a local restaurant once a month to talk about economics. This last meeting was sort of a free-for-all, there wasn’t any specific topic, everyone just shared their ideas, articles they had read, etc…One of the many topics was covered was (finally, here we go!) tariffs!
I never like to agree with people (I know…now you’re wondering if you actually want to meet me, doesn’t sound very nice does it?), because that gets rather boring. So at the Mises Circle we were talking about how America needed tariffs to keep the Chinese from taking over the country. The argument was that China is unfair in keeping their wages so low and because of that, they have taken over the American market. We have to enact tariffs to “even the playing field” for everyone. I immediately pulled out my ArachnoMac (aka a Macbook Pro) and looked up some articles on LewRockwell.com about tariffs.
The bottom line is: Free trade means free trade. Tariffs = taxes. Taxes ≠ Free trade.
I know that’s a rather brief reply, so I’ll add some more detail. Rep. Ron Paul does in this article. “Make no mistake about it, these tariffs represent naked protectionism at its worst, a blatant disregard of any remaining free-market principles to gain the short-term favor of certain special interests.”
And here: “We’ve all heard about how these tariffs are needed to protect the jobs of American steelworkers, but we never hear about the jobs that will be lost or never created when the cost of steel rises 30 percent. We forget that tariffs are taxes, and that imposing tariffs means raising taxes. Why is the administration raising taxes on American steel consumers?….We should recognize that the cost of these tariffs will not only be borne by American companies that import steel, such as those in the auto industry and building trades. The cost of these import taxes will be borne by nearly all Americans, because steel is widely used in the cars we drive and the buildings in which we live and work. We will all pay, but the cost will be spread out and hidden, so no one complains.”
This from Wilson Brown and Jan Hogendorn in this book, “Importers pass on [most of] their costs to buyers, and industrial buyers pass those costs on in the form of higher prices. . . . Consumers, hit directly or indirectly, include the inflationary price increases in their wage and salary demands. Everybody tries to pass the tax to someone else. The only group that is powerless to pass the costs on further are the exporters, who have to sell at world prices, and swallow those costs. In essence, a tax on imports becomes a tax on exports.” (Emphasis added)
So I think that this is a subject that deserves more attention than just, “yeah, let’s make the Chinese suffer! We’re Americans!” While I sympathize with the anti-Walmart, anti-China movement (not anti-China itself, but anti-China-selling-everything-to-us-and-we’ll-have-to-pay-for-it-later) I think there’s much to be said for both sides of the issue.
Books, and Government, and such
Jul 7th
Books play a vital role in my life. They are extremely important to me. I was considering them this morning in light of the free market. Right now, if I want to read a book and not buy it, I will go to our local library. Sadly, the standards of this library have gotten lower and lower until I’m hard pressed to find a decent book. I generally must resort to filling out a request slip for a book at other libraries. And within 6-10 months, I receive the book I wanted! This was frustrating when I was studying WWII. I requested a number of books on it, and most of them came in somewhat soon. So I forgot about the others that didn’t come, and decided to spend a few months back in ancient Rome studying that. One day I was shaken out of the world of collesiums, caesars and empires by a phone call. It was the library. “Would you still like this book, ‘A General History of WWII?’” [That was not the title, I don't remember the real title, I just made that up.] It took me a moment to realize what the librarian was talking about. I finally said I wasn’t interested in that anymore.
The government sure does provide great service, eh?
So this morning I was thinking about libraries, and how they would look if they were privatized. You could have a library for teenagers, filled with vampire romance novels, etc…You could have a library full of those trashy romance books that are apparently for women who aren’t happy with their current situation…we might have a library for historians, full of books from original sources so you wouldn’t have to rely on other interpretations. You know the controversies over books for children that discuss and promote homosexuality? Privatized libraries solve this problem! There can be a “gay” library for those who want to expose their children to that sort of information, and then the rest of us don’t have to worry about our children inadvertently finding these books in other libraries. There can be libraries for people like me, with a more classical taste, full of Dickens, Austen, Tolstoy, etc…There could be a politically incorrect library with Ron Paul books…and a politically correct library filled with biographies of President Obama, all of them marveling at this fine president who has accomplished so much. There’s a very obvious question that I’m sure you’re already asking.
Who’s going to pay for these libraries?
They aren’t public libraries, so they won’t be “free.” It isn’t unreasonable to say that someone will pay $100 a year or something like that, for access to their favorite library. And maybe the libraries would have a deal where you can use their library for free 3 times a year, or something like that. So if you’re studying Obama, you can go read up on him without having to pay $100. Maybe these libraries would be in the same building to help cut costs. You walk in the door and it is like a mall, you get to choose the “Vampire” library, the “Politically Correct Library” and so forth.
That sounds pretty cool! I like that idea. I would be happy to spend $100 a year if I could have access to decent, helpful, and interesting books. And I’m sure they’d have family plans too, so my whole family could for the year for only $100.
This applies to movies too. We are so tired of all the junky movies our library keeps getting. I wish there were libraries that catered to different tastes. A library full of historical dramas, Jane Austen movies and maybe a little Star Trek thrown in.
Amazing.
