Ron Paul thought the Oklahoma City Bombing was a government conspiracy

Of all the candidates still in the race for president, I’d say that Ron Paul is one of my favorites. I like his overall consistency, his opposition to the Patriot Act and his admission that the "War on Drugs" is a failure. I also like his inability to ever win a presidential election.

But other than that, I’m not too fond of the extremist right-wing politician from Texas. His dream of an American Libertarian society is impractical and superficial, his stance on foreign policy is nuts, and he reminds me of one of those government conspiracy theorists who sleeps with tin foil on his head and passes out open currency pamphlets at state fairs and gun shows.

Paul reinforces that third belief in a recently dug-up column from one of his old newsletters. In an article from a 1995 issue of the Ron Paul Survivor Report, Paul gets all Alias on us and implies that the federal government may be behind the Oklahoma City bombing. He even drops a reference to false-flag recruiting spies.

Here’s the article (h/t BuzzFeed):

We’re far from knowing everything, or even many things, about the horrific bombing of the Oklahoma federal building.

The latest rumors are tying this to the private militias. Is the government the wonderfulness of the federal government? That’s clearly their plan, whether or not the criminals responsible turn out to be “right wing extremists.”

Some people even think the government itself could have been responsible. Certainly it has been worried about its waning authority and respect among the people, and such an event builds up the central government.

The government would not use its own agents, these people say. Spy agencies frequently use “false-flag” recruitment. That is, the crazed men recruited into a “right-wing” terrorist cell would not know they were actually working for the BATF, for example.

The New York Times is blabbering about the “hate” generated by the Branch Dividians. Incinerating them does not, of course, count as an act of hate. That word is reserved for anti-Establishment types.

Some neoconservatives who backed the Waco massacre are already calling for a bigger FBI and much more “security,” i.e. more of a police state, and saying, “President Clinton, we stand behind you 100%.” Oh?

The media are trumpeting a poll claiming that 58% of Americans would give up “some of their liberties” to enable the government to “run a nationwide anti-terrorism campaign.” This is the danger, and it must be opposed.

Government always uses any crisis to try and seize more power and money. More on this next month.

Let me get this straight. Ron Paul harps on and on about how inefficient, wasteful and terrible the federal government is, yet when a devastating travesty like the Oklahoma City Bombing occurs, his knee jerk reaction is to say it’s all part of a highly organized, efficient and stealth secret government plot or conspiracy? That makes sense. He should totally be our President.

And I am aware that Paul has distanced himself from the writings in his newsletter and insists that most of the content was ghostwritten, but who cares!? It’s his newsletter. He had to be aware of (and endorse) the content that was published.

I know this from personal experience. I don’t write every post on this blog, but I do read the stuff our other writers post. Hell, I even read those Clark Matthews’ columns that we outsource to the guys in India. If they write something that doesn’t really fit in with the vision of this site, we generally don’t publish it. For example, there’s a reason you never read Marisa’s ranking of the top 10 tampon brands.

I also read the work of our other writers so I’m aware of what’s being published. That way I can take credit for it a bar:

Hot Girl: “You’re sexy. What’s your name?”

Me: “Patrick”

Hot Girl: “What do you do?”

Me: “I’m a physician. I also publish TheLostOgle.com.”

Hot Girl: “I loved your open letter to the Devon Tower and that really long wordy post about OSU athletics and checkers.”

Me: “My place or yours?”

I’m sure a similar scenario happened with Ron Paul. The only difference is that you’d probably replace “Hot Girl at Bar” with “Lonely Man who Lives in a Remote Cabin in Idaho.” Also, I won’t try to hide or runaway from my posts when Mayor Cornett and Councilman Shadid use them against me during my mayoral campaign. Granted, I may blame some of the stuff on Clark Matthews, but who wouldn't?