NPR Visits Rand Paul's Hometown and Finds Big Gov't Irony

"Lake Jackson, Texas, sprang from the shotgun wedding of industry and big government"

NPR has released an encore presentation of "Journey Home," a series on the hometowns of presidential contenders.

Click here to listen (it's about seven minutes long).

Interesting stuff, though heavy on the supposed irony that the libertarian-leaning senator and son of former Rep. Ron Paul grew up in a place that enforces tight land-use regs and was created by the government to help supply the war effort during World War II.

SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Rand Paul's hometown of Lake Jackson, Texas, sprang from the shotgun wedding of industry and big government that Paul and his family have long railed against. The city's curving streets, carefully laid out to preserve the live oak trees, are a stark contrast to the unregulated sprawl of Houston, 50 miles to the north.

ROBERT RULE: The city has kept a master plan. It is unusual city for that. It has been master-planned since the beginning. They're very strict about new properties.

HORSLEY: Robert Rule who runs the local historical association says Lake Jackson was hastily built near the Texas Gulf Coast to house workers at a Dow Chemical plant so they could produce the magnesium the military needed in World War II.

RULE: The U.S. government stepped in, and they made it happen….

More here.

Comments

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

What in the fuck

[Red Rocks Rockin]

White liberals like the dopes at NPR love these "OH THE IRONY" gotcha stories because they know that most people are too young and/or too stupid to know that WW2 left its economic legacy on the country for freakin' decades--especially in the West, which had tons of uninhabited land to appropriate during the war and develop after it. Hell, 70 years later there's still bases operating that were activated specifically for that purpose.

It's beyond parody that these fops actually believe growing up in a town among thousands of others that had their futures irrevocably altered by a national wartime economy disqualifies someone from promoting smaller government. Hell, aren't these same people always going on about how the government shouldn't be spending it's revenue on any military at all?

[gaoxiaen]

The left made a big deal about Ron Paul, fiscal conservative, hiring a private plane during his campaign using donors' contributions when things like that are the reason for the contributions. I guess they figure Air Force One is free.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Well, that's it then. I'm not voting for this guy.

[The Hyperbole]

Government is just another word for the live oak preserving curved road that we carefully lay out together.

[Tejicano]

I cannot even connect the dots on this... So you spend a few of your teenage years - obviously more a choice of your parents than yours - and something about that location's government is somehow supposed to mark you for life? What sort of demented, fevered dream did this idea come from?

[straffinrun]

Ayn Rand was a hyprocrite, too. Wasn't she raised in Russia?

[VG Zaytsev]

Isn't it possible that one could find libertarianism as a result of living under an overweening government?

Nah that's just crazy cause to know huge government is to love it and want more.

[Limpee Wiltstock]

I'd think so. I, for instance, grew up in about the most totalitarian hellhole you could find in the USA back in those days, and I can't remember a time I was ever able to hold onto any progovernment delusions nor romantic pretenses about the glory of democracy. Any collectivisation results in the moral majority fucking the folkefjend of the day. It was an obvious as fuck fact of life. It's folks that lived in more liberal areas that were able to become all deluded and stupid and embrace statism to the full later on--because they hadn't lived through it in all its infernal hellishness. And somehow it's like they've got the delusion so firmly attached now that they can drive straight into it all and keep loving it, even as everything burns down around them. There's also that the new folks seem stupid as fuck for the most part, barley able to feed themselves, and it's rare that nebod gets the oppo to go take himself a break now and then, wandering off somewheres and living like a white man on his own two-legs. Half of people are so idiotic they don't even know it could be an option. The other half get confronted by a gang of thugs every time they try it, arsking for their gambolling permits and why they ain't wearing their special Obama beanies and what not.

[Limpee Wiltstock]

And what blows my mind was how they spent all those years I was growing up, telling me, "Oh, no, that couldn't happen in the USA," when I told them about crap I saw with my own two fucking eyes. "You're delusional. People here is free." And so forth. But what blows my mind is that after all that, now it's come undeniable how things are going, and these same folks have somehow completely reversed their rationalisations in the blink of an eye from "It's not really happening," to "Sure, it's happening, but it's all for the best and as long as you do good work they'll do good by you. What are you some kind of terrorist?" So it comes clear that they don't really mean none of it. What they really mean is, "I worship authority and as long as I am allowed to play some role that allows me to identify with the thugs in power, I will give them my full support, with whatever lies and nonsense seems appropriate." Even worse, I recently run into someone now and then whose arguments almost come right out and say it that way. "The police are powerful! Everyone should obey them! The slightest disobedience should be met with immediate execution!" Said in this crasy smug voice that seems to say, "By worshipping the thugs, I share in their power." Which isn't so bad. What's bad is how that and everything else they do and say screams, "I am a slave! I am a slave!" That's what brings me close to doing like Jesus would do and whipping them.

[nrob]

How's the view from the beaker, Frogger?

[ace_m82]

That's what brings me close to doing like Jesus would do and whipping them.

I was going to question the Theology of this statement, but it was too funny.

[nrob]

"Soviet Union". Even more irony-er

[GILMORE?]

Ayn Rand collected Social Security so ERGO HA HA HA LIBERALS RULE!!

[some guy]

The proggies love that argument. In their world the only principled libertarians are the ones that dutifully pay their taxes and obey onerous regulations but never accept any of the meager returns offered by their government. Screw that. I'll happily opt out of the benefits the moment you let me also opt out of the costs.

[John C. Randolph]

I tend to shut them up by asking "do you have any reason to believe that she collected any more in SS payments than she was forced to pay in taxes?" If not, then she was only getting her own money back, as she would be fully entitled to do.

-jcr

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I COVERED ALL OF THIS WITH "What in the fuck"

[straffinrun]

Thought you were shocked at beating Fist.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

That's like winning the special olympics.

[some guy]

Have you looked at the records for the paralympics? If HnR had participated as its own country, I bet we would have been goose-egged on the medal count.

[Lord Rollingpin]

And that was all that was needed.

[Jimbo]

I never vote for people who live in (master) planned communities!

[Winston]

Isn't this basically the ROADZ!!!! argument?

[Cowboy]

Hey, that's my town! Also, the local government tries too hard to be the next big thing, seeing Pearland blow up has gotten their power boners up. I plan on moving to someplace cheaper once my property value peaks. Luckily DOW just brought in a huge research facility and values are sky rocketing.

[OneOut]

I graduated from Brazoswood High School. My wife teaches ballet in Pearland.

Small World.

[straffinrun]

That picture leaves me dazed and confused.

[Tejicano]

I graduated from a high school in west Texas the same year as that movie's story was supposed to take place... only I did it without the drugs. Not quite the same experience I guess.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Did you get older, while the girls stayed the same age?

[straffinrun]

Ever read Joe R. Lansdale? Pulpy, but funny fictional depiction of East Texas. I'll give you one of his books next I see ya.

[Tejicano]

No, but I will look forward to it - thanks in advance!

[The Hyperbole]

His westerns are top notch as well, think Larry McMurty meets Elmore Leonard.

[Tejicano]

High praise to me. Larry McMurty is one of my favorites - before my boys were born I was reading his "the crossing" to them in the womb. Many of the landscapes he mentions I have personally hiked, camped, and hunted so that trilogy was almost like a set of books that he wrote for me and me alone to enjoy.

[The Hyperbole]

I'd guess you'd like "The Thicket" and "Paradise Sky", his 'Hap and Leonard' series is good but after um-teen books can get a bit redundant (Yeah Joe, I get it ,the gay black guy is one bad motherfucker, and the down on his luck white guy has lotsa feelz). He also has some horror/supernatural stand alone novels and honestly they are hit and miss, but whether you like the story or not he is a master of dialogue and I've laughed out loud at least once when reading any of his books.

[Mock-star]

+1 Bubba Ho-tep

[Tejicano]

The girls, almost all of them hispanic, did what a diet of pork, beans, and tortillas - all prepared heavy in animal fats - generally does. Good thing I got away from that place as fast as the recruiter could schedule my departure.

[pogi chips for liberty]

I graduated from a high school just outside of San Antonio the year before that story was supposed to take place. We did it pretty much the way it was depicted in the movie. Drugs and all.

[Agammamon]

irony that the libertarian-leaning senator and son of former Rep. Ron Paul grew up in a place that enforces tight land-use regs and was created by the government to help supply the war effort during World War II.

Look goddamnit - its pretty obvious. Ifit weren't for the guiding hand of Big Government Rand Paul wouldn't exist!

He should be *praising* the USG, not trying to limit it.

[Lord Rollingpin]

Sharks and how to jump them, an article by Nick Gillespie.

[straffinrun]

OT: If you want to pull your hair out, check this Jack Lew interview out.

Falling oil prices may hurt individual workers, but it's like a tax cut for the rest of the economy. You know what else you could do that is like a tax cut for the economy?

[Stevecsd]

This is the "the government owns all of the money & resources in the country" thinking. So if prices go lower, it is the government giving you a tax cut. Not that private businesses are responding to supply & demand.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

So we're all in agreement.

This article sucks.

[Winston]

You Know Who Else argued that your birthplace determined your thoughts and views?

[Lord Rollingpin]

Hitler, right it's always Hitler.
No!
mmm Warty?
Nikki?
Flop sweat..
errr help me out here..

[GILMORE?]

PEOPLE BORN IN A CYBORG LABORATORY TEST-TUBE MIND-PROGRAMMING FACILITY. BEEP. ANGEL SOFT AND QUILTED NORTHERN ARE THE FINEST RESTROOM PAPERS FOR HUMAN COMFORT AND HYGIENE. BEEP.

[KerryW]

Some of the most virulent anti-communists grew up in communist countries. What's so ironic about that?

[GILMORE?]

Alanis Morissette was actually anemic. True fact.

[NYC2AZ]

Growing up in NYC taught me to hate big government and see it as the religious replacement for the self-proclaimed "enlightened." When I remind my family about my views, they tend to have more colorful responses than calling it "ironic."

[Mint Berry Crunch]

So if quasi-libertarian Rand Paul is a hypocrite based on where he lived, is progressive Bernie Sanders a hypocrite for being from overwhelmingly white Vermont? Because I thought progs were supposed to be passionate about racial diversity and stuff.

[RAHeinlein]

Bernie attended PUBLIC SCHOOL - haven't you listened to the ads?

[Tejicano]

OK, everybody in unison, recite the standard progtard reply - "Oh! But that's different!"

[GamerFromJump]

So did I.

That's why I had to take a remedial Algebra II course to be admitted to college.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

I guess that explains why he doesn't understand economics....

[Intn'l House of Badass]

NPR, which exists due to government subsidies, fishes for a "government subsidies" angle to attack an opponent of government subsidies.

This wasn't worthy of a Reason article.

[SIV]

Lake Jackson was founded as a company town by Dow Chemical. Nick is parroting NPR's "you didn't build that" because it fits his narrative and he's too fucking lazy to look up anything. The government's role in creating Lake Jackson was as a customer of war materials that Dow could supply.

[GILMORE?]

"Nick is parroting NPR's "you didn't build that"

In fairness = Nick is simply passing on NPR's "you didn't build that" story with no other commentary other than to call it, "heavy on the supposed irony", which is apparently insufficient to avoid the accusations of Cosmoness.

In reverse fairness = he is pretty cosmo.

[SIV]

"Passing on" credit for building the city to the government. Lake Jackson was designed, planned and built by a capitalist:

The city was built in the early 1940s as a planned community, designed by Alden B. Dow of Midland, Michigan for workers in support of a new plant of the Dow Chemical Company, which his father owned. The City of Lake Jackson was incorporated March 14, 1944, and voted for home rule ten years later in 1954.

[GILMORE?]

Ok, take what i said, add "Nick is also half-braindead-lazy from over-consumption of Eggnog and Stromboli"

[Tejicano]

But, as the usual progtard would remark in the safe confines of cocktail party of his/her peers - "Once again evidence of how the evil of any man who opposes our plans is so extensive that it was influencing the local government years before he was born!"

Yeah, it seems fantastically contrived, unless you grew up around these progtard freaks. They might not state it in those exact terms but what they do actually put to words is not far from this.

[OneOut]

Whomever is responsible for naming the streets of Lake Jackson was a sadistic puke.

So many are named This Way, That Way, Right Way, Wrong Way, and other purposefully confusing similar names that after living there 5 years it was still hard to navigate.
.

[Rhywun]

This Way, That Way

I thought you were joking but... [consults map]... OMG.

[Tejicano]

They probably navigate the way people do in Japan where very, very few streets have names and fewer people even know or use those names. People just give directions by landmark - "take a left at Mitsubishi bank, go down to the corner with the Lawson convenience store, take a right,..."

[nrob]

Sounds like a Dr. Seuss book

[sarcasmic]

Always attack the person, not their ideas.

[nrob]

It's why Trump's there, steal votes and be a vehicle that creates emotional responses instead of argumentation. He is Hillary's umbrella.

[Rhywun]

I live in f-----g NYC by choice and guess what - it isn't because I love big government. NPR can go to hell.

[Rockabilly]

Just another example of progressive geographism and their tiny world view.

[robc]

Rand and I both live in Bowling Green...not exactly libertopia.

[Nativist, Racist & Xenophobe]

'Smarter Nick - Did a Republican snatch your purse, or what?

[Suthenboy]

It never occurs to these idiots that Rand's libertarianism might just be the result of growing up witnessing the asshattery of big government types?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

This is why I no longer listen to npr. This as dumb as pointing out the irony that someone who believes in freedom was born under a dictatorship.

What's ironic, if anything is the seemingly growing support for socialism despite its bloody history.

[pogi chips for liberty]

They'll get it right this time or you'll die trying.

[thrakkorzog]

I can't wait to see the follow up article on Ben Carson. "How can a black man from Detroit not realize that government is the solution to every problem ever?"

[JeremyR]

He looks like Scott Baio.

So I guess he gets a perm? Since his hair is straight then.

[Warty]

Government liberalass radio is doing naked ad hominems against ideological enemies, then?

[nrob]

NPR and the Ford Foundation seem to have a habit of always coming to the conclusion x + y = a good Big Gov. It is basically their mandate.

[Marty Comanche]

Even if there is some relationship here, this isn't irony. If anything, this is Fox Butterfieldism. Citizen sees big government firsthand. Citizen rejects big government. But to the left, this possibility is unimaginable, so they scurry back to their ratholes and write smarmy missives about something being wrong with Kansas.