A recent study using something called “gravitational microlensing” suggests that every star has at least one planet. There are a lot of planets out there. So there “must” be Earth-similar planets. And “therefore” life. Intelligent life. And, and, and …
Back on Earth, the search for intelligence amongst the Republican presidential candidates (not to mention the Democratic incumbent) is a more haphazard affair. We lack that crucial microlensing.
Yesterday I noted a peculiar alignment: Ron Paul defending Mitt Romney, with the other Republican wannabes piling against Romney in a disgraceful showing of anti-capitalism. Rep. Paul defended Romney not out of Republican loyalty, but out of principle. Does this suggest an affinity between the two, heretofore unnoticed?
Maybe. On the face of it, Romney doesn’t seem all that dissimilar from Barack Obama – not in foreign policy, surely not in big government instincts (the purveyors of unconstitutional medical regulations, each) — but his work in business does suggest that Romney might be an improvement on Obama, if elected. Marginally moving towards Paul’s apogee.
But the country needs more than just a marginal improvement, right now. Another centrist — even one who understands the social utility of the hostile takeover — won’t balance budgets. Not when the Washington orbit remains retrograde, unable to stop spending and borrowing like tomorrow is somebody else’s problem.
Which is why Ron Paul’s candidacy will retain traction for many primaries to come. Since our problems are the mainstream, Paul fills the need for something extra-mainstream — and, to normal political folks, that will undoubtedly seem “extra-terrestrial.”
In Washington, all intelligent life lies beyond the usual orbits.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
8 replies on “New Orbits for Old”
I’m getting more and more impressed w/ Ron Paul. This article nails the point that he is principled.
I had to laugh on your earth to politicians segue…
I have been an avid RP supporter for at least a couple of years now.
Ron is an honest, ethical, unwavering and constitutional PAUL-i-tician.
The whole world is watching, and we the people are bickering about like a gaggle of geese. We need to be unified, and not divided, but of course this may come from all the nasty political messages that we see from the blogging pundits.
Issues are one thing, but unresearched , off base, name calling language is another.
We need to take it up a couple of steps and be a lot more civil in our civil discussions.
I read your column everyday, but rarely comment.
The whole world watches with baited breath
According to the second Law of Thermodynamics, the universe tends towards entropy, with order tending to degrade towards disorder, with heat tending to disappate from where it is collected into uniform cold. Only intense application of energy succeeds in collecting materials into ordered structered and functioning systems. The lib/progs are trying to accelerate this process on a political scale with entropy triumphant and formerly free Americans living in a country where entropy is maximized and we are universally cold.
The media would have us believe that we cannot go back to such an antiquated system as our original Constitution because the Constitution must be “living” which is to mean that it gets warped to include whatever odd political belief that the lib/progs would foist on us. Which makes as much sense as that the Bible is “living” and should include whatever beliefs they would like as well. In my book, that is no longer the Bible and it ceases to function. And the Constitution so warped also ceases to function.
Our founders were educated by the great books and thinkers of the day, that really understood human nature. They did not spend their evenings watching Lost or American Idle. Not that we can’t improve on what they had done, but history suggests that our efforts to improve have fallen far short of the original document.
For Congressman Paul to state a desire to cleave to the Constitution is one attribute that every other candidate has been lacking in. And if that does not disqualify nearly every other candidate, then it is difficult to figure out what would.
Original phrase was “bated breath”, but “baited” is funnier and probably more acccurate.
No matter who gets elected president, so long as it’s GOP, we must still elect sufficient seriously conservative members to the house and senate, so that whoever is in the white house, cannot dictate.
I just want to thank you for a delightfully themed article that entertainingly launched a serious sentiment: that regardless of the outcome of this election cycle, Ron Paul can be thanked for moving the freedom debate from the “kooky” to the possible. And speaking of crazy, isn’t the act of doing the same thing repeatedly but expecting a different result the very definition of the term? By that rubric, RP is the only sane candidate competing!
As a long time fan of Ron Paul (for a government limited to protecting our liberties) I believe he defended Romney, not so much for Romney’s benefit, but to point out that we have Republicans who don’t defend our economic liberties.
IMHO, Ron Paul is the only candidate who does defend our liberties. None of the others have submitted a proposed budget, so we don’t know where they stand on spending. They prefer to talk of tax plans (avoiding the spending issue).
Romney is terrible from a limited government perspective. Not only did he force citizens of MA to purchase health insurance (from government approved insurers of course, and who gave him a lot of campaign cash), but he increased spending 32% and debt by 52%!!! Plus he supported the bailouts, the stimulus, government funded abortions, gun control and global warming legislation.
Personally, I think we’re better off with Obama and a divided Congress because at least then we’ll get more fiscal conservatives in Congress in the midterms. Something we’re sorely lacking (including lack of it in the Republican party).
I’ve never been much for Ron Paul, but all of a sudden I have a thought. No matter how protectionist he may be, and no matter how far Libertarian he may lean on most of his policy ideals, I think he is exactly what we need now.
Think about it. With as centrist as the “Republican” party has become, let’s just fill the House and Senate with as many Tea Party candidates as we’re able, as many conservatives (Republican OR Democrat) as possible, and install Dr. Paul as president. He could never do anywhere near as much damage as our Illegal Incumbent, and the conservative establishment can keep him from going TOO far the other direction.
I think that would work — we’d actually get something done in the country for a change!
May God PLEASE allow us to return to being covered by His blessing, but may He first guide us to FULLY understand how WE fell so far out of His favor.