Virginia Is for Lovers of Liquor Monopolies by Jacob G. Hornberger November 26, 2014 A Virginia court recently sentenced 26-year-old Daries Lamont Coles to five years in jail for violating Virginia’s drug laws. He joins a long line of other people who have met a similar fate in the decades-long war on drugs. Meanwhile, the State of Virginia is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (VABC), a monopoly ...
Hagel’s Departure Will Make No Difference by Jacob G. Hornberger November 25, 2014 There’s one thing about statists. For them, hope springs eternal. Despite a century of ongoing failure, chaos, and crisis, they still believe that with the right person in charge or with the right reform plan, statism will finally prove to be successful. Time and again, we have witnessed this phenomenon in such areas as the drug war, healthcare, immigration, monetary ...
Rand Paul Is Wrong. Leave Iraq Alone! by Jacob G. Hornberger November 24, 2014 Still opposing the Iraq War in 2003, Senator Rand Paul now wants Congress to declare war against the Islamic State and engage in military action in Iraq. He says that “national security” is at stake. I’ve got a better idea: Leave Iraq alone! Hasn’t the U.S. government done enough damage already in Iraq? Consider all the death and destruction that interventionists ...
What Good Would It Do to Reform the NSA and the CIA? by Jacob G. Hornberger November 21, 2014 People who are trying to reform the NSA and the CIA are just wasting their time. After all, at the risk of belaboring the obvious, these two agencies operate in secret. Moreover, they know that they can do anything they want, including breaking the law, and that nothing will ever happen to them. Suppose, for example, that Congress were to enact ...
Thank the Troops for Their Service to Islam by Jacob G. Hornberger November 20, 2014 Americans are often exhorted to thank the troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan for defending our rights and freedoms. Yet, I have never heard anyone thanking the troops for fighting and dying for Islam. Why not? Yeah, I know what interventionists are already saying: “Jacob, are you crazy? Our troops don’t fight and die for Islam. They’re Christian warriors! ...
The Biggest Threat to Democracy and Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger November 19, 2014 By all objective standards, Egypt’s government is a military dictatorship and a brutal one at that. Having ousted the democratically elected president of the country, Egypt’s national-security establishment has not only taken control over the reins of government, it is the government. In order to fortify its grip on power over the Egyptian people, it has done what dictatorships ...
The United States Lost the Cold War by Jacob G. Hornberger November 18, 2014 As the world celebrates the 25th anniversary of fall of the Berlin Wall, Americans remain more convinced than ever that the United States won the Cold War. The Cold War brought us a national-security state, which consists of an enormous military establishment, a vast military-industrial complex, an empire of foreign and domestic military bases, ever-growing military budgets, and the ever-increasing ...
Max Boot’s Newest Plan for Iraq by Jacob G. Hornberger November 17, 2014 Max Boot, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, is an interventionist. In fact, he’s your classic interventionist. He believes that the U.S. government should intervene in conflicts around the world, at least where “national security” is at stake. Boot has a plan for Iraq. The plan was set forth in Sunday’s Washington Post in an op-ed by Boot ...
American Christians Erect an Idol by Jacob G. Hornberger November 14, 2014 North Korean authorities recently released an American citizen who had been accused of proselytizing for Christianity in North Korea, where such conduct is a criminal offense. Why would the communist authorities in North Korea care if people are practicing Christianity? Because government officials are afraid that Christians might give foremost allegiance to God rather than to the government, especially in ...
More U.S. Deaths in Korea? by Jacob G. Hornberger November 13, 2014 George Washington and Thomas Jefferson set forth one of the founding principles of our nation: It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.—George Washington Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations — entangling alliances with none.—Thomas Jefferson That guiding principle went out the window with the advent of the U.S. national-security ...
A Lesson in Interventionism in Iraq by Jacob G. Hornberger November 12, 2014 The great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises pointed out that one government intervention inevitably produces a crisis, which then causes government officials to enact a new intervention to address the crisis. The new intervention, however, produces a new crisis, which then necessitates a new intervention. With each new intervention, the government’s power continues to grow. While Mises was referring to ...
Let’s Rid America of Veterans by Jacob G. Hornberger November 11, 2014 The reason there is a large contingent of veterans in the United States is twofold: (1) because of the many foreign wars waged by the U.S. government in this century and the last and (2) the radical restructuring of America’s governmental system into a national-security state, one that consists of an enormous permanent standing army, a vast empire of ...
