The Ron Paul topic ( aka your candidate sucks topic )

[Variable]

lol.  I dont know how I didn't see this sooner.  So I clicked on that link jerry last posted.  And they had pics of symbols that these "militias" might use.  Take a look at the top left corner and tell me if it looks familiar.  The funny part, is that I only rep that flag because of its marine corps history.  It also just happens to be an official marine corps flag.  Some people are so ignorant.  I wish somehow I could take credit for getting that put on there.

[alvarezbassist17]

Thought I'd give this long-dead topic a bump because I have only come to like Ron Paul more and more, he's had an immense influence on my worldview and thought process, and also because of this:

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections2/election_2012/election_2012_barack_obama_42_ron_paul_41

And our economy has plenty of tanking left to do by 2012 so barring any shenanigans by the Republican Party, it'd end up being a shoe-in.

[Variable]

I would be SO happy. I doubt that it will actually happen.  But man, I would be fucking happy.  

[alvarezbassist17]

I dunno man, I really can see things getting that bad when the bond bubble finally pops and the dollar is worthless.  I mean there's definitely the possibility we'll descend into rampant socialism, but I'd like to hope that folks like us, the people at the von Mises institute, and the likes of Ron Paul, Rand Paul and Peter Schiff can get the message across before it really is too late.  Very long term I'd say I'm bullish on the US economy, because while Americans have only gotten dumber and dumber, we're still so rich in capital that once (if it is allowed to happen) things are valued at the real and not nominal values and we (again a huge "if") can get our fiscal house in order that we will be able to start building things up again.  And the fact that no matter how out to lunch we become, Europe is most likely going to be leaps and bounds ahead of us in that regard.  So I know it's probably overly optimistic, but I still hope that once America is finally forced to get Austrian as fuck, we, as a people, might actually realize how full of shit the establishment is and take up the cause.  And then we'll finally cure AIDS and figure out light speed travel and it'll be just like star trek.

[Variable]

Star trek indeed.

I think that if a mass disaster happened that everyone would just turn to the government even more and look to them to solve it all and keep them happy.  And not in a free market government kind of way.  They wouldn't want to hear a message about a self correcting market.  They would want to hear the government say " Don't worry, we will save you all in no time!" and fuck up 30 times ( the new deal comes to mind ) before either figuring something out, or just mass war breaks out and we regain an economy by raping other countries for resources ( oil in the middle east comes to mind). 

The public is truly just too uneducated on the subject to be able to witness a mass failure and be like "oh, those sound money guys were right.  this proves it.  I guess its time to be fiscally conservative again."  I would bet that most Americans don't even know what the word fiscal means.  Therefore it would be impossible for them to utter that sentence, and mean it

[alvarezbassist17]

Yeah, it's really hard to say.  I have a really hard time being optimistic too, but the liberty movement is growing.  And the Tea Party is actually having an effect on things, they pretty much got Rand the nomination and have Peter Schiff's back over any other candidate, so the election in 2010 is something to be hopeful about.  But if that doesn't go the way we'd want it, I'm seriously considering emigrating, as much as that pains me, before all of the shit goes down.  But you're right, as is shown in that other thread, people really aren't educated at all.  And I also sadly think that you're right that everybody will turn to the government for help, but I dunno, by that time it's going to be so blatantly obvious that it all happened at the government's hand that people would have to be even dumber than they are to not realize it.  Wouldn't be surprised, though.

[Variable]

And its not even unreasonable for people to turn to government in times of extreme crisis.  That is kind of one of the terms of social contract theory.  Its just that we can be assured that the wrong people will be running the government, therefore the wrong solutions will present.

[alvarezbassist17]

Yeah, exactly.  That's the thing, I don't even understand how people leaning towards Liberalism could even support the kinds of governments we have in the US and around the world.  No wonder they do such a terrible job teaching about fascism and socialism in schools, this whole Democrat thing is becoming more and more clearly just a front for that kind of agenda.

Oh and one of my favorite quotes ever comes from Peter Schiff, being interviewed on national TV after the financial collapse about how he predicted it, and he said something to the effect of "it's not that I was so smart, it's that everybody else was so stupid."  And I really think that's not only hilarious, but really true and illustrative about how ridiculously warped our principles have become.  I can't even describe it, it's like people are in fantasy-land, and it's all induced by all of this government propaganda.  Stepping back and looking at the situation and comparing it to earlier fascistic fiascoes is really trippy too, it just shows how absolutely out to lunch people can be.  I surmise that towards the beginning of the Nazi movement in Germany or the fascist movement in Italy, people who defended the government were saying stuff like "oh how could you think that our government is anything like (their previous example of what many today would say was a horrible government movement i.e. Nazi Germany or fascist Italy), we're in a new age, our government is capable of doing all of these things around the world, they can save us, blah blah blah."  And it just makes me think; I think that's why we never learn from history, people of every time just think that because of increases in technology, booms that have happened throughout history, that every time we are in a new age, one where somehow now government could possibly redistribute wealth, or benevolently control every aspect of life, or just help the indigent and impoverished.  But it's actually the opposite.  Now, with all of this new technology and ease of commerce and everything, it would be a more perfect time than any to have less and less government control, more free trade and all of that jazz.

Do you agree with this?  Kind of a Ron Paul thing: that a strong national defense is a great thing obviously, but that the best way to destabilize shitty foreign regimes is by increasing free trade, but more with the people, and enriching the populations, rather than just throwing foreign aid money at their governments and/or nation building?  I mean there's definitely a lot of nuance to the argument, but what do you think of it in general?

[Necrocetaceanbeastiality]

I'm sorry Corey, Trey will not be returning. He has been banned for observing and then stating his observations.

[alvarezbassist17]

wait, what?  are you shitting me?

[Necrocetaceanbeastiality]

I shit not, my friend.

[Variable]

Oh like Ive never been banned before   I knew my homies wouldn't stand for it.  Thanks btw.

I guess now that means my lazy ass actually has to type something to contribute to the libertarian cause on SL. 

[alvarezbassist17]

Then DO it!!  I promise I'll stroke your ego if and only if you return the favor.

[Variable]

I know.  I have just been so unmotivated lately.  I always feel like an ass hole when I look at those topics and I don't post anything.  I feel you judging me

[alvarezbassist17]

bahaha it's all good, just gotta get you some more energy drinks.  Have you seen all the free shit they have on mises.org?

[Variable]

NO! I have not. 

[alvarezbassist17]

DEFINITELY check it out.  I mean it's not even close to just articles and stuff, they have zillions of free books and every author has a podcast page with just an incredible amount of material on them.  Here, check these guys out, I'm sure you know of most if not all of them already.

Joe Salerno
http://mises.org/media.aspx?action=author&ID=237

Tom Woods
http://mises.org/media.aspx?action=author&ID=424

Walter Block
http://mises.org/media.aspx?action=author&ID=443

Robert Murphy
http://mises.org/media.aspx?action=author&ID=380

Tom DeLorenzo
http://mises.org/media.aspx?action=author&ID=425

Ron Paul
http://mises.org/media.aspx?action=author&ID=392

I mean it just goes on and on and on.  Definitely the greatest resource I've found out there.  Oh and here's Peter Schiff's youtube channel, also chock full of great fuckin shit.

http://www.youtube.com/user/schiffreport?blend=1&ob=4

Now you have like infinite hours of stuff to distract yourself with.

[Variable]

I have actually taken advantage of a lot of their free stuff before.  I used " What has government done to our money " as a reference for when my friend paid me to write her final for her.  It was all free on there, good stuff.   

[alvarezbassist17]

yeah dude, when my gf was writing a paper on poverty for her writing class i hooked her up with a bunch of articles, and she had no idea what they were talking about haha.  I revert back to my argument about the failure of our government school system.  It's just more and more evident every day.

Maybe we should change this to the Ron Paul/Libertarian topic so we seem more esoteric haha.