Paul on the manufactured NY mosque kerfuffle:
The justification to ban the mosque is no more rational than banning a soccer field in the same place because all the suicide bombers loved to play soccer.
via Ron Paul to Sunshine Patriots: Stop Your Demagogy About The NYC Mosque! | Ron Paul .com.
He returned money? That’s tantamount to DC heresy!
RP is an odd bird. Despite my Libertarian leanings I don’t always agree with him but I do find his opinions consistently thoughtful and delivered in a genteel manner. I think his points in that piece are spot on and likely to cause discomfort and backlash from jingoistic sheeple.
The main hurdle to more widespread of RP’s views or Libertarian views more broadly is they tend to be predicated on “first principles” (_a priori_, if you prefer Kant in your morning coffee) and worked forward. Although this approach is rational and consistent, it is unfamiliar and probably repugnant to the general public. I am vaguely reminded of Camille Paglia’s discussion of the dichotomy of dry Protestant literacy and RC visually-stimulated luxuriance. This was in _Sexual Personae_, maybe? Or Nietzshe’s Apollonian v. Dionysian.
Also see:
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/tx14_paul/MRESurplus.shtml
if you haven’t already. This is more in line with Washington/Cinncinattus (sp?) model I expect from elected servants.