The Ron Paul Survival Report - year 1993

The years long hoo-rah about what was allegedly said or not said in Ron Paul's newsletters has been fascinating. Finally, TNR has had the balls to publish links to some pdfs of some of Ron Paul's various newsletters. Since they apparently missed all of 1993 in what they chose to reprint, and I (courtesy a helpful librarian and a friend) didn't, here is a complete copy of the Ron Paul Survival Report for 1993. My site doesn't have a whole lot of bandwidth, so feel free to mirror the 12MB file, rather than link back to me. (note to TNR - take 'em!)

I would have preferred that the original articles had been published on the internet before others chose to spin them, to encourage people to actually read them. Viewing a perspective on history such as this is an interesting intellectual, emotional, and historical exercise, no matter what your belief system, especially with modern tools like wikipedia to enhance understanding.

Now, I want to make clear, that Ron Paul has said that he didn't write this newsletter, and I believe him. A lot of people have sold their names (Robert Moog for example) to their everlasting regret.

I have had a heck of a day trying to reconcile my own memories of 1993 with wikipedia and with the newsletter and attitudes of the time, while reading up on the The Phillips Curve, the fate of Reginald Oliver Denny's assailants, and David Koresh (The discrepancies between the account of the Waco, Tx incident in 1993 and wikipedia's are interesting - and I doubt the survival report would be so supportive of Koresh today were more details about him available at the time.

In this single morning I've learnt about Special Drawing Rights, read the newsletters' defense of Gary Hunt, who was removed from office because (as ultimately came out) his accountant screwed up. He was (in 1998) granted a full pardon.

I still find the story of Randy Weaver and the Ruby Ridge incident an extremely moving example of what can happen when you are wrongly targeted by the law, and both sides are heavily armed.

The 1993 newsletter quotes approvingly of Joel Brind's Abortion/Breast cancer hypothesis. According to the mind numbing detail on this in wikipedia, large studies in 1997, 2003, and 2004 have largely disproved this hypothesis . There's been a truly mind-blowing amount of research and debate and a mixture of good and bad science on this issue, and certainly in 1993, when the newsletter was published, not enough facts were in. I wonder who still believes in this linkage?

Oh, and there's negative stuff about Karen Finley's NEA funding in those newsletters, and some not so nice things said about the ADL, and a positive reference to Richard Maybury, and the list goes on and on... (I'm only as far as July, 1993)

but read for yourself. I did find a few things offensive in there, notably coarseness in the "Haitian's with AIDs" problem. Please research the subjects on your favorite online toolbox. I hope all this debate can get covered objectively IN wikipedia, one day.

Now off to TNR's selections...

Labels: Ron Paul, ron paul survival report

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