Justin Raimondo's article today exposes what most ordinary, non-Kochtopusian libertarians must consider to be a shocking takeover of [T]Reason magazine by pro-war, pro-state neocons. A few of Justin's points are worth reiterating here on the blog: [T]Reason's new editor, one Matt Welch, defines himself on his own blog as "a liberal" who believes that the private practice of medicine, and education, are not legitimate private institutions and should be taken over by the state. That is, he believes that your physical and mental wellbeing should be in the hands of state monopolies. Has any communist ever not believed in this?
He has been a pro-war blogger for years, and previously worked as an editorial page editor at the "liberal" L.A. Times.
And as Justin points out, in his first [T]Reason editorial he attacks/slanders the two most principled opponents of the Iraq war in America: Ron Paul and Lew Rockwell.
My only comment on this is to point out what a despicable liar Welch has already proven himself to be. As one example: Murray Rothbard once made the point that, as odious as he is personally, David Duke, the former KKK bigshot, almost won the right to run for governor of Louisiana. How did he do this? He publicly challenged the perversion of civil rights laws from what they promised -- a colorblind society -- to their practice of institutionalizing racial discrimination against white males ("reverse discrimination"). Murray and most other libertarians, including such academic stars as Richard Epstein of the University of Chicago law school, and Walter Williams, agree(d) with this analysis. That of course does not mean that they endorse David Duke!
Welch (and others at [T]Reason) lies about this by insinuating that Rothbard (and his associates, such as Lew and Ron) were actually holding Duke up as some kind of role model (and by implication, endorsing the KKK!). There's no way they could have misinterpreted Rothbard; he was very clear on this as he was with all other writings. They're simply lying and slandering.
