politics

It turns out that not only is Ron Paul disconnected from consensual reality on abortion, evolution, and the separation of church and state, he's also a racist dingbat. phenry at DailyKos provides the evidence, from a 1992 article from the Ron Paul Political Report entitled "LOS ANGELES RACIAL TERRORISM":

Many more are going to have difficultly avoiding the belief that our country is being destroyed by a group of actual and potential terrorists -- and they can be identified by the color of their skin. This conclusion may not be entirely fair, but it is, for many, entirely unavoidable.

Indeed, it is shocking to consider the uniformity of opinion among blacks in this country. Opinion polls consistently show that only about 5% of blacks have sensible political opinions, i.e. support the free market, individual liberty, and the end of welfare and affirmative action.... Given the inefficiencies of what D.C. laughingly calls the "criminal justice system," I think we can safely assume that 95% of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal. [emphasis added -tms]

In a 2001 interview, Paul claimed this and similarly racist articles (such as one where he claimed that it's ok to try young teens as juveniles, except for black teens who should be tried as adults) were written by a staffer - a laughable defense. This wasn't a slick glossy mag where he just served as an "adviser" or something, it was an eight-page 'zine that he published under his own name. Even if we grant the fantasy that someone else wrote it, that would mean that Paul was irresponsible enough to let it go out under his name, demonstrating such rank incompetence that he shouldn't be allowed to hold any position of public trust.

Really, it's time for folks to get over their crush on Paul. Yes, he's the only Republican talking sense on war, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

What happens in a state where ordinary people are able to carry guns? Mayhem? No. What you tend to see are under-reported incidents like this.

Charlie Merrell was in a checkout lane at an Indianapolis IGA Supermarket, when a masked man jumped over a counter and pointed a gun at an employee. Merrell drew his own handgun (for which he had a permit), ordered the robber to drop his weapon, and held him until police arrived.

If the robber had shot a bunch of people, this would be all over the news. (In this case, the robber's gun wasn't loaded.) But an incident like this gets little coverage; this imbalance is part of why so many otherwise rational people have such fear of citizens carrying guns.

Something I posted to Slashdot regarding Ron Paul and some of his batshit-crazy views.

No, I don't mean eliminating the IRS and Social Security, those I'm willing to discuss. I mean his relationship to consensual physical reality. Ron Paul's campain has picked up a lot of interest among libertarian-leaning internet folks, but I think a lot of them don't know his views on some key concepts, and might understand him as less of a friend of liberty if they saw him for the religious wacko he is.

But, puhlease give up the single-issue bullshit.

His position on Roe v. Wade is only a symptom, not the whole of his disease. It shows that his position is not one of preferring less government and more freedom, but of simply moving government powers around; and it shows the influence of irrational religious belief on his thoughts and opinions.

It shows that he's anti-science, when he makes statements such as "As an obstetrician, I know that partial birth abortion is never a necessary medical procedure." The whole purpose of intact dilation and extraction (the real name of the procedure) is to avoid damage to the woman's uterus. It is generally safer for the patient that dilation and evacuation. IDX is only "never a necessary medical procedure" if the health of the patient isn't a concern.

This is not a surprise from someone who, for all the noise he makes about the Constitution, believes that "a rigid separation between church and state has no basis in either the text of the Constitution", and who does not accept the reality of evolution.

Very interesting project here: PeaceTags.

They are selling silver "dog tag" style necklaces with quotes about peace, from folks ranging from Walt Whitman to Pope John Paul II to the Dali Lama. Proceeds benefit the Wounded Warrior Project and the Voices in Wartime Education Project.

The mission of PeaceTags is to ignite peace in our hearts, in our homes, and in our world by spreading the words of wise sages through the ages. We raise funds and awareness for innovative non profit organizations helping troops, their families, and communities.

They ain't cheap, but it's a good cause.

This is the weirdest, most disturbing thing I've heard about in a while. It illustrates so well the dangers of the human impulse to submit to authority.

Friday, a jury awarded $6.1 million to Louise Ogborn, who said she was subject to a strip-search in a McDonald's back office after someone posing as a cop called the restaurant and accused her of theft.

Ogborn claimed McDonald's was negligent when they failed to warn her and other employees about this caller, who had already struck other fast-food joints. Yes, this wasn't an isolated case: there were over 70 such incidents.

It's sad to see how much heat Barak Obama draws when he says the most commonsensical things.

Following the lead of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan during the Cold War, you're willing to talk to leaders of nations at odd with us? Then you must be "inexperienced" or "naive".

You're willing to take a nuclear first strike off the table? You must be "irresponsible". (No matter if the one criticizing you made the same statement last year.)

Now he's getting criticized for his fashion choices, for saying that he decided that he ought to display his patriotism with actions than with an American flag lapel pin. (One probably made in China.)

The whole thing reminds me of the great old John Prine song Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore.

Something I recently posted to Slashdot. It's old news but I get tired of the misinformation around this.

They even had a non-partisan group do a recount after the fact, and the paper trail showed that Bush in fact did win Florida.

No.

Data from the NORC recount shows that under the legal standard in force at the time, the "intent of the voter", more ballots were cast for Gore than for Bush.

As the Washington Post admitted (though only deep into an article whose headline and lead tells how recounts would have favored Bush):

Among the major party candidates, my favorites (so far) are Obama and Kucinich.

While they're both 100% wrong on gun control, I don't think a president can do as much damage on that as they can on foreign policy and on due process (habeius corpus, right to a genuine, speedy, and public trial, and so on).

Obama gets triple points this week for announcing that he would work toward nuclear disarmament.

And Kucinich is the subject of this interesting profile in the Chicago Tribune.

Whole lot of noise lately about the "Jena 6". Here's something I posted to Slashdot a few days ago:

The nooses were hung on Sept 1. The fight occurred on Dec 4th. That's three months. The events are definitely related.

The events are only related if the guy who got beat down was involved in hanging the nooses, and I'm unaware of any allegations that he did. Collective guilt doesn't wash; something somebody else did three months ago is no excuse for a violent attack on someone today.

None of the statements taken by the DA said that the assault was caused by the nooses. It bears many hallmarks of an after-the-fact justification.

The guys hanging the nooses were assholes, and their behavior should not be tolerated by the school. Three day in-school suspension, with no public statement by the school, may well have been much too light. But trying to get the FBI involved, is amazing overreaction.

A six-on-one aggravated assault goes far beyond mere assholery; it is a serious crime, and if convicted those involved should be dealt with accordingly. It's wrong to portray the assailants in this case as some sort of innocents.

However, the charge of "attempted murder" is clearly trumped up. In Mychal Bell's case, time served plus probation is probably plenty.

I'll definitely be playing this at the Poems Against War / Poetry In Baltimore event October 19 at Load of Fun Gallerie. Meanwhile, if you play guitar, spread the meme.

I heard a little bit of the buzz going around about Sally Field getting censored by Fox for saying during the Emmys that "If mothers ruled the world, there wouldn't be any goddamn wars in the first place." It bounced around my brain a bit, stuck on to some other stuff, and this is what came out.

Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Soldiers

words by Tom Swiss
      to the tune of "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys", by
      Ed Bruce and Patsy Bruce

guitar chords: D - G - A7 - D

Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be soldiers
Don't let 'em be fooled by the masters of war
Teach 'em that peace is what to work for
Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be soldiers
They can die all alone
A long way from from home
Giving their life for a lie

Young boys play war with toy guns and they always pretend
Someday that they'll grow up and be brave and fight like real men
Marching to death at the orders of generals,
      all for the U. S. of A.
But war ain't a game, there's no glory in killing,
      old soldiers fade away

Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be soldiers