The Violence That Empire Engenders by Matthew Harwood October 1, 2010 On May 1, a naturalized Pakistani-American left the United States a smoking surprise in Times Square meant to maim and murder indiscriminately. Fortunately the car bomb failed because a Senegalese Muslim T-shirt vendor sounded the alarm and because the bomb was ineptly designed. But as all acts of violence warrant, we should ask why. Was homegrown terrorist Faisal Shahzad’s hatred of the United States a product of its liberalism, its belief that any person who works hard enough can get ahead and should? Was his complaint that the United States is a libertine culture that allows homosexuality and abortion? Was it that the United States loves freedom and the pursuit of happiness more than other cultures? No, Shahzad’s reported complaints had to do with state violence: the Iraq war and the American government’s deployment of drones to deliver death from above and without risk. Since four planes struck from out of the blue on 9/11, the U.S. government has misdiagnosed the ...
The Glory of Libertarianism by Jacob G. Hornberger December 12, 2012 Benjamin Franklin once said, “Where liberty dwells, there is my country,” inspiring Thomas Paine to reply, “Where liberty is not, that is my home.” We libertarians happen to have been born in what Paine described as his preferred home — a country in which liberty is not. We strive to convert our country into one that Franklin preferred, one where liberty dwells. That’s one of the things that make our movement such a glorious one. That’s also one of the things that distinguish us from both liberals and conservatives. They believe that they already are living in a free country. You hear them expressing it all the time. They continually thank to the troops fighting and killing thousands of miles away from American shores for “defending our freedoms” here at home. You hear them singing to themselves, “Thank God I’m an American ...
Let’s Raise Our Vision to a Higher Level by Jacob G. Hornberger March 24, 2014 Given the myriad problems afflicting America under the welfare-warfare state way of life, the American people living today have a choice: They can continue devoting their efforts to coming up with reforms in the hopes of fixing all those problems, or they can raise their vision to a higher level and lead the world out of the statist morass in which it is mired. I say: Forget the reforms and go for the higher vision. After all, if there is anything that Americans should have learned by now, it is that the welfare state and the warfare state are inherently defective. That’s precisely why statists haven’t figured out how to make these philosophies work in the real world. They cannot be made to work. They are inherently defective. Consider, for example, healthcare. So many people, conservatives and liberals alike, are obsessed with Obamacare. Liberals want to keep it. Conservatives want to ditch it. They both think that if their particular reform ...
The State’s Greatest Success Story by Jacob G. Hornberger July 30, 2014 Amidst the endless series of disasters, debacles and crises produced by America’s welfare-warfare state, there is one huge success story that should not go unnoticed: the state’s educational system, specifically the extent to which the state has succeeded in indoctrinating so many Americans into believing they actually live in a free society. What could be better than a society of ...
Why Did Our Ancestors Approve the Constitution? by Jacob G. Hornberger February 11, 2015 Suppose our American ancestors in 1787 had been told that the proposed Constitution, which they were being asked to approve, was going to bring into existence a federal government that would have the following powers: The power to tax people’s incomes in any amount government officials deemed appropriate. The power to regulate people’s economic activities. The power to incarcerate and fine people ...
Anti-Intervention and Pro-Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger November 22, 2016 The biggest and most important issue of our time is what the role of the federal government should be in foreign affairs. With the election of Donald Trump, the debate on this issue is coming out into the open. The issue is interventionism vs. non-interventionism — that is, should the U.S. government continue to intervene and meddle in the ...
Ellsbergs Lessons for Our Time by Future of Freedom Foundation May 1, 2010 Daniel Ellsberg is the kind of American who should receive a Medal of Freedom. Except that the Medals of Freedom are distributed by presidents who routinely give them to useful idiots and apologists for their wars and power grabs. It should be renamed the Medal for Enabling or Applauding Official ...
Ellsberg’s Lessons for Our Time by Future of Freedom Foundation April 26, 2010 Daniel Ellsberg is the kind of American who should receive a Medal of Freedom. Except that the Medals of Freedom are distributed by presidents who routinely give them to “useful idiots” and apologists for their wars and power grabs. It should be renamed the Medal for Enabling or Applauding Official ...
Rebuilding America: Foreign Policy by Future of Freedom Foundation April 2, 2010 Ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the demise of the Soviet empire, it has been an article of faith among many Americans that an extensive overseas military empire and a massive domestic military-industrial complex are vitally important and greatly beneficial to our country. ...
British Judicial Cowardice on Assange by Jacob G. Hornberger January 4, 2021 This morning British Judge Venessa Baraitser denied the U.S. government’s extradition request for Julian Assange. That of course was the right thing to do. The problem though is with Baraitser’s reason for the denial: She says that there is a high danger that Assange will commit suicide if he is extradited. That was the justification she used ...
Libertarian Silence on the Kennedy Assassination by Jacob G. Hornberger February 8, 2021 One of the most noteworthy aspects of the Kennedy assassination is the silence among conservative, reform-oriented libertarians on the national-security state’s assassination of President John F. Kennedy. What’s up with that? After all, wouldn’t you think that a domestic regime-change operation against a U.S. president would be something every libertarian would be condemning, even ...
Points to Ponder on the Constitution by Jacob G. Hornberger March 29, 2022 Some points to ponder on the Constitution: 1. When the Constitution called the federal government into existence, the federal government was not vested with omnipotent powers. Instead, the federal government’s powers were limited to those that were enumerated in the Constitution, which were few. 2. The Constitution called into existence a limited-government republic, not a national-security state. If ...
