Dr. Ron Paul on Bill Maher

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For scientists, atheists and libertarians

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Penn Jillette on being an atheist and libertarian

Here’s a brilliant article by Penn Jillette detailing why he is an atheist and a libertarian. It’s 3 pages but it literally took me 3 minutes to get through. Definitely worth a read.

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People DO get offended by one’s political stance nowadays

I tell you what, most people often argue that you should be able to freely speak about and criticize religion openly in the public sphere, with Richard Dawkins is one of the biggest heralds of this idea with which I agree emphatically.  However, more often than not you hear the line, “No one gets offended the same way when talking about politics.” I no longer thing that’s the case.

It seems today that if you in any way support libertarianism, let alone a libertarian politician such as Ron Paul, you’ll see pretty quickly how offensive, rude and ignorant even the most well composed and informed people among us (even atheists in my experience) soon become.

It’s a real shame that we have this break down in rational and courteous discourse. I, myself, am somewhat of a supporter of Ron Paul, as I am one of Barrack Obama. I support them for different reasons, pretty much because what one has the other lacks. Anyway, I’m not going to delve too deeply into my personal politics.

The point is that I think I’ve suffered more ignorance and abuse over what often start out as sensible discussions about Ron Paul than I have with regards to religion and my atheism. I kid you not… This may be because most of the people I surround myself with are atheists, or at least sensible / moderate theists, who agree with me mostly in regards to religion / science, but of whom are mostly somewhat socialist and definitely mostly liberal.

However, on top of this, I find it disturbing that so many otherwise highly intellectual people, atheists in particular, succumb to political propaganda, to which they exhibit knee-jerk reactions, then incessantly proclaim ridiculous strawman arguments, and are completely close-minded to the rational arguments in favour of libertarianism (whether or not you agree with them). That is, few people I speak with can even momentarily accept and comprehend the ideals Ron Paul champions, despite needing to agree with him wholeheartedly or not in the slightest.

I have no issue with people disagreeing with me, Ron Paul, theists, anyone or thing or idea out there. But it is an enormous disservice to oneself to ignore the motivations of such people. To brush them off as evil people, or morons, without actually giving a moment to understand why they believe what they believe.

Be respectful and open-minded, but not so open-minded that your brain falls out…

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50% of Americans pro cannabis legalisation

Easily one of the most compelling short videos/speeches on why cannabis should be legalised, whether in the US or Australia. 

It’s brilliant to see that as the scientific evidence piles up and more and more people are seeing the light with regards to the prohibition on drugs, specifically cannabis, fewer and fewer people believe it should continue to be prohibited. Undoubtedly a good sign considering this terrible prohibition has lead to the arrest and incarceration of more than 22 million American citizens since 1965.

At the end of last year, during the Obama Administration’s attempt to shortchange the American public’s most population action petition (cannabis legalisation), and was effectively declaring war on medicinal cannabis through DOJ, IRS, etc. the Gallup polls showed 50% of Americans now think cannabis should be legal. The highest percentage since the first Gallup poll was held on the issue in 1969.

Below is a video reacting to the news of this Gallup poll outcome at the end of last year with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell’s giving a 4 minute condemning speech of those who are for the war on drugs and anti-cannabis legalisation, specifically politics (many of whom have admittedly partaken in said indulgences).

Hopefully this sort of clear logic illuminates the hypocrisy surrounding drug prohibition that has lead to the ruining of countless millions of peoples’ lives world wide, which has lead to much more devastating harm to individuals than any illicit substance ever could.

In my opinion, anyone who is against the legalisation and proper regulation of illicit substances like cannabis are at best completely ignorant of the science and facts, and are at worst complete and utter hypocrites who know the science and facts but still believe they should be prohibited (unlike more harmful substances, alcohol/cigarettes).

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Pro drug legalisation is now a mainstream view

Salon.com columnist David Sirota appeared on The Young Turks last night speaking about the politics of drug legalisation and the so called ‘extreme’ view. In the light of recent polls it’s obvious the extreme view no longer entails being pro-legalization of drugs, but the opposite of being against the legalization of drugs.

Sirota explains how 50% of Americans now support the legalisation of cannabis, and that an even larger 77% support the legalisation of medicinal cannabis.

It seems a common tail these days that conservative religious groups like the USA’s Republicans are themselves often the extremists who point at those sharing the mainstream centrist view, legalising drugs in this case, as being the extremist, though neither the polls nor scientific evidence can support their position. It just comes down to a screaming match where whomever has the loudest and most obnoxious  voice seems to be deemed correct.

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Fox News your bias is showing!

Fox News have deleted a poll they set up regarding the Republican debate last Thursday night in Orlando when it was clear that the majority believed Ron Paul dominated. What a surprise… Unfortunately for them the poll is still accessible via Google cache file.

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Ron Paul’s gaining more momentum

My wonderful girlfriend just showed me this nice mini-doco on Ron Paul and his policies and I thought I’d share it. Though I may not agree with his beliefs, I am more than a big fan of what he stands for and has stood for without wavering for the past 30 or more years. The one politician with integrity and doesn’t pander to anyone…

So to all the Americans reading this who will be voting at the next presidential election, if you want your country to be saved Ron Paul is who you should be voting for. If you want a president who actually respects and follows the constitution and upholds the ideals of your founding fathers, he’s the man you should be voting for. Otherwise it’s a fairly grim outlook.

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Bongs to be banned in Victoria, here comes the ‘nanny state’…

Mental Health Minister Mary Wooldridge

By January 1st 2012 bongs and other cannabis related paraphernalia will be banned from being displayed or sold in Victoria, Australia.

Fuck me… have we nothing better to do with our time than worry about this sort of stuff? Are we really wasting our time, energy and tax payers dollars on banning the sale of bongs? Have people stopped starving in Africa, have we nothing else left in the world to address…?

Mental Health Minister Mary Wooldridge is at the front of this latest ‘nanny state’ wave,

“The changes being introduced into parliament will bring Victoria’s position on cannabis smoking paraphernalia in line with other states, which all have some restrictions in place,” Ms Wooldridge said.

She states that the research indicates that cannabis use is associated with the increased risk of developing mental illness… what about it’s medicinal use with regards to

Ms Wooldridge is worried that the sale of cannabis paraphernalia sends a ‘dangerous’ message that cannabis is a soft drug. Ummm… but it is? It’s non-addictive, it’s toxicity is 1000s of times less than alcohol or nicotine, it’s potential for physical harm is also much less. It’s safer than caffeine and aspirin for fuck’s sake, how soft can you get? Feel free to reference and quote the 100s of studies showing cannabis’ medicinal uses, for treatment numerous disease from aids to MS, and the curing of, and even protection against, cancer.

A categorization of hard (red), soft (yellow) and borderline drugs (orange), by Nutt et al.

I’d argue people like Ms Wooldridge are sending the fallacious message that alcohol and tobacco are “soft drugs”. Both are incredibly more dangerous for you than illicit substances like cannabis, MDMA and acid.

Maybe it’s about time our Health Ministers started implementing legislation based heavily on fact instead of personal opinion, bias and misinformation. If you really want to make the community a better place, just banning everything isn’t going to change anything. You’re just further impinging on the freedoms of your citizens…

These politicians are never scientists, they never look at the facts and fiction to separate the two and then bring in helpful laws and regulations based in truth. They just react to the loudest voices from the public arena, like so many other areas of our government.

This sort of legislation will do a great deal more damage in my opinion because you’re going to further brainwash the public into hating a substance which doesn’t deserve to be hated.

Until are laws and legislation are based on facts and good science instead of fear and fiction, we’ll be the ones to suffer.

Reference : Nutt, D.; King, L. A.; Saulsbury, W.; Blakemore, C. (2007). “Development of a rational scale to assess the harm of drugs of potential misuse”. The Lancet 369 (9566): 1047–1053.

I might add, the above first author Prof David Nutt used to be the chief drug adviser to the UK government until he wouldn’t back down on his position that cannabis and MDMA should be in the lowest classification of illicit drugs. So the government sacked him and found someone else who’d back their position up.

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An appropriate political stance

 

 

I think I’d now put myself right at the very bottom, if not slightly to the left of the bottom middle. I guess you’d label me a moderate libertarian or minarchist

 

 

 

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