The Epoch Battle of Our Time by Jacob G. Hornberger September 18, 2009 It seems as though every statist has his favorite health-care reform and, more important, is convinced that his particular reform is the one that is finally going to make socialism and interventionism succeed. I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but it just ain’t gonna happen. Socialism and interventionism are inherently defective. They cannot be made ...
Operation Northwoods and the 9/11 Truthers by Jacob G. Hornberger September 17, 2009 Writing about the recent resignation of Van Jones, President Obama’s appointee to be green-jobs czar, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer says good riddance. What set Krauthammer off was not that Jones had once used profanity to describe Republicans or even that he might have been a self-proclaimed communist. What made Krauthammer angry and ...
China’s Retaliation against Obama’s Protectionism by Jacob G. Hornberger September 16, 2009 Several years ago, neocon supporters of the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions didn’t pay much heed to how their adventures were placing our nation in a very precarious financial condition. Ironically, a liberal president, through his devotion to labor unions, might now be making that risk much greater and more likely to materialize. You’ll recall that ...
Interventionism, Empire, and the Taliban by Jacob G. Hornberger September 15, 2009 The U.S. government’s primary justification for continuing the occupation of Afghanistan is to prevent the Taliban from regaining power and providing a sanctuary for al-Qaeda. Ironically, however, this is another example of the disastrous consequences of imperialism and interventionism, for it was the U.S. invasion itself that created the problem that now serves as ...
McGovern’s Socialism by Jacob G. Hornberger September 14, 2009 Liberal George McGovern has a simple solution to the health-care crisis. In an op-ed in Sunday’s Washington Post, McGovern recommended that we simply extend Medicare, which currently is limited to people over 65, to everyone else. Like most other people on the dole, McGovern loves his government-provided health care: “Those of ...
Faith in Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger September 11, 2009 Whenever libertarians suggest that America’s socialist programs should be immediately repealed, rather than reformed or gradually reduced, statists inevitably react with shock and horror. The statists feel that Americans could never survive if their welfare-state dole was suddenly ended. What would happen if public schooling, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, farm subsidies, education grants, income ...
Plaxico Burress’s Doomsday Weapon by Jacob G. Hornberger September 10, 2009 The inanity of gun control is manifesting itself in the case of former New York Giants’ wide receiver Plaxico Burress. Thanks to New York City’s strict gun laws, which carry a mandatory minimum sentence, Burress is facing 3 1/2 years in the penitentiary. Burress, who had an expired concealed carry permit issued by the State ...
The Intellectual Paralysis of Statists by Jacob G. Hornberger September 10, 2009 A standard liberal argument for opposing the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan is that if the federal government wasn’t spending so much money over there, it could afford to pay for a national health-care program. Conservatives look at it the other way around. If Barack Obama wasn’t spending so much money on federal welfare, the ...
Public School Indoctrination by Jacob G. Hornberger September 9, 2009 Yesterday, I blogged about the indoctrination that is an inherent part of any government school system, whether in Cuba, the U.S., England, North Korea, or any other country. Government officials have a vested interest in ensuring a citizenry that accepts the official version of things and a citizenry that is compliant, obedient, and supportive ...
Is Obama’s Speech Indoctrination? by Jacob G. Hornberger September 8, 2009 You can always count on conservatives for injecting a bit of humor, albeit unintentionally, into any national political debate. The latest example involves their railing against President Obama’s plan to deliver a speech to the public-school students of America. The conservatives are calling the president’s speech “indoctrination.” Why is that funny? No, not for ...
Enough Is Enough in Afghanistan by Jacob G. Hornberger September 4, 2009 As Americans are gradually discovering, the 8-year occupation of Afghanistan is about opposing the Taliban’s attempt to regain political power, not about capturing or killing Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Thus, the occupation is about empire. That’s the way empires operate — placing their people into positions of power in foreign countries. The idea is ...
Who Won World War II? by Jacob G. Hornberger September 3, 2009 Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is embroiled in a tiff with the Poles over World War II. Like U.S. interventionists, Putin takes the position that World War II constituted a great victory for the Soviet Union, the United States, and the Allied Powers. They defeated Nazi Germany, after all, saving Poland and the ...