Blame Statism for the Disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan by Jacob G. Hornberger September 22, 2010 As the fiascos in Iraq and Afghanistan continue worsening, expect American statists to do what they always do — avoid responsibility for their disasters and look for scapegoats on which to blame them. Consider Iraq, which has the one of the best models of a dysfunctional government you could ever find. Daily bombings and killings, arbitrary searches and seizures, military ...
Statism and the Washington Post by Jacob G. Hornberger September 21, 2010 A Washington Post editorial about Cuba yesterday depicts perfectly the mindset of statism that afflicts the mainstream media. The editorial commented about the horrific economic conditions in Cuba, which has caused Cuban leaders to launch what the Post called “half measures.” Such half measures include the laying off of 500,000 Cuban government workers, in a society in which the government employs about 95 ...
How to Quell the Tea Party Rebellion by Jacob G. Hornberger September 20, 2010 The Tea Party’s political shake-ups of the Republican establishment are undoubtedly causing no small amount of consternation among big-wigs in the Pentagon, the CIA, State Department, and other agencies and departments within the U.S. government. As of now, the Tea Party is primarily complaining about out-of-control federal spending, debt, taxation, and the prospect of hyperinflation on the horizon. But there ...
The Best Open-Immigration Lecture Ever by Jacob G. Hornberger September 17, 2010 Last Monday, an audience of around 90, mostly students from George Mason University, was treated to the best lecture on open immigration I have ever seen. The talk was delivered by GMU economics professor Bryan Caplan as part of FFF’s Economic Liberty Lecture Series, which we hold in conjunction with the GMU Econ Society, a student group at GMU ...
Will Cuban Socialists Lead America to Freedom? by Jacob G. Hornberger September 16, 2010 I’d like to follow up on my blog post of yesterday about the Cuban government’s decision to lay off 500,000 government employees, given that Cuba’s socialist system has engendered a state of near-starvation poverty in the country. Undoubtedly, there is consternation among those who are being laid off. For their entire lives, they have worked for the state — a ...
Fidel Castro and American Statism by Jacob G. Hornberger September 15, 2010 Cuba’s president Fidel Castro is surely making American liberals extremely nervous. Mugged by reality, Castro is moving his country in a direction away from socialism, at the very same time that American liberals are trying their best to move the United States further in the direction of socialism. Castro has a much firmer grip on reality than American liberals. Castro ...
Dismantle America’s Military Behemoth by Jacob G. Hornberger September 14, 2010 An article in last Sunday’s New York Times provided an interesting analysis of the Egyptian military, one that holds some important lessons for America. The article described the military in Egypt as “the single most powerful institution in an autocratic state facing its toughest test in decades, an imminent presidential succession.” The military, which has been the recipient of almost $40 billion ...
Obama and Bush: Mismanagers of the Economy by Jacob G. Hornberger September 13, 2010 With the approaching elections, we are being treated to the expected political attack by Republican candidates — that President Obama has mismanaged the economy. In fact, within one day of Obama’s taking control over the presidency, Republicans were already railing against his socialism and his out-of-control federal spending, debt, and taxes, and the dismal state of the economy. Never mind, ...
The Problem is Empire, not Islam by Jacob G. Hornberger September 10, 2010 I suspect that the reason that so many Americans have gone off on the anti-Islamic kick is their steadfast refusal to confront the fact that the 9/11 attacks were the direct consequence of the bad things their federal government had been doing to Muslims in the Middle East prior to 9/11. It’s as if people perceive the federal government ...
Barack Obama: Torturer-and-Assassin-in-Chief by Jacob G. Hornberger September 9, 2010 The Ninth Circuit’s ruling yesterday in the case of Binyam Mohamed vs. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. confirms two things: the U.S. government wields the omnipotent, unreviewable power to torture people and, two, that Barack Obama, despite his much ballyhooed pre-election campaign hype about “change,” is actually just serving George W. Bush’s third term in office. The plaintiffs’ claims against Jeppesen arose out of ...
Anti-Islamic Schizophrenia by Jacob G. Hornberger September 8, 2010 The anti-Muslim opponents of that Islamic community center/mosque in New York City are suffering a severe case of anti-Islamic schizophrenia. On the one hand, they’ve gone ballistic over the possibility that an Islamic community center/mosque might be built a couple of blocks away from the World Trade Center site. Yet, on the other hand, many of them are among the most ...
How Much Is an Iraqi Life Worth? by Jacob G. Hornberger September 7, 2010 One of the most morally obscene aspects of the Iraq War has been the cost-benefit analysis in which war proponents claim that the war has been worth the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people killed in the operation. Since the U.S. government has brought democracy to Iraq, the argument goes, the deaths of countless Iraqi people, while regrettable, has ...
