Ron Paul in his own words, and in the words of the founders

When faced with a skilled interviewer like Bob Schieffer, Ron Paul shows himself to be an ideologue with no depth of understanding about the results of the extreme positions he advocates.  He seems completely unconcerned with what would happen if he had his way essentially because he believes with all his heart that everything would be okay.  He is what our founding fathers called a "doctrinaire".  Considering Ron Paul's alleged respect for the worldview of America's founders, I propose that we restore their usage of the word "doctrinaire" with respect to Ron Paul: one who advocates policies based primarily on ideological bias and with insufficient concern for real world needs and effects.

Joseph Massad continues to support Assad, blame Israel

Columbia University professor Joseph Massad has published a column in which he continues to support Assad and blame Israel and the U.S. for the uprising against him. He seems to think the Arab League, Turkish PM Erdogan and the Syrian rebels themselves are agents of Zionism and U.S. imperialism.

Read here: The struggle for Syria - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Protect the Bedouin

The Bedouin, like Roma, Irish Travelers, and other traditionally nomadic peoples, should be protected. Modern societies need to make room for groups whose fundamental identity requires community mobility. If only such a modern country had a large, mostly unoccupied area where such a group could live comfortably. A desert, for example.

Read Diana Muir Applebaum in Jewish Ideas Daily: On the Road Again

Enemy of the state

Dorli Rainey stopped by the site of the Occupy Seattle protest last night to see what her neighbors were doing to express support for New York protesters. Those New Yorker were summarily expelled from New York's Zuccotti Park in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. Dorli, who was watching the protests, not participating, found herself pinned against a wall by Seattle police. With her were a small crowd, reportedly including a priest and a pregnant woman, all there to observe and support the protests. The Seattle police saw fit, after penning this group behind barricades, to spray them with pepper spray. Seattle thus achieves a distinction that they would rather not have. They are the city which has maced the oldest innocent person of the many to have been similarly attacked by U.S. police within the past two months. Here's her photo:

There are no similar photos of innocent New Yorkers being maced, beaten or arrested during the NYPDs raid on the Zuccotti encampment. The Bloomberg administration, which has justified their attack on the protesters as being designed to protect the protesters from fictitious threats to their health and safety, similarly kept the police raid out of the view of the media in order to protect reporters from the same illusory threats. That the only threat to anyone's health and safety was posed by hundreds of heavily armed riot police attacking innocent protesters is made clear by the fact that, among those detained for rioting on Tuesday morning were several reporters, whose health and safety were protected by being handcuffed and carted away in vans. That there are no photos of New Yorkers to compare to the photo above indicates that, while Mayor Bloomberg didn't protect anyone's health and safety, he was successful in protecting the privacy of those his police unjustly tear-gassed, beat and arrested.

Source: 84-Year-Old Woman Becomes the Pepper-Sprayed Face of Occupy Seattle - National - The Atlantic Wire

Oops

As if there were any doubt, how do we know Rick Perry's campaign is in deep trouble? "Oops" is now his catch-phrase.

Source: http://blog.ruck.us/nothing-here

Brooklyn hit by anti-Semitic arson

Brooklyn's Midwood neighborhood was hit by anti-Semitic vandals early this morning. Residents were awakened at 4:30 by the sound of three cars parked on Ocean Parkway between Avenue I and Avenue J exploding in flames. Graffiti found on the torched cars and adjacent cars and park benches included swastikas, "SS", "KKK" and "Kill the Jews".

More here, including video of the fires: Car Fires, Anti-Semitic Graffiti Put Brooklyn Neighborhood On Edge - NY1.com

Anti-Semitic Arsons In Brooklyn: MyFoxNY.com

Ron Paul's answer for Iran's nuclear threat

from Philip Weiss at Mondoweiss:

On television today Ron Paul said that friendship with Iran is the answer.


"The Texas congressman says fears about Iran's nuclear program have been "blown out of proportion." He says tough penalties are a mistake because, as he says was the case in Iraq, they only hurt the local population and still paved a path to war. When asked on "Fox News Sunday" what he would do to deter Iran's alleged nuclear ambitions, Paul said 'maybe offering friendship to them'."

Do you wonder why some on the left support the paleo-conservative isolationalism of Ron Paul? They share a philosophy of foreign policy: Magical Realism.