Foodforthethinkers's Blog

By Doug Newman

The numbers are in. For the second and third quarters of 2011, Ron Paul. the only truly antiwar candidate in the race, has received more contributions from active duty military personnel than all other candidates combined.

There are those who sell us our wars. And there is another segment of society that actually spills its blood fighting them.

For the first group, war is a video game. For the second it is a bloody and gruesome reality.

The first group does everything it can to deny Ron Paul’s very existence. The second group gives far more money to Ron Paul than any other candidate.

The first group says it supports the troops, whatever that means. The second group supports Ron Paul!

As sports talk host Jim Rome might put it: SCOREBOARD!

Romney, Cain, Obama, Santorum and Gingrich combined have zero military experience. Perry was a C-130 pilot for a few years in the 1970s. However, to the best of anyone’s knowledge, he never saw combat. Most of the war pimps in the media and the pulpits have likewise never served a day in the military. Yet they are more than willing to scare us all to death and then send kids from places like Compton and Escanaba to fight and bleed and die all over the world.

Someone called war of 1861-1865 “a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.” Indeed, the bloodiest riots in American history were the 1863 draft riots in New York. The rioters were mainly working class men who could not come up with the $300 required to buy their way out of the draft.

Little has changed in 148 years.

War is like any government program. Those who promote it feel oh so good doing so. They thunder like General Patton from Capitol Hill, from the studios and Fox News and their keyboards at the Weekly Standard. But heaven forbid they actually get any dirt under their pretty little fingernails doing the actual fighting.

Pat Tillman was a rarity in so many ways. Not the least of these is that he walked away from a multi-million dollar NFL career to go fight in Afghanistan. Somehow, I don't think his parents will be on the Hugh Hewitt Show any time soon.

The “liberal media”, who they say they diametrically oppose, is no better. They heap endless adulation on a president who kept all of Bush’s wars going and started three more – Libya, Somalia, Yemen – of his own.

(Moreover, he would have had to produce documentation of his birthplace to enlist as a buck private or a seaman recruit.)

In Patton’s timeless words, they “don’t know anything more about real battle than they do about fornicating.”

Actually, some do know about fornicating. Gingrich and Julie Annie come to mind. Both benefited from draft deferments.

Dick Cheney had five draft deferments. When asked about this, he said he "had other priorities." There are 58,000 names on this wall. My guess is that a lot of them also had other priorities.

Yes, Cain was once a mathematician for the Department of the Navy. However, sitting in a comfy office doing hypoellipitical iamboquadratic equations or whatever he did does not equate to having bullets whizzing by your head, bombs going off all around you, and people dying right before your eyes. It does not equate to, in Patton’s words, “(putting) your hand into a bunch of goo that a moment before was your best friend’s face.”

In the words of Pastor Chuck Baldwin:

“To those who are engaged in war, the consequences can be nightmarish! Arms and legs cut off. Eyes put out. Flesh burned. Intestines ripped out. Backs broken. Skulls crushed. Lives lost. Families torn apart. Homes destroyed. Children left without parents. Parents never able to see their children again. Wives without husbands. Husbands without wives. Souls snuffed into eternity. Emotional scars that never heal. These are the realities of war. And this is what the neo-cons who profit from war never have to see up close and personal.”

I never tire of quoting Major General Smedley Butler, who served 33 years in the Marine Corps, won two Medals of Honor and, in the end, realized it was all a “racket.”

Butler wrote:

“How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

“Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.”

“And what is this bill?

“This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.”

Fred Reed, a Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam had this to say:

“In wars, there are many enlightening things to see. For example, the Marine with a third of his face and half a lung, going ku-kuk-kuk as red gunch rolls out of his mouth and he drowns in his blood. Ruined or dying teenagers whimpering the trinity of the badly wounded: Mother, wife, and water. The brain-shot guy jerking like an epileptic as he tries not to die. Ever see brain tissue from gunshot? I have. It makes a pink spew across the ground. Like strawberry chiffon.”

The first 15 minutes or so of Saving Private Ryan are not gratuitous.

No, not all veterans support Ron Paul. But they consistently donate more money to him than any other candidate. They – or people with whom they are close – have been to war. They have seen and experienced things that most of those who sent them to war can never possibly imagine. This isn’t about your right to an opinion. This is about how people arrive at their opinions.

This isn't about what you would do as the quarterback of your favorite team, or the manager of your favorite restaurant, or even as president of the United States. This is about what people do who have firsthand experience in REAL BATTLE!!!!!!

War is a horrible thing. And while it might be pornography for Sean Hannity and Rick Santorum, it is an entirely different thing for those who have lived through it. Such experiences no doubt cause people to ask a few – or a lot – of questions. John McCain no more speaks for all the troops than Barack Obama speaks for all black people.

(McCain knows about both war and fornicating.)

So when Ron Paul leads far and away in contributions from active duty military, don’t be surprised. Respect this.

And respect these troops. And go march a mile in their boots.
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By Doug Newman

Is there anything that the federal government can’t do?

It is not just that the president can now have U.S. citizens assassinated upon executive order. It is not just that there is now a secret panel within the National Security Council that can arbitrarily place American citizens on a “kill list.”

USA Today now reports that California 16 marijuana dispensary or their landlords “received letters this week warning face they would face criminal charges and confiscation of their property if the dispensaries do not shut down in 45 days.”

Never mind that the majority of Californians have voted for at least some legalization of marijuana. Never mind that the Tenth Amendment expressly forbids Uncle Sam from doing this. Never mind that the medicinal benefits of marijuana have been voluminously well-documented. Never mind that God gave us the hemp plant in the eleventh verse of the Bible.

(One of the targeted dispensaries is supposedly “within a prohibited distance of a park.” Gee, I wonder if marijuana grows wild in that park, planted by God Himself.)

How much of this wanton tyranny will be a subject in the upcoming elections? None, I would guess.

Just like every other election in recent memory, it will be portrayed as a battle royale between the purportedly opposites of right and left.

The left is at least somewhat honest about their support for four-dimensionally obese government. They say they support high taxes, welfare, government schools, gun control, etc., and their actions back it up.

The right portrays itself as the polar opposite, yet in fact loves four-dimensionally obese government. Oh sure, they may give us some nominal tax cuts, but these are only temporary. Our last “conservative” president outspent Bill Klinton – aka Kim Jong-Bill – by $1 trillion per year.

If Bush was “conservative” then Obama really did deserve the Nobel Peace Prize.

When was the last time the right ever eliminated a program? The right now applauds Herman Cain for his “999 plan”. Guess who would feel the brunt of his 9 percent national sales tax proposal. As much as I hate to play the class warfare game, it will be the hoi polloi, who spend a much higher percentage of their income on retail purchases than “the 1 percent.” So go ahead and support Herman Cain and feel oh so good that you are “doing something” to counteract the anti-Christ Obama … until Cain slams you with a massive tax increase.

As Lew Rockwell once put it, the right hates the left more than it hates the state. As much as they hate to admit it, the right loves big government. Really, they do. They can’t get enough of war, which, in the words of the late, great Joseph Sobran, is a big government program.

Sobran also once wrote that, “War has all the characteristics of socialism most conservatives hate: Centralized power, state planning, false rationalism, restricted liberties, foolish optimism about intended results, and blindness to unintended secondary results.”

War always brings with it increases in domestic state power: increased taxes, debt, inflation, spying, censorship, arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, drafts, internment camps, sexual assault as a condition of travel, etc. Take some time and watch this presentation by Judge Andrew Napolitano.

And you can’t “bring freedom” to other countries when you have no respect for the lives over their inhabitants and insist on killing large numbers of them. Just like any other federal program, war is filled with doublespeak.

(It was reported this week that there are no more Christian churches in Afghanistan. This is after almost a decade of American military presence.)

The right loves war at home also in the form of the War on Drugs. Most on the right don’t really seem to care that their second favorite government program has turned “the land of the free” into the nation with the world’s highest incarceration rate. Their support for “free enterprise” does not extend to a plant that grows wild in every county. They say they unequivocally oppose federal involvement in health care, but they likewise unequivocally oppose allowing doctors to prescribe the Devil’s Lettuce.

The right has looked the other way for years when its people have expanded federal power. To paraphrase the old Toyota jingle: You asked for it, you got it: Obamacare.

As long as people insist on living in the left-right plantation, there is no hope for individual liberty in this country. There is one liberty candidate running for president this year: Ron Paul. And he is not merely talking about liberty. He has voted for it extremely consistently throughout his 12 terms in Congress. Oftentimes, Congress has voted 434-1 for some unconstitutional expansion of federal power and Ron Paul has been the lone dissenter. He relentlessly votes against intrusions on liberty no matter which direction they come from. He realizes that both the left and the right are – I wish I knew who said this first – two wings on the same bird of prey.

Ron Paul - the only true antiwar candidate for 2012 - gets more money from active duty troops than any other presidential candidate. For the troops, war is a bloody and gruesome reality. For war pansies like Cain, Romney, Obama, Santorum and Gingrich, war is a video game.

Locally, there are also many very solid liberty candidates in the Libertarian and Constitution parties. And if you will not support them because “they don’t have a chance of winning”, don’t complain to me about lost liberty. You knew you had a chance to do something, but you caved into peer pressure as if you were still in high school.

When will enough people realize this? I realized it in 1991.

If you think that getting rid of Obama is the answer, you don’t get it. Yes, he is a bad guy and a horrible president. And while he is a problem, he is not the problem. An infinitely bigger problem is that so many people buy into the left-right paradigm. Physical slavery was abolished in America in 1865. Mental slavery is alive and well. And unless and until enough people liberate themselves mentally, America will continue on a bobsled ride into slavery for all of us.

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By Doug Newman

Dr. Paul,

I have been a huge supporter of yours since the early 1990s, long before most people even knew who you were. I worked on your 2008 campaign in Colorado and I am honored to do so again in 2012. Not only have you been a relentless champion of the Constitution and the strict limits it sets on federal power domestically and internationally, you have comported yourself with remarkable humility, dignity and self-restraint.

I am writing in reference to your recent remarks at the University of New Hampshire where you said that the recent killing of a natural-born American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, by a predator drone strike could be an impeachable offense for President Obama.

I believe it is.

The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution states that “No person shall … be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law …” Ordering the killing of an American citizen clearly violates this requirement.

And if this president can order the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, what will he do next if he is not punished for his actions? And how will future presidents view this abuse of power?

Moreover, ordering the killing of an American citizen without due process is undeniably a “high Crime”, which is an enumerated condition for removal from office in Article 2, Section 4 of the Constitution.

Not only is it a moral imperative to impeach the president, but it would also be a huge political blow to the other Republican presidential candidates. You now have a golden opportunity to position yourself undeniably as the REAL anti-Obama.

Although it is not your nature to talk this way, introducing articles of impeachment would say to the following to the mainstream media that has worked so hard to deny your very existence: “Ignore me now.”

Please begin impeachment proceedings against the president.

To Support and Defend,

Douglas F. Newman
Aurora, CO
Storekeeper First Class
US Naval Reserve, Retired
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Should Congress Impeach the President? from DownsizeDC.org.
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By Doug Newman

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to notify you that I am going to boycott the NFL this year and encourage others to do likewise. I will neither attend any games nor watch them on television. I have been a big fan – go Steelers! – since the early 1970s and I do not enjoy doing this.

However, I cannot in any way condone your new practice of doing enhanced pat-down searches before every game at every stadium. Here’s why:

1. I wouldn’t patronize any business that treats its customers in such a degrading fashion. What self-respecting person would?

2. Under other circumstances, such pat-downs would constitute sexual assault and the assailant would run the risk of jail time.

3. They don’t protect anyone against terrorism or any other form of crime. Who said a crime or a terror attack had to happen inside a stadium? What would prevent a terrorist from setting off a bomb in a parking lot before or after a game and killing hundreds or even thousands of people? The shootings after the Raiders-49ers exhibition game happened in the parking lot and not in the stadium.

4. If you say “then just don’t watch the NFL” then you don’t get it. It is bad enough that air travelers are subject to such demeaning searches before boarding planes. Now, you say you are going to do almost as much at every NFL game. And if people stand still for that, what is next? Will they be felt up before they can ride trains or buses? How about before they enter shopping malls or grocery stores? Will children be felt up before they enter school? Where does it end?

5. On a related topic, you say you support and honor our military personnel who risk their lives for our liberties, yet you form a partnership with the Department of Homeland Security, which is dedicated to turning this country into a full-blown police state.

Again, I do not enjoy doing this. However, there comes a time when I have to draw a line. Reverse your pat-down policy, treat your fans with the dignity they deserve – after all, they make it all possible – and I will end my boycott. Deal?

Sincerely,

Douglas F. Newman
Aurora, CO

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RELATED ARTICLE: Freedom before Football: Boycott the NFL

By Doug Newman

To paraphrase the 1978 tune “Dreadlock Holiday” by 10cc: I don’t like sports, I love them.

Even if you are not into sports, this still pertains to you.

It is about what you value. What are your priorities? Will you trade your birthright as an American for a few hours of entertainment pottage?

Will you draw the line now and speak up when the cost of doing so is relatively minor? Or will you wait until dissent equals treason and is punished by death? Tyranny is like cancer in that early detection is of monumental importance.

For the last few years, I have blogged rather extensively on the danger posed by enhanced security procedures at America’s airports. This danger is far greater than any posed by Islamojihadipsychopaths. TSA does not protect you at all. And if it is not stopped it will metastasize throughout society.

The NFL has been doing pat-down searches of fans since 2007. This week they announced they will be implementing enhanced pat-downs at all 32 stadiums. This will include frisking from the ankles to the knees and then from the waist up.

(Oh well, I guess the terrorists will just have to set off their bombs in stadium parking lots, five feet from the groping stations, in those massive crowds.)

This new policy was rumored to be in response to the incident at the Jets-Cowboys game last Sunday where a fan allegedly used a stun gun during a scuffle in the stands. However, the NFL now denies this. More likely, the new “best practice” of stadium gate rape is a result of the partnership between the NFL and the DHS that was announced before the most recent Super Bowl.

Watching my Steelers come up just a bit short in the Super Bowl.

Gate rape – i.e. legalized sexual assault and pedophilia – was first implemented at airports. And most people didn’t see the big picture. TSA has also tyrannized people at train stations, bus stations and roadside checkpoints.

Now it is going to be a condition of attending professional football games. How long until Major League Baseball, the NBA, the NHL and the NCAA adopt this vile practice?

If you are going to tolerate this at airports and sporting events, how long will it be until TSA starts stationing its flunkies at shopping malls and grocery stores? What about concerts, trade shows or other large gatherings? Are you willing to have your children molested at the schoolhouse door?

Are you willing to submit to random police stops and warrantless searches of your vehicle in the name of “safety and security?” How about cavity searches of yourself and your children?

And with the increasing federalization and militarization of local police agencies, don’t expect this to be purely federal. Don’t be surprised to find Officer Freundlich, who frequents your neighborhood Dunkin’ Donuts, to be in on the action.

And if you resist or question any of this, will you automatically be deemed a terrorist? Will you be presumed guilty until proven innocent?

This last question addresses the most ominous aspect of post-9/11 America. It has been said that on 9/11 a horrible crime was committed and on 9/12 the American people became suspects. And this new breed of suspect does not enjoy the presumption of innocence that had been the cornerstone of American law since 1776.

What kind of country do you want to live in? North Korea is often portrayed as a left-wing utopia with no market activity, “free” single-payer health care, etc. It is also a right-wing utopia with the world’s most aggressive national security apparatus. The left and the right may talk differently and appeal to different fan bases, but they are taking us down the same hellish road.

Be careful what you ask for.

The most well-known feature of life under a government that makes unlimited promises is the inability of its subjects to travel freely.  A government that will give you every bit of security you want will take away every bit of liberty you have.

This wall was built because the government on one side of it – you guess which – forbade its subjects to leave. Even THIS government did not claim the authority to feel up its subjects.

Alex Jones is right: boycott the NFL! And don’t just stay home from the games. Don’t even watch them on television! This will be tough for a lot of folks, including me. I ask again: what do you value? Will you give up some entertainment pottage in order to start the return to a free society? Or is your mind so numbed by “bread and circuses” that you just don’t see what is happening here?

And when people want to talk to you about the Broncos, my beloved Steelers, da Bears, or about Brady, Vick, Polamalu or Tebow, talk to them – politely, now – about the totalitarian evil in which the NFL is complicit.

On November 18, 1968 the New York Jets played the Oakland Raiders in what will be known forever as “the Heidi game.” With two minutes to go, the Jets led the Oakland Raiders 32-29. Abruptly, the telecast of the game ended and the movie Heidi – about a 7-year-old girl in Switzerland – began as scheduled by NBC. No one saw it on TV, but the Raiders scored two touchdowns in the last two minutes to win 43-32.

Football fans went crazy, flooding the switchboards at NBC headquarters with irate calls.

I close with an action item. This Monday, let us flood the switchboards at NFL headquarters in New York and voice our displeasure with the NFL’s unholy alliance with Homeland Security and their vile practice of feeling up their customers. Their number is 212-450-2000.  You can also email them here. Please be civil.

This needs to be bigger than the phone blitz NBC received after the Heidi game, because this is an immeasurably bigger deal than the Heidi game. Let’s go crazy.
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My Email to the NFL about Why I Am Boycotting Them This Year.

The NFL lobbied the FAA to have surveillance drones fly over Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis during the last Super Bowl.

Not by Doug Newman, but I wish it was.

What the establishment tells us about 9/11, as compiled by the Corbett Report.

I TOTALLY BELIEVE THE OFFICIAL STORY. THIS CONVINCES ME THAT IT IS ABSOLUTELY TRUE!

Warning: potty word at 4:25.

By Doug Newman

There are already a plethora of reasons to elect Ron Paul as POTUS in 2012.

Let me add one more: it would hasten the return of the NFL to Los Angeles.

How so?

Ron Paul’s presidency would turn Washington DC into a veritable ghost town. With the Fed and the IRS gone, there would be nothing to sustain most of what happens in the District of Criminals.

Its population would quickly drop from 600,000 to something like 7855. This is the population of Montpelier, Vermont, the smallest state capital in the country. Could it even support a McDonald’s?

Downtown Montpelier, VT

And if it could not support a Mickey Dee, it certainly could not support four major league sports franchises. So what would they do?

The NBA Wizards could move 40 miles up the road to Baltimore, which was their home before moving to DC back in 1974. The NHL Capitals could either follow the Wizards to Baltimore or they could move to, say, Hamilton, Ontario. Major League Baseball’s Nationals could depart for any of several places, such as Portland, Charlotte or Nashville.

And the Redskins could head to the second largest metropolitan area in America, one that has been without an NFL team since 1994: LOS ANGELES!

Get it ready for the Redskins!

Ahhhhhh, the serendipities of a Ron Paul presidency.
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RONPAUL2012.COM *** RON PAUL’S HOUSE PAGE
RON PAUL’S ARCHIVES ON LEWROCKWELL.COM

By Doug Newman
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Why is marijuana illegal?

“Because it is bad for you,” say the moral nanomanagers of the world.

Meanwhile, out in real life, the Heart Attack Grill is alive and well and operating in Downtown Las Vegas. (Their other two locations in Dallas and in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler both closed voluntarily. The Chandler location did so after its 575-pound spokesman went to meet his Maker at age 29.)

These menu items from the Heart Attack Grill are perfectly legal. A plant that God gave us in the eleventh verse of the Bible is not legal.

And why can this Arizona woman do this to herself without Ninja-clad tax-mainlining goons kicking down her door sans a judge’s warrant and spraying lead? (Did she ever make it to the Chandler Heart Attack Grill? It was only a 40-minute ride up I-10 from Casa Grande, where she lives.)

Susanne Eman weighs 728 pounds. She wants to weigh 1600 pounds.

And why are so many prescription drugs with about 88 terrifying potential side effects each advertised on radio and TV every day? Consider something called NuVigil, that supposedly helps you stay awake if you are graveyarding it. The following is from NuVigil’s own website.

• “NUVIGIL may cause serious side effects including a serious rash or a serious allergic reaction that may affect parts of your body such as your liver or blood cells, and may result in hospitalization and be life-threatening. If you develop a skin rash, hives, sores in your mouth, blisters, swelling, peeling, or yellowing of the skin or eyes, trouble swallowing or breathing, dark urine, or fever, stop taking NUVIGIL and call your doctor right away or get emergency help.
• “You should not take NUVIGIL if you have had a rash or allergic reaction to NUVIGIL or PROVIGIL^® (modafinil) Tablets [C-IV], or are allergic to any of the following ingredients: modafinil, armodafinil, croscarmellose sodium, lactose monohydrate, magnesium stearate, microcrystalline cellulose, povidone, or pregelatinized starch.
• “Stop taking NUVIGIL and call your doctor or get emergency help if you get any of the following serious side effects:

• “Mental (psychiatric) symptoms, including: depression, feeling anxious, sensing things that are not really there, extreme increase in activity (mania), thoughts of suicide, aggression, or other mental problems.

• “Symptoms of a heart problem, including: chest pain, abnormal heart beat, and trouble breathing.

• “Common side effects of NUVIGIL are headache, nausea, dizziness, and trouble sleeping. These are not all the side effects of NUVIGIL.”

Contrast this with the side effects of marijuana: goofiness, munchies and an uncontrollable urge to vedge out to pre-Dark Side of the Moon Pink Floyd tunes.

Go sell your “gateway drug” jive somewhere else. People typically drink alcohol – which is far more fraught with peril – before they burn hippie lettuce. Why do we not draw the line at Olde Demon Rum? Or with diet soft drinks that are laced with aspartame? Better yet, why do we not do so with the absolutely damnable substance that is dihydrogen monoxide?

The War on Drugs and Plants that Uncle Sam Doesn’t Like is just a bigger, uglier and costlier version of what failed so miserably between 1920 and 1933.

And if you think this doesn’t effect you, think again. A government that will criminalize possession and consumption of a plant that probably grows wild in your zip code knows no limits on its power and will do absolutely anything to its subjects.

Just why is marijuana illegal?