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
Everywhere you look, socialism is in crisis. Not just in Venezuela, North Korea, and Cuba, but also right here in the United States. Just consider three of America’s core socialist programs: Social Security, healthcare, and public schooling. They are all in crisis. They are always in crisis.
Among the best examples of crisis in American socialism is in the area ...
by Jacob G. Hornberger
Last Friday, President Trump issued a decree-law that prohibits Americans from traveling to North Korea. His justification for infringing on one of the most fundamental rights of man — freedom of travel -- is two-fold: to watch over and take care of Americans by refusing to permit them to travel to a brutal communist regime that might do bad ...
by Jacob G. Hornberger
American statists are convinced that the modern-day United States is immune from an economic catastrophe arising from its welfare-state, regulated-economy way of life. They say that out-of-control federal spending and debt is nothing to be concerned about. There is no need to slash welfare-state spending or warfare-state spending, they assert, because America is an exceptional country, one that isn’t ...
by Jacob G. Hornberger
Liberals/Progressives have a fascinatingly warped and perverted view of democracy and freedom. They believe that what people do with their own money should be subject to majority vote. If people are free to choose what to do with their own money, these statists say, that would constitute a severe threat to democracy.
Have you ever heard anything so ridiculous in ...
by Jacob G. Hornberger
As most everyone knows, federal spending and federal debt are out of control. The feds continue to spend far more than they take in with federal taxes. The excess of federal spending over federal taxes is called the deficit. The deficit this year is estimated to be $702 billion. That amount will be borrowed and added to the existing ...
by Jacob G. Hornberger
On May 9, 2017, Russians held a military parade in Red Square to commemorate the Allied victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. Given all the anti-Russia hoopla in the United States, no Western leaders attended the victory parade.
The Russians have good reason to commemorate the end of World War II. That’s because it was the Soviet Union, ...
by Jacob G. Hornberger
Ever since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, we have been hit with a multiplicity of bromides, myths, falsehoods, and deceptions by U.S. officials and the mainstream media. “Saddam was coming to get us with his WMDs.” “Mushroom clouds were going to start appearing over U.S. cities.” “The troops in Iraq are defending our freedoms.” The troops are ...
by Jacob G. Hornberger
After George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq ended up producing ISIS, which was quickly made into a new official enemy of the United States, I am sure that there were lots of Americans saying to themselves, “Oh my gosh, another official enemy. But once we vanquish this one, it will finally be over. We will finally have peace, tranquility, ...
by Jacob G. Hornberger
Sometimes the mainstream media can be entertaining without intending to. A good example appeared yesterday in an article about slavery in the New York Times.
The article, entitled “North Koreans in Russia Work “Basically in the Situation of Slaves,” details the lives of North Koreans who travel to Russia to work.
Russians have embraced the North Korean workers.
Why?
Because they work ...
by Jacob G. Hornberger
Let’s remind ourselves of the central feature of Obamacare: coercion. Under former President Obama’s program, the federal government orders Americans to purchase healthcare insurance. If they fail or refuse to do so, government officials punish them.
How can such a mandate possibly be reconciled with the principles of a genuinely free society?
It can’t be. In a free society, people decide ...
by Jacob G. Hornberger
In 1888 British Liberal leader Sir William Harcourt declared, “We are all socialists now.”
With the notable exception of libertarians, the same can be said of the American people in 2017. Except for libertarians, Americans are all socialists now, especially Americans who call themselves liberals, progressives, or conservatives.
Some liberals are very open and honest about being socialists. U.S. Senator Bernie ...
by Jacob G. Hornberger
In 1964, ABC television newscaster Lisa Howard asked Che Guevara, the self-avowed communist ally of Fidel Castro during and after the Cuban Revolution, a fascinating question: “What would you like to see the United States do, as regards Cuba?”
Undoubtedly, U.S. officials who were watching the broadcast were hoping that Guevara would respond in the customary way: “We would like ...