8.23.2007

Ron Paul? Really?

What the fuck is going on with people? In my boredom over the last couple nights I've seen a dozen myspace profiles of otherwise intelligent, reasonable, 'alternative' young people who I know aren't rich, selfish fucks supporting Ron Paul's presidential bid. This is after enduring these cute stenciled signed all over Austin that say "Ron Paul Revolution" with the backwards 'love' in 'revolution' boxed out and highlighted. Give me a break, people...

I know it's refreshing to hear someone out there 'supporting the constitiution' and dogging the Iraq war. But I know this guy isn't really your 'ideal canidate' or anything close. Just for starters, let's not make the same mistakes over and over again and launch support for a canidate that has no way of winning anything close to a majority vote and lock in some shitty republican because we're all too cute and idealistic to come together to support a decent alternative who people over 30 might actually support too. I hate to sound jaded, but radical change can come in ways other than a presidential race where EVERYONE IN AMERICA is voting and we HAVE to compromise in order to make any positive change whatsoever.

Also, even if you are going to stick to your guns and vote for someone who a. has no widespread name recognition and b. doesn't have the ability to convince our congress and senate to do shit that they want to do, this guy is ABSOLUTELY NOT some savior for your ideals if you and I get along at all...

Ron Paul:
- wants to repeal birthright citizenship, deport illegal aliens, and tighten our borders.
- wants to abolish income tax, a favorite topic among rich capitalist dicks who don't believe that the class gap is something our government should have to bother with.
- wants to return to a gold standard for currency and remove taxes on gold transactions. what?
- is the "The only 2008 presidential candidate to earn Gun Owners of America's (GOA) A+ rating"
- is pro-life and has described abortion as an 'act of aggression' against a fetus. "Paul introduced The Sanctity of Life Act of 2005, a bill that would have defined human life to begin at conception, and removed challenges to prohibitions on abortion from federal court jurisdiction.[87] Defining embryos and fetuses as persons would make abortion murder and outlaw fetal stem cell research and some contraception and fertility treatments.[88][89] In 2005, Paul introduced the We the People Act, which would have removed "any claim based upon the right of privacy, including any such claim related to any issue of ... reproduction" from the jurisdiction of federal courts. If made law, either of these acts would allow states to prohibit abortion"
- doesn't believe in a 'rigid' seperation of church and state and supports 'voluntary' school prayer. He's also claimed that the 'collective left hates religon' based on secularism.
- doesn't support same-sex marriage or civil unions and has described american's fear (homophobia) of same-sex marriage as 'understandable'
- he believes that envioronmental issues are sufficiently handled under the larger, capitalist-asshole property owner's rights umbrella, and opposes federal environmental mandates -- "The people of Texas do not need federal regulators determining our air standards."
- has voted to end affirmative action at the college level.

(political positions are lifted from wikipedia and references are available here)

So, in short... Really?

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Yart.

A few years ago my friends Chad and Lisa had a big sale in a yard where instead of broken gold and bad religous books and moldy boots, they sold ART and CRAFTS made by hand by thems and their friends.

Rissa and I are planning something similar in November... There will hopefully be a bunch of fun activities, food and drinks, and beautiful art for sale on the porch/yard/driveway of our home. If you make things with your hands (clothes, paintings, stuffed toys, paper dolls, puppets, drawings suitable for tiny frames, re-imagined thrift items, little books, photos, cupcakes, whatever) and you live in Austin, you should join us!

I'm going to plan a get-together for planning and random crafting purposes very soon. Later there will be a bunch of late night 'art parties' for making things together. If you'd like to be part of all of this, let me know. You can email me... ronnythebear at gmail.

love!