Americans’ Faith in Socialism by Jacob G. Hornberger February 2, 2009 One of the distinguishing characteristics of 19th-century Americans and modern-day Americans revolves around the issue of faith. Our ancestors placed their faith in freedom and God. Americans of today place their trust in socialism and the state. Consider two of the crown jewels of the socialistic welfare state: public schooling and Social Security. Today’s Americans ...
Hornberger’s Blog, February 2009 by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2009 Friday, February 27, 2009 Legalize Drugs Instead of Banning Guns by Jacob G. Hornberger In an editorial this morning sarcastically entitled “The Drug Cartel’s Right to Bear Arms,” the New York Times is climbing aboard the drug-war/gun-control bandwagon. Here’s how the reasoning goes: The Mexican drug-war cartels are killing people with assault rifles. The weapons are purchased in gun shops in ...
Jail for Businessmen, a Pass for Torturers by Jacob G. Hornberger January 30, 2009 Francesco Insolia must soon report to a federal penitentiary to begin serving a one-year sentence. His crime? Hiring illegal aliens from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras in his leather-goods company in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He has also been ordered to pay $1 million to the federal government. Meanwhile, if it turns out that George W. ...
Obama’s Defense of Rumsfeld and Yoo by Jacob G. Hornberger January 29, 2009 While Barack Obama’s Justice Department is deliberating over what to do in the al-Marri case, the same Justice Department is defending Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, former Justice Department attorney John Yoo, and other Bush administration officials in civil lawsuits brought by Jose Padilla. Both Padilla and al-Marri were arrested on American soil, treated as ...
Do Drug-War Killers Hate Us for Our Freedom Too? by Jacob G. Hornberger January 29, 2009 I can’t help but wonder how drug-war proponents explain the violence in Mexico that has killed some 6,000 people in the last year and 16,000 after Mexican President Calderon, with the full encouragement of U.S. officials, deployed 50,000 Mexican troops and federal police three years ago to wage war against the drug dealers. Taking a ...
Public Schooling and Economic Crises by Jacob G. Hornberger January 28, 2009 We should not underestimate the powerful role that public — that is, government — schooling plays in the current economic crisis roiling American society. From the first grade through the 12th grade, most American children attend public schools. Several hours a day under government tutelage for twelve years is a very long time. One of ...
Obama and the al-Marri Case by Jacob G. Hornberger January 27, 2009 Among the executive orders President Obama issued upon assuming the presidency was one ordering the Justice Department to review the case of Ali Saleh al-Marri, a case that involves the enemy-combatant doctrine in terrorism cases that the U.S. government assumed after the 9/11 attacks. (For an extensive discussion of the importance of the al-Marri case, see “The al-Marri ...
Want More Terrorism and Big Government? Continue the Occupations by Jacob G. Hornberger January 26, 2009 Last Friday’s FFF Email Update linked to my September 2008 Freedom Daily article entitled “Seven Years of Darkness, Tyranny, and Oppression.” On that same day, my daily blog post was entitled “Afghanistan and Big Government.” The point of both articles was to show how U.S. foreign policy is at the root of foreign anger and hatred against the ...
Afghanistan and Big Government by Jacob G. Hornberger January 23, 2009 Conservatives are criticizing President Obama’s decision to close the Pentagon’s prison camp at Guantanamo, saying that this will result in more terrorism in the United States. They are being false and disingenuous. If there is another terrorist act in the United States, it will be because of what the U.S. government is doing to ...
Give Credit Where Credit Is Due by Jacob G. Hornberger January 22, 2009 Let’s give credit where credit is due. President Obama deserves credit for the new direction he appears to be taking with respect to civil liberties. That is reflected by his plans to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and his order to suspend the military commissions pending a review of the entire system. Ever since the Pentagon set up ...
Hitler Favored Self-Sacrifice Too by Jacob G. Hornberger January 21, 2009 The mainstream press is aglow over President Obama’s call for Americans to sacrifice for the common good. Obama’s plea mimics that of President Franklin Roosevelt, who asked Americans to do the same thing as part of his New Deal for America in the 1930s. Back then, it was someone else who was aglow over the president’s call for people ...
Sacrificing Iraqis for the Greater Good by Jacob G. Hornberger January 20, 2009 It seems that Barack Obama is going to take his time withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. Actually this shouldn’t surprise anyone, given that Obama is as much a welfare-state man as George W. Bush. Welfare state, you ask? What does devotion to the welfare state have to do with Iraq? Most Americans exuberantly supported the invasion ...