My latest article on Lewrockwell.com is up. It compares John Lindh to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

For those unaware, Rudolph Gulliani is to be the Keynote Speaker at the Foundation for Economic Education’s Liberty Banquet this fall. This has understandably caused some libertarians and people associated with FEE to grumble. See J.H. Huebert, Gary North (scroll to the bottom), and Stephan Kinsella for criticism of the decision, and Mark and >JoAnn Skousen for a defense. For more on FEE see Greg Pavlik’s Immigration Enthusiasm In Action: The Case Of FEE from the Rothbard Rockwell Report in 1998.

Mark Skousen defended Giuliani by saying that, “Leonard Read and FEE always appealed to both conservatives and libertarians--a broad umbrella.” It is true that FEE’s views appealed to traditionalist and even Cold War conservatives. However, those conservatives agreed with FEE’s economic views, while they may have differed on some cultural views or military views. Giuliani is just as much inimical to conservatives as libertarians. He supports special rights for homosexuals, gun control, abortion, and the rest of the liberal program. I haven’t read his views on the market, but he made his name by going after Michael Milliken. The only ‘conservative’ thing he’s done is defending policemen who shoot unarmed civilians.

Jo Ann Skousen defends the choice, by comparing Giuliani to previous speakers Bill O’Reilly and Margaret Thatcher. I can’t stand Bill O’Reilly and I wouldn’t defend Bordeaux decision to choose him as a speaker, but it would be wrong to compare Giuliani to Thatcher. While Thatcher wasn’t as free-market as she is made up to be, she had at least some redeeming qualities. She smashed the communist controlled unions. She denationalized some industries. And she claimed great influence from Hayek and Mises, even if her policies may not have reflected them. I'm not a big fan of Thatcher, but I can se the rationale of having her speak.

According to the brochure, FEE's "goal is to take advantage of this high-profile event and raise a lot of money for FEE's Educational Programs that promote the principles of individual liberty, private property, limited government and free trade." I find this problematic. Giuliani is rumored to be getting $75,000 to speak. I believe John Stossel charges $25,000 to speak (the College Republicans at William and Mary tried to bring him to campus.) Most libertarians aren't going to be impressed by seeing Giuliani, so I don't see why they would donate money because of him. Anyone who would be impressed by Giuliani probably wouldn't want to give money to a free-market think tank. The only thing FEE can gain from this is "respectability", which almost always leads to compromising one's beliefs.

Neoconservative Double Speak

Anti-American: Anyone who questions Bush’s foreign policy, unless they favor more intervention and support of Israel

Anti-Semite: Anyone mildly critical of Israel

Moral Equivalence: The belief that the U.S. and Israeli government could ever do anything immoral

Traditional Values: Gays getting married and joining the army

Western Civilization: Brittany Spears, Titanic, and McDonalds

On the note of terminology…

As we all know, neoconservatives, AIPAC, the ADL, and the rest of the Israel Lobby always use the words anti-Semitism and anti-Zionist interchangeably. However I just got thinking who is really an anti-Zionist in the U.S. Anti-Zionist implies that someone is opposed to the existence of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Other than a handful of Jewish theologians and Arabs I can’t think of anyone who actually objects to the existence of an Israeli state after all these years. What “anti-Zionists” really are people who think that U.S. and Israeli interests dot always coincide and can be opposed to each other, that the U.S. does not have to give foreign aid to Israel, that the Israeli government’s policy in regards to the Palestinians can be wrong etc.etc.etc. That is hardly anti-Zionist. One could argue that by supporting such policies, Israel would be destroyed so that makes one “contextually anti-Zionist” or something like that. But that is a point to be argued rather than a question to be begged.

I still hear conservatives fume about the comment made by a Reuters Editor that "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." This, they say, is a prime example of "anti-Americanism" and "moral equivelance." While I find that comment to be a bit over simplified, conservatives are in many. Last fall I attended a conferences sponsored by the Collegiate Network for editors of conservative college newspapers. Stanley K. Ridgeley, the Network's executive director, told us a story about a few Yale Students in the 80s who went to Afganistan for a summer to fight the Soviets. They swarthied themselves up, dressed in Arab Garb, got some rifles and eventually wrote an account of it for the conservative paper at Yale. Most of the atendees thought that those two students were heroes. This was a few weeks before the whole John Walker Lindh incident occured. I can promise that most everyone there would have supported the recent decision and probably would be happy to have him executed. It's funny that if Lindh had decided to go the Afghanistan 15 years earlier he would be touted as a hero by these same people. I guess one man's terrorist really is another man's freedom fighter.

This blog will be used to link to my articles in various publications and occassionally give some musings on the political happenings of our day. For a little background on myself --I will be sophomore at the College of William and Mary this fall. I am planning to double major in Economics and Government or History. I am editor of the conservative newspaper on campus, The Remnant, and president of the college libertarians (which is more or less a paper organization right now, but I hope to change that.) Politically, I'm a paleolibertarian and anarcho-capitalist. My main influences are Rothbard, Mises, Nock, Nibset, Weaver, Flynn, Calhoun, and John Taylor. Anyway, if you have any comments feel free to e-mail me at myepst@wm.edu. Enjoy.