Paul Ryan as Romneys Veep choice?


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"Ryan's earwax is smarter than Joe Biden"...

"GIULIANI: Well, I think if it came from somebody serious maybe we’d get all excited about it. But the — I think the vice president of the United States has become a laugh line on late night television. I mean, he — I’ve never seen a vice president that has made as many mistakes, said as many stupid things. I mean, there’s a real fear if, God forbid, he ever had to be entrusted with the presidency, whether he really has the mental capacity to handle it. I mean, this guy just isn’t bright. He’s never been bright. He isn’t bright. And people think, ‘Well, he just talks a little too much.’ Actually he’s not very smart."

LOL.

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"Ryan's earwax is smarter than Joe Biden"...

"GIULIANI: Well, I think if it came from somebody serious maybe we’d get all excited about it. But the — I think the vice president of the United States has become a laugh line on late night television. I mean, he — I’ve never seen a vice president that has made as many mistakes, said as many stupid things. I mean, there’s a real fear if, God forbid, he ever had to be entrusted with the presidency, whether he really has the mental capacity to handle it. I mean, this guy just isn’t bright. He’s never been bright. He isn’t bright. And people think, ‘Well, he just talks a little too much.’ Actually he’s not very smart."

LOL.

I guess Giuliani is too young to remember Dan Quayle

Spiro Agnew was no notable genius either.

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They don't look so bad compared to Biden...

Don't remember much about Agnew. Quayle tripped over his tongue a lot but he wasn't outright stupid like Biden. If Obama's gaff's were amplified and played over and over by the media as Quayle's were Obama would look worse. Obama makes Carter look good.

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They don't look so bad compared to Biden...

Don't remember much about Agnew. Quayle tripped over his tongue a lot but he wasn't outright stupid like Biden. If Obama's gaff's were amplified and played over and over by the media as Quayle's were Obama would look worse. Obama makes Carter look good.

Hey, no argument.

I never said Biden was smart, I said I liked him. He shows us again how human nature triumphs over reason.

As to presidents, being intellectual does not seem to help in the job. Who was the most intellectual one (founding fathers excepted?_ Wilson maybe?

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21. The smartest guy in the room.

22. Young and super fit, ready for the long haul (see post #10).

23. Doesn't sound like a sleaze ball, genuinely respects hard working people.

24. His ear wax is smarter than Joe Biden.

I knew I could count on you for more points!

25. His wife is hotter than Biden's.

26. He f___in bow hunts!!!

27. He actually knows there is a second amendment and a first amendment, in fact, he knows we have a Constitution that needs to be re-applied!

28. He has a hot wife...oops...

28. He has 6 or 8 % body fat whereas Biden just has brain fat.

29. He sleeps on his couch in his Congressional Office, he has not tax payer paid "apartment."

Biden's wife is smarter, though.

Admittedly in the Biden family she would have to be...

I like Joe. He is living proof that brains are a minor requirement for a successful American politician.

If Biden's wife is allegedly smarter, why does she stay with the dumbest Vice President, plagiarist and bigot to ever occupy the White House?

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If Biden's wife is allegedly smarter, why does she stay with the dumbest Vice President, plagiarist and bigot to ever occupy the White House?

On the slim chance that he might become the dumbest plagiarist etc President to ever occupy it?

Anyway, being a chucklehead doesn't necessarily make a man a bad husband. Maybe he's a good cook.

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A good article by Glenn Greenwald; an unfortunately rare example of an intellectually honest liberal. http://www.salon.com/2012/08/12/the_rights_brittle_heroes/

Ryan is a fraud.

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A good article by Glenn Greenwald; an unfortunately rare example of an intellectually honest liberal. http://www.salon.com...brittle_heroes/

Ryan is a fraud.

Andrew:

Is Ryan a "fraud" because "we," loosely members of the "post-Randian movement," desired to import into a fiscal conservative Congressional Republican all of our Randian hopes and dreams because he was moved by reading our heroine, Ayn Rand, and, by extension, allegedly having his staffers read Atlas?

Within the article you provided, is the following:

The ACLU — which has been continuously scathing in its criticisms of President Obama’s civil liberties record — issued
a report
on the potential Vice Presidential nominees (including Joe Biden) entitled “A Heartbeat Away from the Presidency, Light Years from Civil Liberties,” and said yesterday that Ryan has “uniformly harmful views on
five key civil liberties issues including a humane immigration policy, LGBT equality, reproductive rights, torture and indefinite detention and fair voting access”
(he did, however, vote against the NDAA’s indefinite detention provisions, signed into law by President Obama at the end of 2011, as well as for a bill to include “sexual orientation” in the list of factors that cannot be legally used in job hiring). Whatever one wants to say about Ryan’s record, it is the very opposite of constraining the power of the federal government to intrude into the lives of individuals; indeed, it’s a testament to massive expansion of intrusive federal government power in almost every realm.

What is a "humane immigration policy?"

What are the "groupism's" LGBT"s "rights," as opposed to each individual citizen's rights under natural law?

What are "reproductive rights?;" and finally,

What constitutes and legally defines "fair voting access?"

Adam

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Andrew:

Is Ryan a "fraud" because "we," loosely members of the "post-Randian movement," desired to import into a fiscal conservative Congressional Republican all of our Randian hopes and dreams because he was moved by reading our heroine, Ayn Rand, and, by extension, allegedly having his staffers read Atlas?

He is a "fraud" because, apart from the fact his fiscal conservatism is not exactly up to even Friedmanite standards (TARP, Medicare Part D, No Child Left Behind, every single one of Bush's wars...), he has basically no substantial libertarian inclination in both social and foreign policy realms.

Within the article you provided, is the following:

The ACLU — which has been continuously scathing in its criticisms of President Obama’s civil liberties record — issued
a report
on the potential Vice Presidential nominees (including Joe Biden) entitled “A Heartbeat Away from the Presidency, Light Years from Civil Liberties,” and said yesterday that Ryan has “uniformly harmful views on
five key civil liberties issues including a humane immigration policy, LGBT equality, reproductive rights, torture and indefinite detention and fair voting access”
(he did, however, vote against the NDAA’s indefinite detention provisions, signed into law by President Obama at the end of 2011, as well as for a bill to include “sexual orientation” in the list of factors that cannot be legally used in job hiring). Whatever one wants to say about Ryan’s record, it is the very opposite of constraining the power of the federal government to intrude into the lives of individuals; indeed, it’s a testament to massive expansion of intrusive federal government power in almost every realm.

What is a "humane immigration policy?"

What are the "groupism's" LGBT"s "rights," as opposed to each individual citizen's rights under natural law?

What are "reproductive rights?;" and finally,

What constitutes and legally defines "fair voting access?"

I'm not going to agree with every single one of the ACLU's positions, but:

"Humane Immigration Policy" = broadly speaking a more open immigration policy... which is perfectly consistent with libertarianism.

"LGBT equality" = some things libertarians would disagree with like anti-discrimination laws, but also many things libertarians would agree with like civil marriage equality (which, whilst not the perfect solution, constitutes an improvement in terms of equal legal treatment for nonheterosexuals).

And just for the record, "groupisms" are often (although not always) about securing individual rights for groups that in some respects lack the acknowledgement of individual rights. Whilst some "groupisms" argue for special legal privileges, other "groupisms" do not.

"Reproductive rights" = things most libertarians would agree with (the negative liberty to have an abortion), as well as some things that aren't libertarian (i.e. state-provided abortion and contraception).

Now, Ryan is a threat to all the libertarian-compatible elements of the above. He's pro-life, i.e. in favor of legally defining human life as beginning at conception and thus making all abortions illegal. He's also in the past supported constitutional ammendments to ban same-sex marriage.

And just because the ACLU is often a leftish organization, please note that they've never been shy in critizing Obama's civil liberties record. Indeed, the ACLU looked at all the candidates and ended up giving Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party the best score on civil liberties, so Johnson > Obama even by the ACLU's standards.

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Andrew:

Fair answer. When I have time I want to respond to some of your quality points.

I am starting a new thread regarding Ryan and would welcome your insight because I believe he is a political precipitate that has been dropped into the election test tube.

What his presence in this mixture catalyzes, will determine which way this adrift "ship of state" proceeds...away from the rocks, or, towards the Siren Song of the marxists, who beckon, with a collectivist choir, that the state will take care of you.

Adam

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Is Ryan a "fraud" because "we," loosely members of the "post-Randian movement," desired to import into a fiscal conservative Congressional Republican all of our Randian hopes and dreams because he was moved by reading our heroine, Ayn Rand, and, by extension, allegedly having his staffers read Atlas?

Ummm, Selene, Paul Ryan spoke to the Atlas Society. Many clips show him touting Atlas Shrugged.

Ever since his student council days, this politician has found success by telling people what he (accurately) felt that they wanted to hear.

I accept Yaron Brook's assessment: Ryan was influenced by the works of Ayn Rand as were millions of people who never read Atlas Shrugged as well as millions of others who did but who are not Objectivists. But Paul Ryan seems only to have been superficially "influenced" by his view of Atlas Shrugged as a political novel. He does not have the subtelty to perceive the work on any other level. It is a love story. It is a psychological drama. It is a mystery, even a "murder" mystery. It is science fiction. And, yes, it is philosophy -- and philosophical detection perhaps a "how done it" subgenre of detection within a new mode of philosophical presentation. Argue it as you will, you will be lightyears beyond Paul Ryan's understanding.

Are you an Objectivist?

I am.

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Is Ryan a "fraud" because "we," loosely members of the "post-Randian movement," desired to import into a fiscal conservative Congressional Republican all of our Randian hopes and dreams because he was moved by reading our heroine, Ayn Rand, and, by extension, allegedly having his staffers read Atlas?

Ummm, Selene, Paul Ryan spoke to the Atlas Society. Many clips show him touting Atlas Shrugged.

Ever since his student council days, this politician has found success by telling people what he (accurately) felt that they wanted to hear.

I accept Yaron Brook's assessment: Ryan was influenced by the works of Ayn Rand as were millions of people who never read Atlas Shrugged as well as millions of others who did but who are not Objectivists. But Paul Ryan seems only to have been superficially "influenced" by his view of Atlas Shrugged as a political novel. He does not have the subtelty to perceive the work on any other level. It is a love story. It is a psychological drama. It is a mystery, even a "murder" mystery. It is science fiction. And, yes, it is philosophy -- and philosophical detection perhaps a "how done it" subgenre of detection within a new mode of philosophical presentation. Argue it as you will, you will be lightyears beyond Paul Ryan's understanding.

Are you an Objectivist?

I am.

Michael:

Do not confuse my Socratic question with advocacy.

I have been following Ryan for over a decade and I am very familiar with his love of Rand's ideas. He had to pull his philosophical head into a safe and private conviction because of his "political situation."

However, he is more Randian than any other person that we have had this close to the Presidency and I for one, have been a Ryan supporter for a decade.

You know the answer to your last question. I am an objectivist, small "o". I will remain that way as long as Piekoff and his mindless malicious minions maintain a claim to the mantle of Objectivism.

Adam

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