Stop Laughing, because they are apparently serious...unless the joke went over my head.
Occaisional blogger Tim Peck, Carl Milsted, and Buncome County Libertarian Leader Bernard Carmen joined fellow libertarian-leaning Matt Mittan on his show, "Take A Stand", which airs on WWNC-AM 570, and can be heard online.
Take Carl Milsted's Quiz.
I suggest you listen to the podcast of the 4 o'clock hour and the 5 o'clock hour.
Okay, stop laughing.
There are so many holes in this that I should probably cut the audio up into tracks, and splice my commentary into the thing as a running commentary aka Mystery Science Theater 3000 style on You Tube. I have taken 10 clips out of the 1st hour of the program with a running time of 20 minutes and a fews seconds without my responses... I'll save that for later (like soooo many other projects).
I'll tell you, dear reader, why this laughable attempt will fail.
First, Carl Milsted starts out saying he is for Ron Paul. Okay, let's examine Ron Paul based on his on website section "Issues":
First Up is his position on Debt and Taxes:
Working Americans like lower taxes. So do I. Lower taxes benefit
all of us, creating jobs and allowing us to make more decisions for ourselves about our lives.
Check #4...Maybe he should join the next administration as Border Czar.
Sounds good to me. Check.
Next is American Independence and Sovereignty:
So called free trade deals and world governmental organizations like the International Criminal Court (ICC), NAFTA, GATT, WTO, and CAFTA are a threat to our independence as a nation.Sounds good to me. Check #2.
Next is War and Foreign Policy:
The war in Iraq was sold to us with false information. The area is more
dangerous now than when we entered it. We destroyed a regime hated by our direct
enemies, the jihadists, and created thousands of new recruits for them.
This is a lie, and a suicidal position to take. Iraq's weapons were moved out while we wasted out time begging the UN for permission to invade, and here is one of many open-source intelligence report about the removal. [PDF of a Symposium]
We not only destroyed the regime of Saddam Hussein, we liberated tens of millions of people formerly living under oppression of a brutal dictator; the same man also responsible for the executions of more than a million of his people, many of whom ended up in mass graves. He was, in fact, tried, convicted, and executed for crimes against humanity involving just one incident in 1982.
We created new recruits for them, to go where? Iraq, and Afghanistan. Get your head out of the sand! The goal of the Salafists has always been world domination by their "Religion of Peace."
Ron Paul's stand on this issue by itself is enough to disqualify him from further consideration. President Bush's position on this issue is one of his saving graces. I thank God that these people are prominent in giving advice to the President in this time of crisis as we face the Third Great Jihad, [Alternate Link].
The very survival of Western Civilization is at stake, and Ron Paul has his head up his, well...you know!
No check...counts as a forfeiture of the game.
Life and Liberty position:
The right of an innocent, unborn child to life is at the heart of the American ideals of liberty. My professional and legislative record demonstrates my strong commitment to this pro-life principle.
Check # 3, were it not for the war, this would cover a multitude of other policy position sins.
Border Security and Immigration Reform:
The talk must stop. We must secure our borders now. A nation without secure borders is no nation at all. It makes no sense to fight terrorists abroad when our own front door is left unlocked.
Check #4...perhaps he should consider joining the next administration as Border Czar.
Privacy and Personal Liberty:
The biggest threat to your privacy is the government. We must
drastically limit the ability of government to collect and store data regarding
citizens’ personal matters.
Strike! Listen to this recent radio show[Left Click to Save] to gain perspective on the patriot act, and a bonus section on Illegal Immigration. Patriot Act research Website.
The Patriot Act is a valuable Law Enforcement tool for fighting this war.
Property Rights and Eminent Domain:
We must stop special interests from violating property rights and literally driving families from their homes, farms and ranches. Today, we face a new threat of widespread eminent domain actions as a result of powerful interests who want to build a NAFTA superhighway through the United States from Mexico to Canada. We also face another danger in regulatory takings: Through excess regulation, governments deprive property owners of significant value and use of their properties — all without paying “just compensation.”
Property rights are the foundation of all rights in a free society. without the right to own a printing press, for example, freedom of the press becomes meaningless. The next president must get federal agencies out of these schemes to deny property owners their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property.
Check #5. Precious Few have this position.
Health Freedom:
Americans are justifiably concerned over the government’s
escalating intervention into their freedom to choose what they eat and how they take care of their health.
Foul Ball. I have problems with his idiotic stand against genetically modified food...what the heck does he think corn is? It started out as a well-endowed seed-bearing grass. And all you druggies...did you know your precious pot plants are genetically modified to produce a high thousands of times more potent than wild pot...known as hemp?
If it weren't for genetically modified foods, pesticides, and fertilizers...billions would starve.
Okay, enough with my analysis of Ron Paul's positions...
Number One...their attacks on Christians and Christianity may be kosher in the city of Asheville, but not in Buncombe County, and most certainly not in the BCGOP. Perhaps they have been living in the bubble that is Asheville, and do not realize the connection between Christianity and Conservatism.
Let me quote for them the first of six principles of Conservatism as espoused by Russell Kirk in "The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Santayana" page 7. I have it in a second edition printed in 1953:
1) Belief that a divine intent rules society as well as conscience, forging an eternal chain of right and duty which links great and obscure, living and dead. Political problems, at bottom, are religious and moral problems. A narrow rationality, what Coleridge calls the Understanding, cannot itself satisfy human needs. "Every Tory is a realist," says Keith Feiling: "he knows that there are great forces in heaven and earth that man's philosophy cannot plumb or fathom. we do wrong to deny it, when we are told that we do not trust human reason: we do not and we may not. Human reason set up a cross on Calvary, human reason set up the cup of hemlock, human reason was canonised (sic) in Notre Dame."Politics is the art of apprehending and applying the Justice which is above nature.
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2 comments :
Well done TP! I'm doing an ongoing research project of Libertarianism,Christianity and Conservatism. One of the complaints that I've found about Libertarian philosophy is the lack of acknowledgment for the advantage of virtue in a society, or culture. Read a very interesting article by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. called "Ayn Rand is dead - Christian Libertarianism." I'll have to get the book you sited, "The Conservative Mind" If you have any other books on the subject you can recommend, you'll have a receptive readership.
Most of the books about the birth of modern conservatism have been published since 1944 or so, and many of them are out of print.
I visit a lot of bookstores, and Friends of the Library Bookstores...the best place to look is the used book section, and most of the time (to my experience) they are not categorized as they should be.
I look in the Politics Section, American History Section, Biography Section. I have also found them in Literature and Science Fiction.
Book Titles:
An excellent place to start is "The Conservative Intellectual Movement In America since 1945" by George H. Nash. Publisher Intercollegiate Studies Institute. It was originally published in 1976, I have a 1996 edition I bought for $3 at a Friends of the Library Booksale in Waynesville and it is excellent condition.
That book is the place to start, as it catalogues the movement, including books, magazines, personalities, and a wealth of quotes that are good for study, not to mention about 90 pages of references cited in the book.
I'll keep an eye out for an extra copy for you.
The second book I would suggest is "The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Santayana" I have a second edition from 1953. It was originally published in 1951.
He provides a tracing of conservative thought from the time of Edmund Burke, and his scathing response to the French Revolution...which saved England from the destructive progressive revolution.
There are only 10 pages of cited works, and 11 pages of books cited because he discusses at length each idea and concept at length.
Here are a few authors to watch out for:
Friedrich Hayek (Libertarian in thought, a father of modern conservatism in America)
Ludwig von Mises (Libertarian...awakened many to conservatism)
These early Libertarians are important because they are excellent sources of material that expose the dangers of lefties.
Alfred Jay Nock
Frank Chodorov
Russell Kirk
William F Buckley, Jr.
Henry Lazlitt
Richard M. Weaver (born in Asheville, NC in 1910!)
John Hallowell
Leo Strauss
Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn
Peter Viereck
These are just a few to start off with to understand early modern conservative thought in America as it came from Europe
during and after WW2, and mid-wifed the American version, and found roots of it in our history that had been kept stunted by leftists as they tended to migrate to the bureaucracies, the media, the public sector, and politics.
There are many websites also, but the information is often in condensed form, and it is easy to skip over important concepts.
There are lists of works that are far more comprehensive than mine. I intend to print out some of these lists of authors and
books before I visit a local treasure-trove of used books to mine for nuggets.
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