Ron Paul Considers Running as Independent, No War on Women in the U.S., and the Best PolicyMic Stories of the Week

Impact

This week's stories ranged from Obamacare to Trayvon Martin and the war on women. Here are the PolicyMic stories people were reading, sharing, Tweeting, Facebooking, and commenting on this week:

In a recent petition at Change.org, Ron Paul supporters say they are “outraged” at the treatment Paul’s candidacy has received from the GOP at the local, state, and national levels, the press blackouts of the candidate,. Because of this, they are urging fellow Paul supporters not to vote for the eventual Republican candidate if Paul or his son, Kentucky libertarian Senator Rand Paul, isn’t nominated as the vice presidential candidate. Robert Taylor says this is the wrong approach. He urges Ron Paul to quit the GOP race by May 1 and announce an independent run in order to keep his campaign alive and put pressure on both parties.

 

Throughout the three-day Supreme Court oral arguments on the health care law known as Obamacare, legal expert Mark Kogan provided excellent coverage of the court proceedings and analysis of each day's arguments. Find out how it all went down from the one of the country's leading up-and-coming legal minds. He'll be weighing in over the course of the next few months, until the Supreme Court hands down its ecision in June.

 

David Dietz writes: "Talk of airstrikes and war, particularly at this time when the region is at its most vulnerable state in decades, is reckless. Whether or not Iran has curtailed its nuclear ambitions, as was reported in 2007, or already has the crude capabilities to produce a bomb, as was stated early last year, one thing is for certain: in the history of an unstable region, the Middle East has never been so volatile. ... Talk of airstrikes and war, particularly at this time when the region is at its most vulnerable state in decades, is reckless. Whether or not Iran has curtailed its nuclear ambitions, as was reported in 2007, or already has the crude capabilities to produce a bomb, as was stated early last year, one thing is for certain: in the history of an unstable region, the Middle East has never been so volatile."

 

George Zimmerman's supporters were delighted to learn this week that Trayvon Martin was suspecnded from school last month because an empty plastic bag that contained marijuana residue was found in his book bag. Shanoor Seervai writes, "They will manipulate this information to portray Martin as a dangerous drug-using teenager and justify Zimmerman’s suspicion of him. [But] Martin’s suspension from school is entirely irrelevant to the case, and allowing it to influence our judgment is tantamount to criminalizing the victim."

 

Liz Thatcher dismisses the war on women in the U.S. She writes: "In some countries around the world, women aren’t allowed to drive, vote, get a job, or walk outside unattended by a man not to mention they aren’t afforded the opportunity to get an education much past middle school — if even that far. In America, women can and are encouraged to partake in all of these things." She continues, "There is a war on women in the world and it is not happening in the United States. ... Americans on both side of the aisle, I entreat you — please have a global perspective before you decide to throw around hyperbole in regards to women’s rights here in America."