what

Yeah, we know Ron Paul served in the military.

We also know that he was a surgeon in the Air Force, which is the most dangerous of all jobs in the military. He should be commended for his bravery and heroism.

Your sarcasm detector is calibrated properly and is reading the appropriate level of sarcasm.

I understand it's a big selling point to a lot of people that presidential candidates serve in the military. I sort of understand why, but for a guy like Ron Paul, it really doesn't matter. It's just like how Bush was in the Air National Guard. I don't care. If you have actual impressive military service where your life was actually in danger, then sure, make a big deal out of it. I just can't see how Ron Paul can get off calling Newt Gingrich a "chicken hawk" over and over again because he was a surgeon in the Air Force while Newt Gingrich weasled his way out of the draft like Clinton. Who gives a ****? I remember Kerry making a big deal out of his three Purple Hearts. I can understand that. That's a big god damned deal. Kerry was actually in combat. I am impressed by guys who actually put their lives on the line, of which there are many in the history of the presidency. McCain was allowed to tout his military history, even though it basically amounts to the fact that he's a terrible pilot. He still had to deal with being a POW, so that counts for a lot.

From here on out, a candidate will have to tout Teddy Roosevelt levels of military service in order to impress me.

Being a surgeon is definitely a heroic, important thing. It's helping people. And people in our armed forces, no less. In terms of patriotic duty, that's right up there with actually being the guy out in the field.

-Does that make him a good presidential candidate? Not really, no. I mean, sure, a military record makes you look heroic, and appeals to a wide audience, but there's more to being president than "heroism", your policies and your ability to negotiate with hostile political forces being the most important.

That's what I mean, though. And while he was a surgeon that helped save lives I'm sure, it doesn't really give him the right to tout his military service. There are thousands of doctors who help people. He just wore a uniform. Military service is ultimately irrelevant in terms of being a presidential candidate, which is why I say I will need to see Teddy Roosevelt levels of military service to be impressed in the future.

I bet flight surgeons had better working hours than regular surgeons. For Ron Paul it could have been like a vacation. Sure as **** never had to kill anybody.

He didnt have ​to...he just did it for fun.

You just aren't a man until you've killed another human for your country

This is a pretty terrible and pointless thread, but Paul did light Newt Gingrich the **** up on this.

I think it's funny how the media pretends anybody cares.

If Americans genuinely cared about whether their politicians served their nation they wouldn't consistently vote for the people who weasel out of all of their obligations and basically live a constant state of committing treason. It's a lot like how the Christian right only ever supports politicians who violently hate the sick and poor even though that is specifically against everything Jesus. They just don't care. At all.

It's either that or the vote is completely rigged.

You're not doing a great job selling democracy to the world, guys.

Jon`C, the results of elections in America paint a perfect picture of what the population is: Raging ********s. The majority of congress ran on the simple promise of voting against anything Obama proposed. They're actually doing what they promised to do, and what people voted them in for, yet congress has a 9% approval rating. People in America whine and complain about wanting something, then complain when they get what they asked for.

that tends to happen when fairly even portions of a population want radically different things.

It also brings out the idiocy in the fact that a vast amount of Americans are adament about issues that do not effect them in the least. Can you tell me why so many Americans vote republican because republicans promise to lower taxes? Republicans don't lower taxes to the point where anyone in the middle or lower class will actually notice a difference, so why are these same people adament about it? Why do these same people get in a fury about democrats wanting to raise taxes on the rich, and lower taxes on the middle/lower class? It doesn't make any sense. Then the same people go log onto Yahoo! and post comments berating rich people for how they spend their money. It's exhausting.

People think that "obamacare" is such a huge problem. All that damned bill has done is force people to buy health insurance, and it hasn't even really done that very well. The only reason people are against it is because some jackass on tv told them it's unconstitutional, and a bunch of republicans run on the platform of repealing it, like it will suddenly make your life better if it's gone. It's really frustrating. Like Joncy said, why is it these people run on a platform of staunch Christianity, but at the same time they don't give a rat's ass about the poor or sick? It seems like the idea is if you're poor or sick, well, that's your problem. If you weren't so poor, maybe you could afford health insurance, so you wouldn't be sick, and if you weren't so sick, maybe you could get a job and buy health insurance. Just pull yourself up by your boot straps and go get a job, you bums. Tell everyone how concerned you are about them having jobs, then sit and watch as corporations continue to outsource jobs to other countries. You can always get a job at Wendy's or something, where you'll barely make enough money to pay rent, utilities, and buy food. You're better off using government programs to pay for your housing and utilities. Then these same people want to eliminate those government programs. You have to make it so the programs aren't a better option than the jobs that exist. That isn't done by making the programs worse, it's done by making better jobs available, and you can't do that when you're still allowing jobs to be outsourced... It's just a cycle...

I swear to god, I hate my fellow Americans.

Yeah, know why this happens? Congress has a 9% approval rating... but most Americans still think their own congressmen are doing a good job.

It's 100% pure refined weapons-grade stupidity.

I think the primary cause of the insanely low congressional approval rating is that the average American doesn't understand what congress actually does. It's the same reason people vote for presidential candidates who promise to do things they cannot possibly do.

Like closing Guantanamo Bay, or 100% of the bull**** JM thinks Ron Paul would do.

I'm really not sure half the time if the candidates really think they're going to do these things, or if they're just banking off of the fact that there are still people who think the president has the power to do these things. My gut tells me it's a little bit of both.

what device does he have earbuds for? I am just noticing this now

Yeah I noticed that as well. It's somewhat curious, isn't it? Can Ron Paul also travel through time?

Yep. American voters are as willing to be bought as they are to criticize legislators in other districts for buying voters.

pfffft. Buying voters is a waste of money.

I mean, Ron Paul is old, and the man in the photo I was assuming 100% was him, so it had to be vietnam or just post vietnam era, so no Ipods, so I didn't want to say anything that made me look dumb, so, is it a cassette player, SORRY FOR MY YOUNGNESS I DONT KNOW WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE

That is one hell of a gerrymander. I should clarify, though; I didn't mean that legislators "buy" voters in the most literal sense. Voters love their congressman because their congressman brings home funding for crucial local development projects. They hate the rest of Congress because the rest of Congress pisses away money on wasteful pork barrel projects. It somehow occurs to no one that these are the same thing.

Well, duh.

Except Wendy's isn't hiring and even if they were you'd make 400 a month.
Anyways, I'm hoping that after the openly racist ***** of the tea party are inevitably voted out after their single terms, things will start to look up. I mean, it could hardly get any worse, right?

Hell, the way things are going, it looks like the republican party is actually tearing itself apart, all the principled and thoughtful conservatives having either abandoned the party or their principles and thoughts, being replaced by right wing extremists, religious fundamentalists, and the mentally ill. I wouldn't be surprised if in a generation, we're looking at the socialists on the left and the democrats on the right. By then, the country's staggering baby boomer population will have finally started dying off, relieving our congested social services and making for a smoother population curve by age, and with the passing of generations must also pass out of date thinking that stymies social change. All we need is time, folks.

-On that same note, I feel there should be a term limit for congressmen, but such an expansive change would require an amendment and amendments are the most difficult legislation to pass, even if desperately needed.

holy crap we agree on something!!!

A patriot would never accuse the prophets of myopia.

I'm not much one for disliking people because of political disagreements, and I'll admit I don't spend as much time here as I should, but do we historically disagree on a lot of things?

-I mean, I also like Star Wars, and Transformers, but dislike the Star Wars Transformers, maybe we've got some other common ground?

The "prophets" were rich white land-owners who wanted foremost to codify their power over the new world.

IT'S A SECRET TO EVERYBODY.

This might be my foreign ignorance and I mean no disrespect to the guy, but doesn't that mean he was daft enough to get shot by the Vietcong 3 times?

Not only that, but he went back to duty afterward. That's the part that makes it badass. Gunshot wound and I can go home? Piss off. Send me back!

They let you out if you're wounded?

From what I understand, Kerry requested to be sent back to duty as quickly as possible. At one point when there was shrapnel in his leg I guess they just sewed it shut instead of cutting his leg open to remove it, because that would have required a longer absence from duty. That's what I mean.

Can we have a serious discussion about how Ron Paul is a time traveller and has an Ipod or something with earbuds before they werent invented?

In all honesty, its killing me, someone please tell me what that is.

It's probably a transistor radio or something, Couchman.

I mean, did they have headphones like that in 1968? I don't know.

yes they did. but they weren't common. my grandfather had a few pair, but he was in the service too, so maybe they were issued to non-coms.

Yup. Hanging out on a military base when you could be making bank in private practice is one hell of a vacation. Sure, he's not the worst thing in the world, but it's non trivial.

But how do we get there and still have freedom of speech?