Torture and Kangaroo Justice Are Un-American by Jacob G. Hornberger February 14, 2008 Justice Scalia’s remarks about torture reflect a fundamental problem with conservative judges. While oftentimes sound on economic liberty, they are absolutely atrocious with respect to civil liberties. Scalia’s approval of torture in certain circumstances ignores an important point that every first-year law student learns in his constitutional law course: that people are presumed innocent until ...
Attention, Neo-Con Automatons! by Jacob G. Hornberger February 13, 2008 Fury has erupted in Britain over letting a 12-year-old Afghan boy attend school. The boy had trained as a suicide bomber in Afghanistan because after his father, who had a member of the Taliban, was shot and killed by British soldiers, an Afghan elder told the boy, “You must avenge his death by becoming a ...
Imperialism, Interventionism, and Isolationism by Jacob G. Hornberger February 12, 2008 Conservatives and neo-conservatives sometimes claim that libertarians are “isolationists” because we oppose empire and interventionism. Their suggestion is that if the U.S. government did not have the unrestrained power to drop bombs on countries around the world, that would mean that America would be an “isolationist” country, sort of, I suppose, like Switzerland, whose ...
A Confluence of Cultures along the Border by Jacob G. Hornberger February 8, 2008 For those of you looking for something patriotic to do to celebrate George Washington’s birthday, you might want to consider traveling down to my hometown of Laredo, Texas, on the weekend of February 22. Laredo, a city along the Texas-Mexican border has the biggest George Washington birthday celebration in the nation. What’s special about the celebration ...
U.S. Soldiers Will Pay the Price for Bush’s Torture Policy by Jacob G. Hornberger February 7, 2008 After years of hearing President Bush proudly proclaim to the American people and the world that “We don’t torture,” yesterday the American people and the world learned that it was just one more lie on top of all the others. The White House and the CIA have come out and publicly admitted that they have ...
Why Doesn’t Obama Turn Himself In? by Jacob G. Hornberger February 6, 2008 In a Washington Times article on the drug war today, Steve Chapman points out that Barack Obama was for decriminalization of marijuana before he was against it. According to Chapman, who cites a Washington Times story on the matter, in his 2004 U.S. Senate race Obama came out for decriminalization. Now that he’s running for ...
Businessmen as Enemies of the Market by Jacob G. Hornberger February 5, 2008 One of the most common myths is that businessmen favor free enterprise — that is, enterprise that is free from government interference. Historically businessmen have been among the biggest proponents of government interference in market transactions, especially in order to use government power to gain a privileged position against their competitors. The latest example of ...
Squeezed by the Welfare-Warfare Vise by Jacob G. Hornberger February 4, 2008 In my article “Brace Yourselves,” I pointed out that owing to the refusal of the American people and U.S. officials to slash either welfare-state spending or warfare-state spending, federal spending will continue to soar out of control. That will add to the ever-increasing amount of U.S. government debt. The Federal Reserve in turn will continue printing the money ...
Hornberger’s Blog, February 2008 by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2008 Friday, February 29, 2008 Did the CIA Effect Regime Change in November 1963? by Jacob G. Hornberger In my blog yesterday, I noted that contrary to a popular refrain in the controversy over the John Kennedy assassination, government officials can, indeed, keep secrets. I pointed out that if three district attorneys in Dallas could keep the existence of a vault containing ...
Electing Our Dictator by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2008 The debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton over Iraq, along with the positions on Iraq taken by the Republican presidential candidates (except for Ron Paul) reflect what the presidential race is all about. It might not be politic to say so but the fact is that what Americans will be electing in November is ...
An All-Abiding Faith in the Welfare-Warfare State by Jacob G. Hornberger January 31, 2008 Among the more amusing political mantras in the presidential race is that of Mitt Romney. "Washington is broken," he declares, inevitably bringing cheers from Republican audiences. It's as amusing as the popular mantra employed by the Democrats: "Change!" They still just don't get it. It's not "Washington" that is broken. It's the welfare-warfare state that Americans ...
The Moral Degeneracy of Alternative Rationales for Invading Iraq by Jacob G. Hornberger January 30, 2008 One of the most disappointing parts of the Democratically controlled Congress has been its refusal to conduct a formal investigation into whether President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, and other U.S. officials knowingly, deliberately, and intentionally presented false rationales for invading Iraq. Everyone knows that Bush and his associates issued many statements that later turned out to be false regarding Saddam’s WMDs. ...
