Hiroshima and Nagasaki Were Shameful War Crimes by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2023 I have not yet seen Oppenheimer but from what I gather about the film, it does not dwell on the massive death and suffering that the U.S. government inflicted on the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the nuclear bombs dropped on those two cities. What the film has done is revive the popular justification for the nuclear ...
Uncle Sam, Nuclear Polluter by Jacob G. Hornberger July 31, 2023 Why would anyone who is concerned with protecting the environment want to put the U.S. government in charge of that task? After all, look at how much damage the U.S. government has done to people and the planet over the decades with its nuclear testing. I haven’t seen the movie Oppenheimer but based on some of the ...
What Happens If the Cow Moves Away? by Jacob G. Hornberger July 28, 2023 In a welfare state, there are two sectors: the parasitic sector and the producing sector. The parasitic sector attaches onto the producing sector and begins sucking the lifeblood out of the producing sector, much like leeches that attach themselves to a cow and begin sucking blood out of the cow. The leeches have to be careful, however. Their ...
How to Avoid Nuclear War by Jacob G. Hornberger July 27, 2023 The new movie Oppenheimer has caused many people to rededicate themselves to the goal of achieving an international ban on nuclear weapons. But that’s never going to happen. There is no reasonable possibility whatsoever that the U.S. national-security establishment (i.e., the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA) would ever agree to dismantle its nuclear stockpile, especially since there ...
Abolish the Minimum Wage by Jacob G. Hornberger July 26, 2023 According to an article on the website Common Dreams, leftists are lamenting the fact that the federal minimum wage has not been raised since 2009. They are saying that the current $7.25 federal minimum wage is an “abomination.” They want it raised to at least $15 an hour and, preferably, higher. It is amazing to ...
A Constantly Shifting Array of Official Enemies by Jacob G. Hornberger July 25, 2023 I entered Virginia Military Institute as a freshman in 1968. By that time, the Vietnam War was in full swing. During the four years that I was at the school, VMI graduates were among the tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers who were being killed or injured for nothing. Everyone at VMI was required to be in the ...
Should the U.S. Invade Belarus? by Jacob G. Hornberger July 24, 2023 A couple of days ago, the New York Times published a story about the brutal authoritarian regime of Aleksandr Lukashenko, the leader of Belarus. The article points out that after winning a “widely disputed” election three years ago, Lukashenko has crushed dissent and “ushered in a chilling era of repression.” According to the article, “even the ...
Intervene Only When It’s In “Our National Interest”? by Jacob G. Hornberger July 21, 2023 One of the popular mantras for some conservatives and some libertarians when it comes to foreign interventionism is the following: “We should never intervene abroad except when it is in ‘our national interest.’” There is one great big problem, however, with that qualifier: It serves as no limitation whatsoever with respect to foreign interventionism. Why is that?
Lt. Ehren Watada, War Hero by Jacob G. Hornberger July 20, 2023 Four facts about the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq are not in dispute: 1. The Constitution required a congressional declaration of war against Iraq as a prerequisite to invading the country. 2. Congress never issued a declaration of war against Iraq. 3. The U.S. government had no legal authority to enforce WMD resolutions enacted by the United Nations. Only ...
Abolish the Postal Service by Jacob G. Hornberger July 19, 2023 According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, rural communities are hopping mad at the U.S. Postal Service. The reason? They’re not getting their mail — well, at least not without a long delay, sometimes several weeks. In Silverthorne, Colorado, Christmas cards started arriving in February. Residents of Crested Butte, Colorado, are banding together to ...
Libertarian Reform Is Not Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger July 18, 2023 For the past 25 years or so, the libertarian movement has been dominated by libertarian reformers — that is, those libertarians who have dedicated their lives, energy, time, and money to reform proposals intended to make the welfare-warfare state work more efficiently and more effectively. In the process, they have convinced themselves and others that they are advancing ...
Jury Nullification in Memphis! by Jacob G. Hornberger July 17, 2023 As I indicated in my blog post last week, “Freedom Fun at FreedomFest,” I was headed down to Memphis this past week for Mark Skousen’s annual FreedomFest, where I would be criminally prosecuted for the offense of supporting open borders. I had two co-defendants, Bryan Caplan, one of the most brilliant economics professors in the ...