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Thread: Cato Institute Under Attack By Koch Brothers

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    Cato Institute Under Attack By Koch Brothers

    Why do think tanks exist? Are they really, as the common phrase goes, "universities without students?" Are they just places where aspiring government officials can do the spadework for their next run at being appointed deputy secretary of something or other? Or perhaps they've stepped into the void created by what some have termed the "cult of irrelevance" in the academy, which used to be a source of advice about public policy but has become too abstruse and method-intensive to be of much use to harried policymakers?

    I've had ample reason to ponder the subject, considering that the think tank at which I work, the Cato Institute, is currently defending itself from a hostile takeover attempt by Charles and David Koch, two billionaire industrialists who are intensely involved in partisan politics. (For those who don't know, Cato's mission is to "increase the understanding of public policies based on the principles of limited government, free markets, individual liberty, and peace." This libertarian orientation frequently puts us at odds with both political parties.)

    Here's the quick and dirty on what's happening. The Kochs are suing Cato to obtain total control of the institute. They recently began forcing out Cato's libertarian board members and replacing them with Koch operatives who are financially dependent on and/or otherwise entangled with the Kochs. Two of the people they tried but failed to force onto our board were John Hinderaker, a self-described "neocon" who writes for the hawkish and partisan Powerline blog, and Tony Woodlief, who declared that libertarian foreign-policy scholars "sound like absolute fools" or, alternatively, like "naive sophomores," and went on to egregiously mischaracterize some of the things libertarians have said about foreign policy in recent decades. He's within his rights to do so, but those stated views make him an odd pick to sit on Cato's board.

    http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...save_the_world

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    dadakarma
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    Glad to see someone here is getting hip to Koch.

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    "Getting" hip to Koch? I've known about them for yeeeears.

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    Besides, don't you hate Cato?

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    dadakarma
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    Quote Originally Posted by Conley View Post
    "Getting" hip to Koch? I've known about them for yeeeears.
    I'm talking about their influence recently. You know - the 'boogeymen', as the resident bible-toting bigot here refers to them.

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    dadakarma
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    Quote Originally Posted by Conley View Post
    Besides, don't you hate Cato?
    Did I say I hated Cato? Gee I don't remember - maybe you can find the post I made where I said that.

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    Hmm, it's hard to miss their influence.

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    dadakarma
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    Quote Originally Posted by Conley View Post
    Hmm, it's hard to miss their influence.
    But very easy to misinterpret its effects. Look thee to Koch defenders on this forum.

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    Quote Originally Posted by dadakarma View Post
    Did I say I hated Cato? Gee I don't remember - maybe you can find the post I made where I said that.
    I thought you said something about them but I'm not sure...maybe you can help me with something.

    When I did a search for Cato, it just shows thread titles. Is there a way to see the actual post? Because I don't want to go through 40 pages of a thread looking for that one post. I feel like there should be a way to show the post itself and not the entire thread. Thanks.

  10. #10
    dadakarma
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    Quote Originally Posted by Conley View Post
    I thought you said something about them but I'm not sure...maybe you can help me with something.

    When I did a search for Cato, it just shows thread titles. Is there a way to see the actual post? Because I don't want to go through 40 pages of a thread looking for that one post. I feel like there should be a way to show the post itself and not the entire thread. Thanks.
    Yes, go to 'advanced' search, and there's a place to check either 'threads' or 'posts'. Click 'posts'. And be sure to type my name specifically so you only have to look through my posts.

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