Lots of gaseous anger floating around at Rand Paul..and Ron..these days.

Fair enough.

Except don’t say someone “sold you” a bill of goods, without also adding you “bought” it.

I don’t know how anyone could fairly say that they were surprised by Rand Paul’s endorsement.

He’s never pretended to be anything other than a liberty-oriented Republican.  Can’t fault him for your own psychological projections.

So here goes – top ten dumb reasons to hate Ron and Rand Paul.

I

1. Ron Paul makes strange finger signs that look occult. He’s a Freemason and it’s an Illuminati plot.

1. Ron Paul might be a Freemason and the Illuminati are always plotting,  but that is neither here nor there. The question is whether he’s a globalist. He isn’t, at least, not on paper.

The next question is whether he’s fronting for the globalists in some deeper manner, by co-opting the opposition, either intentionally with devious intent (Webster Tarpley), or unintentionally or more or less reluctantly (I’m in this camp).

As for hand signs – practically anything you do with your hands can be twisted into occult symbolism by a clever picture.

Give it a break.

By the way, the word “occult” only means “hidden”. It does not mean “creepy sexually perverted rituals committed under the statue of an owl,” no matter how many times Alex Jones said it does.

Creepy, sexually perverted rituals committed under owls…or even by owls…are just that. They can be committed  by occultists, sure, but they can also be committed by Baptists and atheists.  Some people might think it’s a pretty creepy ritual to eat the flesh and drink the blood of a guy who was put to death two thousands years ago.

Try reading a book, say, by Francis Yates or Mircea Eliade or Ananda Coomaraswamy, or Manly Hall, before getting your ideas about the “occult” from Google.

The occult just refers to the wisdom or esoteric tradition of  the West. Most of it is remarkably similar to Eastern religions like Hinduism. Jesus Christ was, in many ways, an “occultist.”

II

2. Rand Paul sold us out by endorsing Mitt Romney.

2. Rand Paul always showed he was sympathetic to Mitt Romney by every gesture and word. If you didn’t see that, consider LASIK, but don’t upchuck all over the forums.

Credulity isn’t something to be put on your resume.

Rand Paul’s Republican tendencies actually gave me some hope for him as a politician, although personally I don’t think politics is the arena in which real – as opposed to superficial – change takes place at all. So all the angst is redundant. Be sorry for wasting so much time and energy on a political campaign you apparently mistook for the return of Merlin…but that might not be entirely Rand Paul’s fault, eh?

Time to check the mirror.

III

3.  Ron Paul was only feathering his nest and setting up Rand for a political career.

3. Your point? If Ron Paul were as much as a saint as his supporters wanted him to be, he wouldn’t be in politics at all. He’d be in a monastery or a cabin in the woods.

He’s not only a politician, he’s a successful long-lived politician, who has many friends all over the place, made good money, and sold a bunch of books on the strength of his public visibility. This is not a bad thing in my book, but it kind of argues against him being a Trappist monk. He’s more of the “doing good by doing well” school

(see Rajat Gupta and public-private partnership for a more mainstream corporate version).

Look, libertarians believe that self-interest is a great and productive instinct in man. How could you expect their hero to be martyr material? He’s not. And I’m sure he doesn’t want to be. That may be a failing in libertarianism, but don’t blame Paul for not alerting you. It’s practically tattooed on his forehead.

IV

4. Ron Paul is a goldbug shilling for a gold standard that will support the bankers.

4. Ron Paul is a gold bug, Ron Paul is shilling, Ron Paul is for the gold standard, and Ron Paul is supporting the banksters are four separate propositions that have no necessary connection between them and need to be proved independently.

The sooner you figure that out, the sooner you will upgrade from ‘unpleasant internet bot’ to ‘rational thinker who can argue a point without having an epileptic fit.’

V

5.  The Ron Paul movement is dead, and now there’s no hope for liberty in the world.

5. This has to be the most annoying bit of narcissism I’ve come across.  There are more than a hundred other countries in the world, and several billion people, most of whom don’t speak English and have never heard of Ron Paul. Some of them have never heard of America. Amazing, huh? They’re all seeking liberty in their lives in different ways.  More than one of them is likely to do more for liberty than Ron Paul has. That’s not a slap at Ron Paul, who’s done a lot. It’s a slap at a very insular way of thinking.  You don’t Co-Chair The Committee on Global Liberty with the seraphim and cherubim. You really, really don’t.

VI

6.  The globalists can’t be stopped. it’s all the fault of Ron and Rand Paul. If they’d only….

6.  The globalists probably can’t be stopped overnight by anyone. Not even by God (see, Free Will).  For overnight instantaneous transformations of thoughts into matter, you need more than a different political campaign. You need a different planetary vibration (see, Occult).

VII

7. Webster Tarpley said, Alex Jones said, Eric Dondero said, Mark Ames said, Jesse Benton said…..

7. It’s OK to read and discuss what anyone with a big net presence has said about Ron Paul. But none of it is the last word.  We’re  not likely to know all the facts about why some public figure said or did something, so drawing too many conclusions too, well, conclusively, isn’t smart.

All of these people also have their own agendas and viewpoints.  Don’t make a decision about gold or paper money, based on “it will profit the globalists.”

Rest assured the globalists have a million ways to profit from any economic regime…..paper or gold or cowrie-shell.

Make up your mind about whether you want to buy or sell gold or buy currencies or anything else based on your own research into fundamental and technical factors, not playing off the binary

Gold=Good/Paper=Bad…

or

Paper=Good/Gold=Bad

VIII

8. Mitt Romney is EVIL EVIL EVIL. Anyone who supports him is EVIL EVIL EVIL. Barack Obama is EVIL EVIL EVIL. Anyone who supports him is EVIL EVIL EVIL.

8. Projecting absolute evil onto a political figure, a political position, or anything else is a flawed way of thinking.  Human beings pursue what they consider good. That “good” might in reality cause a lot of harm and damage to millions of lives, but that still doesn’t alter the fact that the person doing the damage is usually doing it in the pursuit of what he considers good. Understand that and don’t create demons where none exist. Romney is wrong when he does x,y, and z, and I would prefer that he did a, b, and c,  is much more persuasive than Romney (or Obama) is evil.

IX

9.  Ron Paul has made me lose interest in politics. What a jerk.

9. Actually, this is probably the brightest part of the whole story. The more people lose interest in politics, the better.  Not the wrong kind of  losing interest that makes you gullible and easy to manipulate. But the right kind. When you don’t waste time looking for political (mass) solutions but try to figure out smaller, local problems.  Instead of voting for Ron or Rand, try changing one municipal ordinance you hate.

X

10. Ron Paul wasn’t straight with us. He’s a fraud and a con.

10.  Ron Paul, buddy, has no obligation whatsoever to be straight with you. Did he marry you and swear to stick with you through rich or poor?

Ron Paul is obligated to follow the law, especially the constitution, and the and any appropriate limitations imposed by our intelligence services.  You might not like that. But those are his only legal obligations.

Ron Paul also has a media presence. If he wants to keep it, he CANNOT be straight about anything and everything.

If he were, he’d be gone tomorrow and writing a blog.

Which isn’t a bad thing, from my point of view, but all you guys who love cute Ron Paul T-shirts and mugs, crowds, tents, group “highs,” clever slogans, and plenty of traffic, will simply hate it.

Ron Paul gave all of that to you, just as surely as you gave all your energy and money and time to him.

It was a voluntary capitalist exchange, which is just what he stands for.

He didn’t promise you you’d win a million bucks, make the Superbowl, score a hot chick, or grow back all your hair.

He didn’t even promise to be president or hate Mitt Romney forever.

Yeah, you feel he let you down.

Smoke a cigarette.

Feelings don’t produce obligations.

You had a good ride and he did too.  Take it gracefully.

Whatever else he is, was, or might have been, Ron Paul was a graceful and gracious man.

Leave it at that.