Hornberger's Blog

Libertarian Angle on the Road

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 4, 2013

Today is the first leg of our five-city Southeast college tour, featuring FFF’s vice-president, Sheldon Richman, and me. The first stop is this evening — Monday, November 4 —at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. Tomorrow will be Georgia Tech in Atlanta. The complete schedule is on FFF’s website: https://fff.org/events. The events are being coordinated with local ...

Let’s Raise Our Vision to a Higher Level

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 2013

Imagine having been born and raised in a society in which the federal government has controlled religious activity since the founding of the United States. All churches are owned and operated by the federal government. Everyone is required by law to attend church at least once a week and to take his children to church. Churches, ministers, and religious ...

The Healthcare Reform Syndrome

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 31, 2013

For the life of me, I still don’t understand why Republican congressmen had that big fight over Obamacare and the budget resolution. I mean, why start a fight when you know that you’re going to throw in the towel before the fight is over? After the Republicans started the fight, I tweeted my prediction: that the Republicans would end ...

Why the Kennedy Assassination Still Matters

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 30, 2013

On the approaching 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, the obvious question arises: What difference does it make? A half century has passed since the assassination. It’s now history. Why spend any time on it? What relevance does it have to people living today, especially young people to whom the question “Where were you when you learned Kennedy was ...

On the Road to Greece

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 29, 2013

Greece continues to provide a fantastic reality check for the American people. The Greek government continued spending more than it was bringing in with taxes. Rather than slash spending, it borrowed the difference. It kept piling debt on top of debt. Finally, the mountain of government debt got so high that lenders were no longer willing to lend more ...

The CIA’s National-Security Nonsense on JFK Records

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 28, 2013

Over the weekend, the Dallas Morning News published an interesting article entitled “What We Still Don’t Know About the Kennedy Assassination” by former Washington Post reporter Jefferson Morley. According to the article, the CIA continues to keep secret some 1,100 records relating to the Kennedy assassination, which, from what I have been told, amounts to an estimated tens ...

What Would a Free Society Look Like?

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 25, 2013

Given the enormous role that the welfare-warfare state plays in American life, it is always easy for libertarians to find deprivations of liberty, such as coerced charity, drug-war incarcerations, the IRS, torture, surveillance, and assassination. Infringements on fundamental rights and liberties have become such an integral part of daily life that many Americans have even come to believe that ...

Chinese Bloggers Give Us Hope and Inspiration

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 24, 2013

Chinese bloggers who are experiencing a severe crackdown at the hands of their own government provide a source of hope and inspiration for advocates of liberty here in the United States. Take a look at this New York Times op-ed: “Busting China’s Bloggers” by Murong Xuecon, one of the many bloggers in China who are standing up to their ...

Income Taxation Protects the Rich and Hurts the Poor

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 23, 2013

Statists love to tell us how the income tax helps the poor by taxing the rich and equalizing wealth. That’s just sheer nonsense. For one thing, most of the money they take from people with income taxes is used to fund the welfare-warfare state, very little of which actually ends up in the hands of the poor. Moreover, to ...

Why Would Oswald Have Done It?

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 22, 2013

With the approaching 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, it would be appropriate to ask an important question: Why would Oswald have done it? Why would he have assassinated President Kennedy? As I see it, there are four possible scenarios, only one of which, in my opinion, makes any sense.  Let’s break down and analyze each one. 1. Oswald was a ...

A Great Conference on the JFK Assassination

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 21, 2013

I just returned from one of the finest conferences I’ve ever attended. It was a 3-day conference on the John Kennedy assassination sponsored by the Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. Not only were the speakers fantastic, the conference itself was first-class. 400 people attended. Wecht is a forensic ...

The False Default Scare

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 16, 2013

Let’s assume that I am earning $5,000 per month and that I have the following monthly expenses: Mortgage Food Car Clothing Interest Entertainment Other Total $1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 500 2,000 2,500 $9,000 Do you see the problem? I’m bringing in $5,000 a month and spending $9,000 a month. That’s a deficit of $4,000 a month. That’s precisely the problem facing the federal government. It’s spending a trillion dollars more than what it’s bringing ...