I’m a believer in freedom because of Harry Browne. Well, perhaps it was just convenience and timing, but I became a lover of liberty in the mid 90’s as a college student. Harry Browne was the Libertarian Party nominee for President in 1996 and 2000. He was a tall glass of freedom-loving ice water in the hot and dry politics-as-usual desert. He quenched my libertarian soul.
While everyone else is celebrating the “4th of July” I’m celebrating Independence Day. On this Independence Day I’m celebrating by remembering the man that spoke with my voice before I knew what my voice was. Browne wrote an article on July 4th, 2003 (3 years before he died) called, “Uncelebrating the 4th of July“.
The article sums up perfectly how I feel about Independence Day right now. As was so often the case, Harry Browne was years ahead of his time.
I remember around that same year (2003) I was one of those libertarians that supported the Iraq war. I was a libertarian-in-progress or maybe some today would have called me a “Wayne Allyn Root” libertarian. I wrote an email to Harry Browne giving him my opinion about the war and asking him what he thought of my reasoning. He didn’t think much of it.
It’s Friday and that means it’s time for another installment of “Quick Hits”.
Helen Thomas and Chip Reid berated White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs the other day for pre-selecting questions for Obama’s “town hall” and “controlling” the press. It appears that the honeymoon (I call it the “Obamagasm”) is coming to an end. Gibbs seems to be out of his league as Obama’s Press Secretary. I’ll be surprised if he makes it through Obama’s first and hopefully only term.
There is one particular forbidden health care question for Obama. I would love to hear his answer to the following question:
“Mr. President, you are considered a Constitutional scholar. Could you educate the American people a bit and tell them what section, article, or amendment permits the federal government to provide health care?”
Sure, he would dodge the question, but it is one dodge that I long to hear.
On Monday, Ron Paul’s son Rand Paul held another money bomb campaign fund raiser. The goal was to break $100k. The goal was met. This is huge news and a great sign that the Ron Paul wing of the Republican Party is not going anywhere. Rand Paul raised over $100,000 in about a month without an official fund raiser. Senator Rand Paul has a nice ring to it.
There was high drama last Friday afternoon on the House floor during the debate on the narrowly passed Cap and Trade bill. The Republicans kept pointing out that the legislation will lose more jobs and put a higher tax burden on the American people.
Yesterday Ron Paul appeared again on “Freedom Watch” with Judge Andrew Napolitano. The Judge delivered another stellar opening monologue that was extremely critical of the hate crime legislation making its way through Congress.
Following the monologue Ron Paul was brought in to discuss the topic further. I enjoy these types of discussions because they steadfastly refute all of the completely inane and idiotic charges that Ron Paul is a “racist”. Anyone who refuses to allow emotional “arguments” cloud their reasoned judgment should understand that Ron Paul is completely opposed to any kind of racism or collectivism.
Unfortunately, most people don’t do their homework. They drool through life digesting all the news they can about the latest Michael Jackson-type death of the day. Ignorance is not bliss, ignorance is willful neglect. It should be our responsibility to know that our country of birth is fundamentally moving away from the principles of its founding. With that responsibility should come individual action.
I find it humorous that they call themselves “progressives”, as if advocating a return to the principles found in the Constitution makes one a “regressive”. No, it appears to me that so called “progressives” want to return to a time before the American Revolution, a time of empire and tyranny. If we want to have “progress” in this country it should mean restoring the rule of law found in our Constitution not continuing the practice of ignoring it.
Check out the latest episode of Freedom Watch below. Other than Ron Paul, the Judge welcomed Mary Ruwart, John McManus, David Bruckner, and Jim Babka to the show.
An excellent op-ed in the Washington Times today authored by Congressman Ron Paul hammers home the Old Right ideas of non-interventionism in foreign policy arguably better than he ever did during his Presidential campaign.
Paul writes:
Neoconservatives who have come to power in both the Democratic and Republican parties argue that the U.S. must ether confront every evil in every corner of the globe or risk danger at home. We need to “fight them over there” they say, so we don’t have to “fight them over here.” This argument presents a false choice. We do not have to pick between interventionism and vulnerability. The complexity of our world is exactly why the lessons of our past should ring true and demand a return to a traditional, pro-American foreign policy: one of nonintervention.
In this piece Ron Paul seems to be taking some lessons from his son Rand. Paul the elder is framing his non-interventionist foreign policy beliefs in a way that should be less off-putting to die hard neo-conservatives.
Ron Paul was interviewed on the Jason Lewis Show by guest host Rod Grams this evening. They talked for about 16 minutes and covered several topics but in the end focused on auditing and potentially ending the Federal Reserve.
Paul specifically discusses why he doesn’t think the way to get HR1207 to a House vote is through a discharge petition. He suggests continuing to drum up grassroots support for HR1207 is the best method.
Grams allowed Ron Paul to speak until he was done on each topic. He even pointed out that his niece convinced him that Paul was a great candidate during the 2008 election.
Listen to the interview in it’s entirety below.
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It’s Friday again. Here is this week’s installment of “quick hits”.
It has been quite a busy week. The news outlets have had a lot to talk about. At least 4 people died this week, one of them politically, the other 3, physically.
Ed McMahon died earlier this week. There are three things I think of when I hear his name, other than being Johnny Carson’s sidekick on the “Tonight Show”.
The first is the impression of Ed McMahon on the “Carsenio Hall Show“, an SNL skit with Dana Carvey playing Carsenio and the late great Phil Hartman playing McMahon. Next, I recall McMahon hosting the talent show “Star Search“, an 80’s version of “American Idol” with several other talent categories. Finally, and perhaps most of all I remember McMahon as being the guy in the “American Family Sweepstakes” commercials (see one here). RIP Ed.
The next “death” of the week was purely political. I’m talking, of course, about Mark Sanford. There’s not much to say that hasn’t already been said. I realize many people liked Sanford and thought he may be the guy in 2012, but I was never completely sold on the guy for some reason. Now, we all have a reason.
In case you missed it, Ron Paul participated in a Fed forum at the CATO institute yesterday. I enjoy these types of gatherings. The speakers all were quite knowledgeable.
I must confess. This Ron Paul supporter suffered from a temporary bout of neo-conservatism after viewing that completely horrifying video of the young woman lying in the street bleeding to death in Iran over the weekend. I will not link to it because I don’t want to infect anyone else. My long lost compassionate conservatism gene made a return as I was filled with hatred and sadness. I thought, “Something must be done!. America needs to intervene!” A few hours and a reality check later I found myself back on firm Founding Father-style non-interventionist footing once again.
Some claim taking a non-interventionist approach on the Iran election aftermath is the height of hypocrisy from someone who claims to believe in liberty. Ron Paul is being criticized for his lone “Nay” vote on condemning the Iranian government’s heinous actions on it’s own people. On the surface it appears Obama is taking a similar non-interventionist approach for now, although there are some arguing the opposite may be true. Hopefully, Obama stands his ground (this time) against the interventionist opposition.
Those clamoring for intervention need to answer a few questions, but there is one question that trumps them all.
I have served our country on three deployments: one for a peacekeeping mission in Korea and two for the Iraq war. Both of the war deployments were with the Army National Guard. Additionally, I have used my military Air Traffic Control Training to work for the Federal Aviation Administration. Desiring at one point to try my hand in business, I founded a small chain of games/toy stores, which unfortunately did not survive the economic downturn of 2001. In 2006, I decided to return to college to make a civilian career change from aviation to law; although, I do continue my aviation career in the Oklahoma Army National Guard as an Air Traffic Control Platoon Leader for two Platoons in the 1-245th Aviation Regiment. I completed the undergraduate portion of my education in Philosophy this past May at the University of Oklahoma. Currently, I am a First Year Law Student at the University of Oklahoma College of Law.
The primary mission of this campaign is to elect a Constitutional Conservative to represent the people of the 4th Oklahoma Congressional District.
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