The Pipe Dream of NSA Reformers by Jacob G. Hornberger January 10, 2014 The pipe dream of many of those who are complaining about the NSA’s massive surveillance scheme is that the NSA can be “reined in” by some type of congressional legislation. They just don’t get it. As long as the NSA exists, it’s going to do whatever it needs to do to protect “national security,” even if that means breaking ...
Morality versus the National Security State by Jacob G. Hornberger January 9, 2014 One of the horrible consequences of the national-security state apparatus that was grafted onto America’s governmental system is how it has oftentimes placed Americans in the position of choosing between morality and obedience to the law. Just this week, we have been reminded of the conflict between morality and law back in 1971, during the height of the Cold War, ...
Freedom or “Security”? by Jacob G. Hornberger January 8, 2014 This week’s revelations about the 1971 burglary of an FBI office by seven antiwar activists shows the similarities between the U.S. government’s war on communism and the war on terrorism. In case you haven’t read about the burglary, here is the link to the New York Times article on what happened. The video that accompanies the article is really ...
Should the Military Have Ousted FDR? by Jacob G. Hornberger January 7, 2014 Among the reasons given for the Egyptian military’s ouster of the democratically elected president of the country, Mohamad Morsi, was that Morsi was exercising dictatorial powers and adopting policies that were destroying any chance of an economic recovery in Egypt. The Egyptian military, which the U.S. government continues to stand with and support, says that protecting “national security” trumped ...
Nothing but Failure for Welfare-Warfare Statists by Jacob G. Hornberger January 6, 2014 I can’t imagine why any statist would be proud of being a statist, especially given the manifest failure of his three favorite government programs — foreign interventionism, the war on poverty, and the war on drugs. Did you see that al-Qaeda has taken control over Fallujah in Iraq? Two things immediately come to mind. First, despite all the hoopla over ...
Why Not Force People to Attend Church? by Jacob G. Hornberger January 3, 2014 There is one big fundamental difference between libertarians and advocates of the welfare state: force. Libertarians say: Leave everyone free to keep his own money and decide what to do with it. Under libertarian principles, charity is entirely voluntary. If a person chooses to help out others, he must use his own money or money that has been voluntarily donated ...
The Progressives’ Achilles’ Heel by Jacob G. Hornberger January 2, 2014 Progressives (i.e., liberals in the corrupted meaning of the term) love to portray themselves as lovers of the poor. That’s what they use to justify their never-ending, ever-growing welfare-state and regulatory programs. But as we libertarians have repeatedly shown, the welfare state and the regulated economy actually constitute an enormous attack on the freedom and well-being of the poor. Minimum-wage laws, ...
Another Attack on Libertarianism by Jacob G. Hornberger December 31, 2013 Alternet.org, a liberal (i.e., progressive) website, has published another of its periodic attacks on libertarianism, this time an article entitled “What America Would Look Like If Libertarians Got Their Way?” by R.J. Eskow. Two things struck me about Eskow’s article: one, his lack of faith in free people and, two, his lack of focus on the causes of wealth. The ...
Egypt’s National-Security State Rears Its Ugly Head by Jacob G. Hornberger December 30, 2013 Of all the ironies, the Egyptian people today are experiencing the wisdom of an American military man who served as president more than 50 years ago. That president was Dwight Eisenhower, who, before being elected president, had served as the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in World War II. In his 1961 Farewell Address, Ike delivered one of the ...
Your End-of-Year Donation to FFF by Jacob G. Hornberger December 27, 2013 https://youtu.be/OHp81qKlGyA If you haven’t already made a (tax-deductible) donation to The Future of Freedom Foundation, we hope you will do so before the end of the year. Our plans for spreading ideas on liberty depend on your end-of-year support. Ideas on liberty move the world. Your financial support funds our monthly journal, Future of Freedom, our FFF Daily email publication, ...
Should Drug-War Victims Pardon the Drug Warriors? by Jacob G. Hornberger December 26, 2013 From the Huffington Post: In the holiday spirit of forgiveness, Gov. Jerry Brown announced pardons on Tuesday for 127 people…. Most of the individuals receiving full and unconditional pardons had been convicted of drug-related offenses. Well, isn’t that nice? What a good person Jerry Brown is! Oh, he isn’t the only one. President Obama is too. He recently granted clemency ...
Is America’s Healthcare System Socialism or Not? by Jacob G. Hornberger December 24, 2013 In the healthcare-related controversy over whether President Obama is a socialist or not, it would be better to ask a more fundamental question: Is America’s overall healthcare system socialist or not. Why is that important? Three reasons. First, socialism always produces chaos and crises. Second, socialism cannot be fixed or reformed and any attempts at improving it only make the situation worse. Third, if ...