One week after calling Ron Paul his new hero, Bill Maher invites Ron Paul back on Real Time to discuss his growing popularity for his non-interventionist position on foreign policy. The audience seemed to go crazy for Ron, causing Bill Maher to comment that that was the most applause his audience has ever given to a Republican. The icing came towards the end of the interview when Ron threw in a nice little jab back at Rudy for his lack of understanding of the unintended consequences of decades of intervening in the foreign affairs of other nations.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
The Neocon Moment is Over
Great article by Paul Mulshine on the fallout of the Paul / Giuliani feud.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Bill Maher on Ron Paul: "He is my New Hero"
So I just finished watching last Fridays rerun of Real Time on HBO, and was pleasantly surprised to hear Bill Maher defending Ron Paul's comments at the last Republican debate on Fox.
Maher was interviewing Chris Dodd (D-CT) at the beginning of the show when he made his comments about a man running for the Republican nomination named Ron Paul who has no chance of winning and can therefore speak the truth. He posed Paul's argument about America's foreign policy of interventionism that has served to drastically irritate much of the mid-east to a point where a 9-11 type attack became imminent. Dodd first disagreed on the grounds that he did not believe that 9-11 was a provoked attack, but host Maher quickly interjected by not allowing Dodd to in Maher's words, "do what the Republican's did to Paul." Maher told Dodd that Paul's words had been twisted. He explained that Paul's point was not to say that we were asking for the attack, but that we intervened to a point where someone was eventually going to respond.
Towards the end of the show Maher put together a stringed clip of the candidate's statements on the war on terror. Each candidate from Romney and Giuliani to McCain and on down the line repeatedly called for more use of torture to fight the war on terror. Romney actually suggested doubling the size of Guantanamo Bay. The clip ended with Ron Paul speaking of the Republican Party's tradition of being anti-war in the past. This was followed by the sound of crickets and dumb "dear in the headlights" looks on all of the other candidates faces.
After I finished writing this post, I noticed that Titanium Girl has posted the video clip from Real Time on her blog Titanium Thoughts. Check it out.
Maher was interviewing Chris Dodd (D-CT) at the beginning of the show when he made his comments about a man running for the Republican nomination named Ron Paul who has no chance of winning and can therefore speak the truth. He posed Paul's argument about America's foreign policy of interventionism that has served to drastically irritate much of the mid-east to a point where a 9-11 type attack became imminent. Dodd first disagreed on the grounds that he did not believe that 9-11 was a provoked attack, but host Maher quickly interjected by not allowing Dodd to in Maher's words, "do what the Republican's did to Paul." Maher told Dodd that Paul's words had been twisted. He explained that Paul's point was not to say that we were asking for the attack, but that we intervened to a point where someone was eventually going to respond.
Towards the end of the show Maher put together a stringed clip of the candidate's statements on the war on terror. Each candidate from Romney and Giuliani to McCain and on down the line repeatedly called for more use of torture to fight the war on terror. Romney actually suggested doubling the size of Guantanamo Bay. The clip ended with Ron Paul speaking of the Republican Party's tradition of being anti-war in the past. This was followed by the sound of crickets and dumb "dear in the headlights" looks on all of the other candidates faces.
After I finished writing this post, I noticed that Titanium Girl has posted the video clip from Real Time on her blog Titanium Thoughts. Check it out.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Cheating Dental Students
John Gibson at Fox News has written a story about some dental students at the Indiana University dental school. These students reportedly were involved in a cheating scandal and suspended from the school. The reason according to the professors is that President Bush lied about WMD in Iraq, therefore students now believe that lying and cheating is morally acceptable.
Of-course Gibson is contending that anyone who uses this type of rantionale has, in his words, "come off the rails." Now don't get me wrong, I believe strongly in a philosophy of personal responsibility, therefore I sympathize with Gibson's point of view. I only wonder if Gibson would have applied this same standard to the social conservative right who blamed President Clinton for the supposed rising rates of sexual activity among the nations youth.
Of-course Gibson is contending that anyone who uses this type of rantionale has, in his words, "come off the rails." Now don't get me wrong, I believe strongly in a philosophy of personal responsibility, therefore I sympathize with Gibson's point of view. I only wonder if Gibson would have applied this same standard to the social conservative right who blamed President Clinton for the supposed rising rates of sexual activity among the nations youth.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Radicals for Capitalism
I have been reading Brian Doherty's new book, "Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement." Mr. Doherty is a senior editor at Reason magazine, which is to say one of the fine libertarian publications of our time.
I have thoroughly enjoyed Doherty's history and commentary on the movement. He has basically put together an outline encompassing all of the known and not so well known characters that have contributed to libertarian philosophy over the past couple of centuries.
Albert Jay Knock's contributions have been of particular interest to me. Doherty writes in his book that "Knock was an anarchist, though he carefully distinguished the state, to which he was bloodily opposed, from government-the necessary functions for an orderly civilization historically usurped by the state."
I recommend this book to any students of libertarian thought and history.
I have thoroughly enjoyed Doherty's history and commentary on the movement. He has basically put together an outline encompassing all of the known and not so well known characters that have contributed to libertarian philosophy over the past couple of centuries.
Albert Jay Knock's contributions have been of particular interest to me. Doherty writes in his book that "Knock was an anarchist, though he carefully distinguished the state, to which he was bloodily opposed, from government-the necessary functions for an orderly civilization historically usurped by the state."
I recommend this book to any students of libertarian thought and history.
Monday, May 07, 2007
I'm Back
After a long hiatus from this blog, I have finally come back to this space where I can enjoy advocating my random anti-state pontifications.
So much has happened over the past few months that I don't know where to begin. I suppose the most exciting news of the past few weeks has been Ron Paul's recent frenzy of media publicity. I haven't been this excited about someone running for a political party nomination since, wait - never have I been this excited about anything happening within the realm of politics.
Ron Paul's presence at the GOP debate was absolutely remarkable. I could not believe I was watching someone of Paul's consistent, hard hitting libertarian ideology actually espousing his views upon the stage at the Reagan library on a nationally televised debate. Good times.
Ron Paul has been able to capitalize off of the internet in a big way in 2007. He must have mobilized and army of hardcore activists, as is evidenced by his placing first or second in most of the major media "Who won the GOP debate" polls. I was stunned by the results of many of those polls.
I only wish like the editors of Reason magazine do that it would be nice to live in a world where Ron Paul could actually win. I believe that for now, candidates like Ron Paul mainly serve as a stabilizing factor to keep the other Republican candidates from falling too far to away from small government libertarian principles. One of my favorite parts from the debate happened when host Chris Matthews asked the panel if they supported or opposed a national ID card for Americans. Almost all of them said that they supported it, until Ron Paul explained that a national ID card was inconsistent with a free society. He went on to place the proper role of government to protecting the privacy of the people, not protecting the privacy of government. At this point McCain and Giuliani had to backtrack and stumble around explaining that they only supported if for foreigners, not Americans. I loved it.
To those few who actually read my blog, I'm sorry to have fallen off the face of the earth for so long. I look forward to continuing this blog and interacting with others once again.
So much has happened over the past few months that I don't know where to begin. I suppose the most exciting news of the past few weeks has been Ron Paul's recent frenzy of media publicity. I haven't been this excited about someone running for a political party nomination since, wait - never have I been this excited about anything happening within the realm of politics.
Ron Paul's presence at the GOP debate was absolutely remarkable. I could not believe I was watching someone of Paul's consistent, hard hitting libertarian ideology actually espousing his views upon the stage at the Reagan library on a nationally televised debate. Good times.
Ron Paul has been able to capitalize off of the internet in a big way in 2007. He must have mobilized and army of hardcore activists, as is evidenced by his placing first or second in most of the major media "Who won the GOP debate" polls. I was stunned by the results of many of those polls.
I only wish like the editors of Reason magazine do that it would be nice to live in a world where Ron Paul could actually win. I believe that for now, candidates like Ron Paul mainly serve as a stabilizing factor to keep the other Republican candidates from falling too far to away from small government libertarian principles. One of my favorite parts from the debate happened when host Chris Matthews asked the panel if they supported or opposed a national ID card for Americans. Almost all of them said that they supported it, until Ron Paul explained that a national ID card was inconsistent with a free society. He went on to place the proper role of government to protecting the privacy of the people, not protecting the privacy of government. At this point McCain and Giuliani had to backtrack and stumble around explaining that they only supported if for foreigners, not Americans. I loved it.
To those few who actually read my blog, I'm sorry to have fallen off the face of the earth for so long. I look forward to continuing this blog and interacting with others once again.
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