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Ron Paul’s Farewell Address: The Internet Can Stop Big Government

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Re: Ron Paul’s Farewell Address: The Internet Can Stop Big Government

#11

Post by chimeracoder »

pjriot wrote: post #5

"The internet will provide the alternative to the government/media complex that controls the news and most political propaganda. This is why it’s essential that the internet remains free of government regulation." What bothers me about this statement is that either side of the net neutrality debate could claim it was meant to support their position. Net neutrality is government regulation. It is also the kind of regu…

> What bothers me about this statement is that either side of the net neutrality debate could claim it was meant to support their position. Net neutrality is government regulation. It is also the kind of regulation that would prevent the kind of control Paul is referring to.

On the other hand, the government is also responsible for the existing monopolies that are the biggest threat to net neutrality.

So at the end of the day, it goes both ways: both corporations and government can act either in defense of neutrality or to its detriment. No easy answer.

Re: Ron Paul’s Farewell Address: The Internet Can Stop Big Government

#13

Post by kmfrk »

thesagan wrote: post #8
wyclif wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind this was his Farewell Address. He was going to get his licks in, esp. that bit about "psychopathic authoritarians" (which I took to include the other members of Congress). There was absolutely no reason or incentive for him to make it shorter than the allotted time he had. Ron Paul is the only US politician I've ever wanted to cross the street for. I'm hoping his youth movement produces more leaders who…

He's one of the few politicians of that caliber where I think he's both batshit crazy while being a force for good (?) in the public sphere. I don't really know what to make of the man.

He has a voting record to judge him by, for what it's worth.

Re: Ron Paul’s Farewell Address: The Internet Can Stop Big Government

#14

Post by hypersoar »

SpikeDad wrote: post #12

The Internet was vital in exposing his naive and harmful behavior. His hypocritical pronouncements and racist background would never have come to the public without it. Don't let Washington hit your ass on the way out.

Can you elaborate? I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you - I just haven't followed him enough to know what you're talking about.

Re: Ron Paul’s Farewell Address: The Internet Can Stop Big Government

#15

Post by mindslight »

eli_gottlieb wrote: post #9
ataggart wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's certainly letting his voluntarist-anarchist flag fly: "What a wonderful world it would be if everyone accepted the simple moral premise of rejecting all acts of aggression. The retort to such a suggestion is always: it’s too simplistic, too idealistic, impractical, naïve, utopian, dangerous, and unrealistic to strive for such an ideal. The answer to that is that for thousands of years the acceptance of governmen…

"What a wonderful world it would be if everyone accepted the simple moral premise of rejecting all acts of aggression. The retort to such a suggestion is always: it’s too simplistic, too idealistic, impractical, naïve, utopian, dangerous, and unrealistic to strive for such an ideal. No, my objection is that Ron Paul wants to pretend property titles are not acts of aggression backed by the state. I'm no anarchist, but…

Any proper anarcho-capitalist has no choice but to agree with the majority of your comment. The alternative is to endorse whatever system currently exists, decomposing it into the an-cap framework in terms of one entity, the government, owning everything. So any individual anarcho-capitalist must have a certain idea of what constitutes an unjust property distribution that should be revolted against.

The idea of the 'social contract' isn't terrible - for any sort of stability, there must be a rough consensus on what constitutes society's Schelling points. The problem comes about when the concept is taken as an immutable condition and used to nebulously justify the specifics of the current system, lulling people into believing in change from within. Any contract needs to have well specified methods of exit.

Re: Ron Paul’s Farewell Address: The Internet Can Stop Big Government

#16

Post by bithive123 »

hypersoar wrote: post #14
SpikeDad wrote: post #12

The Internet was vital in exposing his naive and harmful behavior. His hypocritical pronouncements and racist background would never have come to the public without it. Don't let Washington hit your ass on the way out.

Can you elaborate? I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you - I just haven't followed him enough to know what you're talking about.

Ron Paul wants to define life as starting at conception (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.2597:), build a fence along the US-Mexico border (http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll446.xml), prevent the Supreme Court from hearing cases on the Establishment Clause or the right to privacy, permitting the return of sodomy laws and the like (a bill which he has repeatedly re-introduced) (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.300:), pull out of the UN (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.1146:), disband NATO (http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2004/cr033004.htm), end birthright citizenship (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.J.RES.46:), deny federal funding to any organisation which "which presents male or female homosexuality as an acceptable alternative life style or which suggest that it can be an acceptable life style" along with destroying public education and social security (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d096:h.r.7955:), and abolish the Federal Reserve (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.2755:) in order to put America back on the gold standard (http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBB0868C74B4AA3FA). He was also the sole vote against divesting US federal government investments in corporations doing business with the genocidal government of the Sudan. (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2007-764)

Oh, and he believes that the Left is waging a war on religion and Christmas (http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul148.html), he's against gay marriage (http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul197.html), is against the popular vote (http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul214.html), opposes the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul188.html), wants the estate tax repealed (http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul328.html), is STILL making racist remarks (http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/06/02/ron_paul/), believes that the Panama Canal should be the property of the United States (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d106:h.con.res.231:), and believes in New World Order conspiracy theories (http://www.infowars.com/articles/nwo/ron_paul_first_bush_was...), not to mention his belief that the International Baccalaureate program is UN mind control. (http://www.congress.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r109:E14AP5-0007:)

Re: Ron Paul’s Farewell Address: The Internet Can Stop Big Government

#17

Post by larsberg »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #2

The real thing: http://washingtonexaminer.com/transcript-ron-pauls-farewell-... Some great stuff in there, I just wish it was about half its length. Would tighten up the points a lot.

> Some great stuff in there, I just wish it was about half its length. Would tighten up the points a lot.

If the "John Galt speech" is your baseline, that was brief for a libertarian/objectivist.

Re: Ron Paul’s Farewell Address: The Internet Can Stop Big Government

#18

Post by cpr »

bithive123 wrote: post #16
hypersoar wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate? I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you - I just haven't followed him enough to know what you're talking about.

Ron Paul wants to define life as starting at conception ( http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.2597: ), build a fence along the US-Mexico border ( http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll446.xml ), prevent the Supreme Court from hearing cases on the Establishment Clause or the right to privacy, permitting the return of sodomy laws and the like (a bill which he has repeatedly re-introduced) ( http://thomas.loc.g…

You make all these points as if it's self-evident ("to all right-thinking peoples", "no one here but us...") that he's dead wrong about them. That's not very helpful.

Of course human life begins at conception--what is the combined human egg & sperm, a fish?

And what's so great about NATO? The US should bear the brunt of the cost of defending Europe against whom now, exactly?

The Federal Reserve came into being the same year as the income tax, and the US dollar has lost 99% of its value since then. Coincidence? There are a lot of great arguments against the Fed. Have you seriously investigated, or just assumed that the Fed is great because it exists? Read some Austrian economics, which argue persuasively that centralized money control will always result in endless bust/boom cycles.

And the Left isn't waging a war on religion? C'mon.

What's so great about estate taxes? To decide that death is an event where someone needs to have a large chunk of his wealth taken by the state is a fairly controversial assumption.

Etc, etc.

Re: Ron Paul’s Farewell Address: The Internet Can Stop Big Government

#19

Post by wyclif »

eli_gottlieb wrote: post #10

Way to pander to Reddit.

Sorry, that's not very compelling. Would you call the thousands of other TechCrunch posts that are auto-submitted to HN "pandering to Reddit"?

I regret to inform you that my nerdy Ron Paul advocacy will continue unabated. Reddit has nothing to do with it.

Re: Ron Paul’s Farewell Address: The Internet Can Stop Big Government

#20

Post by mtgx »

wyclif wrote: post #3
mixmastamyk wrote: post #2

The real thing: http://washingtonexaminer.com/transcript-ron-pauls-farewell-... Some great stuff in there, I just wish it was about half its length. Would tighten up the points a lot.

Keep in mind this was his Farewell Address. He was going to get his licks in, esp. that bit about "psychopathic authoritarians" (which I took to include the other members of Congress). There was absolutely no reason or incentive for him to make it shorter than the allotted time he had. Ron Paul is the only US politician I've ever wanted to cross the street for. I'm hoping his youth movement produces more leaders who…

Hopefully the Republicans let the libertarians take over the party by the next election, as that would probably be the only thing to make the Republican look good again. Otherwise, good riddance for the Republican party.
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