Perhaps Ron Paul spent just a little too much time in the presence of the One Ring. The only politician I hold any respect for, the man who tirelessly advocates the free market, is apparently forsaking his free market advocacy and taking a rather statist move:
Ron Paul is feuding with his rabid fan base over the ownership of RonPaul.com. Paul wants it, but his fans own it. They’re willing to sell it to him… for a price Paul doesn’t agree with. So now he’s taken the dispute all the way to the United Nations.
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The proprietors of RonPaul.com say they reached out to the retired politicain and offered him RonPaul.org as a free gift, but if he “insisted” on owning RonPaul.com then they would sell it to him. There was a catch, though. It would be part of a “liberty package” with the site’s 170,000 person mailing list for… wait for it… $250,000.
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But Paul did not respond to their generous offer. Instead, he went to the United Nations’ World Intellectual Property Organization to file a 13 page complaint asking for control of both domains. Oops! Paul’s opting for legal action is notable because he’s spoken out against the U.N. in the past. They generally aren’t very popular among libertarians. They aren’t so bad now that he wants control of his own name’s website.
Several people I routinely communicate with have said this is likely the work of a family member and not Ron Paul himself. While Ron has been screwed over by family members before the responsibility of calling off the dogs still lies with him. If he truly has no part to play in this attempted thievery he needs to get his ass in gear and make it know then call off the dogs or buy the domain name for the asking price. With that said, I find myself forced to speculate on whether or not Ron simply spent too much time in the presence of the One Ring. Given time the One Ring will corrupt even the most wholesome person, which is why I avoid the political system like the plague. It’s too easy to become comfortable with the state and even an steadfast advocate of liberty can find themselves justifying how the state can be “Used for good in this one instance.”
In the end it doesn’t matter if move is a clandestine maneuver being performed by a family member or the direct order of Ron Paul himself, it makes him look like a hypocrite and that is the fastest way to become discredited.