Thursday, February 16, 2012

Powerful Video

Speech before the US House of Representatives, 02/12/09 (R) Ron Paul. This man is running for president! unedited version: Madame Speaker, I have a few questions for my colleagues. What if we wake up one day and realize that the terrorist threat is a predictable consequence of our meddling in the affairs of others? What if propping up repressive regimes in the Middle East endangers both the United States and Israel? What if occupying countries like Iraq and Afghanistan - and bombing Pakistan - is directly related to the hatred directed toward us and has nothing to do with being free and prosperous? What if someday it dawns on us that losing over 5,000 American military personnel in the Middle East since 9/11 is not a fair trade-off for the loss of nearly 3,000 American citizens, no matter how many Iraqi, Pakistani, and Afghan people are killed or displaced? What if we finally decide that torture, even if called enhanced interrogation techniques, is self-destructive and produces no useful information - and that contracting it out to a third world nation is just as evil? What if it is finally realized that war and military spending is always destructive to the economy? What if all wartime spending is paid for through the deceitful and evil process of inflating and borrowing? What if we finally see that wartime conditions always undermine personal liberty? What if conservatives, who preach small government, wake up and realize that our interventionist foreign policy provides the greatest incentive to expand the government? What if conservatives understood once again that their only logical position is to reject military intervention and managing an empire throughout the world? What if the American people woke up and understood that the official reasons for going to war are almost always based on lies and promoted by war propaganda in order to serve special interests? What if we as a nation came to realize that the quest for empire eventually destroys all great nations? What if Obama has no intention of leaving Iraq? What if a military draft is being planned for the wars that will spread if our foreign policy is not changed? What if the American people learn the truth: that our foreign policy has nothing to do with national security and that it never changes from one administration to the next? What if war and preparation for war is a racket serving the special interests? What if President Obama is completely wrong about Afghanistan and it turns out worse than Iraq and Vietnam put together? What if Christianity actually teaches peace and not preventive wars of aggression? What if diplomacy is found to be superior to bombs and bribes in protecting America? What happens if my concerns are completely unfounded - nothing! What happens if my concerns are justified and ignored - nothing good!

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Hey Feds, wanna save money? Don't legalize the rope, legalize the dope!

"A senator known for advocating on behalf of the victims of crime backed off slightly on comments that suggested serial murderers should be given a rope to hang themselves in prison. Sen. Pierre Hugues-Boisvenu made the remarks ahead of the Conservative caucus meeting in Ottawa on Wednesday." - CTV Should serial murderers be given a rope to hang themselves in prison if they see fit?  Wow, way to open up a can of worms. If one of the factors of this idea was to reduce the prison population... I don't know, it just sounds too Hitler-esq.  Why not have softer penalties for non-violent crimes? Why not legalize marijuana?  That would decrease the prison population more than the rope e dope, saving taxpayers money - and not just that.  It would also act a significant source of revenue that would help pay for federal services and chip away at our national debt. "Every year, a widely consumed illegal substance makes potential criminals of millions and actual criminals of hundreds of thousands. And like booze during Prohibition, this substance, marijuana, is the easy revenue of organized crime, contributing tens of billions of dollars to growers, who commit a variety of bad acts both at home and abroad. What about possible tax revenue? From Canada we’ve learned that the production cost of (government-sponsored) marijuana is roughly 33¢ a gram. Currently, U.S. marijuana consumers pay at least $10 per gram retail for illegal marijuana. If the cost of retailing and distribution is the same as for legal tobacco cigarettes, about 10¢ a gram, then selling the (legal) product at exactly the same price as on the street today ($10 per gram) could raise $40 billion to $100 billion in new revenue. Not chump change. Government would simply be transferring revenue from organized crime to the public purse." - Business Week. Absolutely, couldn't agree more with business week on this one.  Don't legalize the rope, legalize the dope. It just makes sense. Some people could say "if the government doesn't save us from it, everyone will use it".   Really? If Cocaine was legalized, would you go try it just because?  NO!  Because you can think for yourself and don't need the nanny state to tell you what is and what is not safe or healthy for you. Hell, alcohol is far more dangerous than weed is. Alcohol is: More toxic Responsible for more deaths More violent behavior Deadlier long/term use  And more.... Yet it's still legal. Why? The money! Now, I know I started this post ranting about the idea of putting ropes in murderers cells so they could hang themselves.. But rather, I looked at the cause of the issue- an overflowing prison population and the tax dollars it takes to keep them in jail.  Legalizing would help solve both of these issues, it could also increase tourism and would definitely stimulate the economy. So what's wrong with that? I say:  don't give 'em rope, give 'em dope. Spock would say: it's only logical.