Dr. No

NPR just did a long piece on Ron Paul and what it means to be a Libertarian. One of the editors from Reason Magazine, Matt Welch, was the primary source for all things Libertarian. (Total side note: in the picture of Matt on his page, the window reads "Toad Hall", which is a great bar on Grand St I would recommend everyone get to, for Soho the drinks are well priced although I'm not sure if the hops shortage has changed that). He mentioned a popular nick name for Ron Paul, "Dr. No" because as a Rep for Texas he has practically votes "no" to every piece of legislature, unless it's explicitly supported by the constitution.

One thing that upset me a wee bit in the interview was a question about college students simply jumping on the Ron Paul bandwagon because they like his policy to pull out of Iraq. And Matt's response was more or less a yes, there probably are many of those who haven't looked deeper into the issues Paul addresses.

WTF? Am I really that stupid? All I care about is bringing home troops, and nothing else on a candidates agenda matters to me? I agree with his premise to get rid of as much of the federal government as possible since those in Washington clearly aren't doing much to help me except increase my taxes. Restoring my faith in social security would be nice, because with $9 trillion in fed debt it's not like I'm expecting to see any of it when I grow old as of right now. And he doesn't care much for a war on drugs because, as revolutionary as this may sound to other politicians, it seems to be a waste of time and money.

I don't like his policy on closed borders, and this confuses me because I thought part of the point of being a Libertarian is keeping the market open so the best will rise, and everyone wins with competition. Then why not include Mexicans and others from S. America? Or his Pro Life stance, I prefer Rudy's "I don't support it, but it's each person's choice" concept instead.