Ron Paul is right

I’ve just finished reading “The Revolution – A Manifesto” by Ron Paul. I highly recommend it to everyone no matter who or where you are. Ron Paul is the only politician I’ve heard/read who has a clue. Not only does he have a clue the man is brilliant. It’s encouraging (and shocking) to find a politician with whom I agree with on point after point. It’s even more encouraging to find out that there are millions and millions of Americans who agree and always have. There is hope for America yet.

From what I’ve seen the rest of politicians seem to be deluded. They seem to think that their primary job is to get re-elected and second to pretend to try to solve problems by making more laws and spending more money whilst telling us how hard they are working and how big the problems are blah, blah, blah. Any problems solved? No. Problems exacerbated? Yep. Deliberate? Probably. Job security and all that. A parallel is going to a typical doctor who prescribes drugs that mask one problem and cause another for which you return to the doctor to get more drugs. He has a perpetual job while not solving the problem while you get bled dry and sicker.

If anyone is more clueless than most politicians it’s the media who reports on (or sucks up to or ignores) them. To be fair, I know that some of them (a minority) are extremely intelligent – smart enough to be keenly aware that the media is first and foremost a business. In addition many are rude. I guess that’s good for ratings and readership. Simon Cowell of American Idol is proof positive of a ratings-magnet jerk. Honesty is one thing, cruelty is another. But who cares about people, right? It’s all about the money. Broadcast journalists invite someone they disagree with on their program under the pretense of discussing an issue but only give them two or three minutes on air during which they talk over them, ask leading questions and ridicule them. If they agree with their guest it’s just three minutes of gratuitous butt kissing. Pathetic. Why do people agree to go on those shows? Self-loathing? Why do people watch those shows? Masochism? Ignorance? Nothing else on the other 200 channels?

Doing the right thing takes courage – apparently that’s not something most people have. It requires the honesty and humility to admit to wrongs and failures. It requires putting an end to systems that we have become comfortable with. It requires making amends to people we have wronged. It requires giving up things we can’t afford. It requires confronting the mega wealthy and powerful who have profited at our demise. Toe to toe, nose to nose – somebody’s going down. We love to watch it depicted in movies but no-fucking-way will your average person emulate heroic behavior.

We are a country of hypocrites. We frown on and punish physical retaliation in our culture. If two kids get in a fight at school both of them are punished – not just the one who started it. Schools preach some BS such as “Might doesn’t make right.” Well, somebody needs to alert the U.S. Government to that bit of clever poetry. We especially like movies where the good guy is a real maverick who gives a finger to the neutered establishment so he can go out and thoroughly kick some bad guy ass – the more drawn out the better. Oh, yea! We love that! We can talk the talk, baby. Our mouths and our bumper stickers. We send our troops overseas to 130 foreign countries, for what? To bankrupt the U.S. and make enemies around the world who resort to terrorism because they are majorly pissed off because WE ARE TRESPASSING. How fucking stupid can we be? It’s about money and power (Iraq = oil, Afghanistan = heroin) but not yours and mine. When it hits the fan it’s going to bury the poor and middle class first not the decision makers in suits and the plastic people in the media. Just like it’s the soldiers with modest backgrounds most likely to come home in body bags not the son of a Senator.

Here’s a micro dose of common sense to begin to avert the impending disaster:
1. Return to the Constitution. (One of my major pet peeves is when I hear someone say “If you don’t like it you can leave” as if they are so special they have the right to draw that line in the sand and you are an inferior ingrate. It’s such an arrogant cop out they should be deported for a year. Well I think if any non Native [non Indian] American doesn’t like the Constitution they can leave because unlike most silly ass arguments the Constitution is the foundation of our country.)

2.End pseudo wars such as the “war on drugs” and the “war against terrorism.” They are not legitimate wars. They are people-eating propaganda. They are not winnable. You can’t go to war against a tactic or a vice.

3. Bring home all American troops from overseas.

4. End the income tax and dissolve the IRS.

5. End the Federal Reserve and return to gold/silver standard.

6. End the FDA.

7. End the Department of Education.

8. End/reverse all “executive orders.” We have a Congress for a very good reason.

9. End all foreign aid. Individual Americans should decide for themselves who they want to give money to.

10. Balance the budget. (Duh.)