Strange Things Are Afoot at the Circle K

Stephan Kinsella writes on the odd Koch brothers turn toward a fanatical pro-war wing of Randianism. Most shocking is news that Sheldon Richman is no longer at the Koch-controlled Foundation for Economic Education:

Morning musings: my impression is that libertarianism has been growing in the past few decades, and more and more young and maturing libertarians are influenced by Austrian economics and anti-war, anti-state and anti-IP Rothbardian/radical libertarianism. And that orthodox Objectivism is on the wane.

Now in a recent post by Bob Wenzel (Ayn Rand Institute Attack on Murray Rothbard http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2012/10/ayn-rand-institute-attack-on-murray.html), we have ARI's Yaron Brook explaining why they are doing more things with libertarians nowadays, unlike in the past when they were verboten. He says libertarians are more reasonable now, less crazy/Rothbardian/anarchist. That's not my impression at all.

However it is odd that Cato has hired a former ARI board member, John Allison, as its CEO. As noted here, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jeremylott/2012/08/how-objectionable-is-john-allisons-objectivism/ , this stands to make Cato even worse on foreign policy, and also on IP (see my post http://c4sif.org/2012/08/does-catos-new-objectivist-ceo-john-allison-presage-retrogression-on-ip/).

And even more oddly: last month, the heroic, plumbline, antiwar, anti-IP anarchist Sheldon Richman, editor of FEE's The Freeman for the last 15 years--well, his employment at FEE came to an end. He is no longer editor. And now, FEE is collaborating with ARI on a conference:

http://www.fee.org/event/morality-of-capitalism/ --
"MORALITY OF CAPITALISM STUDENT CONFERENCE

"On Saturday, October 27, the Ayn Rand Institute and the Foundation for Economic Education are co-sponsoring a day-long conference Morality of Capitalism in Irvine, Ca. The conference is a unique opportunity to engage with top free market thinkers, participate in lectures and discussions, and network with other students. In addition, attendees will receive free books and three meals, and the conference will wrap up with an evening social at a nearby restaurant."

Randroidism making a comeback...? Strange things are afoot at the Circle K.