Category Archives: libertarianism

Freedom Fighters Vs. Freedom Deniers; Truth Vs. Untruth

Conservatism, Journalism, libertarianism, Liberty, Media, Political Philosophy, Propaganda, Pseudo-history, Pseudo-intellectualism

If economic historian Tom Woods and XM radio host Mike Church made it onto Freedom Watch’s often-misnamed Freedom-Fighters panel, I would be inclined to tune in more often. These men have fidelity to truth and reality. It was on display during an appearance on Judge Napoliaton’s Fox Business show.

More often than not, I switch off. Sure, the occasional freedom fighter finds his way onto the segment, but the Freedom Fighters Panel is set-up, in general, in the mold followed by every other cable and network show. It’s positively postmodernist. Present the public with two competing “perspectives” or worldviews. By doing so, you mislead Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber into thinking that indeed there are two realities, and that he may decide which one is more compelling.

The truth is that truth is immutable; it is not relative. There is, moreover, too little truth in media. Truth cannot afford to be diluted or presented by its adherents as dueling with untruth.

Gasbag Gasparino/Nancy Skinner/Caroline Heldman/Tara Dowdell/—these Fox News fixtures no more represent truth or promote it than does your average Holocaust denier.

Except, that—although I know nothing about the Dewey Decimal Classification—I believe that in a library, Holocaust denying literature would not be classified under history. If I am correct in this last assumption, why classify the reality defying bunk spewed by the likes of Nancy Skinner, Caroline Heldman, Tara Dowdell, Carl Jeffers, Joe Sibila, Erika Payne, “Charlie” Rangel, and other assorted TV mouths, as versions of the truth? For that is what the panel format suggests.

Naturally, the dueling “perspectives,” political-panel format is quite compatible with the aims of CNN, MSNBC, and other progressive media outlets.

Neocons Are Second-Handers

Conservatism, libertarianism, Literature, Neoconservatism, Political Philosophy, Pseudo-intellectualism, Republicans, Ron Paul, South-Africa

Readers often conflate popularity with quality. Periodically, a reader who’s recently stumbled upon the commentariat’s dirty little secret—libertarians who’ve been writing predictive op-eds for over a decade—will suggest that this writer petition one of their favorite, famous, thoroughbred neoconservatives for an audience. “Show your latest book,” the well-meaning reader will urge, to this or that NYT best seller neocon, pseudo-conservative, know-nothing.

Take the “portfolio,” goes the well-meaning chap’s advice, and seek a pat on the head from a particular dufus whom my reader, for some reason, considers to be a Delphic oracle.

Of course, in the larger scheme of things, “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa” should survive long after the various neocon books.

Liberals this; liberals that; Bush was great; Cheney too, the world is dead without America; Europe sucks; we’ve discovered that debt and big government are bad now that Obama’s in power:

If you don’t already know that these titles and their authors all have precious little to impart for posterity—you should!

Mark Steyn’s freshly presented tired ideas are one of many such examples. Steyn is an entertaining writer and fun to read. However, The “One-Man Global Content Provider’s” epistolary razzmatazz should never be confused with unconventional analysis, as explained, by way of an example, in “Beck, Wilders, and His Boosters’ Blind Spot.”

As for this writer and her relationship with mainstream neoconservatives: Been there done that. I may one day write about the almost-flirtatious sweet nothings some big-name neocon-cum-conservatives whispered in my e-ear when I first appeared on the US scene. There were dinner invitations too, one at least was even attended.

All that was before I registered, on Sept. 19, 2002, the first of many principled objections against their war of choice on Iraq. That was before the neocons discovered I was not an S. E. Cupp, a Margaret Hoover, or a ditzy Dana Perino.

After that fatal date, I became a political persona non grata.

The neocon modus operandi is to ignore and vilify truth-tellers such as Ron Paul, so long as the truth is unpalatable. After a period of time has passed—say five years hence—Ron Paul’s economic and foreign policy prescriptions (or my analysis of the New democratic South Africa and its lessons for America) will become quite kosher because it will no longer be possible to deny reality. Then the usual gasbags will proceed to “borrow” ideas they have not originated.

Seldom will originators be credited, not by neocons, at least.

When it comes to Machiavellian machinations, however, neocons are originators second to none.

UPDATED: Media Top-Dogs Kick Underdog Ron Paul (Look Inside the ‘Cannibal’)

Ethics, Free Markets, Journalism, libertarianism, Liberty, Media, Propaganda, Republicans, Ron Paul

The following is from “Media Top-Dogs Kick Underdog Ron Paul,” now on WND.COM:

“Republican and Democratic media whores briefly came clean about ignoring presidential hopeful Ron Paul. Then they promptly returned to ignoring him.

No sooner had Fox News’ Megyn Kelly and CNN’s Piers Morgan interviewed Dr. Paul about his untouchable status among their colleagues, than John King of the eponymous CNN show could be heard recounting the winners of the Republican 2011 Iowa Straw Poll, to the exclusion of the man who secured second place: Congressman Ron Paul.

Michele Bachmann won 4,823 votes; Texas Rep. Ron Paul 4,671. With 152 votes separating the two frontrunners, one might even say that, in Ames, Iowa, Paul jostled with Mrs. Bachmann for first place.

A slick Drew Griffin, also at CNN, cracked up as he instructed a cub reporter on the ground: ‘If you get a sound bite from Palin bring that back to us. You can hold the Ron Paul stuff.”

Following the Republican Poll, Politico.com ran an article about Paul, the caption to which read: ‘Ron Paul remains media poison.’ The article featured an image of Ron Paul flanked by signs touting the stuff the press finds so poisonous: ‘Liberty and Freedom.’

As is often the case, satirist Jon Stewart stepped in to correct—and to make fun of—the farrago of misinformation spread by mainstream media. …”

The complete column is “Media Top-Dogs Kick Underdog Ron Paul,” now on WND.COM.

My new book, “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa,” is available from Amazon.

A newly formatted, splendid Kindle copy is now available. The errors of the previous copy have been corrected.

If you’re interested in syndicating my weekly, WND column, kindly email me for details at ilana@ilanamercer.com. “Return to Reason“ is WorldNetDaily’s longest standing, exclusive libertarian column.

UPDATE (Aug. 19): At last, after a lot of aggravation, Amazon has activated the “Look Inside” feature to “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa.” This will enable you to read ten percent of the book online.

Amazon is simply amazing. To appreciate how magnificently Amazon operates, consider this and this lone: how would the government operate this highly complex, super-efficient online business? Still, when certain features are still in their infancy and are in the process of being streamlined—the individual (like myself) can lose perspective. Understandably so.

However, not a day goes by—when I interact with Amazon, Costco, or any other vendor—that I don’t stop to apprecaite the genius of spontaneous order. In the process of making a living, people cooperate voluntarily to bring about magnificent, munificent, mutually beneficial outcomes.

UPDATED: ‘Libertarian Top 50 Sites’ ‘Misses’ Mercer

Barely A Blog, Ilana Mercer, IlanaMercer.com, Israel, libertarianism, Media, Political Philosophy

DBKP’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.