Democracy Is Neither Freedom Nor Prosperity by Jacob G. Hornberger October 23, 2014 Consider this excerpt from a New York Times article on the recent success that Tunisia has had in adopting a democratic system: Many young Tunisians say that the new freedoms and elections have done little to improve the daily life, create jobs, or rein in a brutal police force that many here still refer to as “the ruler,” or, ...
My Talk to the YAL Chapter at Washburn University by Jacob G. Hornberger October 22, 2014 Yesterday I had the opportunity to deliver a talk via the Internet on the American police state to the Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) chapter at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. I always loving giving talks to YAL members because the audience is always filled with young people who are knowledgeable about libertarianism and Austrian economics and, equally important, ...
Hey, Newark! Time to Separate School & State! by Jacob G. Hornberger October 21, 2014 A fascinating insight into the statist mind, specifically in the context of public schooling, came in the form of an op-ed by Ras J. Baraka, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey. Baraka’s op-ed, entitled “A New Start for Newark Schools,” was published in last Sunday’s edition of the New York Times. Baraka beseeched the state of New Jersey ...
The Cuban Embargo Is an Attack on both Cubans and Americans by Jacob G. Hornberger October 20, 2014 In its October 11 Sunday edition, the New York Times published an editorial calling for the lifting of the 45-year-old Cold War-era economic embargo against Cuba. The Times pointed out, Over the decades, it became clear to many American policy makers that the embargo was an utter failure. But any proposal to end the embargo angered Cuban-American voters, a ...
Mandated Charity Is Evil, Immoral, and Destructive by Jacob G. Hornberger October 17, 2014 For the life of me, I just can’t understand why conservatives and liberals (i.e., progressives) favor mandated charity. With the exception of foreign interventionism, public schooling, and the drug war, it is difficult to conceive of anything more immoral and destructive than coerced charity. At local grocery stores here in Virginia, the cashier sometimes asks customers, “Would you like to ...
China’s Suppression of Dissent Is Reason for Hope by Jacob G. Hornberger October 16, 2014 For the past several weeks, the Chinese government has been brutally suppressing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. The protesters consist mostly of students, who are objecting to the Chinese government’s regulation requiring candidates for public office to be pre-approved by the Chinese government. Ever since Great Britain’s transfer of jurisdiction over Hong Kong to China, the Chinese government has slowly ...
Where Did Iraq Get Its Weapons of Mass Destruction, Part 2 by Jacob G. Hornberger October 15, 2014 In April 2003, when U.S. officials were still celebrating their invasion and occupation of Iraq as a fantastic success, I wrote an article entitled, “Where Did Iraq Get Its Weapons of Mass Destruction?” Actually though, it wasn’t actually an article but rather a list of articles, with links to the listed articles. One purpose of compiling that list of ...
FFF’s Libertarian Angle Now on Ron Paul’s Voices of Liberty by Jacob G. Hornberger October 14, 2014 I am pleased to announce that The Libertarian Angle, FFF’s weekly Internet show featuring Sheldon Richman and me, is now being posted at Voices of Liberty, the exciting Internet venture powered by Ron Paul to spread ideas on liberty. Voices of Liberty features insightful news coverage, perspectives by Ron Paul, and viewpoints from many other proponents of liberty. When a representative ...
With “Victories” Like WWII, Who Needs Losses? by Jacob G. Hornberger October 13, 2014 Even the most ardent of interventionists will concede that World War I was a deadly and destructive debacle. That is certainly how the American people felt after the war was over. They realized that the tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers who were sacrificed in that war died for nothing. The war did not end all wars or make ...
FDR Should Have Been Impeached for Pearl Harbor by Jacob G. Hornberger October 10, 2014 Ever since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, people have surmised that President Franklin Roosevelt knew that the attack was coming and intentionally let it happen. After all, it is undisputed that U.S. officials had, at the very least, broken Japan’s diplomatic code and were reading the instructions that Japanese officials were sending to their diplomats in Washington in ...
Military Base Dependency by Jacob G. Hornberger October 9, 2014 One of the most disastrous effects of America’s post-World War II embrace of a permanent warfare-state apparatus has been the extreme dependency on domestic military bases that dot towns and cities across America. The situation is akin to a drug addict who lies permanently in bed hooked up to an IV that is feeding heroin into his veins. The ...
The Virtues of Free Trade by Jacob G. Hornberger October 8, 2014 I find it absolutely amazing that there are still people around who look with disfavor on free trade. A recent example occurred in the New York Times just last Sunday in an op-ed entitled “Our Misplaced Faith in Free Trade” by Jeff Madrick. According to Madrick, “free trade creates winners and losers — and American workers have been ...
