Wild River and TVA Socialism by Jacob G. Hornberger May 13, 2014 I’ve got a great movie recommendation for you — Wild River, a 1960 film directed by Elia Kazan starring Montgomery Clift, Lee Remick, and Jo Van Fleet. It is an awesome movie, one recommended to me by a supporter of FFF. It is nothing but sheer enjoyment. The movie revolves around an 80-year-old woman’s battle against the Tennessee Valley ...
The U.S. Annexation of Guantanamo Bay by Jacob G. Hornberger May 12, 2014 While people’s attention is focused on Russia’s annexation of Crimea, wouldn’t this be an appropriate time to discuss the U.S. annexation of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba? Yes, I know, imperialists and interventionists say that Guantanamo Bay isn’t really annexation but instead a lease of real estate between the Cuban government, as lessor, and the U.S. government, as lessee. But the fact is ...
Killing and Dying for Samsung Smartphones by Jacob G. Hornberger May 9, 2014 In its recent call for the U.S. government to continue serving as the world’s policeman (an editorial that I criticized here), the Washington Post trotted out an old example of U.S. foreign intervention to bolster its case: South Korea. Of course, it shouldn’t surprise us that the Post would go that far back to support its support ...
Anne Applebaum Almost Gets It Right on Foreign Interventionism by Jacob G. Hornberger May 8, 2014 The interventionist mindset is fascinating. Even when they, deep down, don’t want the U.S. government to be intervening in the internal affairs of other countries, they feel compelled to call on the U.S. government to intervene. It’s almost as if they can’t help themselves, much like an alcoholic. A good example is provided by Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum in ...
Why Is Obama Behaving Like Putin? by Jacob G. Hornberger May 7, 2014 A front-page story in yesterday’s New York Times demonstrates perfectly why American corporations are loath to take a public stance against the U.S. government, especially when it comes to foreign policy. In fact, although the story focuses on American businesses, it also indirectly and implicitly explains why the U.S. mainstream press faithfully toes the official foreign-policy line of the ...
The Washington Post Is Wrong on Foreign Interventionism by Jacob G. Hornberger May 6, 2014 Last Sunday, the Washington Post published an editorial on U.S. foreign policy that would astound any self-respecting libertarian. It sure astounded me! I found the piece to be absolutely incredible. If that’s the best reasoning that interventionists can come up with to support the continuation of a foreign policy of militarism, interventionism, and empire, they could be in deep ...
Déjà Vu in Ukraine by Jacob G. Hornberger May 5, 2014 Pardon me, but I’m experiencing déjà vu with respect to Ukraine, specifically relating to the CIA. As everyone knows, the CIA’s business involves regime change, operations in which the CIA oftentimes secretly and surreptitiously ousts democratically elected regimes that are independent of or unfriendly to the U.S. government and replaces them with regimes that will do the bidding of the ...
The Cold War Continues Against Cuba by Jacob G. Hornberger May 2, 2014 Why in the world does the United States still maintain an economic embargo against Cuba? The popular answer is that a few Cuban-American members of Congress from Florida won’t permit Congress to lift the embargo. That excuse has always struck me as odd given that the congressmen who aren’t Cuban-Americans far outnumber those who are. There is another possibility — ...
What About Racism in Government Programs? by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 2014 With all the furor over racial bigotry stirred up by the Donald Stirling/Los Angeles Clippers controversy, my question is: How come all the people who condemn Stirling’s racial bigotry continue to support government programs that inflict great harm on African Americans? I’m referring in particular to three such programs: the drug war, minimum-wage laws, and occupational-licensure laws. While there are undoubtedly ...
Racial Bigotry and the Free Market by Jacob G. Hornberger April 30, 2014 Statists have long taken libertarians to task for opposing mandatory integration laws and defending the right of bigoted owners of business establishments to discriminate against people on the basis of race. They inevitably accuse of libertarians of being racists themselves or supporting racial bigotry by virtue of libertarian opposition to mandatory integration laws. What statists just don’t get, however, is: ...
Venezuela and Egypt by Jacob G. Hornberger April 29, 2014 It would be difficult to find a better example of U.S. government double-dealing and hypocrisy than U.S. foreign policy toward Venezuela and Egypt. The U.S. government funnels millions of dollars in foreign aid into both countries — aid that has been forcibly taken from the pockets of the American people by the Internal Revenue Service. In Venezuela, this is accomplished with ...
Drug-War Corruption by Jacob G. Hornberger April 28, 2014 It’s hard to conceive of a more corrupting government program than the drug war. It corrupts everything it touches. According to the Associated Press, a former sheriff’s commander in Hidalgo County, Texas, recently pled guilty to taking cash from an accused drug trafficker in return for advising him on what law enforcement was doing. The sheriff of Hidalgo County ...
