Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX), a contender for the Republican Party's nomination to the presidency, has numerous fans and detractors who agree upon very little - but one thing nearly everyone who sees him can agree to is that he's remarkably consistent about his political positions.

For a long time, Paul has called for government regulations on airport security to be repealed, leaving that responsibility to the airlines, so the statements below aren't entirely new.

However, in an interview Friday with the conservative Fox News Channel, he again pitched this position, but with an ear-grabbing new approach, insisting that by not allowing private citizens to carry firearms on jumbo-jets, U.S. officials literally "set the stage for 9/11."

He also appeared to support the practice of racial profiling over what he called the victimization of average Americans - a position that may be every bit as controversial as the TSA's current policy of invasive pat-downs and x-ray scanning machines.

This video is from MSNBC, broadcast by Fox News on July 8, 2011, snipped courtesy of Think Progress.