Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul's rampant Internet popularity is about to take an amusing new shape.
WoW Insider reports that a World of Warcraft guild will march from the Alliance cities of Ironforge to Stormwind (GP: that's a helluva long walk!) on New Year's Day in support of Paul's candidacy. From the WoW Insider story:
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul's internet regiment has come to World of Warcraft - a group of his supporters are planning to form a guild on Whisperwind and do a march from IF to Stormwind (which means they'll probably be Gnomes or Dwarves, which is too bad, because I liked the idea of "Trolls for Ron Paul") on New Year's Day at 8:30pm EST.
The Ironforge to Stormwind route was probably selected because those cities are close to starter locations. That gives Ron Paul supporters who may not have a character on the Whisperwind server the opportunity to quickly create one and jump right into the march without the need to spend time leveling up.
The question now becomes: will Horde players mount a raid in an attempt to disrupt the march?
GP: Actually, no. I just took a quick look and found that Whisperwind is not a PvP server.
Comments
But seeing his stance on the issues, I have to wonder how many of his "suporters" are just part of a fad that someone else pointed out. I'm also kind of thinking people are supporting him a a spoiler in the primary. Then again, I'm no political analyst.
-Mike Schwinger
um, it's not intruding on your time if you GO THERE ON PURPOSE.
I think that people are finally beginning to actually learn the truth about Ron Paul - namely that he would not be good for the country. I saw him on the news commenting on the Bhutto assassination and before he opened his mouth and knew exactly what he was going to say.
I'm SO there!
I'm sorry but you both miss the point. I will readily admit that there are people who abuse the system. However that doesn't change the fact that there are people who do need the help. People who, for no fault of there own, are in a situation where they need the assistance. What do we tell these citizens? That we're sorry and it sucks to be them or the classic "get a job?" ?
I'll use myself as an example again. I've never abused the system and for many years I thought the same way. That the majority of people on these systems didn't really need it, that they were just lazy. I didn't really understand until I was in the situation. Michigan is dead last in jobs and in the economy. There are people here who want to work but can't find a job. There are people who desperately need help to pay their medical bills and the only hope they have of doing so are in programs like medicaid. Where are they supposed to turn? If they don't have the money for medicine they surely don't have the money to pick up and move to state where they could find work.
The point is that Ron Paul is wrong on this one. There are people who need help for a variety of reasons and one of the reaons government exists is to help the people.
Well... actually, it is an intrusion.
I have no problem with them doing rallies by the highway, or any other public place the care to do so at. My problem with this is that World of Warcraft is my decompression time. It's my time to step away from the real world for a bit, relax, have a little fun, and reset for the next day. I don't pay $15 a month so I can be subject to political ads or messages or anything other than those things pertaining to the game. It's bad enough that there are gold seller spam and other inane things shouted in the major cities each day. Those kind of go with the territory of playing an MMORPG and there are systems in place to deal with it. The one thing that has no place as far as I'm concerned is this.
If I thought, based on their past actions and behaviors, that this would be contained to the road between IF and SW, then I probably wouldn't have a problem with it. However, I know it'll end up in all the major cities and the waves of prattle it will generate from there.
Political rallies have their place. World of Warcraft is not that place.
~Dave
Hey actually Paul has the best ideas for helping people caught in a bad situation.
Paul advocates re-focusing our national defenses on protecting our borders and not corportate-welfarism-Empire-building. In that respect, I feel he supports the troops and strengthening our national security more than any other candidate.
The money saved from slowing down our British-Empire-dopplegangerism would make things like Social Security and Medicaid solvent again.
Paul has said often that though he would prefer to improve the economy in ways that help less people be dependent on government aid, those programs are the absolute last on his list of programs he's uncomfortable with. This is the polar opposite of warmongers like Bush who need trillions for world conquest and collateral damage but can't spare some change for programs like S-Chip.
Finally, all this crap about Paul being a closet racist is simply crap. It's the McCain's-black-baby whisper campaign of 2008. (McCain and his wife had adopted a baby from overseas whom they loved and took good care of and Bush operatives turned it into a very effective anti-McCain lie amongst the closet racists in SC in 2004) It has been disproven again and again. The NYT ran an official retraction two days ago saying everything they checked out proved that these are decades old slanders. What is clear is that Paul is perhaps the least racist candidate running. Other than Obama who has been really impressive about not biting when haters pull the race card, I've been most impressed with Paul. Paul doesn't pull the anti-Arab card, the anti-Jew card, the white supremacist crap, or even the hispanics-are-watering-down-our-culture crap when he gets all hardline about illegal immigration. If you listen to the man himself - and not a couple fringe wackos who think they agree with him - you're likely to be impressed at that.
Anyways, I'm also surprised at the lack of Paul defense on this site. Maybe he is simply under-represented amongst gamers. That's cool with me. As much as I like the guy, I'm not sure I'd want a bunch of spam chat about politics on my server neither. But if they're cool about the 1 morning thing maybe it'll be not-so-big-a-deal. (Seems most guilds are more active at night).
My 2 cents. And nah I don't really care whether they're backed by gold or not . . . I haven't studied that issue enough. Mostly I like Paul 'cuz he's into freedom, against collateral damage and sending our 'bravest and best' into questionable enagements, backs up his craziest ideas with really interesting arguments (like the whole gold standard stuff), and just seems genuine - which is way refreshing to me. Plus he's been in Congress for 20 years and seems the best read of any of the guys (or gals) on our actual founding principles.
He is for selfishness and self interest, which is why he is so popular among educated middle class. His entire philosophy is 'do as well as yourself as you can, zero responsibility to any kind of community'. No social responsibility, no shared resources, and 'tyranny of the masses' as far as the eyes can see.
Think of the old robber barons and you've got a good mental image. A very attractive idea to those who wish themselves wealthy and absolved of any responsibility back to the community.
I am by no means incapable. I have no disabilities and am fairly inteligent. I am able to provide for my family. I can buy them food, insurance etc.
But that was not always the case. Shortly after getting married, I started going to scool full time and working full time (mostly). The only job I was able to get that fit around my class schedule was a $10 an hour job. I was living in Arizona at the time and living expenses are pretty high ther. My two bedroom apartment was running at $650 (the cheepest for the size). My wife was pregnant and we were a one car family. My wife was unable to work so I was supporting my family completely. My paycheck went completely to bills. We had no money left over for food or insurance. So we had to go with food stamps and medicare to beable to provide for my family. Had I opted not to get medicare and went with the insurance through my work, I would not have been able to pay all my bills.
During this time I had two kids and only a dollar raise at my job. So my situation did not improve. Sure I could have quit school and looked for a better job, but that would have severely limited my long term prospects.
Long story short, had it not been for food stamps and medicare, I would not be in the position I am in now after graduating. I am able to buy a house, insurance and plenty of food for my family. Had I opted to quit school to get my family off those programs, I am not sure what I would be doing, but I doubt that it would be anything as nice as I have now.
Now I am not the norm. When I was in the DES office waiting to turn in paperwork and such, there were plenty of people who were either incapable or unwilling to better their own circumstances. We even over heard conversations between people about how to scam the system. That is th kind of stuff that made me sick.
But still there are plenty of people like me who are working to better their life and the life of their family but need temporary assistance. That is what these programs are supposed to be for. They are supposed to be a temporary solution. But abusers have turned it into their only means of provision.
I don't think that those programs need to be dumped. They are important. But I do think that they need to be switched to state run programs and have the federal government get their noses out of it.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Mind if my lvl 6 BE rogue join you? Little Ronnygank needs something to do if no lowbies flag themselves.
If anyone thinks Hilary, Obama, or any other mentally challenged candidates think they would be good for our country prepare for our taxes to increase 25% by 2009.
It make him relate to you by having one of your hobbies. THEinORY.
But I don't play WoW...
Dr. No aka Ron Paul is the best man to get rid of this waste.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/01/60minutes/main2528226.shtml
Short version, if we don't make some pretty drastic changes now the country will be in pretty deep shit by the time our children and grandchildren come on to the scene... We are spending more money then we are making and some of the biggests sources of such trouble comes from many of the programs that Ron Paul wants to put an end to, along with increased taxes... if i recall, no one is actually denying what is said in that article and there is no reason to think it won't happen; but ofcourse cutting down on those programs and increasing taxes are very unpopular stances and most politicans are unwilling to touch such issues because it tends to be political suicide (the average voter can only think of themselves and tomarrow, not problems that their children and grandchildren will face in about 20-30 years from now)... but it does sound like what must be done
I'm not sure if we need to get rid of the programs outright, afterall the programs do a lot of good for those that NEED it, but from how it sounds in that article, something definatly needs to change about those programs... and i don't think cutting down on military spending alone (ending the war) alone will be enough; something may need to be done about those more helpful programs... their maybe more poeple abusing it then their are those who need it and that means a lot of the money for those programs may just be going to waste
Neither do I, that's not the point.
It would have been better if he had declared himself a fan of some little known franchise.
Also, as for the whole welfare debate, all I can say is that I have lived my life in England and Australia, both of whom have welfare systems, and I've spent my time on said systems... those who are able to afford everything they need and more in life always seem to enjoy saying "just get a job" when it is just not that simple, there are less and less jobs, and in many places it is all to possible to slip through the cracks. At this time I personally have no other choice than to study, while on welfare, in order to get a job because there are absolutely no jobs available to me that will employ me due to my age, experience, and education level.. (I've spent the last three years in Visa limbo unable to work and now nobody will take me because I've been unemployed for three years).
One question though, to EZK.. I have a great deal of sympathy for you about the situation you were once in, but what drove you to decide to have children, two of them, when you knew you could not support them if the worst happened? To me, the decision to have children is a conscious one in the modern world, and as all decisions that will involve money, finances should be a vitally important factor in making it
RP sets the clock back on welfare a bit to far for my tastes but at this point and time the system is already broken so either it will get worse or better.
I like RP mostly because he will bring the change needed to stabilize us for the future if he dose not well fck its not like the zombie leaders of the dims and reapers will do anything to stop the maddness.
As for huckabee I like him more than the rest of the reaper candidates but still like PR even more and neither are likly to win the reaper side, the dims I'll take Obama above all and edwards 2nd, Hillery is only a option if RP and Huckabee are not a option.
Thompson,Rudy and Romny are just good old fashioned neo cons looking to one up the status quo.
Huckabee needs more brains and less bible...
Hillery needs to stop pandering for votes and changing her mind on issues....
Edwards needs to focus on not the poor but the middle class with no middle no one will take care of the poor this much I have learned being in the system...
RP dosen't have a snow balls chance in hell... if he dose get in he wont do worse than bush because no one will support his more radical plans and all the moderate stuff he wants to do are things we need to do anyway.
Obama is the black sheep (yes this is a pun and zippy stood up all night thinking it up :P )
But really tho he's fresh for a insider and could well wind up being the best pick if RP is "unavalbile" LOL
"Anyways, I’m also surprised at the lack of Paul defense on this site. Maybe he is simply under-represented amongst gamers."
Are you joking? Gamers are the only people who seem to like him. It's massively disproportionate. I've certainly never met anyone in real life who didn't think libertarianism was for morally bankrupt nutjobs.
Slip through the cracks?
No, most of us are pushed.
I know what you mean. I was at the DHS office and I saw people there in designer clothing and with fancy cell phones, and it pissed me right the fuck off.
In fact on the way out my dad made the comment "They'll help those who can afford things like that but not those who can't"
The US became a welfare state in the wake of the market crash that precipitated the Great Depression, and ever since, our concept of what government should do for us has shifted in an ultimately destructive direction- as nice an idea as it is for everyone to be on equal ground, it's not economically sustainable (check out Russia). Obviously the US system is nowhere near that drastic, but it's the same root concept, and it leads to the same direction- the means taken to fix the issue wind up eventually worsening the situation.
Wow Isn't that expensive....
This may be a little late, and you may not read it.
I do not regret having children during that time. I am of the philosophy that if you wait to make important decisions in your life, you may never get the chance to. My wife and I both agreed that we should have children right away rather than waiting. We did not want to miss out.
I also feel that if you put something important off, it gets easier to keep putting it off till "later."
We both wanted children. We knew it would be hard to raise them under those stressful circumstances, but let me tell you. I love my kids. I would not have traded those hardships for anything in the world.
I don't know if I have given you a solid response to your question. I think it is because it was an emotional decision, not a tactical one. Had I come from a tactical point of view, sure kids would not have been in the picture at the time. But to me, kids are not something to be thought of in a tactical sense.
I hope that sheds a little light on that.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Please try to see how many hordies you can cram in front of IF. Even if you cant provoke the supporters and crash the server that way, you'll provoke the pvp nuts in IF who'll gladly try to kill you for no reason. Enough combat goes on in front of IF, and the dwarves ultimate defense, the server crash, will come in and stop the Ron Paul march dead in it's tracks, and we can all get back to playing WoW like it was meant to be played. Non political and non RL.
@ everyone else
Please dont try to convince me that Republicans are the solution to our domestic crisis. and dont say democrats are a solution. I think that the only way to fix our welfare isn't to take it away, but to restart the whole thing like it was before. I have lived on welfare for the past year, and when everyone else tells me that if i work hard enough, i can get ahead, i know it's not true. Our system is so screwed up that i can lose most of my benifits if i get a job that pays more than 12 dollars an hour. I have done the math, and it actually gets you MORE money right now if i didn't work. So essentially, i get punished for working, and get rewarded for being lazy. That seems so wrong to me, and i dont see any canidate who could actually reform the system like it should be. Right now, i think that only Truman, who instigated these programs, is the only member of a major party that could fix this system.
Vote for a gamer, right now they seem like the only people who know what to do,
I play WoW to escape the real world. Not to have @sshats come on and be a pain to my latency! I swear if I find a bunch of level 1's running around, I am ticketing all of you for disturbing game play. Find another server, you want a war pick a pvp server, or better yet, just go play on a private server to do this mess on.
Some of us have done research on him, and it seems that both detractors and believers are ill informed on him. And Paul himself isn't helping either. I honestly do not know if the man wants a digital gold currency, wants to abolish the Fed, wants the gold standard, or all three. I can't tell if he's for or against state rights, since he supported DOMA and is against Roe V. Wade. The only resounding clear message I have is that he's against the war and for the Constitution. And, you have to agree, that quite a lot of his supporters rally to him because of this motto.
Most conservatives don't like welfare because all it does is make you dependent on the government which in turn gives government more control over your life, same argument can be made with the socialist "Universal Healthcare" crap. And when it comes to being a "racist," It would make more sense to say that people who vote for Democrats are the racist ones because they support candidates that advocate racist policies(affirmative action etc), not to mention I saw a woman on the news yesterday that was for Edwards that said she felt sad that she was voting for a "white male," they make race and issue, Ron Paul does not at all, he believe what the Constitution says "we are all created equal." So basically many of you need to do your homework and know how government works and what a candidate stands for before you go off saying he is a racist and against poor people.
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/issues/second-amendment/
Note how much time it takes to defend him when a single sentence proves he's a paranoid nut.
If you think Deus Ex was a documentary Ron Paul is for you
My opinion of Ron Paul comes from me listenin to the content of what he says he believes. I've seen interviews with him and I didn't like what I heard.
One of the foundational principles of government is that goverment should do for the people, what the people cannot do for themselves. I find his desire to dismantle programes like medicaid to be repugnant. I'm one of the people in the U.S. that can't afford health care and I can't find work, I need programs like medicaid to help me pay for a hospital bill I picked up back in April of '07. Neither I, or my family has $25,000+ to pay it. There are thousands of people like that in the U.S. and something needs to be done to help those people.
Ron Paul, seemingly, doesn't think we should get that help from the government, that the individual states should handle it or that we should just deal with it ourselves. I don't agree with that mentality. The people who need the help should be able to get it, those who abuse the system are another matter entirely.
Its not fun unless your constantly fearing attack from the horde aka i wanted to be an ass and mess things up, hey uh guys can i interest you in switching the event to the emerald dream server?
(wooo horde)
If you look at the issues.. the reason he wants to dismantle SS and medicare/medicaid is because we cant afford them. By 2030 or so they will consume >100% of the federal budget. Figure out how to pay for it (and defense, other programs, etc..)and you will be a savior. He wants to quit spending money overseas to fund these programs until the current Americans dependant on them no longer need them (i.e., die) and start new programs for younger americans to support themselves.
The deeper message that so many discount without digging for (you know who you are...same people that trash movies without seeing them...etc...), is that the lack of jobs and problems in America result from poor economic policy...fighting inflation with inflation created by the Federal Reserve & spending huge chunks overseas (subsidizing dictators & bombing governments we do not approve of).
Check the dollar vs. the Canadian dollar, Euro, or peso...it is getting killed lately. Dig for the reasons for this and find another candidate to support that addresses these things...I cannot find another...therefore I support Ron Paul.
2 years ago (such a short time) my dollar was worth 1.45 canadian...I went in July and it was EVEN. Are you surprised it takes more dollars to buy gas & food when the dollar is worth less each month. Consider these things before trashing him is all I ask.