Interventionism Gave Us Afghanistan and Iraq by Jacob G. Hornberger July 6, 2021 As the Pentagon and the CIA proceed apace with their withdrawal from their forever war in Afghanistan, the temptation would be to justify this forever war by pointing to the 9/11 attacks. For interventionists, including those who are now acknowledging that the forever wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were “mistakes,” history begins with the 9/11 attacks. Not so! ...
The Tyranny of the Covid-19 Eviction Moratorium by Jacob G. Hornberger July 2, 2021 The U.S. Supreme Court recently permitted the eviction moratorium established by the Centers for Disease Control to continue, at least until July 31, when the CDC plans to lift it. The Court wrongly decided the matter. It should have immediately lifted the moratorium. Historically, governments have held “inherent” police powers to protect the health of the citizenry. But ...
Death and Libertarianism by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 2021 Whenever a government program or policy produces deaths of innocent people, the way I figure it is that that makes it incumbent on libertarians to take a firm stand against such programs and policies. We all know that there are all sorts of government regulations that deprive people of liberty that we libertarians need to oppose. Recent examples ...
Separate School and State by Jacob G. Hornberger June 30, 2021 For the life of me, I just cannot understand why so many Americans favor public (i.e., government) schooling. Everyone knows that government produces the worst of everything and that the free market produces the best of everything. So, why leave something as important as the education of one’s child in the hands of the government? It’s not ...
Let’s Reject Foreign Interventionism Entirely by Jacob G. Hornberger June 29, 2021 Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, interventionists are learning the wrong lesson from their ongoing debacle in Afghanistan. They are coming up with all sorts of reasons why this particular intervention has gone bad. Undoubtedly, they will promise to do better in the future. That’s not the lesson Americans should learn from this forever-war disaster. The lesson everyone should be ...
My Talk at Porcfest by Jacob G. Hornberger June 28, 2021 I had another great time at Porcfest, the annual libertarian festival in Lancaster, New Hampshire, sponsored by the Free State Project, whose objective it is to get libertarians to move to New Hampshire. I don’t know exactly how many times I’ve been to Porcfest but it’s several. This time, it was sold out, for the first ...
Harris’s Trip to El Paso Won’t Solve the Immigration Crisis by Jacob G. Hornberger June 25, 2021 Vice President Kamala Harris is on her way to El Paso, Texas, to study America’s decades-old immigration crisis. Apparently she hopes that she is going to be hit with some sort of brilliant insight while visiting a city on the U.S.-Mexico border that will finally bring an end to the crisis. It’s not going to happen. No matter ...
Why a Standing Army and a Welfare State? by Jacob G. Hornberger June 23, 2021 One of the major distinguishing characteristics, philosophically speaking, between our American ancestors and today’s Americans is with respect to the national-security establishment. Our ancestors fiercely opposed that type of governmental structure. Today’s Americans vociferously support it. That was why our ancestors chose to bring into existence a limited-government republic, one that only had a basic, relatively small military. ...
Libertarians and the Drug War by Jacob G. Hornberger June 22, 2021 With June 2021 being the 50th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s “war on drugs,” an ever-increasing number of editorials and op-eds are calling for an end to the drug war. This is an extremely positive sign, not only because it brings America closer to ending this evil, immoral, and destructive government program, but also because it shows the ...
If We Are Going to Achieve Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger June 21, 2021 There is no doubt that when it comes to freedom, the situation in America is not good. Ever since I founded FFF some 31 years ago, our lives as welfare-warfare serfs has gotten progressively worse, year after year. One option, of course, is to give up. Just surrender and accept our serfdom as a permanent condition and ...
Hypocrisy 101 by Jacob G. Hornberger June 18, 2021 When President Biden predictably began lecturing Russian President Vladimir Putin about human-rights abuses in Russia, Biden was chagrined when Putin turned the tables on him by asking about human-rights abuses at the hands of the U.S. government. I’ve often wondered why foreign dictators don’t do that more often. Biden’s ...
End the Draft Permanently by Jacob G. Hornberger June 17, 2021 Recently the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider a challenge to the all-male draft. The plaintiffs in the case argued that excluding women from the draft was unconstitutional. Apparently the Court is simply letting Congress decide the issue. I’ve got an idea — an idea grounded in freedom. How about abolishing the draft — and, of course, ...
