I am the author http://bighomocon.blogspot.com/2011/12/jamie-kirchik-and-ron-pauls-newsletters.html
On Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 4:08 PM, MJ <[email protected]> wrote: > > *Do you have a LINK? The Author's name? > > *Thanks! > > > > At 03:59 PM 12/30/2011, you wrote: > > > > *Ron Paul's newsletters and the failures of mainstream journ-0-lism* > > [image: []] > <http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S44eRnyyu7s/Tv3LzxmpC3I/AAAAAAAAAv4/80Yrq6IuE4c/s1600/jamie.jpg> > > > > > James Kirchik, or Jamie as his friends and associates know him, is a young > journalist, Yale educated, Jewish and gay, a fan of the late Christopher > Hitchens and a friend of many DC libertarians and conservatives, from tv > and radio personality Mary Katherine Hamm to the editors of *reason*magazine. > > > For full disclosure I should say that I know Jamie, have gone out drinking > with Jamie and his boyfriend in the past month, have attended one of his > birthday parties, have chatted with him at* reason* magazine happy hours > and CPAC events, and in my day time job as a real estate agent, sold him a > property a couple of years ago. Indeed at CPAC 2011 I introduced Jamie > to a friend of mine who is Ron Paul's press person in his Congressional > office, since I socialize with both of them occasionally, and got to watch > them be awkward with each other before Jamie had to depart to his next > event. He's smart, I think probably far more decent than many Beltway > journalists and political junkies, and good company. If I was twenty years > younger I would probably think he is attractive. He also has lovely > parents, both of whom I have met (and who are probably around my age). > > > Jamie made his name back when he was on the staff at the *New Republic*(in > whose offices I used to meet him to work on real estate contracts) by > exposing that some newsletters written 20 years ago by associates of Ron > Paul that ran under Ron Paul's byline, contained noxious, bigoted, content > (Paul associates Lew Rockwell, the late Murray Rothbard, and their > entourage are usually fingered as culprits). There were among the many > years of this newsletter a few passages critical of gays, blacks, Israel > and AIPAC. I am choosing my words carefully here because in the current > brouhaha some, including Jamie, are saying the newsletters are > anti-Semitic, and I do not think merely criticizing Israel or the AIPAC > lobby amounts to anti-Semitism; and neither did (Jewish) libertarian writer > Jacob Sullum (whose wife is a rabbi -- and I am almost embarrassed to add > that -- next I will be disclosing that some of my best dates have been with > Jews, and indeed in a few cases with Washington establishment gay Jewish > neoconservatives) when he reviewed the material for *reason* magazine > during the last election cycle. And whether Ron Paul or his policies are > or are not "good for the Jews," they certainly have been good for *one*Jew, > since they have gained Jamie most of the publicity his writing (which > is by the way, usually very good, and is usually on deeper topics) has > received. > > > [image: []] > <http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--yc-cqMJm1w/Tv4hrswpwrI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/vK6-ssHzdlc/s1600/new+republic.jpg> > > > > > Two questions I have never seen asked nor answered are: 1) where did > 20-something Jamie learn of these newsletters, since they were written when > he was a pre-teen (Kirchik was born in 1983), and most libertarians and Ron > Paulistas were ignorant of them until after his original *TNR* story? * > AND* 2) who financed his excursion to the one or two libraries in Kansas > or Nebraska where he could find a still extant paper copy back in > 2007-2008? Perhaps *The New Republic* financed it, as* TNR* has a > long-standing fear of libertarianism, with regular articles attacking > fictional libertarian straw men (which are then routinely exposed over at > *reason*). The answers are likely perfectly innocent (though* rumor* is > Jamie was connected to the Giuliani campaign in 2008 and is supporting the > Gingrich campaign in 2012) and yet it would still be very interesting to > know (feel free to reply here). Jamie's repetition and follow up of his > 2008 articles in the *Times* and the *Weekly Standard *is timed both for > the Iowa caucuses, which the political class fears Paul may win -- and > also, more innocently, for the week when most readers would be interested > and it would result in the most website traffic. > > > [image: []] > <http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eO_vp0mgjeg/Tv4h_rq5W_I/AAAAAAAAAwc/wwIpluNWSsQ/s1600/reason+paul.jpg> > > > > > Jamie a day or two ago wrote an article called "Ron Paul's World" in the *New > York Times (* > h<http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/ron-pauls-world/>ere), > rehashing the newsletter story and responses by liberalish writers like > Andrew Sullivan at *the Atlantic* who support Ron Paul. Jamie strings > together all of Ron Paul's past and present associations that an urban > liberal would find suspect. And they definitely exist. I attended, and > even sponsored, Ron Paul's *Liberty Political Action Conference* this > fall in Reno, Nevada, which included libertarian and liberaltarian > elements, tea partiers, independents, Republicans, Democrats, and some far > right third party types (who were local to Idaho, Wyoming, Montana etc and > did not have far to come). Though the speakers and VIPs at LPAC were all > respectable Senators and academics and celebrities, Sen. Rand Paul, Sen. > Mike Lee, Prof. Walter Block, actor Vince Vaughn, some of the booths were > manned by ultra-conservative Christian groups. Strangely, these theocrats > were very friendly to me, offering me pamphlets and trying to chat me up so > much that I was tempted to slap on a pink triangle to test their ardor or > their gaydar. Jamie concludes from Paul's "failure" to tell off all of > these donors and supporters that Ron Paul is a conspiracy theorist. I > conclude that Paul, an open and congenial man (I have met him) has been > frozen out of public debate by the ruling political class for so many years > that he will indeed go on a conspiracy kook's radio show if invited as long > as the kook supports his ideas about ending the Fed or the American > empire. That may now be seen to be practically unwise and a strategic > error in hindsight. But it may be the only venue he had years ago when the > ruling political class was censoring him the way they are still censoring > former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. > > > > [image: []] > <http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Zg0ETPdQDRI/Tv4jo1SkHQI/AAAAAAAAAxY/dFQsmZCi4wU/s1600/LPAC.jpg> > > > > > Jamie and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (who he is affiliated > with, according to the *Times *piece) are upset in part that Paul is not > an automatic supporter of anything they believe is necessary for Israel's > survival. There is nothing wrong with that. My own views are a rather > recherche form of libertarian Zionism that makes no one happy, neither many > libertarians nor many neoconservatives and other Zionists. (And I am > perfectly content with my specialness.) Nothing that is, as long as one > understands his actual ideas and does not misreport his ideas or policies. > > > Jamie also does not understand much about Paul's economic policies. I > google chatted Jamie yesterday about how his gold standard riff was a > repetition of Dick Morris's inane misunderstandings/lies about Paul after > this article was posted and he replied that he -- *horrors* -- did not > get his ideas from Dick Morris. When I explained that Paul, following > economists like Nobel laureate FA Hayek (*The Denationalization of Money*) > and Lawrence White (*Competition in Currency*), believed in a free market > of privately issued, competing currencies, backed by whatever consumers > liked and thought would save value and protect savings against inflation, > and NOT a 19th century government currency with a government gold standard, > Jamie replied that he had never heard of such a thing and that that was > even crazier. (And I must apologize to Jamie in that, though he knows I > blog and reads my blog, I did not tell him I was going to write this, > though at the time I didn't know I was going to write this.) > > > [image: []] > <http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Dvg74tMHYKw/Tv4iVoMia2I/AAAAAAAAAxA/0-JcGz3qgaM/s1600/competition+in+currency.jpg> > [image: []] > <http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dOfTvkqjLk8/Tv4iIgsEe1I/AAAAAAAAAwo/L1b6rmcxl5c/s1600/denationalisation+of+money.jpg> > > > > > How can you decide who is and is not a kook and what is and is not a > conspiracy if one has a Dick Morris level grasp of someone's ideas about > economic theory, history and policy? For Ron Paul and other students of > the Austrian school of economics, the fact that half of every economic > transaction (money) is government owned, and that interest rates are > centrally planned by the State and its appointed banking cartel, is the > fundamental cause of economic disruption and unemployment, and hence > poverty and much racial inequity. You can't judge how Paul's policies > would affect racial minorities or economic opportunity or prosperity if you > are in the shallow water thinking that his critique of corporate statism is > along standard Republican lines dealing with marginal tax rates or welfare > reform or affirmative action. > > > > [image: []] > <http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UoFw3e-JGIw/Tv4ib4yNfQI/AAAAAAAAAxM/IcTs0TjDAic/s1600/competition+paul.jpg> > [image: []] > <http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wMT-XrullmY/Tv4iPBVWDmI/AAAAAAAAAw0/JfyG_UqUFZk/s1600/end+the+fed.jpg> > > > > > If you are going to write articles on Ron Paul for 5 years, you should > have heard of a basic, well-known (among Paul supporters) idea put forward > by one of Ron Paul's major intellectual sources, a Nobel Prize winning > economist. And it is not a "crazy" idea because the ruling class is > invested in the current system where a government currency is used to > finance government debt and bail out banks (and fund the American military > empire) by stealing average people's purchasing power through inflation or > because they fail to even discuss it in undergraduate classes at Yale. > > > __._,_.___ > > > Report any problems, suggestions or abuse to > [email protected] > > > > > > Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional > Change settings via the > Web<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Individual-Sovereignty/join;_ylc=X3oDMTJmcDYwbjNiBF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzI0MjA3MzcEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MzAzMjkyBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA3N0bmdzBHN0aW1lAzEzMjUyNzg3ODA->(Yahoo! > ID required) > Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily > Digest<[email protected]?subject=Email+Delivery:+Digest>| > Switch > to Fully > Featured<[email protected]?subject=Change+Delivery+Format:+Fully+Featured> > Visit Your Group > <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Individual-Sovereignty;_ylc=X3oDMTJkZDJjcDR2BF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzI0MjA3MzcEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MzAzMjkyBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA2hwZgRzdGltZQMxMzI1Mjc4Nzgw>| > Yahoo! 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