I Cried Today

On the way back to my apartment, I was listening to AM 740, “K-Bright” KBRT. Today is September 11, 2008. They had a special feature in which they recounted the events of September 11, 2001. As they talked about plane crashes, the actions of the FAA, the buildings collapsing… tears welled up in my eyes. But no tears fell yet.

Then they played Lisa Beamer’s account of the tragedy. The story of her husband, Todd Beamer, is simply amazing. Read it (Snopes). It was too much for me to keep in. I cried right there in my car, as I listened to the radio.

In the decade before 2001, the U.S. Government grew tremendously. Yet they failed on 9/11/2001. And in the time since then, we invaded Iraq, a war that was planned since before the Clinton years, and a war for which 9/11 was used as an excuse.

None of the 9/11 terrorists came from Iraq. Many were from Pakistan. In fact, Osama bin Laden himself is probably in Pakistan. No wonder we haven’t found him yet.

We are conditioned to believe that the two major candidates are different. Sure, there are differences, but they don’t differ on the things that really matter. Bush was elected in 2000 on a platform of smaller government and a humble foreign policy.

Now we have a larger government, probably just as wasteful as before, and a war in Iraq.

In 2006, the Democrats were elected to Congress to end the war in Iraq. They failed to do so. In fact, they support the war just as much as anyone else.

Only 16% of Americans are actually voting for a candidate. Some of the rest vote for the lesser of two evils. Many of the rest don’t vote at all.

Ron Paul and Ralph Nader on CNN

I’m a Ron Paul Republican.

Ron Paul says that the government shouldn’t be in charge of airport security. Private companies use armored vehicles to ship gold and other valuables. They do a pretty good job. If the airline wants to allow it, people should be allowed to take guns on planes. This scared me at first. Wouldn’t there be dangerous cabin depressurization if one was fired? Nope — Mythbusters tackled this myth, look it up.

Among other things, I won’t vote for a candidate that won’t talk about ending the Federal Reserve.

Vote Third Party 2008.