After Murray Rothbard and the Cato Institute permanently parted company, in the manner described in Part I, a fundamental issue arose. Would Cato, and the other organizations in the Kochtopus, continue to promote the same ideas as they had previously done? Ostensibly, there had been no ideological split. Rothbard had objected to Cato’s hiring a non-Austrian economist, David Henderson; but he left Cato after a short time. (As I recall, he threw a party to celebrate his own ouster.) Rothbard also objected to the anti-nuclear energy position of Roy Childs and some of his associates at Libertarian Review; but after Rothbard left, little was heard of this strange view. Was the separation between Cato and Rothbard, then, reducible to a dispute between Ed Crane and Rothbard over the best political strategy for the Libertarian Party?
Rothbard did not think so. Cato had been founded to promote Rothbardian ideas. Indeed, Charles Koch’s support for Rothbard long antedated the founding of Cato in 1977. Koch had given money to Rothbard’s Center for Libertarian Studies. Could the ideas remain the same when Rothbard had departed? He predicted that the Kochtopus would, without his guidance, depart from its original program. He joked about “Pabloism without Pablo,” referring to a Trostkyist group, once headed by Michel Pablo (the pseudonym of the Greek revolutionary Michalis Raptis), which had dispensed with its founder. Time was soon to prove him right.
read more | digg story
Filed under: Uncategorized
The “Kochtopus” is a derogatory name coined by the late Samuel Edward Konkin, III, an anarcho-libertarian, for the group of libertarian organizations funded by billionaire Charles Koch. (Konkin, a gifted wordsmith, also is responsible for the term “minarchism” for the libertarian view that accepts a minimal state.) Murray Rothbard often used this term when referring to organizations within the Koch ambit, with the Cato Institute foremost among them. To say the least, Rothbard’s enthusiasm for Cato was not unbounded; and employees of the Kochtopus often treat Rothbard with hostility and contempt. Further, the Kochtopus has displayed unremitting hostility toward the organization with which Rothbard was associated from 1982 until his death in 1995, the Ludwig von Mises Institute.
read more | digg story
Filed under: Uncategorized
My uncle Morris Tatum is running Troup County Commissioner in the 3rd District. I will NOT support his candidacy. My uncle is a Free Mason and traitor to our country. I will NEVER support a candidate who is a member of an occult society (I supported Bush in 2004, but I was naive and voted for the lesser of the evils.). I don’t blindly support candidates because they are family. I will only support liberty minded candidates. I urge the citizens of the 3rd District in Troup County to also not vote for Ken Smith, as he openly ridiculed Dr. Ron Paul.
Filed under: Uncategorized
“In free Governments the rulers are the servants, and the people their superiors & sovereigns.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
We have no king; no dictator – and we acknowledge no human being as “Leader of the Free World [an oxymoron]” You can check the Constitution and you will not find “Leader of the Free World” listed under the lawful duties of the President.
read more | digg story
Filed under: Uncategorized
