A Fiscal Lesson in Cyprus for Americans by Jacob G. Hornberger March 18, 2013 Once again, the European Union is teaching Americans what lies at the end of the road of out-of-control federal spending and debt. Cyprus is the latest country that has required a bailout. But this time, the authorities have crossed the Rubicon in how they have addressed the problem. The basic approach to overextended EU countries is to grant them immediate ...
Checkpoint Tyranny Along the Border by Jacob G. Hornberger March 15, 2013 Fifteen years ago, I published an article entitled “Domestic Passports for Hispanic-Americans,” in which I described immigration checkpoint tyranny in America’s borderlands with Mexico. Americans who have never traveled to the border have no idea of the police state that the ICE and the DEA have established in the border regions. My hometown of Laredo, Texas, is situated right ...
Praising the Troops for Defending Our “Rights” and “Freedoms” by Jacob G. Hornberger March 14, 2013 Have you ever wondered what people mean when they praise the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for defending our rights and freedoms here at home? This is one of the most popular and important bromides of our time. Given that we hear it all the time, especially in church and at sporting events, wouldn’t it be good to contemplate ...
Criminal Offenses vs. Acts of War by Jacob G. Hornberger March 13, 2013 As I have been emphasizing ever since the 9/11 attacks, terrorism is a criminal offense, not an act of war. That’s precisely why the U.S. government secures criminal indictments issued by federal grand juries against people it accuses of having committed terrorist acts. The federal attorneys, the federal grand jurors, and the federal judge that receives the indictments all ...
Lecturing on Libertarianism to High School Students by Jacob G. Hornberger March 12, 2013 Yesterday, I had a great time sharing ideas on liberty at a very impressive private school in Virginia Beach, Cape Henry Collegiate School. I started the day speaking to two combined classes consisting of about 20 seniors. Most of them already had a basic understanding of libertarianism. In fact, their teacher had just recently taken them to a forum ...
The Master Provocateurs by Jacob G. Hornberger March 11, 2013 Americans from across the political spectrum are finally waking up with deep concern over the president's power to assassinate people, especially Americans. People are also increasingly concerned about out-of-control federal spending and debt. For the first time in recent memory, people didn't fall for the fear-mongering and extortion that federal officials use to diffuse opposition to more federal spending ...
Rand Paul’s Misplaced Celebration by Jacob G. Hornberger March 8, 2013 With his 13-hour filibuster of President Obama’s nomination of John Brennan to be CIA director, U.S. Senator Rand Paul has drawn the nation’s attention to the issue of whether President Obama claims the authority to assassinate American citizens here at home, on American soil. The president, through Attorney General Eric Holder, initially stated that the president could use the military ...
Iraq Shows the Failure of Militarism and Socialism by Jacob G. Hornberger March 7, 2013 With the 10-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq upon us, there are three things that I find particularly fascinating. First, the people who favored the invasion have different rationales for why they favored the invasion. Some of them say it’s because Saddam Hussein conspired with al-Qaeda to commit the 9/11 attacks. Others say it’s because there were terrorists ...
Hugo Chavez and American Conservatives and Liberals by Jacob G. Hornberger March 6, 2013 I’m having a good time reading the reactions of American liberals and conservatives to the death of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Their reactions to Chavez’s death provide a window into the statist mindset that has brought such serious maladies to the United States. Consider, for example, an op-ed entitled “In the End, an Awful Manager” by Rory Carroll, which ...
A Profound Book on the Pentagon and Foreign Policy by Jacob G. Hornberger March 5, 2013 I just finished reading one of the best books on the Pentagon and U.S. foreign policy that I have ever read. The title of the book is House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power by James Carroll, the longtime columnist at the Boston Globe. The book was published in 2007 but I didn’t discover ...
The Dangers of a Standing Army by Jacob G. Hornberger March 4, 2013 Consider why our American ancestors opposed a standing army for our nation: James Madison: “A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence agst. foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a ...
Stay Afraid: It Sustains the Welfare-Warfare State by Jacob G. Hornberger March 1, 2013 Are you pacing the floors? Are you taking anxiety medication? Are you scared to death? Well, you should be doing all of the above. Be afraid. The entire world is going to collapse. Sequestration day is upon us. This is really hilarious. Have you noticed that the mainstream statist editorial writers and commentators have gone silent with all their horrible predictions ...
