Although from the rest of this interesting account, Michael Berryman sounds like a very personable guy.
All of the original Wes Craven scholck horror classic:
EYE ON A CRAZY PLANET
Showing posts with label Ron Paul. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ron Paul. Show all posts
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Ron Paul hearts the John Birch Society
I hate commies as much as the next guy, but anyone who thinks water fluoridation is part of a communist plot is a bit too overboard for me.
The following is from Jonathan Kay's blog:
On the New York Times web site, James Kirchick has a very good piece about Ron Paul’s penchant for conspiracy theories. Here is part of it:
Ron Paul giving the keynote address at the John Birch Society's 50th anniversary celebration:
The following is from Jonathan Kay's blog:
On the New York Times web site, James Kirchick has a very good piece about Ron Paul’s penchant for conspiracy theories. Here is part of it:
In a 1990 C-Span appearance, taped between Congressional stints, Paul was asked by a caller to comment on the “treasonous, Marxist, alcoholic dictators that pull the strings in our country.” Rather than roll his eyes, Paul responded,“there’s pretty good evidence that those who are involved in the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations usually end up in positions of power. And I believe this is true.”Read the rest at Among the Truthers
Paul then went on to stress the negligible differences between various “Rockefeller Trilateralists.” The notion that these three specific groups — the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Rockefeller family — run the world has been at the center of far-right conspiracy theorizing for a long time, promoted especially by the extremist John Birch Society, whose 50th anniversary gala dinner Paul keynoted in 2008.
Ron Paul giving the keynote address at the John Birch Society's 50th anniversary celebration:
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Newt Gingrich finishes 4th in Iowa
That shouldn't really be the headline.
It should have been "Romney wins by a nose over a surging Santorum."
But Iowa is Iowa. Its a nice place to..um....buy fresh corn and catch a good college football game, but it's not the place to decide the outcome of the presidential race. Not yet, anyway.
Michelle Bachman has dropped out. Perry is "Reassessing" his candidacy. Huntsman is, well, no one really knows what he's doing. He's a good guy but running a stealth candidacy is not going to win him anything. And Crazy Dr. Paul is still along for comic relief.
But in the real world, It's now a 3 man race between Romney, Santorum and Gingrich.
The LA Times reports that a super PAC poured millions into Iowa to campaign against Gingrich. That money helped there, but we'll see what happens in the primaries to come.
It could emerge that Romney of Santorum ends up as the GOP nominee in 2012. But I haven't written the wily old Speaker out yet.
h/t American Power and Blazing Cat Fur
It should have been "Romney wins by a nose over a surging Santorum."
But Iowa is Iowa. Its a nice place to..um....buy fresh corn and catch a good college football game, but it's not the place to decide the outcome of the presidential race. Not yet, anyway.
Michelle Bachman has dropped out. Perry is "Reassessing" his candidacy. Huntsman is, well, no one really knows what he's doing. He's a good guy but running a stealth candidacy is not going to win him anything. And Crazy Dr. Paul is still along for comic relief.
But in the real world, It's now a 3 man race between Romney, Santorum and Gingrich.
The LA Times reports that a super PAC poured millions into Iowa to campaign against Gingrich. That money helped there, but we'll see what happens in the primaries to come.
It could emerge that Romney of Santorum ends up as the GOP nominee in 2012. But I haven't written the wily old Speaker out yet.
h/t American Power and Blazing Cat Fur
Monday, January 2, 2012
Ron Paul goes further off the deep end - says Iran justified in closing Strait of Hormuz
Ron Paul is the Republican who could guarantee an Obama re-election.
The man is crazy. Now Paul's saying that America is at fault in its difficulties with Iran and the Islamic dictatorship would be justified in closing the Starits of Hormuz.. That should make him popular in Tehran.
If Iowa hands him a primary win, Paul could do for the Republicans what Eugene McCarthy did for the Democrats in 1968, and hand the election to the other side.
The man is crazy. Now Paul's saying that America is at fault in its difficulties with Iran and the Islamic dictatorship would be justified in closing the Starits of Hormuz.. That should make him popular in Tehran.
If Iowa hands him a primary win, Paul could do for the Republicans what Eugene McCarthy did for the Democrats in 1968, and hand the election to the other side.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
The future ain't what it used to be
You never know how things are going to turn out until they happen. But the events of past years and the histories of the players on the world stage can give us some revealing clues about how 2012 may unfold. So despite Yogi Berra's sound warning that "it's tough to make predictions, especially about the future," now that we're about twelve hours into the new year, I'm going to unleash my prognostications.
In Canada, we'll have a sound economic year. The next general election is about four years away, and the Conservatives have a solid majority, so the Canadian political scene will remain stable. The New Democrats will elect a new leader who is profoundly uninspiring and unable to connect with people in any meaningful way. The Liberals will sit back and watch NDP support gradually erode as the ineptitude of their parliamentary representatives makes itself obvious. The NDP and Liberals will do whatever they can to try to get attention for themselves, but the public will remain more interested in the latest Kardashian gossip than the teapot tempests the opposition parties try to stir up.
The battlegrounds that will form in the new year in Canada will largely involve the Labour movement and governmental austerity programs. Governments at all levels will attempt to reduce spending and their will be significant reductions in the number of public employees. Public service unions will try to make it an all-out fight, framing spending reductions as "a class war on the poor" and threatening horrors of cutbacks and social upheaval if the cuts occur.
What the public service unions won't realize until it's to late is that the public is fed up with them and sees through their self-interested hyperbole. We've reached the stage where most union members are disgusted with and humiliated by union leadership, who clearly are acting, not in the interest of the taxpayers or even public sector workers, but for themselves.
Union funded professional protesters like the Occupy movement, OCAP and their controlled mouthpieces like rabble.ca, will do little to sway the majority of Canadians who see them as a bizarre form of paid lobbyists who utilize street theatre as their communications strategy.
The Occupy Movement itself will continue to desperately try to get attention and struggle for some relevance, but without any real success. The word is out on them; it was never a grass-roots movement. Occupy was an orchestrated effort by public sector unions, socialists, Marxists, and their bigoted strategists like Kalle Lasn of Adbusters. These aren't new people protesting new problems, they are the same old full-time malcontents utilizing a new public relations approach. The camping-out technique did let them swell their usual numbers with the ranks of homeless, mentally ill and criminals, but the result was that their protests also featured assaults, rapes, murders, and drug-overdoses.
Occupy was characterized by incompetence evidenced through an inability to accomplish anything other than to demonstrate the intellectual bankruptcy of radical socialists who want to run the world, but couldn`t even effectively manage a campground.
The other domestic battlefield will be in education, where radical socialists are trying to indoctrinate future generations with the aid of hapless provincial education ministers. The public has caught on to this and with increased attention on the matter, a strong backlash is brewing.
In the US, there is a very good chance that the Republicans will implode and Barack Obama will be elected to a second term. Ron Paul, an isolationist extremist and crackpot, will not get the Republican nomination. But the infighting between him, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney leading up to the convention could create serious enough harm to let Obama recover from his slump in popularity.
A lot will depend on what happens to the US economy in the next ten months, and how Obama deals with crises like Iran`s posturing and nuclear ambitions. The Republicans may pull out a November victory if Gingrich of Romney emerges as the nominee and presents a reasonable, centrist candidacy that isn`t embarrassed by American Exceptionalism and presents sound economic alternatives. But the Republicans have a way of shooting themselves in the foot, so we`ll just have to see how things turn out. My actual prediction here is that the Republicans do capture the White House in the election, but I`m not going to bet the farm on it.
As far as the rest of the world goes, it`s going to be a mess. South America is going to have economic disasters and political upheavals, although on the bright side, Hugo Chavez may die and a responsible government could be restored in Venezuela.
Islamic extremism will continue to be a major threat to the civilized world. The middle eastern Arab upheavals will lead to Islamist regimes that claw back human rights. There won`t be the sort of full-fledged tyranny in any of them that emerged in Iran following its 1979 revolution, but that part of the world will become more dangerous and more extreme. The Palestinians leadership will conitue to give contradictory messages about its intentions towards peace while their incompetence and hate prevents any progress from being made. Israel, hamstrung by horrendous proportional representation system that almost guarantees government participation by religious extremest parties will muddle through the status quo for another year. The barbarity of the Arab upheavals and Iran, combined with the US election will reduce pressure for any meaningful progress in the Palestinian/Arab/Israeli peace process.
One very dangerous development that may occur is that Iran, facing economic and military pressure, may utilize its proxies Hamas and Hezbollah to start another war in the region to deflect attention from the Islamic Republic. If that happens, they will also be utilizing their useful idiot proxies in the west to wage a propaganda war on their behalf.
On the whole, 2012 will be another year where Canadians should be very grateful for having one of the safest, most prosperous and free countries in the world as their home.
In Canada, we'll have a sound economic year. The next general election is about four years away, and the Conservatives have a solid majority, so the Canadian political scene will remain stable. The New Democrats will elect a new leader who is profoundly uninspiring and unable to connect with people in any meaningful way. The Liberals will sit back and watch NDP support gradually erode as the ineptitude of their parliamentary representatives makes itself obvious. The NDP and Liberals will do whatever they can to try to get attention for themselves, but the public will remain more interested in the latest Kardashian gossip than the teapot tempests the opposition parties try to stir up.
The battlegrounds that will form in the new year in Canada will largely involve the Labour movement and governmental austerity programs. Governments at all levels will attempt to reduce spending and their will be significant reductions in the number of public employees. Public service unions will try to make it an all-out fight, framing spending reductions as "a class war on the poor" and threatening horrors of cutbacks and social upheaval if the cuts occur.
What the public service unions won't realize until it's to late is that the public is fed up with them and sees through their self-interested hyperbole. We've reached the stage where most union members are disgusted with and humiliated by union leadership, who clearly are acting, not in the interest of the taxpayers or even public sector workers, but for themselves.
Union funded professional protesters like the Occupy movement, OCAP and their controlled mouthpieces like rabble.ca, will do little to sway the majority of Canadians who see them as a bizarre form of paid lobbyists who utilize street theatre as their communications strategy.
The Occupy Movement itself will continue to desperately try to get attention and struggle for some relevance, but without any real success. The word is out on them; it was never a grass-roots movement. Occupy was an orchestrated effort by public sector unions, socialists, Marxists, and their bigoted strategists like Kalle Lasn of Adbusters. These aren't new people protesting new problems, they are the same old full-time malcontents utilizing a new public relations approach. The camping-out technique did let them swell their usual numbers with the ranks of homeless, mentally ill and criminals, but the result was that their protests also featured assaults, rapes, murders, and drug-overdoses.
Occupy was characterized by incompetence evidenced through an inability to accomplish anything other than to demonstrate the intellectual bankruptcy of radical socialists who want to run the world, but couldn`t even effectively manage a campground.
The other domestic battlefield will be in education, where radical socialists are trying to indoctrinate future generations with the aid of hapless provincial education ministers. The public has caught on to this and with increased attention on the matter, a strong backlash is brewing.
In the US, there is a very good chance that the Republicans will implode and Barack Obama will be elected to a second term. Ron Paul, an isolationist extremist and crackpot, will not get the Republican nomination. But the infighting between him, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney leading up to the convention could create serious enough harm to let Obama recover from his slump in popularity.
A lot will depend on what happens to the US economy in the next ten months, and how Obama deals with crises like Iran`s posturing and nuclear ambitions. The Republicans may pull out a November victory if Gingrich of Romney emerges as the nominee and presents a reasonable, centrist candidacy that isn`t embarrassed by American Exceptionalism and presents sound economic alternatives. But the Republicans have a way of shooting themselves in the foot, so we`ll just have to see how things turn out. My actual prediction here is that the Republicans do capture the White House in the election, but I`m not going to bet the farm on it.
As far as the rest of the world goes, it`s going to be a mess. South America is going to have economic disasters and political upheavals, although on the bright side, Hugo Chavez may die and a responsible government could be restored in Venezuela.
Islamic extremism will continue to be a major threat to the civilized world. The middle eastern Arab upheavals will lead to Islamist regimes that claw back human rights. There won`t be the sort of full-fledged tyranny in any of them that emerged in Iran following its 1979 revolution, but that part of the world will become more dangerous and more extreme. The Palestinians leadership will conitue to give contradictory messages about its intentions towards peace while their incompetence and hate prevents any progress from being made. Israel, hamstrung by horrendous proportional representation system that almost guarantees government participation by religious extremest parties will muddle through the status quo for another year. The barbarity of the Arab upheavals and Iran, combined with the US election will reduce pressure for any meaningful progress in the Palestinian/Arab/Israeli peace process.
One very dangerous development that may occur is that Iran, facing economic and military pressure, may utilize its proxies Hamas and Hezbollah to start another war in the region to deflect attention from the Islamic Republic. If that happens, they will also be utilizing their useful idiot proxies in the west to wage a propaganda war on their behalf.
On the whole, 2012 will be another year where Canadians should be very grateful for having one of the safest, most prosperous and free countries in the world as their home.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
The closer you look at Ron Paul, the more he looks like a racist, incompetent, incoherent idiot
Ron Paul's basic defense against charges of racism and extremism is that things that went out under his name aren't his fault because he is incompetent.
And the guy wants to be President of the United States of America!? If the Republicans nominate Paul, they don't deserved to win a Presidential election for the next 20 years.
I predict Gingrich will emerge as the nominee, but the fact that Paul is leading in the polls in Iowa is either a scary indication of the state of affairs in Iowa or suggests that polls are worthless.
From The New York Times:
Here's Ron Paul comparing Iran's nukes to the USSR and saying we shouldn't worry about Iran having them. Here's a little tip for you, Dr. Paulooka, the Soviets, for all their many flaws, did not try to die in the name of Lenin so they go to paradise and get 72 virgins.
h/t American Power
And the guy wants to be President of the United States of America!? If the Republicans nominate Paul, they don't deserved to win a Presidential election for the next 20 years.
I predict Gingrich will emerge as the nominee, but the fact that Paul is leading in the polls in Iowa is either a scary indication of the state of affairs in Iowa or suggests that polls are worthless.
From The New York Times:
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Newt Gingrich turned his fire on Representative Ron Paul of Texas on Friday, saying that his Republican opponent had to answer for political and investment newsletters that included racist, anti-gay and anti-Israel passages that Mr. Paul has disavowed.
Mr. Gingrich also sharply criticized Mr. Paul for what he said were his isolationist views on foreign policy. The pointed comments suggested a new dynamic in the presidential primary race, with Mr. Paul as a new and enticing target. His fortunes have risen in Iowa, scrambling the field as some polls suggest that Mr. Paul could pull off a victory in the caucuses on Jan. 3. But in recent days, he has come under increasing scrutiny for offensive passages in newsletters that bore his name, although he has denied writing or approving them.
“These things are really nasty, and he didn’t know about it?” Mr. Gingrich said to reporters after a town-hall-style meeting here.
At the same time, Mr. Gingrich refrained from criticizing Mitt Romney, with whom he has frequently sparred, calling him, at worst, “a Massachusetts moderate.”
Speaking to a large and enthusiastic crowd outside the Blue Marlin restaurant here on a warm and sunny day, Mr. Gingrich mainly framed his candidacy in opposition to President Obama. But he strongly criticized Mr. Paul’s foreign policy positions. Mr. Paul’s criticism of American military involvement overseas is at odds with the views of many Republican voters who may otherwise be attracted to his strong antigovernment message.
“The only person I know who is for a weaker military than Barack Obama is Ron Paul,” Mr. Gingrich said.
Here's Ron Paul comparing Iran's nukes to the USSR and saying we shouldn't worry about Iran having them. Here's a little tip for you, Dr. Paulooka, the Soviets, for all their many flaws, did not try to die in the name of Lenin so they go to paradise and get 72 virgins.
h/t American Power
Sunday, December 11, 2011
After last night's debate, it looks like Gingrich is a shoe-in
Last night's Republican debate in Iowa left Newt Gingrich looking stronger than ever, while his most serious rivals, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, both shot themselves in the foot.
Romney has remained frozen in the polls, with any possible contender leapfrogging over him. A number of pundits have speculated the reason for Republican rejection of Romney being doubts about his conservative credentials. The actual reason is a lot simpler. Romney is arrogant and unlikeable. That came across loud and clear when Texas governor Rick Perry falsely accused Romney of having written that he wanted a national health care plan like the one he instituted in Massachusetts, which, for some Republicans, bears too strong a resemblance to Obamacare. Rather than just using the occasion to show that Perry was wrong, Romney decided to rub it it by offering to make a $10,000 bet on it. Now the bet and Romney's wealth and arrogance are getting more attention than his health care proposals.
But Perry was not able to diminish the perception of having a lack of command of basic facts, something that has haunted him from the beginning of the campaign.
Ron Paul was...Ron Paul; intelligent and sincere, but though his poll numbers place him around third, his isolationist and libertarian extremism will render him unable to win his party's nomination.
After the collapse of Herman Cain's campaign, the unlikely front runner and virtual certainty for the nomination remains former Speaker of the House Gingrich.
He proved himself even more presidential last night by standing by his words and being able to take his opponents' attacks and turn them around to show his strength.
Romney tried to attack Gingrich over comments where during a recent interview, the front-runner declared the Palestinians to be an "invented people." Rather than backtracking, Gingrich stood by his comments and added, “Somebody ought to have the courage to tell the truth. These people are terrorists." After criticizing President Obama's handling of middle east foreign policy, he continued, "It’s fundamentally time for somebody to have the guts to stand up and say, ‘Enough lying about the Middle East.’” Gingrich's remarks on that earned him the loudest, most sustained cheers that any candidate received last night.
When Romney accused him of being a "career politician," Gingrich's pointed comeback highlighted Romney's shortcomings when he replied, "Let's be candid, the only reason you didn't become a career politician is because you lost to Teddy Kennedy in '94."
There is plenty of time for anything to happen in the Republican primaries, but given the current slate of candidates and the abilities they've shown, barring a meltdown, Gingrich looks to be a lock for the nomination.
Were he to win the general election, the US would take a very different direction than under Barack Obama. Gingrich has said that he would make John Bolton, the former US Ambassador to the United Nations, whose hawkish conservatism makes him a lightning rod to the far left, as his Secretary of State.
With a declining economy and rising unemployment in America, and the perception that the current president is inept, weak, arrogant, and unable to manage the nation, President Newt Gingrich, a prospect that would have been unimaginable when he had reached the pinnacle of his career in Congress, may be a reality in 2013.
Romney has remained frozen in the polls, with any possible contender leapfrogging over him. A number of pundits have speculated the reason for Republican rejection of Romney being doubts about his conservative credentials. The actual reason is a lot simpler. Romney is arrogant and unlikeable. That came across loud and clear when Texas governor Rick Perry falsely accused Romney of having written that he wanted a national health care plan like the one he instituted in Massachusetts, which, for some Republicans, bears too strong a resemblance to Obamacare. Rather than just using the occasion to show that Perry was wrong, Romney decided to rub it it by offering to make a $10,000 bet on it. Now the bet and Romney's wealth and arrogance are getting more attention than his health care proposals.
But Perry was not able to diminish the perception of having a lack of command of basic facts, something that has haunted him from the beginning of the campaign.
Ron Paul was...Ron Paul; intelligent and sincere, but though his poll numbers place him around third, his isolationist and libertarian extremism will render him unable to win his party's nomination.
After the collapse of Herman Cain's campaign, the unlikely front runner and virtual certainty for the nomination remains former Speaker of the House Gingrich.
He proved himself even more presidential last night by standing by his words and being able to take his opponents' attacks and turn them around to show his strength.
Romney tried to attack Gingrich over comments where during a recent interview, the front-runner declared the Palestinians to be an "invented people." Rather than backtracking, Gingrich stood by his comments and added, “Somebody ought to have the courage to tell the truth. These people are terrorists." After criticizing President Obama's handling of middle east foreign policy, he continued, "It’s fundamentally time for somebody to have the guts to stand up and say, ‘Enough lying about the Middle East.’” Gingrich's remarks on that earned him the loudest, most sustained cheers that any candidate received last night.
When Romney accused him of being a "career politician," Gingrich's pointed comeback highlighted Romney's shortcomings when he replied, "Let's be candid, the only reason you didn't become a career politician is because you lost to Teddy Kennedy in '94."
There is plenty of time for anything to happen in the Republican primaries, but given the current slate of candidates and the abilities they've shown, barring a meltdown, Gingrich looks to be a lock for the nomination.
Were he to win the general election, the US would take a very different direction than under Barack Obama. Gingrich has said that he would make John Bolton, the former US Ambassador to the United Nations, whose hawkish conservatism makes him a lightning rod to the far left, as his Secretary of State.
With a declining economy and rising unemployment in America, and the perception that the current president is inept, weak, arrogant, and unable to manage the nation, President Newt Gingrich, a prospect that would have been unimaginable when he had reached the pinnacle of his career in Congress, may be a reality in 2013.
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