Walter E. Williams (1936-2020)

 'I Just Do My Own Thing': Walter Williams, RIP | Reason - Nick Gillespie:

December 2, 2020 - "I'm saddened to write of the death of libertarian economist Walter E. Williams. He passed away Wednesday morning at the age of 84, less than a day after teaching a class at George Mason University, where he worked for 40 years and helped transform his department into a highly respected center of free market scholars. A popular syndicated columnist whose work appeared in over a hundred newspapers on a weekly basis, he was a long-time contributor to Reason and served as an emeritus trustee of Reason Foundation....

"Born in Philadelphia in 1936, Williams grew up as a neighbor to Bill Cosby in the city's racially segregated housing projects and was drafted into the peacetime Army during the Cold War. A self-described 'crazy-ass man who insisted on talking about liberty in America' long before he was a public intellectual, the racist violence and abuse he suffered at the hands of police, military officers, and other authorities informed much of his work. In his powerful, evocative 2010 memoir, Up From the Projects, he recounts the time when, as a cab driver in the City of Brotherly Love, he was ordered out of his cab by a white officer, beaten up, and then charged with disorderly conduct."

Read more: https://reason.com/2020/12/02/i-just-do-my-own-thing-walter-williams-rip/

Walter Williams, RIP | Cato@Liberty - David Boaz:

"After early stints as a cab driver, a soldier in Korea, and a probation officer, Walter focused on education and got a Ph.D. in economics from UCLA in 1972. From 1973 to 1980 he taught at Temple University in Philadelphia before moving to George Mason University for the rest of his career.

"In 1982 he published a book of original research and provocative ideas, The State Against Blacks, which Don Boudreaux describes in today’s Wall Street Journal as 'an eloquent, data‐​rich broadside against occupational licensing, taxicab regulations, labor‐​union privileges and other fine‐​sounding government measures that inflict disproportionate harm on blacks by restricting the employment options and by driving up the costs of goods and services'. His work in these areas and his outgoing, engaging, effective style of communications brought him broader public attention. He appeared in Milton Friedman’s PBS series “Free to Choose” in 1980. He became a frequent guest host on the Rush Limbaugh Show.... 

"In 1989 the Cato Institute and Praeger published Walter’s book South Africa’s War against Capitalism. In it he showed, with detailed economic and historical analysis, that ... 'South Africa’s apartheid is not the corollary of free‐​market or capitalist forces. Apartheid is the result of anticapitalistic or socialistic efforts to subvert the operation of market (capitalistic) forces.'"

Read more: https://www.cato.org/blog/walter-williams-rip

In Memoriam: Walter E. Williams, 1936-2020 | Forbes - Art Carden: 

December 3, 2020 - "Williams’s work and commentary was informed by a deep understanding of how free people in free markets find ways to help one another. Howard Baetjer explains the 'Invisible Hand Principle' in his short book Economics and Free Markets. He quotes Williams, who said 'In a free market, you get more for yourself by serving your fellow man. You don’t have to care about him! Just serve him.'

"We get, as Adam Smith explained, what we want by helping other people get what they want. Importantly, this requires us to respect their right to say 'no.' Free markets rest on a profound respect for others’ dignity. A free market is possible and productive when we recognize that other people are not merely means to our ends, created to serve us or created to live as we want them to. If we want to secure their cooperation, we have to give them what they want rather than what we think is best for them. Few people understood this better than Walter Williams."

Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/artcarden/2020/12/03/in-memoriam-walter-e-williams-1936-2020/?sh=5fbe44b18fe4

Farewell to rock's greatest drummer

Remembering Rush Drummer Neil Peart: Rock's Greatest Drummer (and Randian) | National Review - Kyle Smith:

January 10, 2020 - "Neil Peart, the Canadian drummer and leader of the Seventies hard-rock band Rush, has died. Peart had battled brain cancer for three years.

"Fan polls routinely agreed he was the greatest rock drummer of his time (or indeed of all time, I would argue, though some would go with Keith Moon). I’m not sure any rock track boasts drumming that can match Peart’s breathtaking work on the 1981 song “Tom Sawyer”.... Peart also wrote the big majority of his band’s lyrics, which were among the most ambitious ever attempted in the hard-rock space.... Peart was a genius at tapping into the restless alienation of late-teen boys who think they’re smarter than everyone around them.... Peart told Rolling Stone four years ago, 'I set out to never betray the values that 16-year-old had, to never sell out, to never bow to the man. A compromise is what I can never accept'....

"He also labeled himself a libertarian and in youth dabbled in Ayn Randism, naming Rush’s 1975 song 'Anthem' for her 1937 novel Anthem, which was among George Orwell’s influences for 1984, and crediting Rand in the liner notes for her influence on the 1976 Rush album 2112. What teen boy didn’t also flirt with Rand? To persist with a Rand fixation is not the mark of a healthy mind, though. When asked in 2012 (again in Rolling Stone) if Rand’s words still spoke to him, he said, 'Oh, no. That was 40 years ago.' Peart did retain his libertarianism, after a fashion. He explained:

In that 2112 album, again, I was in my early twenties. I was a kid. Now I call myself a bleeding heart libertarian. Because I do believe in the principles of Libertarianism as an ideal – because I’m an idealist. Paul Theroux’s definition of a cynic is a disappointed idealist. So as you go through past your twenties, your idealism is going to be disappointed many many times. And so, I’ve brought my view and also – I’ve just realized this – Libertarianism as I understood it was very good and pure and we’re all going to be successful and generous to the less fortunate and it was, to me, not dark or cynical. But then I soon saw, of course, the way that it gets twisted by the flaws of humanity. And that’s when I evolve now into  ... a bleeding heart Libertarian. That’ll do.

"Peart died in Santa Monica on January 7. R.I.P."

Read more: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/remembering-rush-drummer-neil-peart-rocks-greatest-drummer-and-randian/
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David Koch dead at 79

David Koch, billionaire conservative activist and donor, dead at 79 | CBC News - Associated Press:

August 23, 2019 - "Billionaire industrialist David H. Koch, who with his older brother Charles transformed American politics by pouring their riches into conservative causes, has died at age 79. 'It is with a heavy heart that I now must inform you of David's death,' Charles Koch announced Friday.

"David Koch, who lived in New York City, was the Libertarian Party's vice-presidential candidate in 1980. He was a generous donor to conservative political causes, as well as educational, medical and cultural groups.

"The brothers were best known for a vast political network they built that became popularly known as the Kochtopus for its far-reaching tentacles in support of conservative causes. The two founded the anti-tax, small government group Americans for Prosperity.

"'I was taught from a young age that involvement in the public discourse is a civic duty,' David Koch wrote in a 2012 op-ed in the New York Post.... While dealing with prostate cancer for 20 years, he told a reporter following the 2012 Republican convention that he was thinking about what he will someday leave behind....

"Koch donated $100 million in 2007 to create the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also gave millions to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, the M.D. Anderson Cancer in Houston, and other institutions.

"The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History named in his honour a wing dedicated to the story of human evolution over six million years. Koch donated $15 million to fund the 15,000-square-foot hall.

"Koch, an engineer trained at MIT, joined Koch Industries in 1970, and served on its board. He also served as chief executive officer of Koch Chemical Technology Group, LLC, a Koch subsidiary. He retired from the company in 2018.

"The Koch brothers, each with an estimated net worth of $50.5 billion, tied in fourth place in 2012 on Forbes 500 list of the nation's richest men."

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/david-koch-obituary-1.5257303

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David Boaz remembers Andrea Millen Rich

RIP Andrea Rich | Cato @ Liberty - David Boaz:

August 1, 2018 - "I am saddened to report that my dear friend Andrea Millen Rich died this morning at her home in Philadelphia at the age of 79 after a 19-year battle with lung cancer....For more than 40 years Andrea was at the center of the libertarian movement, a mentor, counselor, friend, supporter, facilitator, networker, and gracious hostess....

"She was the first chair of the New York Libertarian Party in 1973-74. The vice chair was Howard S. Rich, whom she soon married. From 1974 to 1977 she was vice chair of the national Libertarian Party, and in 1980 she played a key role in developing television advertising for the campaign of Ed Clark, the Libertarian presidential nominee.

"From 1982 to 2005 she was the president of Laissez-Faire Books, which billed itself as 'the world’s largest collection of books on liberty.' It had a retail location on Mercer Street in Greenwich Village.... But in those pre-Amazon days, it was far better known for its monthly catalog that reached libertarians around the world. Through its Fox & Wilkes publishing imprint it brought many classic libertarian books back into print.....

"Andrea often negotiated with publishers to make books more affordable, and some books only found publishers because Laissez-Faire could guarantee an audience beyond the small academic market.

"Through her work with Laissez-Faire she became friendly with leading libertarian writers including Milton and Rose Friedman, Robert Nozick, Thomas Sowell, Nathaniel Branden, Thomas Szasz, Charles Murray, Richard Epstein, David Kelley, and Margit von Mises, widow of economist Ludwig von Mises.

"As president of the Center for Independent Thought [CIT], the parent organization of Laissez-Faire Books, she also launched and managed the Thomas S. Szasz Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Cause of Civil Liberties and the Roy A. Childs Fund for Independent Scholars.

"CIT’s biggest project was Stossel in the Classroom, which repackaged ABC News and Fox Business videos on economics and public policy by John Stossel for classroom use. The videos have been viewed by tens of millions of high school students – according to Stossel, reaching more people than ABC News and Fox News."

Read more: https://www.cato.org/blog/rip-andrea-rich
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Bettina Bien Greaves dead at 100

Bettina Bien Greaves, R.I.P. | Liberty Unbound - Mark Skousen:

January 28, 2018 - "All scholars dream of having one or more disciples who will make sure their legacy is kept alive and their works and theories prominently trumpeted before the public eye.

"For the great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, there was quite a following, including two couples, Hans and Mary Sennholz, and Percy and Bettina Greaves. On January 22 the last of the four, Bettina Bien Greaves, died at the astounding age of 100. (Mary Sennholz also lived to be 100)....

"Bettina Greaves deserves to be honored as Mises’ most devoted student, and in July a room will be dedicated to her at the annual FreedomFest conference in Las Vegas.

"From the time she first heard Mises speak in 1951 at a Freeman seminar in Washington Square in New York City, Bettina was smitten. With a background in shorthand and secretarial work during the war years, she attended Mises’ famous New York University graduate seminar, taking copious notes on every lecture from 1951 until 1969. Although she had no formal training in economics, Greaves was the queen of the Austrian school and never deviated from it. She joined the Foundation [for] Economic Education (FEE) staff in 1953 and worked at the FEE mansion for the rest of her career. She survived everyone, including founder Leonard Read. After retiring, she stayed on as a board member and even donated her home in New York to FEE....

"She focused her career on advancing the works and ideas of the Austrian school, including the contributions by Henry Hazlitt and Hans Sennholz. She wrote many articles for The Freeman, gave lectures, and compiled anthologies about Austrian economics. She spearheaded FEE’s program to provide libertarian material for high school debaters with packets on foreign aid, government regulations, medical care, and other issues. She compiled and edited Free Market Economics: A Syllabus and Free Market Economics: A Basic Reader, a two-volume set that was distributed to thousands of students and teachers....

"But her main interest was always in her mentor, Ludwig von Mises.... She compiled, edited, and translated many of his books after his death in 1973. She also worked with her husband Percy [on a book] ... published in 1974, called Mises Made Easier (but never easy!). With the help of Robert W. McGee, she published an exhaustive Mises: An Annotated Bibliography (FEE, 1993, 1995). When the Liberty Fund decided to publish the complete works of Mises, Bettina was asked to be the editor, writing introductions for each volume."

Read more: http://www.libertyunbound.com/node/1808
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R. Lee Wrights (1958-2017)

R. Lee Wrights | Libertarianism Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia:

May 5, 2017 - "Roger Lee Wrights (June 8, 1958 - May 4, 2017) was an American politician, activist and political consultant. He was the founder, editor, and publisher of the online libertarian newsletter Liberty For All. He was the National Vice Chair of the Libertarian National Committee, serving several different times in that role. Wrights was an unsuccessful contender for the 2012 presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party, finishing as first runner-up to the eventual nominee Gary Johnson....

"Wrights was born on June 8, 1958 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He graduated from West Forsyth High School in Clemmons, North Carolina in 1976. Afterwards he enlisted in the United States Air Force.... Wrights earned a degree from Willmar College in Willmar, Minnesota where he majored in history and journalism. After college, he was a contributing editor for the Eagle News, a monthly political news and commentary newspaper in Forsyth County....

"Wrights founded Liberty For All with J. Michael Bragg in 2000, a free speech publication with the motto "Let Your Voice Be Heard" which claims "no one is turned away and no one is censored". In 2001 Wrights began work as an editor of the Free Market Daily, an e-mail newsletter distributed by FreeMarket.net. After FreeMarket.net shut down in 2002, Wrights joined a group that began the Rational Review News Digest, a daily web and email-based news and commentary roundup....From 2005 to 2008, Wrights worked as editor of the Choice Channel for the International Society for Individual Liberty....

"Wrights was active in local, state and national Libertarian Party organizations since 2000 and was a lifetime member of the Libertarian Party. He served as secretary and chair of the Libertarian Party of Forsyth County, N.C. and was vice chair of the Libertarian Party of North Carolina (LPNC) for seven years.... In 2008, Wrights was campaign manager for the Mary Ruwart for President Committee....

"On April 16, 2011, Wrights officially announced his candidacy for the Libertarian presidential nomination in the election of 2012. The stated focus of his campaign was to 'stop all war', referring not only to war with foreign nations, but also to war on the American people and their civil liberties waged by the U.S. government.... Wrights also advocated abolition of the national income tax and added that he would 'replace it with...nothing.'

"At the 2012 Libertarian National Convention, Wrights was defeated for the LP presidential nomination by former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, finishing second in the balloting with 25% of the delegate votes. Following the defeat, Wrights expressed support for Johnson in his general election campaign. He was then nominated as a candidate for the LP vice-presidential slot. Wrights was defeated for that nomination by retired California Superior Court Judge Jim Gray, finishing second in the balloting with 38% of the delegate votes.

Wrights died on May 4, 2017, after a lengthy illness, at the age of 58.

Read more: http://libertarianism.wikia.com/wiki/R._Lee_Wrights

Libertarian author Jerome Tuccille dead at 79

Jerome Tuccille, Libertarian Author and Trump Biographer, Dies at 79 - The New York Times - William Grimes:

February 24, 2017 - "Jerome Tuccille, who wrote one of the first manifestoes of the American libertarian movement and the first biography of Donald J. Trump, died on Feb. 16 at his home in Severna Park, Md. He was 79.

"As Mr. Tuccille (pronounced too-CHILLY) told the tale in It Usually Begins With Ayn Rand: A Libertarian Odyssey (1971), he was a disaffected Roman Catholic looking for a new faith when he discovered the writings of Ayn Rand and her radically individualist philosophy, which she called objectivism....

"In Radical Libertarianism: A Right Wing Alternative (1970), he laid out a political program that envisioned an end to conscription, taxes and government control over education, health services, transportation and other areas. It also called for the legalization of drugs, prostitution and pornography.

"In an Op-Ed for The New York Times in 1971, Mr. Tuccille called on conservatives 'who still care about such things as peace and justice and racial harmony' to vote for candidates 'who really mean peace when they say peace; who understand and intend to promote the politics of decentralization, of pollution control, of economic and judicial reform, and so on all the way down the line'....

In 1974, two years after the founding of the Free Libertarian Party, Mr. Tuccille ran for governor of New York.... Three years later, in an article for the conservative magazine National Review, he wrote the epitaph for libertarianism as a political movement. Although still committed to its ideals, he called it 'hopelessly utopian' and 'an intellectual exercise, not a serious political alternative'....

"Tuccille wrote how-to books on investing and a series of biographies, beginning in 1985 with Trump: The Saga of America’s Most Powerful Real Estate Baron.... After his Trump biography, he wrote Rupert Murdoch (1989), Barry Diller: The Life and Times of a Media Mogul (1998) and Alan Shrugged: Alan Greenspan, the World’s Most Powerful Banker (2002)....

"Tuccille remained what his son called 'a borderline anarchist. In The Gospel According to Ayn Rand (2007), ...  Tuccille wrote: 'The battle to sustain the Bill of Rights is more challenging now than ever, the fight for freedom is far from over. In many ways things have gotten worse over the decades. Government is grotesquely big, taxes are too high, civil liberties are getting crimped a bit tighter every day.'”

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/books/jerome-tuccille-dead.html
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Free speech advocate Nat Hentoff dead aged 91

Nat Hentoff, RIP | Cato @ Liberty - Tim Lynch, Cato Institute:

January 8, 2017 - "Cato Senior Fellow Nat Hentoff passed away on Saturday evening at age 91.  He was a leading authority on the Bill of Rights and most especially the First Amendment.  He authored 37 books and countless newspaper and magazine articles.  He is perhaps most well-known for his opinion articles in the Village Voice, where he wrote for 51 years, from 1957 until 2008.  He joined the Cato staff in 2009 and never stopped researching and writing.  A few years ago, he told me that he was following Duke Ellington’s guide with respect to his own work in defense of the American Constitution:

• Rule 1: Don’t Quit
• Rule 2: Reread Rule #1

"Nat actually knew Duke and many other luminaries, from Malcolm X to Supreme Court Justice William Brennan.  He was a jazz expert, writing on music for the Wall Street Journal.  He often said that 'jazz and the Constitution were his main reasons for being.'  He said his passion for jazz and liberty overlapped because they were both about respecting everyone’s individuality.

"Nat was bemused by both his fan mail and hate mail as the years passed.  He didn’t play the political game — he would condemn Democrats and Republicans alike if they attacked constitutional principles. And he was always enthusiastic when he found a member of Congress coming to the defense of the Constitution, such as Senator Russ Feingold’s (D-WI) lone vote (in the Senate) against the Patriot Act in 2001, or, more recently, Senator Rand Paul’s (R-KY) efforts to scale back the surveillance state....

"Interestingly, when asked about his proudest achievement, he would say it was not anything he wrote.  He got an opportunity to work as a producer for a television special about jazz music in 1957.  He jumped at the chance to bring beautiful jazz music into the living rooms of folks who had never really been exposed to it before.....  According to Nat’s relatives, he passed away while listening to his favorite jazz tunes.

"We’re sad you’re gone, but we celebrate your good life.  Rest in peace."

Read more: https://www.cato.org/blog/nat-hentoff-rip
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Ralph Raico (1936-2016)

Ralph Raico, RIP | Cato @ Liberty - Jim Powell:

December 14, 2016 - I was saddened by the news of Ralph Raico’s passing on December 13.

At Cato summer seminars during the 1980s, he delivered fabulous lectures about the history of liberty and its adversaries. He focused on European intellectual history and the development of classical liberalism. He was clear, concise and passionate, and his talks sparkled with memorable details. I still cherish audio cassettes of those lectures.

Ralph attended the Bronx High School of Science, earned a B.A. at the City College of New York, and joined the New York libertarian underground during the 1950s. His friends included Ronald Hamowy, Leonard Liggio, George Reisman, Robert Hessen, and other eager students of liberty. For a while, Ralph and his group, calling themselves the “Circle Bastiat,” met for discussions with Ayn Rand’s group, “the Collective.” Ludwig von Mises invited Ralph to attend his graduate seminars at New York University. Ralph became a close friend of Murray and Joey Rothbard.

By 1960, Ralph was at the University of Chicago for a Ph.D. in intellectual history. F.A. Hayek was his thesis advisor. Ralph started a quarterly student journal called New Individualist Review and served as editor-in-chief. Each issue featured about a half-dozen articles. The first issue appeared in April 1961. The lead article was “Capitalism and Freedom” by Milton Friedman. The second issue featured “Freedom and Coercion” by Hayek. And so it went, a cavalcade of scholarly stars, including three future Nobel Laureates. The authors included George Stigler, Yale Brozen, Karl Brunner, Henry Hazlitt, W.H. Hutt, David Levy, Walter Oi, Sam Peltzman, Wilhelm Roepke, B.R. Shenoy, Gordon Tullock, Joe Cobb, and E.G. West, in addition to Hayek and Friedman. A few conservatives joined the fun, too — William F. Buckley, Jr., M. Stanton Evans, and Russell Kirk.

As it happened, in 1962, when I had to decide on a college, I received a subscription flyer for New Individualist Review. I was familiar with a number of the authors, because I had read issues of The Freeman that my father had in his home office, and they published some of the same authors. So, the University of Chicago was where I had to go. While many college kids did fraternities or football, I did NIR. I met Ralph, joined the staff of New Individualist Review, and altogether 17 issues were published. NIR involved insightful, inspiring, and sometimes amusing exchanges among students and professors in history, economics, philosophy, science, law, and business. For better or worse, NIR was a spontaneous phenomenon that never focused on becoming an institution. Gradually, everybody got their degrees and moved on. I was the last editor-in-chief (1968).

Ralph had so much literary talent that there were hopes he might produce a glorious history of liberty, like Lord Acton talked so much about but never started. Alas, time slipped through their fingers and—for now—that big story is still out there.

Nonetheless, Ralph became known for elegantly-crafted articles, pamphlets, and chapter contributions that helped illuminate the history of liberty.

Ralph translated Mises’ 1927 book Liberalismus, an excellent basic statement of classical liberalism, into English (1962), and a number of publishers have reissued his splendid translation.

He also wrote:

• Die Partei der Freiheit: Studien zur Geschichte des deutschen Liberalismus (1999), about the fateful struggles of German classical liberals during the 19th century.
• The Place of Religion in the Liberal Philosophy of Constant, Tocqueville, and Lord Acton (2010), his University of Chicago Ph.D. thesis.
• Classical Liberalism and the Austrian School (2012). 

https://www.cato.org/blog/ralph-raico-rip

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Montana Libertarian chair Fellows dead in crash

Libertarian candidate Mike Fellows killed in car crash - NBC Montana - Associated Press::

September 20, 2016 - "Mike Fellows, the Libertarian Party's candidate for Montana's U.S. House seat, died in a car crash.... Fellows died in a head-on collision with another vehicle on Montana Highway 200 Monday night.

"He died at the scene.... A person in the other vehicle has been taken to a hospital for undisclosed injuries.

"The 59-year-old Fellows was making his eighth run for U.S. House.... Fellows has run in every statewide election since 1998. Besides U.S. House, he ran for Montana Supreme Court Clerk in 2012 and Secretary of State in 2000.

"The Montana Libertarian Party has released the following statement:

It is with the deepest of sadness that we learned of the passing of Mike Fellows, longtime chair of the Montana Libertarian Party....

Tom Lutey of the Billings Gazette recently referred to Fellows as the 'godfather of third-party politics in Montana.' As the longest-serving active state chair of the Libertarian Party, he worked tirelessly to advocate the party's message for more than two decades, often on his own dime, on his own time. Former Libertarian candidate Dan Cox said that Fellows’ effort on behalf of the party was “monumental,” sometimes funding candidates’ ballot fees from his own pocket. The word dedication doesn't even begin to describe Fellows’ contribution to and passion for spreading the message of liberty in Montana.

Because of Fellows’ single-handed perseverance, the Montana Libertarian Party garnered enough votes to be legally recognized as [a] major political party and has maintained ballot access across the state for more than twenty years, something few third-party state affiliates have been able to accomplish....

"The outpouring of support and condolences from people of all political leanings would have touched and honored him. Our sympathies go out to Fellows’ family and friends, as well as the many lives he touched across Montana."

Read more: http://www.nbcmontana.com/news/politics/local-elections/libertarian-candidate-mike-fellows-killed-in-car-crash/87938155
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Marc Allan Feldman dead at 56

Cleveland Clinic doc who sought Libertarian Party presidential bid found dead in Brook Park motel | cleveland.com -  Chanda Neely:

June 23, 2016 - "A Cleveland Clinic doctor who recently lost a bid for the Libertarian Party's nomination for president was found dead Wednesday in a Brook Park motel, the party confirmed.

"Marc A. Feldman, 56, of Beachwood was found at the America's Best Value Inn in the 14000 block of Brookpark Road. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office has not released an official cause of death....

"In May, Feldman lost the nomination to represent the Libertarian Party in the November presidential election. The party selected former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson....

"Nicholas Sarwark, chair of the party's national committee, said: 'We will miss his dedication as a member of the national committee and candidate for public office, but most of all, I will miss a good friend.  He was a delightful, spirited, and dedicated Libertarian who inspired and won the hearts of many. Our deepest condolences to his family on their loss.'"

Read more: http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/06/cleveland_clinic_doc_who_sough.html
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George Jonas a lifelong believer in freedom

Robert Fulford: George Jonas was an enemy of every oppression, great or small | National Post:

January 11, 2016 - "For many years after the Second World War, Canadians had trouble understanding the immigrants who flowed in from eastern Europe. Their stories of oppression weren’t always taken seriously. Ukrainians, Hungarians, Poles and many others were embittered after losing their national homes to the Russian empire but Canadians found that hard to grasp. Newspaper editorials often instructed immigrants — Displaced Persons, or DPs, they were often called — that they must not bring old enmities into Canadian life.

"George Jonas, a Hungarian who became a distinguished Canadian writer, was sophisticated enough to treat that provincial attitude with an urbane shrug. He remained forever an enemy of the Soviet Union and all other despotisms.

"With his opinions uninhibited, he plunged into a six-decades-long career in Canada as poet, playwright, novelist, CBC broadcaster and journalist, ending up with the widespread respect of his profession and membership in the Order of Canada. He died Sunday in Toronto at age 80.

"A lifelong belief in freedom ran like an electric current through his poetry, his fiction and his journalism. Long-established Canadians tend to take freedom for granted, never having known its opposite, but where Jonas came from it was scarce. As a child in the early 1940s, he was made to wear a yellow star on the street, like all other Jews. After 1945 he watched the Soviet Union impose a dreary and evil dictatorship on Hungary.

"Freedom was the song Jonas sang, in all his writing He never gave up trying to protect freedom — from communists, fascists, Islamists or any other totalitarians. I can’t forget the contempt he expressed in the 1960s when describing a Canadian nationalist poet who said that Mao’s China sounded like an admirable society. How could those who were born to freedom consider bartering it away, even in imagination? 

"Freedom was the song Jonas sang, in all his writing. He proudly called himself a classical liberal. Many people think that means a conservative but he believed it meant he was an enemy of every oppression, great or small."

Read more:  http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/robert-fulford-george-jonas-was-an-enemy-of-every-oppression-great-or-small
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Alan Borovoy, civil libertarian (1932-2015)

In memoriam: Alan Borovoy, 1932-2015 - NOW Toronto Magazine - Think Free - Bernie Farber:

"Alan Borovoy General Counsel Emeritus of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), probably Canada’s best-known defender of civil rights, a human rights driver in a career spanning more than 60 years fighting for the little guy, has died.

"Alan was a man of deep principle, stark honesty, razor wit and man with a whole lot of heart for the most vulnerable amongst us.... His fights were often lonely, though arguably he relished being the lone fighter for a cause he believed in. He took on popular concepts that were populated by unpopular people. He cherished freedom of speech as an absolute and in order to defend the concept against new hate laws he had to bear hateful anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers....

"Growing up as a young boy in the downtown core that was the home of many other Jews in the 1930s and 40s, Borovoy learned firsthand what it meant to be a minority. It led him into seeing the world for what it was and his goal was always to try and level the playing field.

It was while he was at the University of Toronto that political schisms most dominated the Canadian Jewish scene. A young Canadian Jewish activist community became fertile ground for an even younger and altruistic Borovoy. He saw how communism could become a destructive force and railed against it, but always with the view to achieve what he called 'a responsible anti-communism'....

"As editor of a Jewish university newspaper, Borovoy held strong to his conviction that free speech trumped everything. He advocated strongly in favour of a letter written by a Communist sympathizer. The establishment came down on him like a ton of bricks but he held strong.

"But perhaps his most controversial stand was as an opponent of Canada’s anti-hate laws. This put him on the outs with the leadership in the Jewish community which strongly supported it. When confronted about the evil of hatemongers, Borovoy’s favorite retort was that 'They should be left to wallow in the obscurity they so richly deserve'....

"And so it went throughout Alan Borovoy’s tumultuous career. Whether it was our nation’s struggle with national security or victimized minorities fight for decent housing; whether it was challenging the police complaints procedures or his battles with the Quebec government over the Oka crisis, Alan Borovoy was our moral barometer."

Read more: https://nowtoronto.com/news/in-memoriam/in-memoriam-alan-borovoy-1932-2015/
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Fantasy author Terry Pratchett dead of Alzheimer's

How Terry Pratchett Made Me a Libertarian - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Scott Shackleford:

March 12, 2015 - "It may [be] difficult to explain how remarkable Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel series is in the way it expressed concepts of liberty and self-determination to a libertarian who has never read him.... He never used the word 'libertarian' in any of his books. Though his characters could work up a good rant or two when somebody had done something breathtakingly stupid, there were no Ayn Rand-style multi-page screeds about how people should live or behave. That's because he made it all live and breathe as a writer. He used the fantasy setting and familiar fantasy concepts like dragons and magic to explore themes of power, corruption, authoritarianism, and the problem with thinking you know what's best for everybody else....

"Today, Pratchett's publishers announced that the writer has died at the age of 66 following a struggle with early onset Alzheimer's disease....

"It was actually the villains who helped define the libertarian streak of Pratchett's books. The villains were the ones with the big ideas and schemes. Of course, fantasy novels are known for evil wizards and warlords trying to conquer the known lands for greedy goals. Pratchett took these villains and gave them a twist: Many of the antagonists in these books were insistent that their authoritarian goals of conquest were serving to improve the lives of others. Books like Small Gods (one of Pratchett's best — I encourage everybody to read it) tackled how mass religious movements can be captured from within to serve the aims of just a few, taking it to a place that even its own god never intended and destroying so much. Jingo took on the privileged rich who beat the drums of war to bolster the state. Night Watch took on police corruption and abuse in the service of authority. It even had a side plot about the use of its own version of waterboarding. The book was published in 2002, before we even knew what was going on in our name overseas. He won a Prometheus Award from the Libertarian Futurist Society for that book, and the previous year for The Truth, which tracked the development of Discworld's first printing press, and subsequently the idea of what a 'free press' actually is (the villains in that novel obviously thought dimly of the concept). Pratchett's ultimate villains were 'the auditors,' shapeless cosmic beings who craved nothing so much as order and complete stasis in the universe. They hated humanity for how uncontrollable they were and how much everything people did changed the nature of the world around them in completely unpredictable ways.".

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2015/03/12/howterry-pratchett-made-me-a-libertarian
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Remembering Leonard P. Liggio (1933–2014)

RIP: Leonard P. Liggio (1933–2014) « Antiwar.com Blog - Sheldon Richman:

October 18, 2014 - "I lost one of my favorite teachers this week, as did so many other libertarians, not to mention the freedom movement as a whole. Leonard P. Liggio, 81, died after a period of declining health....

"Since the early 1950s, before he had reached the age of 20, Leonard was a scholar and activist for individual liberty, the free-market order, and the voluntary network of social cooperation we call civil society. He was in Youth for Taft in 1952, when the noninterventionist Sen. Robert Taft unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination....

"In his long career, Leonard was associated with the Volker Fund (a pioneering classical-liberal organization), the Institute for Humane Studies, Liberty Fund, the Cato Institute, and finally, the Atlas Network. He was also on the faculty of several universities, including George Mason Law School, after doing graduate work in law and history at various institutions.

"Leonard studied with Ludwig von Mises and a long list of eminent historians. He knew the founders of the modern libertarian movement: F.A. Harper, Leonard Read, Pierre Goodrich, Ayn Rand, and more. He was an early member of the Mont Pelerin Society, founded by F.A. Hayek, and eventually president of the organization. As a young man he became close friends with Murray Rothbard, Ralph Raico, George Reisman, Ronald Hamowy, Robert Hessen, and others who comprised their Circle Bastiat. He literally was present at the creation of the movement and helped to make it what it would become."

Read more: http://antiwar.com/blog/2014/10/18/rip-leonard-p-liggio-1933-2014/
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Tonie Nathan, first woman to receive an electoral vote, dead at 91

Libertarian Tonie Nathan dies - Jeff Wright, Eugene Register-Guard:

March 21, 2014 - "Tonie Nathan of Eugene, the first woman to win an electoral vote in a presidential election, died early Thursday at age 91, family members confirmed....

"Tonie Nathan had lived in Eugene since 1968. She was a University of Oregon graduate with a degree in journalism, and she produced and occasionally hosted a talk show on KVAL TV.

"Paul Nathan, who lives in Palm Springs, Calif., recalled that he was 21 when he gave his mother some writings by Ayn Rand, the noted philosopher and novelist. That helped spur his mother’s political views of freedom, free markets and individuality, and prompted her to switch her political allegiance from the Democratic to Libertarian party, he said.

"Tonie Nathan attended the first national Libertarian Party convention in 1972 in Colorado as an interested observer and freelance writer, Paul Nathan said. Much to her astonishment, she ultimately was asked to join the party’s national ticket as presidential candidate John Hospers’ running mate.

"Hospers and Nathan each received the electoral vote of Roger MacBride, a renegade elector from Virginia."

Read more: http://www.registerguard.com/rg/news/local/31321715-75/nathan-paul-tonie-party-died.html.csp

Remembering libertarian gay activist Roy Childs

Steve Mariotti: As DOMA Collapses, I Remember Libertarian Gay Activist Roy Childs - Huffington Post:

July 2, 2013 - "[T]he Supreme Court's decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act ... brought back memories of one of the warmest people I've ever known, the great libertarian essayist, critic and gay activist Roy A. Childs, Jr. (1948-1992).

"Roy edited the Libertarian Review from 1977 until it folded in 1981. Next, he joined the Cato institute as a research fellow, eventually becoming a policy analyst. He was best-known, though, for his brilliant essays for Laissez Faire Books -- the largest seller of libertarian-related books. But I will always remember Roy as the man who dared challenge Ayn Rand on not only Objectivism, but also on her die-hard homophobia. As someone who had met Rand and knew how fearsome she could be, I admired his nerve!

"I was so impressed with Roy's essay, 'An Open Letter to Ayn Rand,' published in the Society for Individual Liberty's Individualist newsletter in 1969, that I wrote him a letter congratulating him on having the courage to stand up to her. I will never forget this sentence from Roy's essay: 'Let us walk forward into the sunlight, Miss Rand. You belong with us.'"

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-mariotti/as-doma-collapses-i-remem_b_3537107.html
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See also: Childs's argument for anarchism, by George J. Dance

Former LP of Canada leader Neil Reynolds dead

Neil Reynolds, an editor who never ran with the pack, dies at 72 | Canada | News | National Post - Tom Spears, Postmedia News:

May 19, 2013 - "Neil Reynolds made a career out of steering Canadian newspapers along uncharted courses, looking for stories with scant regard for the safe or predictable..... Reynolds died of cancer in Ottawa on Sunday at the age of 72.

"Born in Kingston, Ont., Reynolds was a high-school dropout who became city editor and assistant managing editor at the Toronto Star — but left Canada’s biggest newsroom in 1977 for a much smaller daily. He became editor-in-chief of the Kingston Whig-Standard. He stayed there 17 years....

"Reynolds was editor-in-chief of the Ottawa Citizen from 1996 to 2000, chosen by Conrad Black.... Russell Mills was the publisher then, and recalls Reynolds taking the job eagerly....

"Reynolds was a libertarian who believed in small government and hard work, and was national leader of the Libertarian Party of Canada for a time. Some readers accused him of every sin from promoting slavery to denying women the vote, but Mills says this was just what made him a good columnist. 'Neil had a real point of view … You might not always agree with him, but you usually came away from his columns more informed about an issue and thinking more deeply about it than you would otherwise.'"

Read more: http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/05/19/neil-reynolds-an-editor-who-never-ran-with-the-pack-dies-at-72/
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Hardy Macia, libertarian, activist, loses his battle with cancer

Hardy Macia, libertarian, activist, loses his battle with cancer | Concord Monitor - RayDuckler:

May 14, 2013 - "Hardy Macia, whose soft whisper boldly asked Gov. Maggie Hassan to allow cancer patients in need of relief to grow their own marijuana plants, died in Vermont yesterday after a nine-month fight against Hodgkin’s lymphoma, his brother said last night....

Macia, a Vermont native who owned a computer software company in Canterbury, had posted a video last week from his hospital bed in Burlington, Vt., asking Hassan to sign a bill allowing for the growth of no more than three marijuana plants by individuals.... Macia asked for help from Hassan, a former senator who had approved the home-cultivation measure four years ago, but has since changed her mind after her election last November, and after conferring with law enforcement officials."

Read more: http://www.concordmonitor.com/home/6211550-95/hardy-macia-libertarian-activist-loses-his-battle-with-cancer
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David Nolan, Libertarian Party founder, has died.

David Nolan, founder of Libertarian Party, has died - Powell Gammill, Freedom's Phoenix:

"David Nolan, who along with eight others founded the Libertarian Party in his living room in Denver in 1971 has unexpectedly died yesterday (Saturday, Nov. 20). He apparently suffered a stroke while driving alone. His car went off the road and struck something which may have contributed to his death.

"He would have been 67 years old this Tuesday, and ... is survived by his wife Elizabeth....

"In Libertarian circles he is also known for having developed what became known as the Nolan Chart.

"He just finished running against John McCain for his Senate seat in Arizona having received over 80,000 votes in a four way race".

http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Article/079002-2010-11-21-david-nolan-founder-of-libertarian-party-had-died.htm