Hornberger's Blog

Hornberger’s Blog, January 2012

by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2012

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 Just Ditch Medicare and Medicaid I just don’t get conservatives. They say they support individual freedom, economic liberty, free markets, limited government, and the Constitution. They also say they oppose socialism, interventionism, collectivism, and paternalism. They point out that such isms just don’t work. Okay, fine. Then why don’t conservatives call for the immediate repeal of Medicare and Medicaid? Why ...

Dorothy Rabinowitz’s Attack on Ron Paul, Part 4

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 30, 2011

Part 1  | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 The most disgraceful — but, at the same time, the most revealing and, also, the most ominous — aspect of Wall Street Journal editorial board member Dorothy Rabinowitz’s attack on Ron Paul was when she accused Paul of being “the best-known of our homegrown propagandists for our chief ...

Dorothy Rabinowitz’s Attack on Ron Paul, Part 3

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 29, 2011

Part 1  | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 The most disgraceful — but, at the same time, the most revealing and, also, the most ominous — aspect of Wall Street Journal editorial board member Dorothy Rabinowitz’s attack on Ron Paul was when she accused Paul of being “the best-known of our homegrown propagandists for our chief ...

Dorothy Rabinowitz’s Attack on Ron Paul, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 28, 2011

Part 1  | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Given the ongoing tensions between the U.S. government and the Iranian regime, it is not surprising that Wall Street Journal editorial board member Dorothy Rabinowitz brought up Iran in her attack on Ron Paul's libertarian views on foreign policy. What was disappointing, again, was the ...

Dorothy Rabinowitz’s Attack on Ron Paul, Part 1

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 27, 2011

Part 1  | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 One of the more fascinating attacks on Ron Paul comes from Dorothy Rabinowitz in the December 22, 2012, issue of the Wall Street Journal. Not surprisingly, given that Rabinowitz serves on the Journals editorial board, she goes after Paul for his foreign-policy views. What I found interesting ...

A Silly Attack on Ron Paul

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 20, 2011

As Ron Paul continues to surge in Iowa, the attacks on him and on libertarianism are increasing. That's, of course, not surprising, especially since Paul is now in the top position in the Iowa polls. But at the very least, you would expect the attacks to have some substance to them. Unfortunately, such is not the case with conservative ...

Why Ron Paul’s Surge Is Making Them Nervous

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 19, 2011

While big government statists in both the Republican and Democrat parties remain mystified over Ron Paul’s surge in the polls in Iowa, the ones who seem most confounded by this phenomenon are the members of the mainstream media, who themselves are statist to the core. They just can’t figure out how it’s possible that increasing numbers of people are ...

Back in the USSA

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 16, 2011

With congressional passage of the new military-detention bill, and President Obama’s unsurprising flip-flop decision to sign it into law, perhaps this would be a good time to review where we are as a country. We now live in a country in which the military has the legal authority to arrest or round up Americans (and non-Americans), place them into military ...

Don’t Reinvade Iraq

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 15, 2011

After those bogus WMDs failed to materialize in Iraq, the U.S. government changed its rational for invading and occupying the country to one purportedly intended to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq. Countless Iraqis have been killed, maimed, tortured, and incarcerated without trial during the past 9 years of occupation, and the entire country has been destroyed, but U.S. ...

Faith in Coercion or Faith in Freedom?

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 14, 2011

Why not immediately repeal Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education grants, food stamps, foreign aid, and all other welfare-state programs? While welfare-statists won’t state this directly, the following describes their attitude toward the American people: You are a bad people. You are selfish, self-centered, and greedy. You hate the poor generally and you hate people who are in need. If someone needed ...

Homelessness and the Minimum Wage

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 13, 2011

Like most everyone else, I periodically encounter people at some busy intersection with a cardboard sign saying something like, “Homeless with three children. Please help.” My immediate reaction is to feel sympathy, which is then followed by the thought that they should be working rather than standing at that intersection asking for money. But then I remind myself that ...

A Modest Welfare-State Proposal

by Jacob G. Hornberger December 12, 2011

I’ve got a modest welfare-state proposal that I’m sure every welfare-state advocate is certain to embrace. The fact that my idea comes at Christmas makes it doubly good. I propose a new law that would mandate that every single American purchase a Christmas present for all of his family and friends during every Christmas season from now until he dies. Isn’t ...