Comments on: Bill Kelsey

By: Jayne Cobb

Jayne Cobb — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:27:11 +0000

Like eCAHNomics, I, too, heard echoes of the mid-twentieth-century westerns’ tales of range wars between cowboys and sod busters.

Matt Fay, your link didn’t work for me, but I found your article here:
http://theprometheusinstitute.org/politics/blogarchive/670-profit-making-peacekeeping

Great to hear the observations of someone whose life has given him a perspective so far outside that of us provincials. Better still to hear that perspective expressed with sympathy for the real individuals involved and not just their abstract collective identities.

By: Matt Fay

Matt Fay — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:48:49 +0000

Great interview! Truly interesting. I am fascinated by Scott’s comment that Mia Farrow is interested in hiring Blackwater for security in Darfur. I actually wrote an article on this very idea for the Prometheus Institute (URL below). I agree with Bill and have a moral objection to the very idea, but I do feel that if private groups want to raise the money to hire these mercenaries, then by all means go ahead. It may actually accomplish some good, and no matter what it is better than having the U.S government take that sort of action in our names and with our tax dollars.

http://theprometheusinstitute.org/index.phpoption=com_content&view=article&id=670:profit-making-peacekeeping&catid=94:blog&Itemid=176

By: eCAHNomics

eCAHNomics — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:22:20 +0000

Sudan: “Why can’t the farmers and the cowboys jest be friends?”

By: redsaunas

redsaunas — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 07:22:05 +0000

DJ Toman literally took the words from my mouth. Excellent interview, fascinating guest with very compelling views.

But one of Scott’s comments really rang bells with me. It’s a point I’ve made often myself. Every time I read/see/hear a mainstream media article covering any topic about which I have specific and detailed knowledge, the ‘journalists’ ALWAYS make fundamental errors some important point, and in many cases get the entire thing backwards. Sometimes I put this down to boneheadedness, but other times I believe they deliberately misrepresent facts in order to make some ‘case’, either their own or their boss’s hobbyhorse, or to make the article fit with ‘mainstream’ perceptions.

When we’re not being lied to, we’re being misled. No wonder the world’s a bloody mess.

By: DJ Toman

DJ Toman — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:26:45 +0000

An excellent interview with a fascinating fellow.
It’s clear that the idea of a single “ethnic” state is nothing but a quaint 19th-century idea that’s incompatible with the 21st century. The idea persists in the popular media because they tend to be sympathetic to one side…through fanaticism or ignorance…or money…
In the US, we have ethnic enclaves that live nicely within the state. In New York, as in other places, ethnically-based neighborhoods thrive and contribute to the vitality of the region. We’ve seen that it works here, yet we support through state-sponsored theft, the amoral suggestion that ethnically-based states can work elsewhere. It does everyone a disservice to perpetuate the idea.
The question remains…How do we, as Libertarians, turn the tide?