he already lost the Election with this Statement.
Rand Paul Pledges to Immediately End NSA Mass Surveillance If Elected President
131–140 of 207 posts
Re: Rand Paul Pledges to Immediately End NSA Mass Surveillance If Elected President
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
> So if you believe that an unborn child is a person, it is very consistent with libertarian-ism to protect its life. Is it though? Most libertarians say the government shouldn't force you to feed a starving person, but banning abortion means forcing a mother to feed and care for another person (even if you consider a fetus a person). > Regarding same-sex marriages: Can you explain how a governmental (even at the sta…
> banning abortion means forcing a mother to feed and care for another person (even if you consider a fetus a person). There's a difference between murdering a person and being forced to feed him. So assuming for this argument that a fetus is a person, an abortion would be akin to murder. Being forced to care for the person would be akin to being forced to raise him. Libertarians who believe fetuses are persons are a…
> Being forced to care for the person would be akin to being forced to raise him.
Until the baby is born, it does depend entirely on the mother's resources. It literally pulls energy out of her blood stream.
Now, I don't think fetuses are people, but if you believe they are then you have to admit that for the duration of the pregnancy the mother is compelled to feed and provide for that "person."
Re: Rand Paul Pledges to Immediately End NSA Mass Surveillance If Elected President
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm the kind of guy who would marry another guy. So, I have standing to have an opinion about Gay Marriage. I don't want the government in marriage AT ALL. Making the laws "more neutral" means getting gender out of the laws. This is a correct first step. Marriage is merely an expression of the right of freedom of association, which all people have. You don't need new laws to make it exist. But you should get rid of l…
This. Marriage certificates were invented by the government originally to prevent white and black people from marrying. Their only purpose seems to be to oppress.
> Marriage certificates were invented by the government originally to prevent white and black people from marrying. Their only purpose seems to be to oppress.
This is a remarkable claim. Do you have a source backing it up?
Bear in mind that marriage certificates exist in many countries which, historically and today, do not have very many black citizens or white citizens.
Re: Rand Paul Pledges to Immediately End NSA Mass Surveillance If Elected President
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't that what they said about Barack Obama?
no... Barack Obama was viewed as a major contender for the Democratic Party nomination from the beginning of the primaries. He and Hillary were the only two candidates that had raised over $20MM in the first 3 months of 2007. So, 19 months before the election, the two serious democratic candidates had already taken the lead. In January 2008, Obama won 3 of the 4 first primaries, and tied with Hillary in the 4th. Rand…
> In his best performance in 2012, Ron Paul only won the primary in the US Virgin Islands.
In the popular vote, true, but in number of delegates, once the counts were tallied, Ron Paul won Iowa, Maine, Minnesota and Louisiana.
Ron Paul also had a solid financial campaign in 2012, not the largest fund, but likely the best managed. his performance was in large part diminished by media bashing on the eve of any primary elections in which polls were in his favor. For example, see CNN's Gloria Borger interview cut, which was quite outrageous.
Re: Rand Paul Pledges to Immediately End NSA Mass Surveillance If Elected President
#135This is my litmus test for all future elections until this issue is resolved. There is and will never be a candidate that reflects all or even most of my positions. But, if a candidate is willing to unequivocally say that they will end domestic surveillance programs and uphold the 4th amendment, they will get my vote over anyone else who shows even the slightest hesitation, period.
Even over the candidate who promises to end the 2-party system? In other words, make real and lasting overall change, instead of just a single issue.
This is the single most important issue of the internet era. The current policy will erase the concept of privacy altogether. It is hardly "just a single issue".
Re: Rand Paul Pledges to Immediately End NSA Mass Surveillance If Elected President
#136Every country with an intelligence service is working as hard at spying on the Internet as the NSA. (Albeit with less funding.) I haven't heard a reasonable proposal to put that cat back into its bag, and without one Rand's statement sounds impractical and misguided, at best.
Given that the NSA mass surveillance of American citizens have proven of little value in the fight against terrorism, I am surprised that you imply that this cannot be changed.
A reasonable proposal is for ALL candidates to say that these programs are expensive, not useful and should be ended. (One might also say they are a blatant example of government overreach - but that is just my opinion and you are free to disagree.) It is not misguided to say that a bad program should be ended.
Re: Rand Paul Pledges to Immediately End NSA Mass Surveillance If Elected President
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Paul, who is an ophthalmologist, also asserts that he's heard of cases where vaccines have caused "profound mental disorders." "I've heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking, normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines," Paul said. "I'm not arguing vaccines are a bad idea. I think they're a good thing. But I think the parents should have some input." http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/02…
> I was kind of shocked What's so shocking about letting parents decide what medical treatment their children undergo? He has repeatedly said that parents should get their children vaccinated. And they should. Parents who don't are irresponsible, both socially and toward their children. However, should and must are two very different words. When you start talking about mandatory, you're talking about cops breaking do…
Another straw-man argument against mandatory vaccination.
Mandatory also means you might be subject to fines or denied access to government social programs.
Re: Rand Paul Pledges to Immediately End NSA Mass Surveillance If Elected President
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually, the Establishment clause does not make it clear, and in fact, only prevented the US Congress (not the states) from establishing an official religion. It wasn't until the supreme court Incorporated the establishment clause in 1947 that states were prevented from establishing an official state religion. In fact, at least six states had official religions at the time of the founding. http://en.wikipedia.org/wi…
Yes, it's true that the Establishment Clause did not originally apply to the states. However, since incorporation via the Fourteenth Amendment, the majority of precent applies it to the states as well. (I've written dozens of papers on the Establishment Clause.)
Ron Paul tried to effectively reverse that, three times, by introducing legislation that prohibited the Supreme Court and any other Federal court from hearing cases involving it and the laws, policies, or regulations of any state.
That would work because aside from a small number of case types the Constitution explicitly says the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction over, it is Congress that decides the bounds of Federal jurisdiction.
Here was one of Ron Paul's bills on this: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.958.IH:/
Re: Rand Paul Pledges to Immediately End NSA Mass Surveillance If Elected President
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
Presumably Rand Paul, like many Republicans (and no small number of Democrats), accepts the idea that people can exercise their rights through government-registered entities which they own, called "corporations". These are entities without intrinsic rights, but a well-known intellectual framework called "corporate personhood" which dates back to some of our earliest jurisprudence in this nation says that you treat th…
My issue with this situation is that these corporations generally have orders-of-magnitude louder megaphones through which to exercise these rights. It really skews the one-person-one-vote ideal this democracy is built on. (Yes, individuals exercising an out-sized influence through money and access is a part of the same issue.) This is why things like Citizen's United and Super-PACs are so horribly distorting the fun…
Corporations are just individuals who pool their resources for a common endeavor. Usually this is for profit but sometimes it is a charity. Either way, why should individuals lose rights when they operate as a group? Preventing people from pooling resources shifts the balance of power towards rich individuals who don't need extra outside resources to further their political goals.
Re: Rand Paul Pledges to Immediately End NSA Mass Surveillance If Elected President
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
This. Marriage certificates were invented by the government originally to prevent white and black people from marrying. Their only purpose seems to be to oppress.
Some googling shows this to be, at best, partially true. While marriage license requirements were used to prevent miscegenation, they were not invented for that purpose and they have been used for other purposes. >Not until the 16th century did European states begin to require that marriages be performed under legal auspices. In part, this was an attempt to prevent unions between young adults whose parents opposed th…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-miscegenation_laws_in_the_...
The context here is United States. I don't know anything about European marriage nor is it relevant to this conversation.