If they hate us for our freedoms...

If they hate us for our freedoms, as the bulk of the presidential candidates running will tell you, then are we not surrendering by giving up our civil rights?

Time and time again, I often see the reason for this war and our foreign policy is that they hate us for our freedoms. And at the same time, these same people tell us we need to give up our freedoms. You are suddenly un-American if you don't give up those freedoms?

And since 9/11, we have had the biggest lose in freedom and civil liberties than any point in our history. If we tear down the base of what we stand for, then we have already lost. No wonder we need troops in Iraq for 100 years as John McCain says, they will be over there working for someone else. Because we have already lost this war, and we lost it the moment GWB signed the Patriot Act. And it's not going to stop until the American people wake up and realize this.

Of course, we all know this really isn't the reason so many in the world hate us. But sure, there are a small minority of people in the world who probably do hate us for our freedoms. And it does appear to me that for whatever reason, we are losing those freedoms. But it doesn't seem to be another country that is taking them, we seem to be happy to give them away.

So tell me America, why have we surrendered? Whats really going on here?

The Real Ron Paul on racism

The man speaks best for himself.

A nation that once prided itself on a sense of rugged individualism has become uncomfortably obsessed with racial group identities.

The collectivist mindset is at the heart of racism.

Government as an institution is particularly ill-suited to combat bigotry. Bigotry at its essence is a problem of the heart, and we cannot change people's hearts by passing more laws and regulations.

It is the federal government that most divides us by race, class, religion, and gender. Through its taxes, restrictive regulations, corporate subsidies, racial set-asides, and welfare programs, government plays far too large a role in determining who succeeds and who fails. Government "benevolence" crowds out genuine goodwill by institutionalizing group thinking, thus making each group suspicious that others are receiving more of the government loot. This leads to resentment and hostility among us.

Racism is simply an ugly form of collectivism, the mindset that views humans strictly as members of groups rather than as individuals. Racists believe that all individuals who share superficial physical characteristics are alike: as collectivists, racists think only in terms of groups. By encouraging Americans to adopt a group mentality, the advocates of so-called "diversity" actually perpetuate racism.

The true antidote to racism is liberty. Liberty means having a limited, constitutional government devoted to the protection of individual rights rather than group claims. Liberty means free-market capitalism, which rewards individual achievement and competence - not skin color, gender, or ethnicity.

In a free society, every citizen gains a sense of himself as an individual, rather than developing a group or victim mentality. This leads to a sense of individual responsibility and personal pride, making skin color irrelevant. Racism will endure until we stop thinking in terms of groups and begin thinking in terms of individual liberty.