Rand Paul’s Misplaced Celebration by Jacob G. Hornberger March 8, 2013 With his 13-hour filibuster of President Obama’s nomination of John Brennan to be CIA director, U.S. Senator Rand Paul has drawn the nation’s attention to the issue of whether President Obama claims the authority to assassinate American citizens here at home, on American soil. The president, through Attorney General Eric Holder, initially stated that the president could use the military ...
Iraq Shows the Failure of Militarism and Socialism by Jacob G. Hornberger March 7, 2013 With the 10-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq upon us, there are three things that I find particularly fascinating. First, the people who favored the invasion have different rationales for why they favored the invasion. Some of them say it’s because Saddam Hussein conspired with al-Qaeda to commit the 9/11 attacks. Others say it’s because there were terrorists ...
Hugo Chavez and American Conservatives and Liberals by Jacob G. Hornberger March 6, 2013 I’m having a good time reading the reactions of American liberals and conservatives to the death of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Their reactions to Chavez’s death provide a window into the statist mindset that has brought such serious maladies to the United States. Consider, for example, an op-ed entitled “In the End, an Awful Manager” by Rory Carroll, which ...
A Profound Book on the Pentagon and Foreign Policy by Jacob G. Hornberger March 5, 2013 I just finished reading one of the best books on the Pentagon and U.S. foreign policy that I have ever read. The title of the book is House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power by James Carroll, the longtime columnist at the Boston Globe. The book was published in 2007 but I didn’t discover ...
The Dangers of a Standing Army by Jacob G. Hornberger March 4, 2013 Consider why our American ancestors opposed a standing army for our nation: James Madison: “A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence agst. foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a ...
Stay Afraid: It Sustains the Welfare-Warfare State by Jacob G. Hornberger March 1, 2013 Are you pacing the floors? Are you taking anxiety medication? Are you scared to death? Well, you should be doing all of the above. Be afraid. The entire world is going to collapse. Sequestration day is upon us. This is really hilarious. Have you noticed that the mainstream statist editorial writers and commentators have gone silent with all their horrible predictions ...
On the Glenn Beck Program by Jacob G. Hornberger February 28, 2013 I had a fantastic time advancing libertarianism on the Glenn Beck Program yesterday with my good friend Jack Hunter, who served as the moderator for our two College Civil Liberties Tours last year, and my new friend Zach Slayback, a brilliant libertarian student at the University of Pennsylvania. All three of us were in Beck's studio in Irving, ...
FFF Video and Audio Appearances by Jacob G. Hornberger February 26, 2013 Tomorrow—Wednesday--I am appearing on Glenn Beck’s new Internet network, The Blaze, specifically on his new show the Glenn Beck Program. The show airs from 5-6 Eastern Time. If you’d like to tune in, you can get a free 14-day trial subscription to the network. Other guests on the show will be longtime conservative activist Jack Hunter ...
The Power to Assassinate a Compliant and Submissive People by Jacob G. Hornberger February 25, 2013 President Obama’s nomination of John Brennan is being held up over Brennan’s refusal to state whether the president’s power to assassinate Americans (and others) extends to American soil. The controversy is summed up in a great article by Glenn Greenwald. The fact that Brennan could not bring himself to immediately say that the president doesn’t have the power to ...
Statists Hate Free Will by Jacob G. Hornberger February 22, 2013 Sometimes the cashier at the grocery store asks people whether they would like to donate one dollar to some charity. Most of the people I’ve seen say no. Whenever that happens, I think to myself how statists must be grinding their teeth in anger and rage when they hear that. If it were up to them, the state would ...
Drones, Assassinations, and the Drug War by Jacob G. Hornberger February 21, 2013 The New York Times is reporting that the Chinese military recently planned to assassinate by drone a suspected drug lord hiding out in Myanmar who was accused of having murdered 13 Chinese soldiers. While Chinese authorities ultimately decided not to carry out the assassination and ended up capturing the guy and having a court sentence him to death, ...
Why Isn’t the Murder of an American Boy an Impeachable Offense? by Jacob G. Hornberger February 20, 2013 Article 2, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution reads as follows: The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” In 1998, President Bill Clinton was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice for matters arising out of ...
