Pakistan and the Fable of the Hornets by Jacob G. Hornberger December 21, 2009 In December 2001 — three months after the 9/11 attacks — I wrote an article entitled “A Foreign-Policy Primer for Children: The Fable of the Hornets.” The article provides a good description of what is now taking place in Pakistan, in response to the CIA’s drone assassinations in that country. In the fable, Oscar the policeman provoked a crisis ...
Government Welfare vs. Private Charity by Jacob G. Hornberger December 18, 2009 With Christmas approaching, perhaps this would be a good time to remind ourselves of the moral difference between government welfare and private charity. Government welfare is based on the force of government. The IRS forces people to send in a portion of their income. If they refuse, the IRS goes after them. It files liens ...
Spending and Debt in Greece and the U.S. by Jacob G. Hornberger December 17, 2009 Greece is in a severe economic crisis arising from excessive government spending and ever-increasing government debt. Reflecting concerns of a possible default in the payment of Greece’s bonds, the credit-rating agency Fitch has downgraded the rating of Greek debt. To deal with the crisis, the Greek government has proposed severe cuts in government spending. Wait ...
Which Comes First: Interventionism or Terrorism? by Jacob G. Hornberger December 16, 2009 Following up on my last two blogs regarding the important debate over what has motivated people to commit terrorist acts against the United States, two questions arise: First, why does the U.S. government persist in his claim that the terrorists are motivated by hatred for American freedom and values when the overwhelming weight of the ...
Why Are U.S. Troops Being Targeted? by Jacob G. Hornberger December 15, 2009 A friend of mine telephoned me about yesterday’s blog and made an excellent point about the five young American men who were recently arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of conspiring to kill U.S. soldiers. My friend pointed out that those young men traveled more than 7,000 miles to enter a foreign country allegedly to ...
More Blowback from U.S. Foreign Policy by Jacob G. Hornberger December 14, 2009 Some people are befuddled over the 5 young American men who allegedly traveled to Pakistan to take up arms against American troops. The men have been described by high school friends as friendly, ordinary students of Muslim faith who bore no religious prejudice against Christians. People who know the men are shocked to learn that they had apparently pursued ...
DINA and CIA Assassinations by Jacob G. Hornberger December 11, 2009 Two of my blog posts this week have caused me to ponder the similarities of the mind-sets of the people in Augusto Pinochet’s secret intelligence force (known as DINA) and those in George W. Bush’s and Barack Obama’s CIA. One blog post was about the CIA’s use of drone attacks to assassinate people in Pakistan and the ...
Murder is Murder, Whether by Pinochet or the CIA by Jacob G. Hornberger December 10, 2009 Thirty-five years after military strongman Augusto Pinochet took power in a coup in 1973 in Chile, the Chilean people have just discovered that Pinochet ordered the murder of former Chilean president Eduardo Frei Montalva. Even though Pinochet is dead, criminal indictments have been issued against people who allegedly participated in the assassination. Of course, Chileans ...
The Only Cure for America’s Health-Care Illness by Jacob G. Hornberger December 9, 2009 The core problem in the health-care debate is that most everyone just assumes the existence of Medicare and Medicaid and medical licensure. Then, they come up with some sort of reform plan that works around these socialist and interventionist programs. That’s ridiculous, because Medicare and Medicaid and occupational licensure are the heart of the problem. It’s just that people are ...
Imperial Folly and Terrorist Blowback by Jacob G. Hornberger December 8, 2009 Permit me to show you an example of why the U.S. government’s occupation of Afghanistan provides a continuing threat to the well-being of the American people. The example is a microcosm of U.S. foreign policy. The December 3 issue of the New York Times carried an article about the CIA’s expanded use of drone missile attacks in Pakistan ...
Another Loser: Military Occupation in the Drug War by Jacob G. Hornberger December 7, 2009 Iraqis and Afghanis are not the only ones who are protesting military occupation. According to Reuters, “Thousands of people dressed in white demanded soldiers leave Mexico’s most violent city on Sunday, accusing troops of provoking a surge in drug-war killings and running protection rackets.” Around 5,000 demonstrators, many carrying white balloons, held ...
Another Great Economic Liberty Lecture by Jacob G. Hornberger December 4, 2009 Last Wednesday provided another great evening in our Economic Liberty Lecture Series, which we hold at George Mason University in conjunction with the students in the GMU Econ Society. As a matter of fact, that night we had a third co-sponsor — the Atlas Economic Research Institute’s Sound Money Project, which not only treated ...
