Posted on 09/24/2011 11:42:06 AM PDT by Bokababe
I want to state at the outset that this essay is not intended to be an endorsement of Ron Paul. While I respect and admire many of his positions and his fidelity to the Constitution, I have strong misgivings about some of his stances on national security. If you could hear the debates between myself and my 20-year-old son, a passionate Ron Paul supporter, you would readily accept the sincerity of my disclaimer.
That said, as the political season has heated up, I've been surprised at the tone of the discourse as it relates to Ron Paul. In fact, I can hardly believe what I'm seeing and hearing from my fellow Tea Partiers and conservatives. My assumption that conservatives are more thoughtful and logical than my emotion-driven liberal friends has taken a bit of a hit....
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
This thread proves the article, doesn’t it.
I agree with a lot of what you wrote. At this point, especially considering the way they are being waged, I do not think the current wars in which we are embroiled are in our national interest. I think they are currently being used to stretch our resources beyond the point of the breaking strain. The politicians have spent us into a hole we cannot dig ourselves out of given the current state of things.
They've lined their own pockets well, and seem to think they'll somehow be safe in the coming maelstrom they've set the stage for, or will simply die before it hits. I think they are wrong.
You and I, my friend are doomed to live in interesting times. The writing is on the wall. I've seen it coming since the early 80s. I pray that we'll be able to take the real fight to those who put us here.
If you haven't done so, I strongly recommend you read Mark Steyn's latest "After America". It is guaranteed to piss you off, but it's worth it, and as always, Mr. Steyn is a genious wordsmith. It's an excellent follow-on to "America Alone", which I think I should have re-read before delving in to his newest book.
” Ronald Reagan once said, “The most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” And he was right. Too bad most Americans don’t sincerely believe those words. “
I worked for RR in his Century City offices on 2 elections as his local Precinct Captain, and moreover as a fundraiser. I personally raised 10 million for Reagan. I will raise 5 dollars for Mitt & Perry. I was at the funeral in Simi Valley.
Capishe?
No. He's an MD, who has delivered quite a few babies with his own hands. He also signed the SBA anti-abortion pledge.
"Click to subscribe to Libertarians for Mitt and receive notifications of new posts by email...Join 1 other follower."
Two supporters? Wow, this could steamroll! /sarc
What a joke! ROFLMAO!
I didn’t do that. THAT is funny. Wonder who started that site?
Then that makes YOU the biggest part of the problem, doesn’t it? YOU are largely why we get squishy moderates or leftists to vote for. Until we’re almost totally out of constitution and republic. You should be ashamed, but “people” like you have no shame in your makeup.
“Sure they will. They will vote for anybody who has anything close to Cynthia McKinney’s policies. The Cynthia McKinney who the surrender monkey endorsed in 2008.”
Paul didn’t “endorse McKinney in 2008.” Even the Wall Street Journal, no pal of Paul’s, didn’t have the cojones to put out that kind of slanted b.s. interpretation of his statement: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/09/10/ron-paul-endorses-the-third-party-field/
But you know that, and you didn’t care. You just wanted to smear him and his supporters as liberals—they are NOT. But to your point, I wouldn’t vote for McKinney for any public position. Unless, of course, she was running against a slimy smear merchant like you.
Big Government™ that is not enumerated in the Constitution - and that includes abusing the U.S. armed services in the pursuit of being the world's policeman - is NOT conservative.
Irrespective of the state of the U.S. economy, the U.S. should NOT be a global policeman. To do so is to show disrespect for the lives of the men and women in our armed services as well as for the taxpayers who must - at gunpoint - pay for foreign interventions through taxes. To do is to agree with left-wing establishment statists like Wilson and both Roosevelts.
The purpose of the armed services is to provide for a common defense of the United States against enemies foreign and domestic. Not other random people around the world who neither have ties nor bear allegiance to the United States. Got it?
Actually, from the ones I have talked with, no. They see readily the way liberalism has closed doors and reduced their options for the future. They see how hard it is to get a job when the employer can be hung out to dry for thousands of reasons, even though many of them would make a good employee. They hear us old farts talk about 'back when' and the things we did and have a fairly clear picture of not only how the world has changed, but who did what to make a mess of it.
Without the partisan blinders of being card-carrying Republicans, they see how one party opens the door to their loss of freedom, and the other party rushes in to loot their liberty.
Two prime examples are the EPA, the War on Drugs, both of which have virtually destroyed property rights, and the right to be secure from search and siezure of ones person, property, and effects.
They may be young (unseasoned by experience), but they are not dumb. They are still trying to make sense of it all, when it doesn't make sense--to them, or even, oftentimes, to us.
You want to turn them off, anyone, just call them names and don't have the decency to calmly explain how they are wrong--if you can.
I'm as anti-drug as it gets, I will not bother to summarize how my retirement has been squandered by the actions of others on drugs, but it has. But I don't think kicking down doors in the burbs is going to do diddley squat in the long run except get innocent people killed when the entry team gets the address wrong--because the d@mned border is still wide open and the stuff is coming in by the ton.
Open the door to wiretapping "terrorists" wholesale, and still not have the collective b@lls to profile at the airport, and all that happens is someone like Napolitano gets in and redefines terrorists as Bible-believing Christians who refuse to relinquish their Second Amendment Rights.
While tha d@mned border remains wide open.
We need to recall the person who spoke up in The Emperor's New Clothes was not a learned man, nor an irate woman, but a child.
Like it or not, Paul's supporters are energized, they may not have the historical perspective some of us do, but they are there, and they will be supporting someone.
A sufficiently Conservative Republican who walks the walk, not just talks the talk, has a good shot at taking these people into the fold, as long as we are not foolish enough to just alienate them out of hand.
It's on the shelf right next to the one of Sarah Palin asying she can see Russia from her back porch. (oops, that was someone else...)
Considering what we have now, that's definitely a step in the right direction. Some states will put a stop to it.
Bravo. Well said!
Right. It's bad enough when the MSM and Democrats make up stuff and spread lies about Republicans. At least we can expect that. But when Freepers spread lies about solidly conservative candidates like Paul, that's counterproductive.
Otherwise, what would we think of that fellow from Galilee who hung out at the wharves among mere fishermen, who counted among his inner circle one who had persecuted Jews and another who would yet betray him, and who freed a condemned criminal from their just and lawful punishment? He wandered the region speaking of a kingdom elsewhere, and of His Father, and people of all walks of life followed him--and still do, sinners all.
Bump.
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/
God established 'marriage', and it was between a man and a woman. NOT between perverts whose whole existence is about their preferred sexual lusts... Now it may well become 'acceptable' to the majority of Americans to pervert the meaning of the word marriage, but that is NOT going to be ignored by the ONE (and I am not talking about America's latest god bambamkennedy) WHO bestows the Blessings of LIFE, LIBERTY, and the Pursuit of Happiness... (I have yet to meet a 'happy' queer.)
All the government reductions RonPaul advocates IS not going to cure our ills. Not only do we have a 'credit' problem we have a 'moral' problem. And the 'interest' on our 'moral' debt is NOT because our 'government' is too large.
America has been an Empire since 1803.
Having been an Empire, you don’t want to see what it would be like no longer being an Empire.
It is what Rome looked like in 476.
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