Ron Paul: Lunatic

The troofers strike again. Via Gateway Pundit:

Two weeks away from the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, presidential candidate and Texas Rep. Ron Paul says that U.S. intervention in the Middle East is a main motivation behind terrorist hostilities toward America, and that Islam is not a threat to the nation.

At a campaign stop on Saturday in Winterset, one man asked Paul how terrorist groups would react if the U.S. removed its military presence in Middle Eastern nations, a move the candidate advocates.

“Which enemy are you worried that will attack our national security?” Paul asked.

“If you’re looking for specifics, I’m talking about Islam. Radical Islam,” the man answered.

“I don’t see Islam as our enemy,” Paul said. “I see that motivation is occupation and those who hate us and would like to kill us, they are motivated by our invasion of their land, the support of their dictators that they hate.”

Regarding 9/11, Paul said that attacks against the U.S. from Middle Eastern groups at home and abroad can be traced to the foreign presence of U.S. troops, as well as America’s relationships with dictator regimes.

Idiot. What middle Eastern country had we invaded during 1993, when the World Trade Center was bombed? What Middle Eastern country had we invaded before 9/11?

Why won't Ron Paul and his hoard of crackpot supporters ever go away? I think I've actually found the one Republican who scares me more at the thought of his being president than Obama getting a second term. You can't get up early enough in the morning to do that, you just have to not sleep. Ever.

Actually, I take that back. They're both equally scary, because neither will admit that Islam is a problem. Paul's stupitidty astounds me, but at least he's not a Muslim, which at this point is about the only thing running in his favor if he runs against Obama.

As to Paul's lunatic claims that somehow 9/11 is the fault of America, Let Freedom Ring had a point to make about that:

Anyone that thinks that the strain of radical Islam isn’t motivated by their thirst for ushering in a worldwide caliphate hasn’t done their homework. Fortunately, Patrick Poole did his. Read this and tell me if Ron Paul’s theory is solid thinking or insanity:

What Western intelligence authorities know about The Project begins with the raid of a luxurious villa in Campione, Switzerland on November 7, 2001. The target of the raid was Youssef Nada, director of the Al-Taqwa Bank of Lugano, who has had active association with the Muslim Brotherhood for more than 50 years and who admitted to being one of the organization’s international leaders. The Muslim Brotherhood, regarded as the oldest and one of the most important Islamist movements in the world, was founded by Hasan al-Banna in 1928 and dedicated to the credo, “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”

The raid was conducted by Swiss law enforcement at the request of the White House in the initial crackdown on terrorist finances in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. US and Swiss investigators had been looking at Al- Aqwa’s involvement in money laundering and funding a wide range of Islamic terrorist groups, including Al-Qaeda, HAMAS (the Palestinian affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood), the Algerian GIA, and the Tunisian Ennahdah.

Included in the documents seized during the raid of Nada’s Swiss villa was a 14-page plan written in Arabic and dated December 1, 1982, which outlines a 12-point strategy to “establish an Islamic government on earth”, identified as The Project. According to testimony given to Swiss authorities by Nada, the unsigned document was prepared by “Islamic researchers” associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Ron Paul’s theory is that al-Qa’ida plotted 9/11 as a response to the U.S. military bases in Saudi Arabia. Those with a willingness to accept verifiable truth, though, are forced to admit that 9/11 had everything to do with a “12-point strategy to ‘establish an Islamic government on earth’, identified as The Project.”
It’s time for Ron Paul to admit he’s been badly wrong about the jihadists for a very long time. If he won’t accept these planning documents as proof that the Muslim Brotherhood is determined to create a worldwide caliphate, then Ron Paul isn’t qualified to be commander-in-chief. PERIOD.

Amen. What we need in our next President is someone who understands the threat that Islam is to our freedoms and our way of life. Not soneone who is convinced that Islam is an okay cult.

The sooner this lunatic drops out of the race, the better.

Selling Lemonade is Not a Crime!...At least, it Wasn't Back when Bush was President...

So I was out cruising the blogosphere this morning, in the Conservative Blog Ads that Gateway Pundit has in his sidebars, I found a link about the Lemonade stand shut down brouhaha. The "War on Lemonade Stands," it was called. That link led to another blog that was advertising a Lemonade Freedom Event. And that got me thinking.

Around here, it's common that one day a year kids set up stands and sell lemonade. Some of you may have heard of Lemonade Day. Around here, every spring, it's a big thing. Kids set up stands, and make lemonade, enter lemonade contests. Some kids even go beyond the lemonade and sell hot dogs and cookies.

So I was thinking and wondering, 'how long before some loony government official tries to put a stop to Lemonade Day?' and then it hit me like a ton of bricks.

Maybe some one has already said this, so I apologize if I'm plagiarizing. With Lemonade Day, kids are learning to be entrepreneurs. As I've pointed out, some kids around where I live sell more than just lemonade. I've heard it said that this teaches kids about profit margins and other SMALL BUSINESS things like that: How many hot dogs do you have to sell for what price before you've made a profit? And don't forget competition - if the customer thinks that the price for your lemonade is too high, then they can always go try another stand. (Interestingly, more often then not, I see lemonade sell for $0.50 a glass around here. I haven't figured out yet if this is due to inflation or if these kids are trying for exuberant profit margins.)

But anyway, sure, the lemonade stand shutdown is about money. The local governments want their money. (Greedy little buggers, aren't they?) But beyond that, what are lemonade stands teaching kids to do? They're teaching kids to about business; profit margin, expanding into other products, things like that.

What if that's what the government is trying to quash? Our president does not appreciate the private sector and his policy always give small businesses the short end of the stick. I don't have too difficult of a time imagining that he would love to see this Lemonade Day and all these Lemonade Stands go away.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it is just about money, and not about squashing small businesses. Maybe these are too many assumptions, and it's just greed that motivated the war on lemonade.

But what if I'm right?