So my questions are these: Why are we sending a team to the Olympics? Why do we say nothing of substance to this country? I have all sorts of dark theories about moneybags corporations and the power they wield over our policymakers, but more likely it’s because most Americans don’t care.

There are, of course, many other bad things going on in the world (a significant number of those in Africa), but by going to the Olympics, and by continuing to buy a ton of stuff made in China, we’re actively endorsing them, and their evil.  Can we do that in good conscience?

I’ve been frustrated with the lack of political options–especially lately. It’s like the American people can’t handle more than two choices or we get confused. But I wish all candidates wrote a book like this one, which lays out exactly what they think, in print.  Not that print is any more permanent than video, because they lie on video plenty, but books are easier for me to parse. They’re condensed, as opposed to the worldstream of video.  It’s not an empty rhetoric sort of book; he actually deals with the major problems we face, and will face, in the near future.

Ron Paul deals with a lot of varied topics in the book, but the main point he makes is: be willing to ask the deeper question. Look for more than the offered solutions. Don’t settle. For example: the choice is not between A) spend trillions on unquenchable wars elsewhere, or B) spend trillions on domestic aid, or social programs, or socialized medicine. The question is, “Should we spend trillions?”  I.e. should we tax our citizens or borrow trillions of dollars from whomever so the government can do this or that? But nobody wants to talk about that. We want to talk about the most banal of trivial minutiae, the more easily sound-bytable the better. All the people talking about “is Obama black enough?”, or the “baby-mama” comments disgust me. Why should I care at all that Obama is black–or, more accurately, bi-racial? Since when does race influence conduct or character? It’s ridiculous and backward to suggest, and silly to spend all our media time on such irrelevance.

Because we’re focusing on such pressing questions as “Is McCain old?” (yes), we ignore the true problems this next president will have to face, issues which actually matter. Like the economy. Or foreign policy. Ron Paul proposes a noninterventionist policy, which means basically what it sounds like: don’t go there.  Don’t spend government money on other people’s problems. If the people think it’s important, they’ll spend their own money.  And private charity is always more efficient than the government. A gopher farm on steroids and LSD is more efficient than the government. If you don’t have federal programs doing what the Constitution never sanctioned, you don’t have to tax your citizens inside out, and therefore your citizens have the money to fund the charities they chose.

Our government is bloated and inefficient. But then, it’s a basically representative government, so let’s look at our own waistline before getting too red in the face. And we still have plenty to be thankful for: the Bill of Rights is still basically in operation, and, depending on what economic class you’re in, life is still pretty good. But it could be better, and we could help more people here and around the world if we didn’t waste our money on useless bureaucratic frippery. Some frat-boy congressman eating mayonaise sandwiches and gleefully scraping my money (and yours) into heaps to give to whomever he choses is not where I want my money to go. I want to chose where my money goes, I want to give money to those private organizations I think are worth to use it, and I don’t want to be afraid of my government. And I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

He explains himself very well, but I’m still trying to wrap my head around the implications of a whole section on economics, money, and inflation. The following points are especially interesting: we don’t need a Fed, and in fact the Federal Reserve hurts us and our money by printing new money when it choses to; and if we still had a gold standard (your money is redeemable for gold, so it’s protected against inflation) the dollar would be ok, and prices would be falling instead of skyrocketing. He also says if we weren’t throwing our weight around, other countries would be more kindly disposed to us.  “Don’t be a jerk, America,” is basically what he’s proposing.  Drastic, I know.

But as much as I like him and his policies,  he’s not going to win.  He’s smart and honest, and doesn’t feel like a politician in the same way Obama, The Lizard Queen, Deal-with-it McCain, or–and I hate to even compare another human to this guy–Gastrointestinal Warfare Bush. So yes, I realize Ron Paul is not a viable candidate; at least, not anymore.  But for a moment there, I thought we actually had more than the binary fatcat sideshow to choose from, and I was happy.  I’ll probably still write him in, just for kicks.