Hornberger’s Blog, March 2012 by Jacob G. Hornberger March 1, 2012 Friday, March 30, 2012 Good for Pope Benedict! Good for Pope Benedict! During his trip to Cuba this past week, not only did he criticize Cuba’s embrace of Marxism and the Castro regime’s infringements on religious liberty and civil liberty, he also condemned the 50-year-old U.S. embargo on Cuba. He pointed out that the aim of greater freedom in Cuba was ...
Libertarians versus Liberals on the Poor by Jacob G. Hornberger February 29, 2012 Wouldn’t it be great to have a national debate between liberals and libertarians over whose philosophy and policies help the poor? For decades liberals have claimed that the welfare-state/regulated-economy way of life helps the poor. That has been the major rationale for the statist way of life under which we have all been born and raised. Libertarians, on the other hand, ...
Separate School & State, Even at the Local Level by Jacob G. Hornberger February 28, 2012 Why won’t conservatives ever go to the root of the statist problems that face our nation? A good example involves education, an area that most conservatives will admit has long been mired in crisis. Yet, all that conservatives end up doing is dancing around the problem, as they do in so many other areas where statism produces crises. I generally ...
Pull Them Out Now, Mr. President by Jacob G. Hornberger February 27, 2012 Let’s give credit where credit is due. At least U.S. officials are not claiming that the recent killing of two U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan was owing to generalized hatred for our “freedom and values,” which was the claim made by U.S. officials after the 9/11 attacks. Perhaps they know that given the U.S. military’s recent burning of multiple copies ...
Don’t Northwoods Iran by Jacob G. Hornberger February 24, 2012 All the buzz over possible war with Iran brings us a déjà vu feeling, given that U.S. officials prepared Americans with similar pre-war hype in the run up to their war on Iraq. WMDs. Mushroom clouds over American cities. An insane dictator. Threats to national security. Etcetera. Keep in mind that Iran, like Iraq, has never attacked the United States. ...
Spending, not Taxation, Is the Problem by Jacob G. Hornberger February 23, 2012 With President Obama and various Republican presidential candidates competing to reduce corporate income taxes, it must be election time. Do you ever feel like you’re living in a Latin American country, where the presidential candidates are notorious for offering all sorts of political candy to the voters during the campaign season? The whole notion of reducing taxes is, of course, ...
Tear Down the Wall with Cuba by Jacob G. Hornberger February 22, 2012 While U.S. officials are decrying the Egyptian military dictatorship’s criminal prosecution of U.S.-government-funded NGOs for supposedly spreading “freedom and democracy” without a government-required license, now would be a good time to revisit Cuba’s criminal conviction of Alan Gross. Gross, an American citizen, was caught bringing satellite phones, laptops, smartphones, hard drives, and networking equipment into Cuba without the license that ...
The New York Times Has It Wrong on U.S. Aid to Egypt by Jacob G. Hornberger February 21, 2012 The New York Times, along with other members of the mainstream media, is in a tizzy over the Egyptian government’s decision to charge three American NGO’s, along with 19 American officers of the organizations, with criminal violations. Apparently the NGO’s failed to comply with Egypt’s registration requirements prior to engaging in “pro-democracy” political activity in Egypt. In an editorial on the subject, ...
The Students for Liberty Conference by Jacob G. Hornberger February 20, 2012 This past weekend, we had another great session on “Civil Liberties, the War on Terrorism, and the Constitution.” This time we were at the annual conference of the Students for Liberty, a fantastic organization of college students who are predominantly libertarian. The conference attracted more than 1000 attendees, and we had an overflow crowd at our panel, which ...
Torture, Assassination, and the American Way of Life by Jacob G. Hornberger February 17, 2012 As most everyone knows, the CIA has been assassinating people practically since the time it was formed in 1947. By and large, however, the CIA kept its assassinations secret. Americans, for their part, had a feeling that such things were being done but didn’t ask any questions. The system was almost in the nature of a secret, unannounced pact between ...
Who Won World War II? by Jacob G. Hornberger February 16, 2012 I’m always intrigued by those in the pro-interventionist crowd who trot out World War II to justify U.S. imperialist interventionism in the Middle East and the rest of the world. They always act as if the United States won World War II and also saved the Jews from the Holocaust. Nothing could be so ridiculous. With respect to the European ...
Goering Was Right on War by Jacob G. Hornberger February 15, 2012 Nazi leader Hermann Goering once stated: Naturally the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a ...
