My thoughts on Rand Paul

     All of last year most of us were campaigning or somewhat involved with the Ron Paul Movement, and in August when it came apparent that the GOP leadership was not interested in listening to the voice of the people in order to win the White House and when they instead put as their GOP nominee Mitt Romney, we turned our attitudes to the realization that the two party system was corrupt, that both sides were in league with one another, we felt that to really change the political structure ( notice I didn't use the word GAME) we had to get a real liberty candidate. It seems that most if not all of the Liberty seeking Republicans and some of the Libertarians have chosen their candidate. Rand Paul, son of Dr. Ron Paul, has grown in popularity since his 13 hour filibuster on the Senate floor mere weeks ago. Now everyone is back to side with the GOP because they say it’s cool to Stand with Rand.

     Is he really the one that can bring the house divided back to an agreement or are we just playing with the puppet who has us all convinced he is not being used by the establishment?

     His record is one that makes even the staunchest Republican look as though they are sitting across the aisle in the Democrat section.

     The way that he almost mirrors his father’s strong belief in personal freedom is only faulted by his utterance that he would support legislation that would make same sex marriage something that America would not see in his presidency. Is this a big enough deal not to support him, to some no it is not, they use their religious belief in order to discriminate against those couples who wish only to have the same right as heterosexual or mixed gender couples. Why should we care about that one group of citizens that must pay taxes and live under the same guidelines as the rest of our society, but cannot enjoy the same sort of respect for their established relationships? To some like myself I believe in the notion that if one person is not free than no one is free, until we can eradicate the bigotry and hatefulness from the walls of our society we can never be truly free, not all of us, only those select few who can muster special rights for themselves can claim a certain aspect of freedom.

     In any society there is a split between thinking that the state is there to protect and it is there to ensure freedoms and rights are reserved by the individuals. In our present day America we have a majority who believe that any military action taken against any purposed threat even as irrelevant as small nations with little to no military is in defense of our freedoms at home. Some will argue that the best defense is a strong offense, that what we need to do is ensure our safety by bullying the rest of the world, by showing dominance and military might, by showing no mercy, by policing the world. Rand Paul is in some ways on the side of the state being used for defense here at home, but he still believes that using economic, industrial and monetary sanctions against sovereign nations is our only recourse to a secure country. I do not believe that, my though on it is that Any type of sanction has he effect to hurt the citizens of that country first and hard, in most cases the government and military of that nation are not affected until its people demand a course of action be taken. Sanctions have a way of causing more enemies than it cures and we have seen that many times over. The recent threats coming from North Korea are a result of intervention into a nation for far too long and it will either escalate or de-escalate by the actions that we take next. End the sanctions and end the threat or continue with them and prepare for nuclear war.

     The recent remarks at CPAC that ended just hours ago of this writing, Senator Paul explains that he would purpose a flat tax of 17% across the board. That sounds great to everyone who is above that percentage as of now, but what about those that are not, what happens to them? I firmly believe that IF WE MUST be taxed it should be on our consumption not on our labor. It does not benefit man to toil in the dirt to receive partial pay while the shade sitting government collects from your sweaty back. This point you cannot argue. With the raising of the tax it would increase revenue, but what about spending? Wasteful government spending is the real culprit in the downfall of the American economy as of late, so what happens to the spending under Rand Paul? He called for, in his CPAC speech the abolition of the department of education. While that is a fantastic start, it still would only alleviate a portion of the spending and does nothing to curb the rampant inflation that is destroying our currency's overall value. So what does he purpose? He has entered into the Senate bill that calls for an audit of the Federal Reserve. That should be a major issue with everyone because it is the Federal Reserve’s doing that our money is losing value both domestically and internationally. An audit would reveal that the system that Congress bestowed its job to protect our money and to preserve its inherent value does not work and has for some time now been causing the very pain which we feel making everyday purchases. The Audit the Fed bill died out with little to no emotion coming from either side and will in the future return for a vote, if we get so lucky.

     With all of this being said and all of the emotion that is flowing right now and the fever that is following the liberty movement as of late I do want to make this point. While I may not agree with Senator Paul’s stances on certain issues, and I make my case that he is not at this point a guaranteed presidential pick for me, he has in his time in politics done more to help the people of this country realize they are not free, he has done more to secure and fight for those rights of liberty than most others in politics, I do not discount his father Ron Paul, because to me he is the man who started a movement everyone else will be merely followers and practitioners  of this cause. Ron Paul may have retired from his career, but to many he is the leader of a R3VOLution.

     WE will see where we are in 2015 when things start to heat up at the national level but for now we stay focused for the upcoming races. There is much to be done and much to be seen and heard.

P.S. I think Rand Needs a mustache like John Stossel    #LiveFree or die trying!

All Value is subjective!

All Value is subjective!
 
     What is valuable to you can either be more or less valuable to another. What is your labor worth? What is your product worth? What is your life or the life of another worth? What I am going to go through are three simple subjects that show the variances in value based upon personal opinion and indoctrination leading to unrealistic expectations in value. These subjects are Money, Life and Death, and labor, and how each one of them is a choice left only up to you.

      In the case of currency, value is completely dependent on the personal requirement or want of that currency; in the market it is dependent on the combined value of one currency versus the valuation of the products that are in that market. In relations to other currencies it is set by government, the value of one currency to buy an equivalent of another sets the value of that currency. But what is the personal value in currency? What do you associate as being a worthwhile exchange for your currency? It is more or less intertwined in the valuation of the product or service in the eyes of the producer. If one sells his product for 100 units of your currency, you can have a subjective value of that product more or less than the value set by the producer. You could say that you value your currency more than the product and decide to not exchange for that product. Or you could decide that having that product or service is more valuable to you than the currency. That is the subjective value in the markets. If left to a free market system you would not incur penalties for your exchange through taxation. The use of regulations and restrictions, taxation and forced compliance leads to higher market prices to make up for lost earnings paying into a system of theft.

     Life and death are things that most people do not normally associate the word Value with unless they are referring to a specific set of values that they try to live by. What I am talking about is the way that some see the lives of certain individuals over others as a higher value. When the Newtown Connecticut school massacre happened the entire nation looked on with tears and heartache, looking for answers and demanding a response. But the only response on that day came in the form of a drone strike in Pakistan that led to the deaths of 6 innocent civilians. So was it the Pakistani’s that committed the school shooting? What does the drone strike have to do with Newtown? Nothing at all actually, but to show the value of one life over another I wanted to use this as an example. The days following I talked to a few people who when confronted by the fact that our country kills innocent citizens of foreign countries will defend the practice of governmental murder by their idea that” hey, it’s a war, that’s just what happens”’ or even “well they are bad people” First I will say this, the combat situations that have resulted since 9/11, none of them have been congressionally approved, so therefore are not in standard rules of war. Secondly, how do you justify and determine if someone is a bad person when you have never met this person, or have even been personally injured or threatened by them? They feel that the teachers and children who died in Connecticut were somehow more valuable as human beings than those that lived in Pakistan in the last year. They feel that the victims of The Oklahoma City Bombing were more valuable than those that the government murdered at Mount Carmel in Waco Texas, and that those who have been murdered by our Government as a result of 9/11 are less valuable than those that were killed in 9/11. Another way to look at the subjective value of life is abortion. Some will say that the unborn child is the most valuable, and will risk all to save them from harm even by force on the mother to which it belongs, but in that same breath can call for troops to storm the borders of nations far away. Without thinking they have created the value that this unborn fetus has more value than a person that has lived life up to this point. It is with that that I leave this topic for you to conceive your own thought and philosophy.

 
     What is your labor worth to you? What is it worth to your employer? Are you currently working for less than your Value, or have you and your employer contracted your labor for a mutually acceptable wage? How can you put a price on your labor? Or can you? When I was growing up I did small jobs for small amounts of money, knowing that I was learning and that my time was worth the price to which I was to be paid. As the years rolled on I began to learn new skills or experience to add to the ones I had, my time became worth more and so as such the price that I wanted for each hour of labor would increase. Now I find myself in a situation that my job no longer stays up with the value of my time and labor. The living wage that I must accept in order to pay bills, eat and clothe myself has for some time stayed the same. The skills that I have advanced upon or even learned new ones has left in my mind a new value for my labor, but the job that will pay that wage is hard to come by. So what is the value that you place on your labor? You may have a price that would help to pay for all the expenses of life and leave a little more for spending in any way you choose, or you could have a price that does not leave any money for extras or frivolous expenditures, it is your discretion to take a job that will either meet or not meet your requirements and value limit

     Currency can change value almost instantly, wavering with the markets and subject to devaluation (as is the case with the American Currency) Life has a value that only you can decide on, only you can set that value and to set it to whatever scale you choose. You may value the life of a small child in your hometown more than the small child in a military occupied country, you may value the victim of circumstance more than the victim of government extermination, you may even value a life not yet lived to one lived up to fit for military age. Labor is a hard one to set a value to and acquire that value with a mutually beneficial contract between employer and employee, especially in the economic hardship times that we as Americans have been used to for a while now. I hope this shows that all value is subjective and that all value can fluctuate and change due to current conditions. We all must set value to each and every thing that we encounter.

Live Free