I say "Romney" in quotes because it has become painfully obvious that the real Romney is nowhere to be seen, the Romney on the stump being a sort of cipher, a suit, or, as one wag put it, an automaton designed and built in Japan, begging Repubs to provide a provenance in much the same way that the more loony of their number called for Obama to present his birth certificate.  Now that Romney has chosen Paul Ryan as his running mate, at least there'll be real person stumping. All too real -- and downright scary.

The real Ryan wants to return us to the GWB fiscal policies of even larger tax breaks for the super rich, a return to "trickle down" economics, laissez-faire capitalism, anti-regulatory government that led to deficit spending on two foreign wars and other horrors.  Even disregarding the death-knell to Medicare as we know it, drastic cuts in spending on anything benefitting the poor and middle class, and other shocks to the system, there is another aspect to a Ryan run that should alarm all members of this community, one he spoke of during his speech in Virginia after introduction by the robot Romney.

During the speech, he said: "...America is more than just a place...it’s an idea. It’s the only country founded on an idea. Our rights come from nature and God, not government. We promise equal opportunity, not equal outcomes."  That's right, he injected something called "God" into the proceedings.  And the reference to "nature" is a coded message, one pegged to his religious beliefs, as it is primary tenet of Roman Catholicism that man has no rights apart from "natural rights," and natural rights are those bestowed upon man by a supreme being.  If anyone wants a hilarious send up of this ridiculous dogma, check out Robert Anton Wilson's Natural Law, or Don't Put a Rubber on Your Willy (1987).  Wilson points out that the church relies almost entirely for its anti-gay, anti-women, anti-birth control, &c. policies by claiming they are "against Natural Law."

In an epigraph, Wilson quoted A. E. Housman, which deserves reprinting here:

The laws of God, the laws of Man,
He may keep who will, and can;
Not I: let God and man decree
Laws for themselves and not for me.

— A.E. Housman

You might want to check out Ryan's voting record on all such matters, too; you'll find that he has a 100% homophobic & misogynist record.  It's clear he believes in the David Barton farce that holds that the founding fathers wanted America to be "a Christian nation," such that the way is paved for theocracy to be established on our shores, the better to deprive us of religious freedom, even perhaps the right to believe in nothing.  Fortunately, his positions on these things will be exposed by the Dems.  They have a new whipping boy to attack.  There's not much point in attacking Mittens Rumney.  The worst that can happen is that a part will be smashed, and the Chinese or Japanese factory that made him can ship in a replacement.