More Ron Paul goodness...

I follow the LRC blog closely, especially when GOP debates are happening and, of course, during the Ames Straw Poll.

Ron Paul placed 5th amongst Republicans yesterday. Sure, we could have hoped for better, but in reality this is quite good. Here's some comments from LRC...

Jay Roberts thinks that 5th place was a "stellar" result. I would tend to agree. All things considered, we must have shocked the establishment media by doing this well. Even as recently as six days ago Paul was predicted by the media to be no-show blip on the radar. Well, folks, we are here to stay. Get ready, because we're going to have a lot of fun doing good for this country.

Of course, there's always the jerks who intentionally exclude him from their reporting. If you weren't ticked off at Faux News before, now is the time.

On a side note, have you seen the new Bourne movie yet? I saw it on opening night (I'm a fan) and let me tell you -- it was awesome. Best of the series. Here's what Mark Thornton had to say about comparing the series to the Paul campaign.

Cross posted at Libertarian Longhorns.

Homeland Stupidity...

Not to be confused with the libertarian blog of the same name...

Some recent blog posts have caught my eye...

Apparently, catching a baseball can be counted as taxable income by the IRS. That's right, the college student who caught Barry Bonds's 756th home run is going to get taxed in the highest bracket for the simple fact that he now owns the ball. What's particularly sad about this is that the receiving individual doesn't even get the choice to keep it without getting taxed. If he does so, how could one even place a value on it? You could estimate, but without actually making a sale one has no blinking idea what it actually would be sold at! He is now effectively forced to make a sale just to cover his expense of catching a !@%(#@^ ball.

In other sports news, did you know that money you pay to rent a car is used to finance stadiums? This always blows my mind, how is it that these people can afford to pay baseball players millions of dollars but cannot afford a stadium without taxing people? Does this make any sense to anybody?

Ethanol is such a scam.

Cross-posted at the new Libertarian Longhorns blog.

Bible and Government

I have had some interesting "coincidences" occur recently. I was asked a while back to help lead a Bible study for the graduate engineering students on Romans 13:1-7, which are the verses on "submission to civil government." This Bible study kept getting pushed back due to travel conflicts and missed meetings. On the day of the study, it just so happened that our main leader, John, had some extra meetings that came up suddenly and I had the opportunity to lead the whole study instead of just half. We had a great time of learning and I think people went away with as many new questions as answers to old questions.

As this was developing, I had been taking a course at the Austin Graduate School of Theology in New Testament Theology with Dr. Thomas Olbricht, who happens to be a good friend of my grandfather's and a former teacher of my mother at ACU. I decided that I would capitalize on preparing this study and write a paper on Jesus' theology about civil government and what Paul and Peter do to expand upon this teaching. It is currently a work in progress.

Strangely enough, our campus ministry, Longhorns for Christ, recently decided that they wanted to have a study on the Bible and civil government. Guess who they wanted to ask lead it? Right. So now, this upcoming Wednesday I will be leading a discussion group in this topic.

I had been thinking about offering to teach on a Sunday night for University Avenue Church of Christ, my home congregation. But Jack, one of our elders, preempted me and asked me first. No kidding, he had no idea that I was interested in doing some more teaching. I told him I had a few ideas, and that I was currently working on a Bible and government paper. He thought it was great and so I'll be teaching again on Bible and government for the church.

Funny how all these things come together at once. I'd like to thank John Cobin for his wonderful books on the subject, may he live long and prosper!

Shame on you, HSLDA!

For shame, for shame, Homeschool Legal Defense Association, for shame!

You have endorsed pro-war, pro-police state, pro-welfare, and pro-Bush Mike Huckabee because you think he's principled, but have ignored the most principled Congressman in the race with the record to back it up - Ron Paul. You seem to think Governors make good candidates, but can you honestly say this considering the last two debacle governor-presidents? Come on, get a grip. Endorse Ron Paul while you still can and save face. I'm ashamed that my fellow homeschoolers would do such a thing as endorse a man who only wants the status quo. Pick someone who actually will do the thing that homeschoolers want most - work to get rid of state hegemony over education.

Townhall.com - One Mom - HSLDA Supports Mike Huckabee

Covenant - Why Ron Paul is the Ultimate Friend of Homeschoolers

Ron Paul can WIN

Ron Paul could easily take on the Democrats, what's going to keep him from becoming our next president is the simple fact that he must make it through the primary. Which means, my friends, we must do everything we can in order to promote ideas of liberty now - this is more important than ever before. Time to get to work...

Todd Seavey on Ron Paul on National Review Online: "But if we want a radically smaller government — precisely that thing that a Republican Congress neglected to do for the last twelve years, which has created the current mood of conservative frustration — we must support Ron Paul. Remember how small government was at the nation’s founding and consider how perhaps even conservatives have since then become de facto socialists, accepting the leviathan state as inevitable. But it’s not inevitable if they vote against it when history hands them that chance."