What Kind of Society Do You Want and How Do You Get It? by Jacob G. Hornberger September 14, 2015 Ask yourself: What kind of society do you want? I would think that most people would answer: I want to live in a free society and one that is prosperous, peaceful, and harmonious. Obviously, those of us Americans living today do not live in that type of society. Yes, I know that there are multitudes of Americans who are convinced that they live in a free society. They sing glorious praises to the troops for defending our “freedom” and proudly sing “Thank God I am an American because at least I know I’m free.” But believing you’re free when you’re not doesn’t make you free. A denial of reality only leads to psychosis, which might partly explain the decades-long, ongoing drug-use crisis in America. The words of Johann Goethe sum up the plight of many Americans today, “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” If Americans are free today, then what does that make Americans who in ...
The Way Back from 9/11 by Jacob G. Hornberger September 11, 2015 Given that today is the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, it serves as a good day to place that event in the context of how we began as a nation, where we are today, and what we need to do to put things back on the right track. The 9/11 attacks were not the first post-Cold War terrorist attacks against the United States. There was the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, an attack that was no different in principle from the attacks that occurred on 9/11. There were also the attacks on the USS Cole and on the U.S. Embassies in East Africa. Why all these terrorist attacks against the United States? Because after the Cold War ended, the U.S. government went into the Middle East and began poking hornets’ nests. There was the Persian Gulf intervention, the intentional destruction of Iraq’s water and sewage treatment plants, the brutal sanctions against the Iraqi people, the U.S. government’s public ...
Does It Matter Who Is Elected President? by Jacob G. Hornberger September 10, 2015 For the next year, we are all going to have to endure the presidential campaign and its accompanying blowhard speeches, insipid commentaries, and vapid debates. At the same time, many people will be terribly excited over the opportunity they get every four years to elect the person who will wield omnipotent power over their lives. It’s really not surprising that people get so excited about the presidential race because it’s the only time when the person who will rule over them will be nice and deferential to them. Once Election Day comes, everything changes for the next 3 years. The president will be back in his role as ruler and the citizens will be back in their role as deferential, submissive serfs. Untold amounts of money will pour into the presidential race. That’s because the governmental system that we now have in the United States — a welfare-warfare state — is a money-making racket for hundreds of thousands of people who ...
‘Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death’: The Loss of Our Freedoms in the Wake of 9/11 by John W. Whitehead September 10, 2015 “Since mankind’s dawn, a handful of oppressors have accepted the responsibility over our lives that we should have accepted for ourselves. By doing so, they took our power. By doing nothing, we gave it away. We’ve seen where their way leads, through camps and wars, towards the slaughterhouse.” ― Alan Moore, V for Vendetta What began with the
The Consistency of Libertarianism by Laurence M. Vance September 1, 2015 The essence of libertarianism is that a person should be free to live his life in any manner he chooses as long as his activities are peaceful, his interactions are consensual, and his associations are voluntary. Conservative godfather Russell Kirk (1918–1994) was right, at least on this point, when he said that a man who calls himself a libertarian because ...
Should Libertarians Support Socialism and Tyranny? by Jacob G. Hornberger August 28, 2015 With laws come enforcement. Whenever one supports a law, he necessarily supports the enforcement of the law. After all, it wouldn’t make any sense to support a law and oppose its enforcement. That would be like supporting lightning and opposing thunder. This point is an important one for libertarians in the context of the immigration debate. There are obviously lots of ...
The Free Market versus the Bureaucratic State by Richard M. Ebeling August 26, 2015 The U.S. presidential election of 2016 may still be well over a year away, but those who dream of sitting at the desk in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C. are busy scrambling for campaign supporters, financial contributions, and potential voters in the party primaries that will influence who will run in the general election. As ...
There Is Only One Libertarian Position on Immigration by Jacob G. Hornberger August 25, 2015 There is a common perception that there are two alternative libertarian positions on immigration: government-controlled borders and open borders. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is only one libertarian position on immigration, and that position is open immigration or open borders. After all, government-controlled borders and open borders are opposite positions. How could opposite positions on immigration both be ...
John Stuart Mill and the Dangers of Unrestrained Government by Richard M. Ebeling August 13, 2015 One of the great voices for personal liberty was that of the British economist and political philosopher, John Stuart Mill. His essay, “On Liberty,” though penned well over 150 years ago, is a classic statement that the individual should be respected in his right of freedom of thought, speech and action. But John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was also one of ...
The War That Justified Other Wars by Laurence M. Vance August 1, 2015 The Good War That Wasn’t — And Why It Matters: World War II’s Moral Legacy by Ted Grimsrud (Cascade Books, 2014), 286 pages. Even among some libertarians, World War II is viewed as the great exception. Although it was the most destructive thing to life, liberty, and property that the world has ever seen, World War II is ...
Immigration Socialism or the Free Market? by Jacob G. Hornberger July 30, 2015 If it’s presidential campaign season, then it’s time for the periodic furor over immigration. Many Americans are once again pacing the floors at night over the invasion by the illegals that is threatening to destroy America. I sometimes wonder how many people have gotten gray hair because of the immigration “crisis.” Among my favorite political bromides is, “The immigration system ...
JFK, McGeorge Bundy, and the Continuity of Government by Michael Swanson July 30, 2015 The assassination of President Kennedy was an unnerving event for the people of the United States and the world. Contradictory news stories that followed, as well as the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby, caused many people to wonder what was really going on. Many people suspected a conspiracy, and rumors spread that perhaps the president was ...
