I watched Stossel’s show last night and found it very disappointing. Michael Strong and Magatte Wade contributed the only worthwhile portion of the program as it related to the program’s theme. They discussed the “Free Cities Project,” which provided an alternative social system that was consistent with individual liberty. I found Stossel quite weak on most inquiries, which was most unusual for him. David Theroux was all right, but his comments were too abstract and too brief. A man from the Hudson Institute spent too much of his time parroting the line “libertarians are not anarchists,” “libertarians are not anarchists,” in an apparent effort to confirm his conservative credentials. He — and Stossel — seemed intent on reassuring the boobeoisie that anarchists are violent, destructive people, and that libertarians were not the sort of people who were opposed to government per se. About half way through the program — and before the Free Cities Project speakers appeared — I commented that it would have been nice (given the topic) to have had some libertarians on!!

Lew, Judge Napolitano, just about anyone from or associated with the Mises Institute, and a number of other libertarian/anarchist minds with whom I am familiar, would have created the substantive blockbuster I was hoping I’d see from Stossel.

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