Information is being released on John Patrick Bedell, the man who shot two police officers at the Pentagon before being killed. His internet postings reveal that he was a libertarian, conspiracy theorist and fan of the Ludwig von Mises Institute Facebook group. The Ludwig von Mises Institute is a think tank that has a working relationship with Ron Paul and is headed by Paul’s former chief of staff, Lew Rockwell. His facebook page also listed him as a fan of Paul’s former chief of staff and current confidant, Lew Rockwell
Bedell also had an email address from the Ludwig von Mises Institute. This was posted on his Bazpedia page.
I am looking for collaborators for ongoing commercial and intellectual efforts. Email to jpbedell at mises.com is welcome!
Here’s What The Southern Poverty Law Center Said About the Lugwig von Mises Institute
Headed up by Llewelyn Rockwell Jr., the Ludwig von Mises Institute is devoted to a radical libertarian view of government and economics inspired by the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, whom the institute says “showed that government intervention is always destructive.”
Indeed, the institute aims to “undermine statism in all its forms,” and its recent interest in neo-Confederate themes reflects that.
Rockwell recently argued that the Civil War “transformed the American regime from a federalist system based on freedom to a centralized state that circumscribed liberty in the name of public order.”
Desegregation in the civil rights era, he says, resulted in the “involuntary servitude” of (presumably white) business owners. In the past, Rockwell has praised the electoral success of European neofascists like Joerg Haider in Austria and Christoph Blocher in Switzerland.
Both Rockwell and institute research director Jeffrey Tucker are listed on the racist League of the South’s Web page as founding members — and both men deny their membership. Tucker has written for League publications, and many League members have taught at the institute’s seminars and given presentations at its conferences.
At the recent Austrian Scholars Conference, the F.A. Hayek Memorial Lecture was delivered by Donald Livingston, director of the League’s Summer Institute. In 1994, Thomas Fleming, a founding League member and the editor of Chronicles magazine, spoke on neo-Confederate ideas to an institute conference.
Rockwell, who is also vice president of the Center for Libertarian Studies, runs his own daily news Web site that often features articles by League members.
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