Ron Paul was the only presidential candidate to come out for the PPA

[Bulletproof Monk]

RON PAUL FOR LIFE BABY!

i obv cant vote but i will be glad if he gets in

[DeadMoneyDad]

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There are very few treatments that are thousands of years old, but are more safe or effective than the modern science-based medical alternatives. The only one I'm aware of is marijuana.

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I think we found the answer.

Since this is a legislative forum, I'll answer in legislative terms.

There is no lobby for natural treaments that cost a few cents when a major pharma company has one costing hundreds of dollars.

Yes, the US as most all countries has a long history of snake oil salesmen. BUT not everthing that makes its way through the FDA is safe or effective. That system was written by the pharma companies for the pharma companies.

Traditional medicine is fantastic for certain things, I would not skip the ER and go to an herbalist if I had been in a major accident, but there do exist a number of very old tried and true simple cures that are much better than anything you buy at Walgreens.

I could go into a hundred or more examples from personal experience but I doubt I'd get through the haze.

D$D

[omgwtf]

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Since this is a legislative forum, I'll answer in legislative terms.

There is no lobby for natural treaments that cost a few cents when a major pharma company has one costing hundreds of dollars.

Yes, the US as most all countries has a long history of snake oil salesmen. BUT not everthing that makes its way through the FDA is safe or effective. That system was written by the pharma companies for the pharma companies.

Traditional medicine is fantastic for certain things, I would not skip the ER and go to an herbalist if I had been in a major accident, but there do exist a number of very old tried and true simple cures that are much better than anything you buy at Walgreens.

I could go into a hundred or more examples from personal experience but I doubt I'd get through the haze.

D$D

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Yes I've heard this line before... conspiracy (overt or not) by the drug companies to keep their profits up and to keep people away from the cheap cures that work.

I agree that the FDA system isn't fail-proof, but the point is that it provides a systematic way of evaluating how well something works and whether it is safe. Sometimes it is safe only under certain conditions, but that's the intent of the process -- to objectively measure a treatment's efficacy and safety.

"Alternative medicine" has no such mechanism to determine whether something works or if its safe, relying almost entirely on anecdotes such as "examples from personal experience" -- indistingushable from the placebo effect.

"Head-on, apply directly to the forehead." Someone with a headache applies head-on directly to the forehead, and a while later the headache is gone. The headache must have been cured by the head-on, right? Never mind that head-on contains no medicine whatsoever. And never mind that most headaches will go away after a while anyway. Looking a little further into this great example of "alternative" medicine:
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeadOn
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Chemical analysis has shown that the product consists almost entirely of wax. The two listed active ingredients, white bryony (a type of vine) and potassium dichromate (a known carcinogen), are diluted to .000001 PPM and 1 PPM respectively.

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The bottom line is that if something works, it will stand up to proper double-blind testing. Most "alternative medicine" that has been subjected to proper scrutiny has failed miserably. The ones that don't fail lose their coveted and wildly profitable "alternative" status, and gradually become part of the evil empire of traditional medicine. Because of this, the hucksters of such remedies generally avoid proper scientific trials, and it's reasonable to assume that there are quite likely some valid treatments hidden in the mountain of fraud and gullibility. So how are you going to tell which alternative treatments are [censored] and which ones work? Easy, consult your horoscope.

[img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[gamblerNC1]

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I see a lot of distortions of Rep. Paul's positions here. True, not everyone embraces the idea of a smaller federal government. I personally happen to like him. Others don't. Both are certainly valid opinions.

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And I am pleased to say you will see much more drastic distortion of his views. Someone said the other day about negative attacks on their campaign, “They don’t shoot at dead birds.” The media and those that run the Republican Party first tried to treat him like a dead bird and ignore him. That not being effective, they tried to paint him as a loony tune and crackpot. They had some success in this, but as more people hear him speak that approach is proving less and less effective.

Now the approach is distort his views and send everyone into a panic that if he is elected the world as we know it will end. Just as in entering the Iraq war, it is nothing but fear driven irrational behavior. If Paul was to become President, and that is a big if, he would not have the power to destroy the Federal Reserve. That would take an act of congress. It is not in his power. He cannot get rid of the IRS, the CIA, or the FBI. He cannot overturn Row VS Wade and he certainly cannot get the theory of evolution tossed out of our education system.

What he can do as President is bring home our troops. He can veto any budget that is not balanced so we do not continue to pass on our debt to future generations. He can let the patriot act expire and until then demand that all such endeavors be stopped. Most important to this forum, he can ask congress to repeal any laws regulating or limiting free use of the internet, including poker. If this fails, and he can instruct the DOJ to put this at the bottom of their list for enforcement since he will nominate the Attorney General to congress.

There is a lot of distortion on many of his views, but that is up to each person to research and come to their own conclusion. Nevertheless, all this fear about Ron Paul ripping government a part is just unfounded. As with all Presidents, he will get some of what he wants, but he is not dictator or king. He must have the support of congress and to some extent the support of the American people to do most of the things you seem worried about. I am sure, that even if of these issues did come up, it would be years down the road, after a full debate, before we would have to decide if they have merit.

There are some things I do not agree with Paul on. Others that I just do not feel I have enough knowledge to really come to educated opinion one-way or the other, but in all cases, this does not bother me, as they are not things that Ron Paul can change as president. On the things, he can change as president I agree with him completely. If someone supports Ron Paul on his stance on the internet and poker, I think they could very well cast a vote for him without having to worry about Paul making sweeping reforms in many of the topics discussed here.

[DeadMoneyDad]

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I agree that the FDA system isn't fail-proof, but the point is that it provides a systematic way of evaluating how well something works and whether it is safe. Sometimes it is safe only under certain conditions, but that's the intent of the process -- to objectively measure a treatment's efficacy and safety.

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I guess you believe in one man one vote as well.

Well as long as that man is a Supreme.....


D$D

[oldbookguy]

First let me say, I am no big Ron Paul supporter or really supporting anyone as yet, more against most than favioring one.

That said, here is I belive the first real RP article done by a main stream news source, TIME magazine.

Really a nice read.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/theronpaulrevolution

obg

[seedplanter]

Perhaps you should let Ron speak for himself. There are many misguided opinions here. If you truly want to know the man and his positions better, take a stroll over here:
http://www.ronpaullibrary.org/index.php

[DeadMoneyDad]

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Perhaps you should let Ron speak for himself. There are many misguided opinions here. If you truly want to know the man and his positions better, take a stroll over here:
http://www.ronpaullibrary.org/index.php

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Let's take the man at his word.

Paul doesn't expect that he will win the nomination , and he has no interest in running as an independent again. But he also doesn't see himself endorsing one of the other Republicans in the general election. "Those people who support me wouldn't believe it," he says. "If I said, 'Giuliani's a great guy, and he'll reduce subsidies and bring the troops home'? I couldn't do that." Even nerd revolutions don't surrender.

Time mag.


D$D

[PugsMcGee]

Ron Paul is the only hope for America, even when you don't consider poker.

[TheEngineer]

Here's the existing Ron Paul thread.

Also, the Ron Paul forum is a popular forum filled with folks who LOVE to spam sites. Hell, I spam forums with Ron Paul stuff from time to time (especially www.townhall.com ). Seems we should tap into that enthusiasm. I started a thread at www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?p=356283&posted=1#post356283 . Please comment there, and make sure to vote the thread 5-stars. Thanks.