Okay, first of all, to all three of you guys, Ron Paul did not say that he wants heroine or cocaine legalized. He stated that as president of the United States, he does not have the authority to make it legal or not. To understand what he was talking about, you need to realize firstly that the president cannot simply say that cigarettes are illegal throughout the country because he doesn't agree with them. He simply does not have that power. Whenever he was asked about this issue, he says that he cannot control what states make illegal and legal in regards to drugs and that it is up to them. Just like drinking age or age at which you are allowed to drive. Every state is different and that's why we have states in the first place. You cannot create laws that apply in one state and expect them to apply equally to all. For instance, if you have marijuana in Texas, you are given a harsher punishment than in Iowa. Why? Because Texas is close to Mexico where a lot of marijuana is grown so we are exposed to a surge where Iowa is not. Why can there be harsher punishments for it here versus Iowa or California? Because different states make different rules and laws depending on where they are and different variables that the federal government cannot simply just apply across the board. It does not have the power to do that even though laws were illegal put into place to establish that and that's the point Ron Paul makes. If the majority of a state agreed with making cocaine legal, then I don't see the issue. I don't think any state would ever do something like that, but this rule applies to all other non-federal issues and you can't compromise. You can't say that you're going to follow the Constitution in one area that applies to things like cigarettes but ignore it for other substances like cocaine. That's simply not right and not why our country is formed the way it is.
@Ace:
http://www.trojanvideos.com/did_you_know.phphttp://thesocietypages.org/socimages/20 ... education/Since there isn't a way to actually get a number on this, you're going to find slightly different stats on teen pregnancy. Some places show Texas is #1. Some show it's #5. From my sources, it's 1, but we both can definitely agree it's top 3 without a doubt.
http://www.cdc.gov/std/stats09/surv2009-Complete.pdfFor STD's, check this out. We have the most cases, but even per capita is very, very high. Looks to be about at least 3rd in all the states per capita and first in occurring cases.
http://www.childrensdefense.org/policy- ... state.htmlFor uninsured children, which is really sad, no other state comes anywhere close except Florida. Texas has ~20% of children uninsured. How very tragic.
Besides, according to Ron Paul it is their right to have sex & get pregnant. And the national average certainly wouldn't go down if he legalized prostitution for STD's.
This is seriously the dumbest thing I've ever read. I don't think you're dumb, but I think you either wrote that wrong, misunderstood what I said, or took that out of context purposely. It's everyone's right to have sex if they are consenting. There isn't anyone that wants to ban sex.
As you can see by this report, the more people have STD's, the more the government has to pay for them through health care:
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-01-13/heal ... =PM:HEALTH It's simply bad for the country and this is just one economic effect it has. Ron Paul doesn't support STD's and does not support prostitution. As I mentioned earlier, if a state wants it's legalized, there is nothing in his power that he can do to legally stop them. If he's president, he simply doesn't have the power to legally stop them and that's simply the way things are. Now, you can say he does. Other can say that they have the power to do so if they were president, but it's illegal because no one gave them that right or that ability.
So, Ace, seeing how I completely and appropriately covered each of your disputes, I would like to know what else I can do to help show you that Ron Paul is a great GOP candidate.
@BKF:
I'll go through that list... Many of those things are good and even Ron Paul wants them, but some are disastrous for our country.
1. I completely agree with this and hope it is taken care of. There shouldn't be people placed in politics for life. Ron Paul agrees.
2. Seems fine to me except whenever people of congress are corrupt, it's easy for them to overthrow decisions that are good for the people. The 2/3's majority vote is a good barrier to protect the people since we usually have a split congress. I think things will be fine and that this 2/3's override would rarely take place and could potentially be beneficial. I don't see it as an important issue, however.
3. Ron Paul has been trying to do this forever. This was his first official stance as a presidential candidate. I fully agree, too.
4. I don't know Ron Paul's stance on this, but I personally agree with it.
5. This is common sense and I agree. So does Ron Paul
So, do you see so far that you actually share a lot of the same views as Ron Paul? I don't see why you're so against him if you share his same views. Let's keep going down the list, though.
6. NO. This is absolutely wrong. Who in the government gives this power to the president? No one or nothing can give this power to the president. NOTHING will make this ruling legal, but it'll still go through if he's president. He isn't granted almighty powers out of no-where. There is a reason we have states, like I mentioned earlier. Some states require different laws and the government cannot stop them from making these laws. If a state makes same sex marriage legal, even though I don't agree with it personally, it is the state's right.
Ron Paul said it best... He said that he was married for 57 years and has a good marriage with his long time lover and best friend. You cannot tell him that his marriage is wrong or bad or immoral. You cannot tell him his marriage isn't valid. Just like he won't tell you that who you marry is wrong or immoral.
7. This is the exact stance Ron Paul has.
There you go, BKF, 5/7 of those are the same views as Ron Paul. 1/7 is a non-concern with him and 1/7 is a disagreement. I'm sure you don't go along with 100% of what Rick Perry says, but I can guarantee you if you look at what stances they both have and compare them, you'd see you have more in common with Ron Paul than you thought. Probably even more than you had with Perry.
As for Rick Perry's grades? I honestly could care less about the grades he made in college. I don't think they'd reflect how well someone performs on the job. I could be the best football player at practice, but screw up every play in a game. I take pity on the people who dismiss Rick Perry simply for his grades.
By the way, BKF, take a look at this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wRRoyaOn50He's corrupt and hope you see that. Maybe if you lived in Austin, you'd realize how corrupt this guy is. That racecar deal he made is horrible. It's not even built yet. Where are these millions of dollars going?