printDBKP’s list featuring the “Libertarian Top 50 Sites” has “missed” Barely a Blog (BAB), which is ranked 188,158th on Alexa, globally. That would make BAB number 28 (or thereabouts) on this list of 50. Not bad for a one-woman operation, helped a little by regular monetary and epistolary contributions (to the Comments Section).
Also left-off the DBKP “Libertarian Top 50 Sites” was IlanaMercer.com, which has been up since 2000. (This golden oldie against the invasion of Iraq was written in 2002, which was when many “top-rated” Beltway libertarians were whooping it up for Bush’s war and bubble economy.)
A ranking of 202,294th on Alexa should make IlanaMercer.com, also on the ascendancy, 31 on the list of 50 top libertarian sites.
That’s if it had been ranked; it was not.
IlanaMercer.com archives the “Return to Reason” column. “Return to Reason” is WorldNetDaily’s longest-standing, exclusive libertarian column.
The DBKP Report was apprised of these omissions (the relevant emails are: ginnavive@gmail.com & mondoreb@gmail.com). Still, it has no excuse. Perhaps the list privileges members of the “Libertarian Lite” community, which likes to pretend paleolibertarians are not part of the genus libertarian? I doubt it, as my good pal Vox Day is a paleolibertarian (who questions free trade, no less), and his Vox Popoli weblog has, I’m pleased to report, been listed.
The author of IlanaMercer.com and Barely a Blog has never sought what one wag called “the warm smell of the herd.” However, the problem with those who think they can wish-away an individual’s substantial, indubitably classical liberal, output (this work included) is this: One day not so far away, they’ll look bad. Maybe even a little malevolent. Their credibility is at stake, not my 14 years of writing in the cause of liberty.
Many thanks to my many readers for making the two sites, maintained single-handedly by myself, so popular.
TTFN (Ta-ta for now).
UPDATE (Aug. 10): Darn, Neboja (see comment below), you’ve alerted me to the fact that I gave publicity to the DBKP self-appointed outfit. However, this conduct is emblematic and all-pervasive when it comes to my work; so what I said above needed to be said: “One day not so far away, [a lot of people] will look bad. Maybe even a little malevolent.”
If this utterly independent public intellectual cared one bit about the various tribal establishments—libertarian or other, as the dynamics of all these factions are comparable—she would be sitting on the phone NOW, replying to a couple of recent inquiries from the producer of a major libertarian television talent. (A polite, appreciative email that provided a contact # was plenty good enough for me.)
Even some of my readers, so mired in the idea that what the herd does matters to me—and in general—think that because B (Mercer’s not on TV), she has to be A (a B-talent). Of course, reasoning backward is an error. However, I like RT, as they seem truly interested in ideas. In this RT segment, I was asked about the Freedom Fest (to which I had never been invited, naturally, like I care), where a couple of neophytes had been asked to expatiate about the vexing topic of Israel. That, when this Jewish, ex-Israeli, libertarian woman has been writing cogent libertarian tracts about Israel for over a decade, one of which was even solicited by the Paul Campaign (before said Campaign was apprised by an establishmentarians, presumably, against the practice of using Mercer).
My Israel tracts have always departed from the tinny, robotic, anti-Israel, hackneyed lines you hear from the paleo- and libertarian Regulars. Yet these columns are fiercely American-centered, patriotic, and belong squarely in the American classical liberal tradition.
All that this proves is that DBKP is a third-rate website. Barely a Blog is the leading libertarian website, at least for me. Make that the leading politico-economic site. The only other sites that garner my regular visits are electronics ones…WND used to be on my regular list…until BAB replaced it.
Ilana, your articles are most appreciated…The Lord willing, when my business takes off, you will be on my donations list. (Currently my business and personal life are in the black economically…thanks in no small part to our mutual enemy).
Ilana Go Bragh
I have the ‘ant toolbar’ it ranks you at 205,646. I checked others on the list and yep, you should be in there at about 30 compared to numerous other sites; when I compare their numbers to yours. Laissez Faire Books is not a libertarian site, it is a book site. Nothing against them, I used to buy books from them and I like the “Whiskey and Gunpowder” tee shirts. If I wore tee shirts with writing. Vox Day’s site is in a class of its own; though written by a libertarian, it draws on a wide range of popular subjects, rather than staying focused on libertarian concepts.
[Laissez Faire Books would not carry “Broad Sides: One Woman’s Clash with A Corrupt Culture,” my libertarian manifesto. I see that the Kindle version of the “Search Inside the Book” for Broad Sides has been activated. You can see from the Table of Contents the wide-ranging nature of the writing.]
The two sites featured on my Mac are you and Lew Rockwell – an individual and a group. Lew, of course, has some very good stuff, but other stuff with silly conspiracy theories (the 8,230,477 people who all killed JFK or Bobby Kennedy etc.), some overboard Israel bashing, or some whitewashing (e.g. it is one thing to view the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki or the invasion of Iraq as war crimes but don’t elevate the Japanese militarist butchers or Saddam Hussein into innocent flower children in the process). You, on the other hand—unlike these large, well-connected and funded libertarian outfits—are a one-woman operation and don’t have the broad access to many authors or funding, but offer one author who does it all (from property and intellectual property rights, to foreign policy, to political economy and unparalleled pop-culture commentary). All you have is YOU – and you have an excellent batting average for sane, cogent, classical liberal thinking – without the partisan silliness, banal sloganeering, fecklessness, or paranoia found in many other writers.
As for numbers – you DESERVE a wider audience – but would you rather have a wider audience by being a partisan hack hucksters like Hannity or Olbermann or Maddow or Coulter?? STICK WITH QUALITY – self-lobotomization is not worth the price to get a larger audience.
[I hope your keen assessment of what you get on BAB and from IlanaMercer.com will find its way on to Amazon, to help the book that is a mission …]
I agree with Myron. Ilana you should stick with the quality you so eloquently represent. Unfortunately, quality and two dollars will hardly get you a Big Mac at Aacdonalds. Even I, with my superficial flirtation with libertarianism and “classical liberalism” recognize your worth to the struggle. Keep it up. There are quite a few of us who care.
See, Ilana, I’ve been reading your stuff for years – and I’ve never heard of these DBKP people until today…
[Darn: I gave them publicity.]
Ideas matter and right ideas matter a lot …. regardless of “public opinion”. Remember that Barabbas beat Jesus in the 31 A.D. Jerusalem Primary by 32,803 to 11 and even his “campaign manager” denied knowing the guy!!
Personally, I had another setback today with the Government Bureaucracy – not a soul is saying my ideas are technically bad and you might think that with 30 Seals blown up last week by an RPG that people would get off their a** but Paperwork Uber Alles!
When I want the truth, I go to your website – and when I just get burned out, there is always my ubercynic Fred:
http://www.fredoneverything.net/TowardGuatamala.shtml
[Fred rocks. You should work for Apple, Myron.]
DBKP looks to be a useful site…and they do say it takes them several months to get their top- lists together, so it’s not a “slight” that they missed this worthwhile blog. Thought Ilana was one TJ; now I see she’s just another MEKB.
[Could you please refrain from all the acronyms? For the sake of your host? I don’t get them.]
Some peeps can not handle Peeps that tell it like it is, the none so blind as those who will not see crowd are not worth the time wasting on !
First they ignore you
Then they marginalize you
Then they fight you
Then You WIN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Keep up the Great Work
TTFN.