Put the Postal Service Out Of Its Misery by Jacob G. Hornberger February 11, 2013 In the latest episode in its periodic throes of pain and misery, the Postal Service has announced that it intends to cancel Saturday delivery of mail in order to save money. I’ve got a better idea: Get the government totally out of the business of delivering mail, by closing down the Postal Service and repealing the government’s legal monopoly ...
What Were the Standards for Executing Charles Horman? by Jacob G. Hornberger February 8, 2013 While Americans are seeking to determine the standards, if any, for President Obama’s assassination of American citizens, would it be too much to ask about the standards that were applied in the U.S. national-security state’s execution of American citizen Charles Horman? After all, in principle is a state-sponsored extra-judicial execution any different from a state-sponsored assassination? Why shouldn’t Americans ...
Coming to a City Near You? Assassination and Sanction Blowback by Jacob G. Hornberger February 7, 2013 The most persuasive argument against the U.S. government’s drone assassination program and its sanctions program on Iran is that they simply wrong in a moral sense. It’s morally wrong to murder people through assassination, and it’s wrong to inflict economic devastation on the citizenry of another country through sanctions. Another persuasive argument is that such programs are not authorized by ...
Facing the True Cause of Our Economic Problems by Jacob G. Hornberger February 6, 2013 Last Sunday’s New York Times had a front-page story about how Americans of all ages have suffered from the difficult economic conditions. The article pointed out that young people are in debt, unemployed, and living with their parents. People in their 30s and 40s can’t afford to buy homes or have children. Retirees are earning virtually nothing on ...
Guilt, Not PTSD, Is What Afflicts Iraq War Veterans by Jacob G. Hornberger February 5, 2013 Ex-military sniper Chris Kyle was killed last Saturday at the hands of another Iraq War veteran, Eddie Ray Routh. Routh is one of the many Iraq veterans suffering severe mental problems, and Kyle was helping him cope. Kyle figured a good way to help Routh with his struggles was to take him to a gun range. It turned out ...
One More Life Ruined by the Drug War by Jacob G. Hornberger February 4, 2013 The drug war has just taken another victim. This time the feds have ruined the life of Marc Gerson, a star law student at Georgetown University, who, according to the Washington Post, “was Phi Beta Kappa at Georgetown, a top economics student and an award-winning debater.” Washington, D.C., federal judge Reggie B. Walton has just sentenced Gerson to ...
Ten Ways a Libertarian Society Would Be Different by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2013 How much would a libertarian society differ from the statist society in which we live? It would be radically different. Here are ten ways a libertarian society would be different: 1. No more welfare-state programs. A libertarian society would be one in which there is a total separation of charity and the state, similar to the separation of church and ...
Gun Control and State-Sponsored Rape by Jacob G. Hornberger January 31, 2013 Who can ever forget the scene in Braveheart in which a husband is required, under force of arms, to surrender his new bride to the noble who has been given the legal right by the English king to rape the woman on her wedding night? Given that the husband was not permitted to own a sword, there was ...
Could a Military Coup Happen in the United States? by Jacob G. Hornberger January 30, 2013 Uh, oh! The Egyptian people might well be learning a lesson about standing armies that America’s Founding Fathers tried to impart to the American people. Egypt’s standing army, which has long been built up and fortified by U.S. foreign aid, is sending a not-so-subtle message to Egyptians that if the civilian authorities are unable to bring the current crisis ...
The Killings Have Nothing to Do With Our Rights and Freedoms by Jacob G. Hornberger January 29, 2013 This weekend is the Super Bowl, which means that viewers will be treated to the standard line about the troops — that they are over there protecting our rights and freedoms here at home. The sports broadcasters might even intimate that the reason we get to enjoy the football game is that the troops are over there killing people. The ...
The Department of Defense Is Not About Defense by Jacob G. Hornberger January 28, 2013 One of the most successful programs of U.S. indoctrination involves the Department of Defense. Most Americans honestly believe that the Department of Defense is really about the defense of the United States, when, in fact, the entire national-security state apparatus — e.g., the military establishment and the CIA — has absolutely nothing to ...
Alan Gross and Regime Change in Cuba by Jacob G. Hornberger January 25, 2013 Ever since Alan Gross was arrested and incarcerated in Cuba, his supporters have portrayed him as a simple, naïve American who was doing nothing more than distributing some cell phones to Jewish groups in Cuba. U.S. officials have especially played the innocent, couching their demands for Gross’s release in the context of free speech and other principles of a ...
