January 2012
December 2011
“
Paul really is a federalist in the extreme sense, and he would give states and their courts the power to decide issues such as these. Of course, that also means that those states, like Massachusetts or Iowa or New York, can advance gay equality in a more organic, less top-down way — and Paul, unlike his colleagues, does not back a federal marriage amendment to prevent them. And note that Paul finds anti-sodomy laws “ridiculous”.
Sorry to break the news, but he’s a libertarian. He is the target now of ads run by NOM because of his refusal to sign their heteros-only marriage pledge. He is not for marriage equality — but the rest of the field are just as bad (as is Obama on the marriage issue alone).
” —Andrew Sullivan, “Why Aren’t The Gays Attacking Paul? Ctd,” The Dish, December 30, 2011
“Sorry to break the news, but he’s a libertarian.”
So what.
This silly idea that adherence to libertarianism excuses support for oppression because libertarians are “ardent” “defenders” of “freedom” needs to end. Ron Paul can repeat all he likes that “Libertarians are incapable of being a racist because racism is a collectivist idea,” but that doesn’t mean we need to believe him.
Sullivan is responding to a reader of Dan Savage’s, who says:
Ron Paul does not advocate for leaving gays alone. He simply advocates for the states to be able to oppress them instead of Washington. Take, for example, this 2003 article. Paul decries the Supreme Court’s Lawrence v Texas decision that eliminated state sodomy laws …
Essentially, Paul has no interest in leaving anybody alone. He only wants to get rid of one government scared into submission by oppressive douchebags and replace it with 50 governments scared into submission by oppressive douchebags.
Dan Savage’s reader is right. Ron Paul might think anti-sodomy laws are “ridiculous,” but he still thinks it’s perfectly legitimate for the citizens of the state of Texas to take a vote on how gay folks can have sex with each other.
Government is not always the opposite of liberty. Someone who genuinely supported individual freedom would side with the federal government in getting a state government out of a gay Texan’s bedroom. A libertarian like Ron Paul would apparently throw up his hands and tell the gay Texan to use the democratic process to try to convince his fellow citizens not to throw him in jail for having sex.
Libertarians are not interested in freedom, no matter how loudly or how often they say they are.
(via screwrocknroll)
“
In his 1987 manifesto “Freedom Under Siege: The U.S. Constitution after 200-Plus Years,” Paul wrote that AIDS patients were victims of their own lifestyle, questioned the rights of minorities and argued that people who are sexually harassed at work should quit their jobs.
The slim, 157-page volume was published ahead of Paul’s 1988 Libertarian Party presidential bid and touches on many of the themes he continues to hammer on the stump.
Returning again and again to the of concept of “liberty,” he hails the virtues of the gold standard, attacks the Federal Reserve and defends the rights of gun-owners.
But the book, re-issued in 2007 during Paul’s last presidential bid with a cover photograph of an ominous SWAT Team, has so far escaped scrutiny amid the latest furor over his newsletters.
” —In early book, Rep. Ron Paul criticized AIDS patients, minority rights and sexual harassment victims (via ryking)
This is the book I read and criticized the other day, here’s a gem,
Victims of the disease AIDS argue, with no qualms of inconsistency about rights, for crash research programs (to be paid for by people who Chapter 1 - Individual Rights 23 don’t have AIDS), demanding a cure. And it’s done in the name of rights. Victims demand health care as well and scream “discrimination” if insurance companies claim they have a right to refuse to issue a policy to someone already infected with the AIDS virus. The rights of the insurance company owners are not considered, while legislation is passed forcing insurance companies to provide the insurance demanded by the victims. The individual suffering from AIDS certainly a is victim — frequently a victim of his own lifestyle — but this same individual victimizes innocent citizens by forcing them to pay for his care. Crash research programs are hardly something, I believe, the Found Fathers intended when they talked about equal rights.
What kind of freedom lover makes an honest living attacking AIDS victims and AIDS research? It’s ludicrous even at a superficial level. I began to read the book after in order to clarify a puzzling inclusion into Buzzfeed’s 22 Reasons Ron Paul is Not a Racist.
Thanks to the Ludwig von Mises Institute, the book is available for everyone to read here.
(via thenoobyorker)
My brother died of AIDS-related complications in 1990. I have lost too many people to think about Paul’s fuckery rationally so I will just leave this right here.
(via chromaticdebutante)Ways I Know That the AI in Mario Kart 7 is Cheating
>On a straightaway, everyone passes the guy with max speed stat going at max speed like he’s a granny on the highway. Without using their own boosts.
>They have coins to drop before it is even possible to have coins to drop.
>The ratio of blue shell drops increases drastically when I am in the lead.
It’s almost like Super Mario Kart levels of AI cheating again. 150cc is pretty dirty.
The house always wins, kids
The AI in Mario Kart has always cheated.
