Hornberger's Blog is a daily libertarian blog written by Jacob G. Hornberger, founder and president of FFF.
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by Jacob G. Hornberger
Regardless of the extreme brouhaha surrounding Brett Kavanaugh, it’s difficult for libertarians to get excited over his nomination to the Supreme Court. For that matter, it was also difficult for libertarians to get excited over Merrick Garland, President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court.
There is a simple reason for that. While conservatives and liberals like to think that there ...
by Jacob G. Hornberger
There is a popular conception among some libertarians that the reason that we live under a massive welfare-warfare state is because government has a natural propensity to grow. The notion is a popular one among libertarians who promote anarchism, i.e., the total absence of government. The argument goes like this: The Constitution, which was supposed to keep government reined ...
by Jacob G. Hornberger
If you are in the Atlanta area this evening, I hope you’ll join us at FFF’s conference at Spelman College. The theme of the conference is “Mass Incarceration and the Drug War.”
The speakers are Neill Franklin of LEAP, an organization of former law-enforcement officers who call for and to the war on drugs, Seema ...
by Jacob G. Hornberger
Just when you think that the U.S. national-security state’s policy toward Korea can’t get more perverse, it does. The latest perversion? Opposing a peace agreement between North Korea and South Korea! Imagine that. And why would U.S. officials oppose such an agreement? Because it would inevitably lead to calls for U.S. troops in Korea to be sent packing home ...
by Jacob G. Hornberger
The mainstream press and the progressive movement are shocked — shocked! — over Paul Manafort’s influence peddling and political corruption schemes. Their reaction to Manafort’s conviction and guilty plea remind me of the scene in the movie Casablanca, where the police chief is “shocked” to learn that there is gambling in Rick’s establishment, followed by someone bringing the police ...
by Jacob G. Hornberger
With the onslaught of Hurricane Florence, the anti-gouging snitchers and enforcers are surfacing, just as they do every hurricane season. According to a news story on Fox5ny.com, the North Carolina attorney general’s office has received 500 reports of price-gouging. The article even features a telephone number that people who wish to report price gougers can call: 1-877-5-NO-SCAM.
North Carolina Attorney ...
by Jacob G. Hornberger
A popular lament about the JFK assassination is, “Golly, I guess we’ll never know what really happened.” The reason people express that lament is that they are thinking of what the law calls “direct evidence,” like a videotaped confession or a written memorandum detailing plans to conduct the assassination.
What such lamenters fail to consider, however, is the important role ...
by Jacob G. Hornberger
In an editorial opposing a U.S.-supported coup in Venezuela, the New York Times gets it right, mostly. Unfortunately, the Times’s editorial board, like so many advocates of foreign interventionism, just cannot let go entirely of its interventionist mindset.
But let’s first give credit where credit is due. In its September 11 editorial “Stay Out of Venezuela, Mr. Trump,” the ...
by Jacob G. Hornberger
Next Thursday, September 20, The Future of Freedom Foundation is holding a conference entitled “Mass Incarceration and the Drug War” at Spelman College in Atlanta. The conference is being co-sponsored by students at Spelman, Morehouse College in Atlanta, and the Spelhouse National Action Network. The students who are hosting us are as enthusiastic about this conference as we are!
This ...
by Jacob G. Hornberger
Of all the countless criminal prosecutions brought by the U.S. Justice Department since the founding of the United States as a nation, the case of 29-year-old Russian citizen Maria Butina has to rank among the top five most bizarre criminal prosecutions. There are several points of weirdness in Butina’s prosecution.
Butina is not charged with spying for Russia, as some ...
by Jacob G. Hornberger
It’s football season again, which means that the kneeling controversy is back. Two years ago, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick ignited a national controversy by kneeling during the singing of the national anthem before the start of a football game. He was protesting racial injustice in the United States, including the killing of African-Americans by white police officers.
The ...
by Jacob G. Hornberger
Yesterday, President Trump, yielding to the overwhelming power of the Pentagon, CIA, and NSA, announced that he has decided to keep U.S. troops in Syria indefinitely, thereby abandoning his intention announced last March to instead bring U.S. troops in Syria home. Of course, keeping the troops in Syria has been the position that the U.S. national security establishment has ...