LewRockwell.com

LewRockwell.com

Web address	lewrockwell.com
Type of site	webmagazine
Editor	Lew Rockwell
Launched	1999
Alexa rank	9,172 (May 2013) [1]
Current status	active

LewRockwell.com (LRC) is a libertarian website^[2] which states that its purpose is "to help carry on the anti-war, anti-state, pro-market work of Murray N. Rothbard." It was begun in 1999 by anarcho-capitalists Lew Rockwell and Burt Blumert^[3] as an affiliate of the nonprofit Center for Libertarian Studies. The site presents articles and blog entries by Lew Rockwell and other contributors^[4] as well as a weekly podcast called the Lew Rockwell Show.^[5] LRC's traffic rank was in the top 10,000 websites worldwide in May 2013.^[1]

Content

The site states "Lew strives to present a diverse daily selection of interesting articles from our writers and other sites, but he does not necessarily endorse every view expressed. He does, however, believe that each piece will repay your reading."^[3] It has a number of contributors whose writings comport with the site's motto of "anti-war, anti-state, pro-market". Brian Doherty in Reason wrote that the "Mises Institute-associated writers… at LewRockwell.com… [tend to] to stress the various nightmarish problems and crises that government action creates, whether overseas or at home."^[6]

The site includes an archive of dozens of articles by Murray Rothbard, who was Rockwell's colleague at the Mises Institute^[7] and another which contains dozens more by and about Ron Paul.^[8]

Responses

Conservative writer Jonah Goldberg of the National Review wrote that LewRockwell.com "features regular diatribes against National Review, neoconservatives, The Weekly Standard, William F. Buckley, and other icons of what most people consider mainstream conservatism in America".^[9] Writing in The American Conservative, W. James Antle III (of The American Spectator) described LRC as paleolibertarian and "an indispensable source of news about [Ron Paul's political campaign]."^[10]

The site has been criticized for presenting articles which advocate AIDS denialism, the view that HIV does not cause AIDS.^[11] For instance, the site published former University of Texas at Tyler Math Professor Rebecca Culshaw's article, "Why I quit HIV", in which she rejected the evidence that HIV causes AIDS.^[12] Additionally, Peter Duesberg made a presentation espousing AIDS Denial a 2006 conference hosted by LewRockwell.com. LRC was also criticized for publishing the claim that vaccines cause autism.^[13]

Contributors

Noted contributors listed by LewRockwell.com include:^[14]

William L. Anderson* – author and Frostburg State University, Maryland, economics professor Jeff Berwick – entrepreneur, economics, finance, and investment writer, and libertarian and anarcho-capitalist activist Walter Block* – Austrian School economist and anarcho-capitalist Bill Bonner* – author on economics and finance James Bovard – libertarian author and lecturer Pat Buchanan* – conservative political commentator, author, syndicated columnist, politician, and broadcaster Karen DeCoster - Certified Public Accountant, and freelance writer/commentator and speaker Thomas DiLorenzo* – economics professor at Loyola University Maryland Paul Gottfried – Horace Raffensperger Professor of Humanities at Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, and Guggenheim Fellowship recipient William Grigg* – author of books on Constitutionalism Kevin Gutzman – constitutional scholar, historian, and James Madison biographer Leon Hadar – global affairs analyst, journalist, blogger and author James Herndon – media psychologist Hans-Hermann Hoppe* – libertarian anarcho-capitalist philosopher and Austrian School economist Scott Horton – host of Pacifica Radio's Antiwar Radio Stephan Kinsella – intellectual property lawyer and libertarian legal theorist Gabriel Kolko – historian and author Karen Kwiatkowski* – activist and commentator William S. Lind – military affairs expert and cultural conservatism pundit Jim Lobe – journalist and Inter Press Service Washington Bureau Chief John Lott – economist and political commentator Tibor Machan – philosopher Eric Margolis* – journalist and writer Wendy McElroy – individualist anarchist and individualist feminist Ilana Mercer – writer

Loretta Nall – founder of the US Marijuana Party (USMJP) Gary North* – economic historian and publisher Ron Paul – physician, author, and former politician John Pilger – journalist based in London Ralph Raico* – historian, libertarian, specializing in European classical liberalism and Austrian Economics Justin Raimondo* – author and editorial director of Antiwar.com Fred Reed* – writer and former technology columnist for The Washington Times Charley Reese – syndicated columnist Morgan Reynolds – former director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis Paul Craig Roberts* – economist and Creators Syndicate columnist Murray Rothbard (1926–1995) – economist, historian, and political theorist Peter Schiff – investment broker, author and financial commentator Hans Sennholz (1922–2007) – Austrian School economist Cindy Sheehan – antiwar activist Joseph Sobran (1946–2010) – journalist, writer, and former National Review syndicated columnist Vin Suprynowicz – libertarian author Mark Thornton – Austrian School economist Jeff Tucker* – executive editor of Laissez Faire Books Ron Unz – former businessman and political activist Jude Wanniski (1936–2005) – journalist, conservative commentator, and political economist Walter Williams* – economist, commentator, and academic Clyde N. Wilson – University of South Carolina professor of history, paleoconservative political commentator, and contributor to Chronicles and Southern Partisan Tom Woods* – historian, political analyst, and author Kevin Zeese – political activist

* Indicates contributor also listed as a prominent LRC writer.^[15]

Other noted LRC writers include:^[15]

James Altucher – hedge fund manager, author and blogger Doug Casey – libertarian economist Gerald Celente – trend forecaster, publisher, business consultant, and author Tom Engelhardt – writer and editor Doug French – President of the Ludwig von Mises Institute

David Gordon – libertarian philosopher and intellectual historian Glenn Jacobs, a.k.a. Kane – WWE professional wrestler Andrew Napolitano – former New Jersey judge, political/judicial analyst for Fox News[16] Mark Sisson – fitness author and blogger Thomas Sowell – economist, social theorist, political philosopher, and author

References and notes

1. Alexa analyctics for LewRockwell.com, accessed May 12, 2013.
2. Baedeker, Rob (February 25, 2008). "The gold standard: A precious metal that's not just an investment but a worldview too". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-03-25.
3. About LewRockwell.com at LewRockwell.com website.
4. The LRC Blog at LewRockwell.com website
5. Lew Rockwell Show podcast at LewRockwell.com.
6. Doherty, Brian (February 16, 2009). "Libertarianism in an Age of Economic Crisis: Why being truculent, oppositional, and hard to pigeonhole are not signs of ideological death". Reason. Reason Foundation.
7. Murray N. Rothbard Library and Resources at LewRockwell.com.
8. The Ron Paul File at LewRockwell.com. In his 2011 book Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom, Paul said he "especially value[s]" the site. Foundation for Rational Economics and Education (FREE). ISBN 978-1-4555-0443-5
9. Goldberg, Jonah (March 7, 2001). "Farewell, Lew Rockwell. The final word". National Review. The site also features regular screeds about how Abraham Lincoln was a murderous war criminal, how the American military is a hotbed of criminal imperialism and murderous warmongering, and why Southern secession not only was honorable and noble but how it still is a viable option. (In this article, Goldberg was responding to criticisms of another article he had written about LRC.)
10. Antle III, W. James (January 14, 2008). "The Paleocon Dilemma… The Ron Paul campaign illustrates the choices facing the antiwar Right". The American Conservative. [A] decade ago...Rockwell hoped to mobilize grassroots conservatives on behalf of anti-statism, during the Bush era he has detected a whiff of 'red-state fascism' among the Republican base. Other [LRC] writers prefer terms like 'neoconofascist'.
11. Kalichman, Seth; Nattrass, Nicoli (forward) (2008). Denying AIDS: Conspiracy Theories, Pseudoscience, and Human Tragedy. New York, London: Springer. pp. 49–53, 142, 182, 191. ISBN 978-0-387-79475-4. OCLC 390487079. Cite uses deprecated parameter |coauthors= (help)
    • For the 2006 LRC conference, see: LewRockwell.com 2006 conference schedule
    • For Harvey Bialy's LRC response to Farber, Celia (March 2006). "Out of Control: AIDS and the Corruption of Medical Science". Harper's, vol. 312, no. 1870, pp. 37–52, OCLC 100240598; ISSN 0017-789X; see: "The US Government Responds to the 'AIDS Denialist' Writing in the March Harper’s"
    • For Rebecca Culshaw's LRC article, see: "Why I Quit HIV", LewRockwell.com, March 3, 2006.
12. Culshaw, Rebecca. "Why I Quit HIV". Lewrockwell.com. Retrieved 2006.
13. Gorski, David (June 22, 2009). "Cranks, quacks, and peer-review." Science-based medicine. Author is Assistant Professor of Medicine (Surgery) at Wayne State University, holding an M.D. and Ph.D. in Cellular Biology from Case Western University)
14. LewRockwell.com columnists
15. About LewRockwell.com (partial listing)
16. In his 2010 book Lies the Government Told You: Myth, Power, and Deception in American History, Napolitano described LRC as "the best monitor of government excess in America today". ISBN 978-1-59555-266-2 OCLC 422764514

External links

Media related to Lew Rockwell at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website