Ron Paul always brings an interesting and unique perspective to any issue, and yesterday he addressed the swine flu on his Youtube channel.
RP discusses his first year in Congress in 1976, when the government created a swine flu scare and initiated a mass inoculation program– which killed more people than the original swine flu had.
RP’s questions:
Why is the Department of Homeland Security getting involved in a medical issue and holding press briefings? (This emphasizes the fact that the DHS steps on areas that were already handled by other agencies and is mainly redundant in focus.)
Why are we more worried about the swine flu so far when there were more than 13,000 cases of tuberculosis (also a spreadable, contagious disease) last year?
It is my opinion that there will certainly be a pandemic at some point in not just the United States, but the world, so it’s good to be prepared even if the current crisis doesn’t morph into a pandemic. I’ve got Tamiflu stocked from the last scare (involving avian flu), but not too many other people do, even people I told to hoard a supply. People just don’t take things seriously unless it’s right here, right now, happening in front of their faces. When deciding on what kind of response to take, we should look back to 1976 and to 1948 and 1918, but we shouldn’t base our response solely on those flus (or on Twitter). This is a different flu that could have the potential to be worse or could turn out to be an empty threat.
In the future, though, pandemics will happen as they always have, and we do need to be ready for that. All the recent wildly infectious flus have come from human contact with livestock, and that’s certainly something that needs to be addressed. Meanwhile, you can just track this one.
Hey, here’s a morning funny for you all:
Yesterday, Ron Paul, often cited as a “libertarian,” was one of only two Republicans to vote in favor of Nancy Pelosi over the Waterboarding investigations. Nancy Pelosi, lifetime Libertarian Index ratings of virtually ’0′; perhaps the most Authoritarian, anti-libertarian politician in America, and Ron Paul now supports her.
Meanwhile, up in Alaska, that pesky “conservative,” who leftwing libertarians refuse to identify as a libertarian, gave a Big ‘F’ You to the Obama administration, by turning down $30 million in stimulus funds, cause it would require Alaskans to enforce Fed building codes on small businesses and private dwellings.
Ron Paul – “libertarian” Votes Authoritarian
Sarah Palin – “conservative” Votes Radical Libertarian
Run that by me again? Whose the libertarian and who’s not?
Eric Dondero
May 22nd, 2009
Who wanted to keep state power over a milk dairy again? I like her more than most politicians, but she’s no Ron Paul. Something gives me the feeling that if RP were governor of a state, he would reject all stimulus funding.
libertariangirl
June 8th, 2009
And why no mention of Mark Sanford if you’re talking about governors rejecting stimulus funding?
libertariangirl
June 8th, 2009