Posted on 11/19/2002 7:58:26 PM PST by metalbird1
No, it would be more rational if this weren't a simple rewrite of the same overwrought screed that's been posted a thousand times or so over the last year. Why it suddenly becomes thoughtful because it comes from someone touted as one of the shining members of Congress - surely one of the lowest hurdles one can clear in contemporary society - is beyond me.
Gotta go easy on Jimer, bird.
He usually posts minimalist responses.
A full paragraph has got to be an awful strain.
Hmmm...
There was a motion to recommit the bill- that is a vote to consider it more.
BUT RON PAUL VOTED AGAINST IT, AND FOR VOTING ON THE BILL!!!
So if he thought that after nine months of debate there should have been more consideration why didn't he vote for that motion to recommit?
I guess because he's a politician LOL!
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THE LIGHTHOUSE
"Enlightening Ideas for Public Policy..."
Vol. 4, Issue 46
November 18, 2002
Welcome to THE LIGHTHOUSE, the weekly e-mail newsletter of The Independent Institute, the non-politicized public-policy research organization. We provide you with updates of the Institute's current research, publications, events and media programs, plus commentary on current affairs.
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IN THIS WEEK'S ISSUE:
1. Department of Homeland Insecurity
2. Brazil Needs Market Radicalism
3. Psst! Sell Your Kidney?
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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND INSECURITY
Contrary to the White House's intentions, the proposed Department of Homeland Security will make Americans less safe from terrorist attacks, argues Paul Craig Roberts, research fellow at the Independent Institute, in a new syndicated column.
"One hundred government agencies from 22 departments crammed into an unaccountable bureaucracy of 170,000 civil servants creates less security," writes Roberts, whose former service in the Treasury Department gave him ample opportunity to observe the undesirable consequences of bureaucratic turf wars.
The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, according to Roberts, is a particularly ineffective and unaccountable bureaucracy that would become even less accountable were it to be merged into Homeland Security.
"The INS cannot even rid us of illegal rapist-murderers," he writes. "Once the INS has a 170,000-person bureaucracy in which to hide, the opportunities for passing the buck will be endless."
Roberts also fears that the proposed Homeland Security Department would seek to expand its scope to justify a large budget, leading to civil rights violations, censorship of the Internet and tougher but counter-productive gun control laws.
"Federal police forces will be able to liquidate any group by declaring it 'terrorist,' just as Janet Reno exterminated by Branch Davidians by declaring them 'child abusers,' and FBI and BATF agents murdered Randy Weaver's family by declaring him 'armed and dangerous.'"
Finally, Roberts takes aim at the belief -- popular in influential neoconservative circles -- that Iraq and other countries in the Middle East can easily be make into stable, rights-respecting democracies with only a little nudge from the United States military. A more likely scenario, he argues, is that a U.S. war in Iraq will lead to the spread of militant Islam in Iraq and elsewhere.
"A Leap into the Dark," by Paul Craig Roberts (11/15/02)
http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink4-46-1.html
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Yehaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! What a comeback for these noisy jerks. These 3rd party pooper backbenchers are getting much too much time, isn't their 15 minutes up yet?
Well, there you go. That was pretty easy.
A) It's an overwrought screed
It is. There is nothing of substance in this piece, therefore there is no substantial refutation to be made - demanding such is merely a sign of how deeply you have drunk from this particular jug of kool-aid.
Everything in these sorts of articles is essentially of the form "What if...?" - much as the Safire article that Paul so obviously signs on to. Well, here are some other what-if scenarios for you to entertain. What if GWB snaps and declares himself Emperor of North America? What if he starts strangling babies with impunity at political rallies? What if his alien masters cause him to defecate on the White House lawn while setting fire to the Constitution?
Of course, there is no "refutation" of such fantasies - either you believe them to be likely, or you do not, but in either case, there is little point in trying to persuade someone otherwise.
B) The arguer is a lower life form
Why, my dear sir - he is a lower life form, by definition. He is a congressman. I realize that there are still those innocent souls out there who wish to give exalted status to their representatives, and anoint as holy all that oozes forth from their mouths, but I assure you, Rep. Paul is not absolved of the responsibility for making something resembling a cogent argument by the fact that he is one of our favorite members of Congress. Being the most thoughtful Congressman is akin to winning a gold medal at the Special Olympics - you may be at the top of the heap, but it's a pretty low heap.
"Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."
- Mark Twain
C) The General's statement of refutation includes at best, only an attack implying guilt by association, and just plain ignores the point of the original argument.
What point? That the federal government will be larger? It's always gratifying to see an elected representative maintain a firm grasp on the obvious, but you had to hear it from Ron Paul to know that to be true? Or did you mean when he spirals off towards apogee with his citation of Safire's hilariously hyperbolic column?
Let's see. The "point" is either trivially obvious, or ridiculously silly, and yet you demand serious argumentation.
I think not. When the Rt. Hon. Cong. Paul writes something of substance, rest assured that I will prepare substantial counterarguments. But it would be unfair of me to do so here - I'd be the only one making arguments of substance, and that would only make Cong. Paul look even sillier.
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
Abraham Lincoln, The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions: Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois January 27, 1838
DID THIS COUNTRY JUST SLASH ITS WRISTS -- METAPHORICALLY SPEAKING?
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