Saturday, December 17, 2005

On RW Bradford

I wanted to wait a few days before beginning a "Bill Bradford roundup." Unlike most of my entries, I'll edit and extend this one without "update," "correction" or "added material" as new pieces come to my attention.

A couple of early, brief statements at Hit and Run: One from Jesse Walker, another from Brian M. Doherty. Over at Instead of a Blog, an extended personal remembrance from Tim Virkkala. These three are of special interest, coming from individuals who worked closely, and over long periods of time, with Bill. Virkkala's piece in particular is very much "warts and all" ... and I don't think Bill would have it any other way.

Some other blogosphere notes, from brief mentions to extended reminiscences, in no particular order:

Mike Renzulli
Claire Wolfe
Jeff Schaler
BW Richardson
RJ Lehmann
Keith Rodgers
Jim Henley
AB Dada (hat tip: link to Seattle Times obit)
Gene Healy
Steve Gordon
Gary McGath
Brandon Berg
Doug Woodbridge
hewhocannotbenamed
Lee Killough
Eric Garris
Timothy Sandefur
John Coleman
JohnTabin
Jacque Hamr

... and, of course, one seemingly triumphal mention from the thoroughly loathsome Chris Farris, who seems to think that liking Harry Browne requires hating Bill Bradford or vice versa (disclaimer: I write for a site of which Browne is president, but in the past have been "anti-Browne," i.e. worked against Browne as a pre-nomination candidate and took part in some activities which might have been considered inimical to his interest in the Libertarian Party's direction); I've also written for Bradford's magazine -- and consider both Browne and Bradford friends).

Farris, for those of you who are not familiar with him, was briefly a big fish in the small pond that is the Libertarian Party. He formed something called "Real World Libertarians," the primary focus of which, while it lasted, seemed to be to (successfully) oppose any candidates for national party nominations who had any actual record of political experience or success. Fortunately he left the LP -- as so many of us do -- in a huff before he could do much more damage. Maybe I should write an article for Liberty about scammers who use "real world politics" rhetoric to promote the same old unsuccessful approaches.

Anyway, I'll try to keep track of mentions as they come across my radar screen.

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