C'Mon Mike, You Can Do Better Than That

(Via Hullabaloo) Mike Konczal has dredged up Ludwig von Mises' Socialism as evidence that libertarians are against contraception and sexual autonomy for women. For the love of god the book is nearly 90 years old; surely he can come up with something more recent to support his case? In rejoinder I offer the following, slightly-more-contemporary tidbits from Reason Online:

• Ronald Bailey, writing on the birth-control kerfuffle, thinks the "war on religion" meme is "nonsense".
• Nick Gillespie, writing on the same topic, is "not convinced that Obamacare is the equivalent of a war on religious freedom".

Libertarians really don't seem to be jumping into bed with the Catholic church on this one. I thought it was pretty much accepted dogma that libertarian permissiveness w.r.t. sexual activity pisses off conservatives to no end.

On a more general note it's hard to square Konczal's contentions that libertarians are against female autonomy with their overwhelming support of LGBT rights in general and gay marriage in particular. If libertarians really wanted women to be subservient to men why would they so vigorously support institutions that can remove men from the picture entirely?

Lastly, I'll add my own (admittedly idiosyncratic) view that Von Mises isn't a libertarian no matter how many times people call him one. He's a consequentialist who beileves that libertarian policies produce the best social outcome and, as such, shouldn't be used as an examplar of libertarian thought.