Steve Reed, RIP

Longtime Karl Hess Club attendee, J. Neil Schulman, sends the following note:

"A short while ago I received a sad phone call from Tim Reed that his brother Steve Reed, a libertarian, frequent Karl Hess Club attendee, and a friend of mine, passed away in his sleep on February 4th, apparently due to complications of diabetes.

Tim will be attending tomorrow (Monday's) Karl Hess Club meeting to say some words memorializing Steve."

Ben Pleasants Interviews Actor Timothy Bottoms

Frequent Karl Hess Club attendee Ben Pleasants recently interviewed actor Timothy Bottoms in Moorpark, California.



As a journalist and critic, Pleasants's work includes When Bukowski Was a Nazi, Dan Fante: Man on Fire, Charles Bukowski Taught Me 'How to Write a Short Story', When Ask the Dust Was Forgotten, and Hawaiian Princess: Marc Forby Tells the Tale of Princess Kaiulani.

Pleasants's novels include Spearmint Leaves and The Victory of Defeat.

Regina Cobb Memorial Service

Longtime KHC attendee Pamela Maltzman forwards this email regarding Regina Cobb, whom some of you may have known:


Dear Friends,

It is with great sorrow that we must share with you the news that our sister, Regina Cobb, passed away on Dec. 30 after a massive stroke.

It has been a devastating loss, and Gina will be greatly missed. She touched many lives in many ways we cannot even know. You are receiving this email because your name was found in a list of Gina's contacts.

A Memorial Service will be held on Friday, Feb. 3 at 10:30 AM at:

Christ Lutheran Church
28850 So. Western Ave
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275

Please let us know if you plan to attend.

May Peace be With You,
Regina's Family

Valerie Hennes (sister) vhennes at toast dot net
John Liudzius (brother) reginacobbmemorial at gmail dot com

Foothills Libertarians Discuss Death Penalty

Libertarian Party of Los Angeles activist Ted Brown sends this notice about Region 63's upcoming anti-death penalty speaker:

This month's Foothills Libertarian speaker will be Loretta Keller, a local activist for SAFE California, the group that is sponsoring an anti-death penalty initiative for the November 2012 ballot. They are currently circulating the petition and copies will be available.

Ms. Keller is a freelance writer who writes features for the Los Angeles Times and opinion pieces for the Pasadena Star-News. She has a degree in psychology and is an artist.

(Note: The Libertarian Party has no official position on the death penalty. It is not mentioned in the party platform.)

ELECTION OF OFFICERS: This month we will elect officers for 2012: Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer. Current dues-paid party members are eligible to vote, and you can renew or join at the meeting.

Date: Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Time: 7 p.m. for dinner & conversation; 8 p.m. for the program

Location: Panera Bread Restaurant, 3521 E. Foothill Blvd, in Pasadena (west of Rosemead Blvd, at the west end of the Hastings Ranch Shopping Center)

I look forward to seeing you there.

For liberty,
Ted Brown, Secretary
Libertarian Party of Los Angeles County,
Foothills Region 63
(626) 794-7101

Was Friedrich Hayek a Hypocrite on Socialized Medicine?

A piece of investigative journalism from The Nation indicates that Friedrich Hayek may have been an enthusiastic supporter of socialized medicine -- at least so far as him receiving benefits.

Libertarians have often discussed whether libertarians can morally accept socialist benefits if they live under socialism. Those who find it acceptable argue that since the State took your money, you can morally "take it back" (and then some?) by accepting state benefits. Few libertarians want to do like Samuel E. Konkin III and live "under the radar."

Socialists wonder whether libertarians who accept state goodies are merely rationalizing. In any event, Hayek seemed eager to receive whatever state benefits (from Austria or the U.S.) for which he was eligible.

The Nation reports that Charles G. Koch (of the Koch Brothers fame) became head of the libertarian Institute for Humane Studies in 1973, whereupon he invited Friedrich Hayek -- then living in Austria -- to come to the U.S. "to serve as the institute's 'distinguished senior scholar; in preparation for its first conference on Austrian economics, to be held in June 1974.

"Hayek initially declined Koch's offer. In a letter to IHS secretary Kenneth Templeton Jr., dated June 16, 1973, Hayek explains that he underwent gall bladder surgery in Austria earlier that year, which only heightened his fear of 'the problems (and costs) of falling ill away from home.' (Thanks to waves of progressive reforms, postwar Austria had near universal healthcare and robust social insurance plans that Hayek would have been eligible for.)

"IHS vice president George Pearson (who later became a top Koch Industries executive) responded three weeks later, conceding that it was all but impossible to arrange affordable private medical insurance for Hayek in the United States.

"However, thanks to research by Yale Brozen, a libertarian economist at the University of Chicago, Pearson happily reported that 'social security was passed at the University of Chicago while you [Hayek] were there in 1951. You had an option of being in the program. If you so elected at that time, you may be entitled to coverage now.'

"A few weeks later, the institute reported the good news: Professor Hayek had indeed opted into Social Security while he was teaching at Chicago and had paid into the program for ten years. He was eligible for benefits.

"On August 10, 1973, Koch wrote a letter appealing to Hayek to accept a shorter stay at the IHS, hard-selling Hayek on Social Security's retirement benefits, which Koch encouraged Hayek to draw on even outside America. He also assured Hayek that Medicare, which had been created in 1965 by the Social Security amendments as part of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs, would cover his medical needs.

"Koch writes: 'You may be interested in the information that we uncovered on the insurance and other benefits that would be available to you in this country. Since you have paid into the United States Social Security Program for a full forty quarters, you are entitled to Social Security payments while living anywhere in the Free World. Also, at any time you are in the United States, you are automatically entitled to hospital coverage.'

"Then, taking on the unlikely role of Social Security Administration customer service rep, Koch adds, 'In order to be eligible for medical coverage you must apply during the registration period which is anytime from January 1 to March 31. For your further information, I am enclosing a pamphlet on Social Security.'

"The private correspondence between two of the most important figures shaping the Republican Party's economic policies -- billionaire libertarian Charles Koch and Nobel Prize–winning economist Friedrich Hayek, godfather of today's free-market movement -- were obtained by Yasha Levine from the Hayek archives at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. This is the first time the content of these letters has been reported on.

The documents offer a rare glimpse into how these two major free-market apostles privately felt about government assistance programs—revealing a shocking degree of cynicism and an unimaginable betrayal of the ideas they sold to the American public and the rest of the world...

"Publicly, in academia and in politics, in the media and in propaganda, these two major figures -- one the sponsor, the other the mandarin -- have been pushing Americans to do away with Social Security and Medicare for our own good: we will become freer, richer, healthier and better people.

"But the exchange between Koch and Hayek exposes the bad-faith nature of their public arguments. In private, Koch expresses confidence in Social Security's ability to care for a clearly worried Hayek. He and his fellow IHS libertarians repeatedly assure Hayek that his government-funded coverage in the United States would be adequate for his medical needs.

"None of them -- not Koch, Hayek or the other libertarians at the IHS -- express anything remotely resembling shame or unease at such a betrayal of their public ideals and writings. Nowhere do they worry that by opting into and taking advantage of Social Security programs they might be hastening a socialist takeover of America. It's simply a given that Social Security and Medicare work, and therefore should be used." ...

Read the entire article.

See Lady Magdalene's for Free!

Karl Hess Club attendee J. Neil Schulman now makes his action comedy film, Lady Magdalene's, available for free viewing, online!

See below:

Life Enhancements Distributes Lady Magdalene's

Karl Hess Club attendee J. Neil Schulman's action comedy film, Lady Magdalene's, has signed a distribution deal with health supplements company, Life Enhancements.

As part of that deal's cross-promotion, Lady Magdalene's actress Mara Marini interviews Life Enhancements CEO Will Block: