Thank you to Nomascerdo for publishing the full Ron Paul explanation. I was going to do it myself, but Nomascerdo beat me to it.

Paul’s response boils down to: I don’t think it’s the government’s business taking a stand on scientific issues. I think evolution makes for an interesting discussion, but it’s not an area the government needs to get involved with.

That’s it, folks.

Personally, even though I have no formal religious beliefs, I have problems with evolution as it is commonly understood. Clearly, species change form over time, but the classic, school-book explanation of chance mutation leading to wholesale change in physical form is highly dubious, on several grounds.

First, any chance, random mutation has the tendency of being bred out of existence, by the fact that this single mutation has to stand up to the collective force of the entire gene-pool. Second, any profound mutations are much more likely to be harmful than beneficial. Third, interim forms in cases of profound change would tend to have NEGATIVE survival value (for example, the half-way limb form between a lumbering, hippo-like creature--Uintatherium--and modern whales with fins, would be doomed to failure).

This is just the start of the list. Does this mean I accept “Creationism” or “Intelligent Design?” Absolutely not--but I do think there are scientific issues with evolution that we don’t have satisfactory answers to, at this point in time. In that sense, you could say that I, too, “don’t accept the theory of evolution.” This hardly makes me a wild-eyed religious fanatic, however.

Getting back to Ron Paul--his answer is exactly correct. Politicians have no business issuing edicts on scientific matters. Actually, most politicians are so scientifically ignorant that a discussion of evolution among them would probably be highly entertaining.

Not going to pretend to be an expert on Paul, but this flub, though clearly taken out of context, gives one pause. In the rabid fervor to find a candidate that might generate a grass-roots antiwar GOP option, we should pay attention to such lapses. Paul in my opinion errs by both dismissing evolution as a theory and equating belief in it as disbelief in his ‘God’. Evolution and the process of natural selection have been scientifically demonstrated, but do not in my view exclude an originator. In fact, the discovery of the complexity of DNA and the recency of its existence on this planet after its’ cooling from a mass of liquid magma beg for an origin that may involve arrival by comet, meteor, or other ‘extraordinary’ means. Paul should forget the GOP churchgoers he is beholden to and admit that the evidence that current life evolved from earlier forms and that this isn’t inconsistent with belief in some sort of ‘God’ that may just be the spark that set evolution in motion. Instead, he sounds like Mike Huckabee.

Israeli defense firm that tallies the Iowa caucus

Posted January 1st, 2008 by Give Me Freedom

“ELRON - VOXEO: The Israeli Defense Firm That Tallies the Iowa Caucus

Date: Monday, 31 December 2007, 8:10 a.m.

ELRON ELECTRONICS:
The Israeli Defense Company
That Tallies the Iowa Caucus

By Christopher Bollyn

The Iowa caucus is only a few days away and the nation’s attention will be directed to the results, which signify the beginning of the U.S. presidential race. But does anyone watch who tallies the results of the Iowa caucus?

The Iowa caucus results were tallied in 2004 by a company that is headed by a man whose company was bought by Elron Electronics, the Israeli defense firm. I suspect that it will be the same this year. Don’t expect to see any grassroots political activists doing the tally in Iowa. The Israeli defense establishment takes care of that part of the American “democratic” election process.

VOXEO

In the summer of 2004, I first learned that a foreign and out-of-state company using Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology tallied the Iowa caucus results.

The system used to tally the 2004 Iowa caucus results was provided by a company called Voxeo, which was apparently based in Orlando, Florida. (Yellow flag goes up in the mind of those familiar with Orlando and electronic vote fraud history. See Bollyn article on Wang below.)

The calls from the nearly 2,000 caucus centers in Iowa went to a Voxeo call center in Atlanta, Georgia.

On January 31, 2005, I wrote to Michelle Bauer, Iowa’s Secretary of State with some questions about the use of Voxeo, a foreign company located in Florida, to tally the results of the Iowa caucus:

Subject: How was the Iowa Caucus Tallied?

Dear Sirs,

When I visited the headquarters of the Democratic Party in Des Moines last summer, I learned that the tally of the Iowa caucus had been “out-sourced” to a company in Atlanta, Georgia.

What this means is that the tallying of the Iowa caucus results was done over the telephone, using the touch-tone buttons, to enter the results from each caucus location.

I am interested in how this was done, and why. Why did the Democratic Party allow the crucial tally of the caucus results to be done by a company in Atlanta? Don’t they trust their own math skills?

Can any of you provide any information about this matter?

Kind regards,

Christopher Bollyn

A person named Mike Milligan wrote back on behalf of Secretary of State Bauer:

Mike Milligan wrote:”

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/19098

This from Time Mag. Had to leave out a few passages to stay within the 4000 word limit. The link is included though.

Sponsored by the Religious Pages section.

• The corner of Sixth and Locust is probably the tensest spot in downtown Des Moines. And the frostiness has little to do with the subfreezing Midwestern winter and everything to do with presidential politics. For housed alongside each other on the bottom floor of a 73-year-old office building at 405 Sixth Avenue-and sharing the bathrooms in the basement— are the Iowa headquarters of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and Texas Congressman Ron Paul.

Both Republican candidates — one the most socially conservative in the race; the other, a Libertarian — moved in around the same time last summer.

“…I could sense the different metabolisms of the two operations. The Huckabee headquarters,.. is populated mostly by polite young women with southern accents who rushed to greet me at the door and addressed me as “ma’am.” The Paul office is an edgier place, an all-male operation by appearances, and much bigger. Indeed, thanks to the millions that have poured in over the internet, it has expanded to quadruple its original size, practically swallowing Huckabee’s headquarters —"We’ve got them surrounded,” says Paul’s Iowa communications director, John Zambenini.

The two insurgent operations generally try to have as little to do with each other as possible. Paul’s people go in and out on Sixth; Huckabee’s, on Locust. “I don’t think we’ve exchanged many words at all,” says Huckabee’s Iowa campaign manager Eric Woolson. You might have thought the holidays would have brought some occasion for communal cheer, or at least an exchange of cookies. “You’re looking for the Silent Night 1914 story, with the Germans and the British playing soccer?” Zambenini told me when I suggested as much. “Nope.”

That much was clear on New Year’s Eve. After Huckabee was forced to abruptly end his press conference at which he announced that he would not air a negative ad attacking Mitt Romney but showed it to the assembled media, he left the room in the Des Moines Marriott to do a drop-by visit of his campaign headquarters across the street. He was met there by a gaggle of Paul supporters and peace protesters who surrounded the office and heckled the candidate for his support for the war in Iraq. MSNBC reported that three were arrested.

It hasn’t helped matters that earlier this month the Paul campaign paid for two former Republican legislators from Huckabee’s home state of Arkansas to come to Iowa and give radio interviews attacking his record on such issues as taxes and immigration…

Then again, there are times when they can’t help but run into each other. Just about everyone from both offices eats lunch at Coney Island, a second-floor diner known for its pork loin. And there’s the men’s room, of course. A Paul volunteer recently ran into Huckabee himself there, and found him to be cordial. But there is some quiet grumbling from Huckabee’s team about Paul’s people using up all the paper towels. When told about the dispute, a top strategist for a rival GOP campaign said of the scruffy Paul forces: “They probably bathe in there.”

And there was one other violation of the generally accepted protocol of peaceful if uneasy coexistence — possibly as a consequence of the recent influx of 266 student volunteers for Paul from 39 states, in what the campaign calls “Ron Paul’s Christmas Vacation.” As can happen with students on break, they sometimes go overboard in their exuberance. One of them came into the Huckabee offices the other day and started haranguing a worker there about Huckabee’s support for a national sales tax. He was asked to leave.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,16991 47,00.html?xid=rss-topstories

There are serious concerns regarding Ron Paul, an article at “atheism.about.com” brings many of them to light.  To accuse someone who doesn’t endorse RP’s extremist philosophies as a zealot is indeed comical.  An excerpt:

Paul’s words: “Through perverse court decisions and years of cultural indoctrination, the elitist, secular Left has managed to convince many in our nation that religion must be driven from public view. The justification is always that someone, somewhere, might possibly be offended or feel uncomfortable living in the midst of a largely Christian society, so all must yield to the fragile sensibilities of the few.”

Article:  “It should be noted right at the beginning that Ron Paul consistently decries “secularism” and “secularists,” though he more often uses the label “secular Left.” This, perhaps more than many of his arguments, makes it clear where stands: squarely and unambiguously against a secular government, secular laws, and a secular America. This helps put him in the same camp as the extremist Christian Right.

The second thing to note is that there isn’t a single word in the above that’s true. Ron Paul is employing a falsehood which has been very popular with theocrats of the Christian Right who seek to deceive voters about what secularism is and what the separation of church & state is all about. Ron Paul has either been duped by those deceivers, or he knows better yet is actively participating in the deception.”

The article in its entirety:  http://atheism.about.com/b/2007/08/06/authoritarian-or -libertarian-ron-paul-on-churchstate-separation-secularism. htm

**Also the laisse-faire capitalism endorsed by RP does have its victims.  Since all of us are too young to remember the realities of the HEIGHT of laisse-faire capitalism, the best place to find it would be in words from the past.  From “The Autobiography of Mother Jones”:

“In 1867, a fever epidemic swept Memphis. Its victims were mainly among the poor and the workers. The rich and the well-to-do fled the city. Schools and churches were closed. People were not permitted to enter the house of a yellow fever victim without permits. The poor could not afford nurses. Across the street from me, ten persons lay dead from the plague. The dead surrounded us. They were buried at night quickly and without ceremony. All about my house I could hear weeping and the cries of delirium. One by one, my four little children sickened and died. I washed their little bodies and got them ready for burial. My husband caught the fever and died. I sat alone through nights of grief. No one came to me. No one could. Other homes were as stricken as was mine. All day long, all night long, I heard the grating of the wheels of the death cart.”

http://www.angelfire.com/nj3/RonMBaseman/mojones1.htm

Great read.

You obviously have me confused with some other cassiopaean loving DARPA bomber.

Lay off the micrograms.

When was the last time we had a president with two first names?

Anyone notice the advertising on TD?  I thought it was strange when they had an ad for the female impersonator, but now they have an add to find out when you are going to die.  The ads do not bother me, I just find them amusing.  Since I do not watch the Telie because you are forced to watch the ads, at least here we can ignore them for now.  Wait for the popup’s.

Lefty, I take it you do not like Ron Paul?

RON PAUL IS A FUCKTARD WITH 2 CHANCES OF BEING PRESIDENT: 1) NONE, AND 2) LESS THAN NONE!

Cyrena , I know several Paul supporters , they are neither well read nor have the ability to recognize inaccurate statements . I have found however that the common thread is Alex Jones ( I’m sure you know Paul announced his candidacy on Jones program ) . One friend at work insisted on having me watch several videos he put out , they were shall we say , less than convincing . He also showed me how if you fold a twenty dollar bill correctly it shows the twin towers and some other stuff . This is all part of a world wide conspiracy you know . I’m sure you’ve heard of the highway thats being built to link Mexico , the US and Canada to make us one world wide government . Our new curency is going to be something called the amero and the world is controlled by the buildenburgers . Sound screwy ? If you think so you might want to look a bit closer at Paul with that critical thinking you spoke of . Paul believes this nonsense , if you don’t believe me just check out Newsweek from several weeks ago , its all there . Or just start googling , its not hard to find . Well read critical thinkers , hardly , more like lemmings.

Todd, (Unregistered commenter):

“Someone commented that Ron Paul believes he has the right to decide a woman can’t have an abortion, but that’s not his position.  He’s personally against abortion…

He just doesn’t believe the federal government should have the power to rule on it.”

Ah, yes and no. Or, make that, yes, but…

This is from a Ron Paul speech:

Legislatively, we should focus our efforts on building support to overturn Roe v. Wade. Ideally this would be done in a fashion that allows states to again ban or regulate abortion. State legislatures have always had proper jurisdiction over issues like abortion and cloning; the pro-life movement should recognize that jurisdiction and not encroach upon it.  The alternative is an outright federal ban on abortion, done properly via a constitutional amendment that does no violence to our way of government.

http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2003/cr060403b.htm

Note the key phrases: “to overturn Roe v. Wade,” “done in a fashion that allows states to again ban or regulate abortion,” “alternative is an outright federal ban on abortion.”

He also says this:

Abortion on demand is no doubt the most serious sociopolitical problem of our age. The lack of respect for life that permits abortion significantly contributes to our violent culture and our careless attitude toward liberty.

http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2003/cr060403.htm

Ron Paul has many libertarian, constitutionalist stances that sound really, really good! And he was right about the Iraq war and knew of the Bush lies about it back in 2003; and he has some really good foreign policy ideas.

But, whatever your personal views of abortion are… the fact remains that many Ron Paul supporters MISREPRESENT HIS VIEWS—as Todd and others here have shown.

This must be because they only listen to his or his supporters sound-bites and do not really investigate, or they are (paid perhaps?) TROLLS deliberately spreading misinformation.

He is a Ronald Reagan, “Government is the problem” kind of guy—and you just may like that! But many of his views are regressive, not progressive. Again, you may like that! But stop mis-representing him!