Hornberger’s Blog, April 2010 by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 2010 Friday, April 30, 2010 Revisiting Freedom in Iraq by Jacob G. Hornberger How often have we heard proponents of the unlawful war of aggression against Iraq say that the real purpose of their invasion (after U.S. troops and the CIA failed to find those infamous and scary WMDs that were about to fired at the United States) was to bring freedom and ...
Family Harm Is No Justification for the Drug War by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 2010 My blog post yesterday, “Why Do Conservatives Still Love the Drug War?, generated many interesting comments on Facebook. One of the commentators made a point that both conservatives and liberals have long used to justify this failed and destructive government program: that drug usage causes harm to families and, therefore, it is justifiable for the state to punish ...
Why Do Conservatives Still Love the Drug War? by Jacob G. Hornberger March 31, 2010 An article by a conservative named Cliff Kincaid, who serves as editor of the Accuracy in Media (AIM) Report, provides a perfect example of how different libertarians are from conservatives and, well, for that matter, how there ain’t a dime’s worth of difference, when it comes to individual freedom, between ...
The Biggest Threat to Our Freedom and Well-Being by Jacob G. Hornberger March 30, 2010 The last thing statists want people to be doing is studying the Constitution. Because if people are studying the Constitution, there is a good possibility that they’ll discover what the Framers considered to be the biggest threat to the freedom and well-being of the American people. That would be, of ...
Diagnosing America’s Health-Care Illness by Jacob G. Hornberger March 29, 2010 Ludwig von Mises pointed out that one government intervention inevitably leads to more interventions in order to address the crises that are generated by the previous interventions. Ultimately, Mises said, the crises continue getting so bad that the government ends up taking over the entire sector. That principle perfectly describes ...
Another Statist Crisis by Jacob G. Hornberger March 26, 2010 Yesterday, the New York Times published an article detailing another statist crisis involving the U.S. welfare state. This time the crisis involves the crown jewel of America’s socialist programs, Social Security. According to the Times, “This year, the system will pay out more in benefits than it receives in ...
Why Conservatives Lost the Health-Care Battle by Jacob G. Hornberger March 25, 2010 The reason that conservatives bit the dust in the recent health-care battle is simple: their fateful decision to abandon their principles many decades ago cost them any chance of defeating President Obama’s socialist health-care plan. Think back to the 1960s, when liberals were celebrating the enactment of LBJ’s Medicare and Medicaid plans as much as they are celebrating Obama’s plan ...
Do Libertarians Have Any Chance of Success? by Jacob G. Hornberger March 24, 2010 With another major victory for statism in the form of President Obama’s socialist and interventionist health-care reform plan, the obvious question arises: Do libertarians have any chance at all of attaining the free society? After all, libertarians not only opposed Obamacare, they also favor, in a more fundamental sense, the ...
The President’s Nullification Power by Jacob G. Hornberger March 23, 2010 Among the most extraordinary powers claimed by both President Bush and President Obama as part of the post-9/11 “war on terrorism” is the power to nullify — or ignore — jury verdicts of acquittal in federal criminal cases involving terrorism. Ever since the founding of the United States, it has been ...
A Great Conference! by Jacob G. Hornberger March 22, 2010 We had an absolutely great time at the Free State Project’s Liberty Forum this past weekend. Lots of great speakers, hundreds of attendees, seeing old friends, meeting new ones, and perfect weather. Bart Frazier and Scott McPherson were manning the FFF exhibit booth and I gave the ...
Your Papers, Please by Jacob G. Hornberger March 19, 2010 A few days ago, Pete Eyre (who serves as outreach consultant to FFF) had an encounter with two police officers in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which Pete videotaped while openly carrying a weapon, which is legal under New Mexico law. After some conversation, the two officers asked Pete to produce ...
Who Needs Trials? by Jacob G. Hornberger March 18, 2010 The Washington Post has just published an op-ed that pretty much sums up where we’ve arrived as a country, post-9/11, thanks to both conservatives and liberals. The op-ed is entitled “KSM’s Dispensable Trial” and is co-authored by Jack Goldsmith, who served as an assistant attorney general in the Bush ...
