Reason Writers Around Town: Matt Welch Talks Libertarianism With Eli Lake at Bloggingheads

Over at Bloggingheads.tv, Reason Editor in Chief Matt Welch talks with Washington Times foreign policy reporter Eli Lake about Ron Paul, the resurgent limited-government sentiment at CPAC, the Bush-Obama War on Terror continuum, Glenn Greenwald, the split between F.A. Hayek and Murray Rothbard, AntiWar.com, Justin Raimondo, something called "Michael Moynihan libertarianism," whether we are living in a "libertarian moment," whether libertarians are all freakazoids, whether David Frum gets to be the big Jell-o Sheriff of the Republican house, and whether Bo Belinsky was a rapist. Whole thing clocks in at just under an hour.  

Comments

[Some Guy]

Wow, Matt-I little hostility right out of the gate, no?

[Matt Welch]

No! Eli is a pal. This is how we talk with one another.

[John C. Randolph]

That snotty, condescending prick is your pal? You need to find some new friends, Matt.

-jcr

[Matt Welch]

Do I tell *you* who you can be friends with?

[John Tagliaferro]

$5 on Matt kicking JCR's ass in a cage match.

[John C. Randolph]

I didn't issue an order, I made an observation. You're an editor, you should be able to parse a sentence.

-jcr

[d]

Tagliaferro, I believe you just lost $5.

[NonPaulogist]

Pay up, JT. Show some class.

[John Tagliaferro]

The kazoo line is a great tension breaker.

[Mike Laursen]

The other day I posted a comment linking to Reason Foundation's analysis of the California high-speed rail project to my local town newspaper's website (the Mountain View Voice). The editor's, Don Frances, response was, "Hey, I know Matt Welch.", followed by completely ignoring anything the Reason website had to say.

[Matt Welch]

Hey, Don Frances! Good guy. Worked on the college paper together, though maybe not at the same time. Take him out for a drink, and say it's on me.

[Mike Laursen]

Will be sending you the bill for our drinks.

[Some Guy]

A little, that is.
Is there some sort of bad blood between you two?

[Some Guy]

I put up my second post before seeing your response, Matt. Sorry about that. I figured that the alternative explanation was that you two know each other.

[John Tagliaferro]

Matt,

Cool 8-Track collection!

[horselips]

8-tracks?!

If he remembers this tune, he needs to retire...

[Graphite]

You really showed that DayQuil gelcap who's boss.

[Warty]

That guy really should be painted blue.

[SugarFree]

I'm on Matt's side because he has far, far more books behind him than Eli.

[John Tagliaferro]

Those aren't books. They're 8-Track tape cartridges.

[NonPaulogist]

That's no moon...

[SugarFree]

Starting at 13:00 Matt calls out a regular commenter and calls him a retard.

[Warty]

Dammit, now I'll have to watch to find out if it's me.

[Mike Laursen]

At 44:59, Matt fades out right in the middle of a guitar solo, and you have to wait for the tape to flip to the other side.

8-tracks should be banished to hell, not collected!

[SugarFree]

Starting at 13:00 Matt calls out a regular commenter and calls him a retard.

[Matt Welch]

Correction -- I call the *POV* retarded, not the commenter. I believe each and every one of you to be definitely above-average.

[SugarFree]

Even Tony?

[Matt Welch]

Even Steve Smith! (Who is a real-world pal of mine, too.)

[SugarFree]

Even Steve Smith! (Who is a real-world pal of mine, too.)

You poor bastard. Sleep with one-eye open, Welch. The creature and cover of night go together like chicken and stars.

[Warty]

Not Tony. Tony's the laughingstock of the grindcore community.

[prolefeed]

Tony is above average in intelligence, and slmost invariably spews retarded POVs.

This is the horrible, horrible effect of having faulty starting premises.

[Franklin Harris]

So, this is Lake Woebegone?

[John Tagliaferro]

Above average for the whole wide interweb or just above average for H&R?

[prolefeed]

Damn you, John. Damn you to hell for preemptively stealing my comment. 😉

[John Tagliaferro]

It's the time travel. Don't tell anybody.

[prolefeed]

Are we each and every one of us above the average for HNR commenters?

[T]

Some of dearly departed and currently here drag the average so far down it's hard not to be above it.

[the tide]

I have made a point never to use the r word though it was not common in my vocabulary. John McGinley (Scrubs) gave a thought provoking interview on why we need to be sensitive to the improper use of the word. I thought it was interesting that Matt let the retarded word slip and then did a verbal 'check himself'.

[T]

I'll stick to sped.

[Butts Wagner]

John McGinley (Scrubs Celebrity Episode of American Gladiators)

FTFY

[the tide]

I would be less of a critic with a name like Butts.

[Butts Wagner]

Not everyone reading Reason is familiar with Scrubs, I thought I would clarify just which actor you were referring to.

[the tide]

Celebrity Episode of American Gladiators? I forgot the demographic profile of Reason posters.

[the tide]

I don't get jokes....

[Butts Wagner]

This might be the best 7 months later response ever. Thanks the tide.

[a]

Let's see. Eli Lake: pro-war, pro-empire, sneers at anyone outside the 45-yard lines, best buds with David Frum, likes to wring his hands a bit about U.S. government excesses before ultimately endorsing them -- yeah, I'd say "Michael Moynihan libertarian" is a perfect description.

[Justin Raimondo]

Yeah, "I'm a journalist, not an ideologue," says Eli Lake. Except when the subject of Antiwar.com comes up -- then, allovasudden, the mask slips, and the Real Eli Lake comes to the fore, snarling and spitting: "Justin Raimondo is objectively fascist!"

And of course Matt Welch responds by saying he's "not going to agree" more "out of politeness" than anything else. He then mumbles something about "Milosevic," implying that I supported the Serbian dictator. Perhaps he hasn't read this:

http://original.antiwar.com/ju.....ast-stand/

Or this:

http://original.antiwar.com/ju.....sevic-rip/

Or any one of a number of similiar pieces, stretching all the way back to before the Kosovo war. But then complete ignorance of a subject has never stopped Welch from making a pronouncement, however "polite" it may be.

As to the Israeli issue: look, I didn't report Israel foreknowledge of 9/11. Fox News did, see here:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7545.htm

As did The Forward, see here:

http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/israelis_9-11.html

What does the self-described "credible national security expert" Eli Lake have to say about these reports? Is it a hate crime to take them seriously?

Yes, I write with "glee" -- I enjoy my work. Cohen doesn't look like he enjoys much of anything.

[dbcooper]

"Ghetto-ised" in London? I think they're fairly dispersed. Which doesn't stop some of them from being radical assholes though.

[gmatts]

After looking at his picture, I was unaware that Matt Welch became a lesbian.

[Matt Welch]

Your timeline is very confusing.

[Butts Wagner]

I was unaware he had become a Conan O'Brien look-a-like. Is money so tight at the mag that Welch needs the extra income?

[a]

Hey, Welch, how come you didn't call bullshit on your pal when he started in with the "objectively pro-fascist" crap? Didn't you used to think that was stupid?

http://reason.com/blog/2005/08/29/the-rhetorical-hitcheroo

And here was your chance to repudiate the whole concept, but you passed. Why?

[Justin Raimondo]

Why do you think? Because he's a lying, two-faced little weasel, that's why.

[neoconned]

I think he's still formulating a response Justin.

http://original.antiwar.com/ju.....naysayers/

Perhaps that will give him a little more to chew on during this Twix moment of his. Btw, I just signed up for automated monthly donations to antiwar.com. Keep up the good fight brother.

[NonPaulogist]

We are STILL w8ing. This had better be good. tic tic tic

[Justin Raimondo]

Why do you think? Because he's a lying, two-faced little weasel, that's why.

[Jim Davidson]

Wow, here's an opportunity for me to waste an hour of my time listening to one or more racist sexist xenophobic homophobic war mongers spew bile and venom. From the train wreck of comments on this page it looks to be a waste of time. Matt Welch interview with Eli Lake: fail.

[Bob Bogus]

Go jump in a lake, Eli.

[Jeff]

Matt, do you often work on your kazoo-playing prowess?

[ironman]

These guys are incredible tools. I can't believe they get paid for this.

[JB]

AT the minimum, libertarians are against "force and fraud." Both of these gentleman make exceptions where they find it convenient to. So I'd say Matt is republican with some libertarian inclinations. While Eli is a neocon

[NonPaulogist]

1. The Islamoterrorist threat is overblown.
2. Most of what actually exists is a result of our non-libertarian foreign policy.
You cannot credibly argue for both smaller government and endless war. You have to chose.

[NonPaulogist]

Oh yeah, and Welch is a dingleberry in Ed Crane's ass crack.

[mikeD]

What typical smug fake conservatives.

[Jeff]

The only thing that makes me think Matt Welch isn't a libertarian, is Welch himself. I remember one time when he said he didn't want the label.

[Tony Pivetta]

I subscribed to *Reason* for 17 years, from 1985 to 2002. Though I never thought the magazine was very good when it came to foreign policy, I used to look forward to every issue. Things took a turn for the worse after 9/11. Cathy Young's column arguing there are no libertarians in foxholes did it for me. I let my subscription lapse and started sending the money I saved on the magazine to LewRockwell.com and antiwar.com. Listening to these two professed libertarians discuss the burning issues of the day, I'm glad I did.

[Bob]

Anybody who defends John "Mad Bomber" McCain deserves to be booed. BTW, would we have all these jihadist sleeper cells in America if we didn't have mass immigration, with little concern about who comes here? Yet Matt Welch and other libertarians are all in favor of open borders. (So, for that matter, is John McCain.)