The Wall Street Journal’s Blind Spot by Jacob G. Hornberger December 10, 2013 Conservatives are fascinating people, in part because of their eagerness to point out the faults of foreign regimes while turning a blind eye to the faults of their own government. A good example of this phenomenon occurred yesterday in an editorial published by the Wall Street Journal entitled “The Putin Media.” The Journal took Russian President Vladimir Putin to ...
The U.S. vs. Robert Kahre: A Horrible Miscarriage of Justice by Jacob G. Hornberger December 9, 2013 The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the criminal conviction of Robert Kahre, the man who incurred the wrath of the IRS by paying his employees in gold coin. Since the face value of the gold coins was significantly below the legal threshold that triggers withholding taxes, the Court held that Kahre didn’t do his duty to ...
Federal Debt, Detroit, and Greece by Jacob G. Hornberger December 6, 2013 If ever-growing federal debt is a good thing, they pray tell: Why is the Detroit city government in bankruptcy? They’ve been incurring lots of debt. Is there really some kind of special difference between a national government and a local government? Of course not. Government is government, whether at a local, state, or national level. No government is exempt from ...
Will Oceania, I Mean America, Re-Embrace Syria? by Jacob G. Hornberger December 5, 2013 In George Orwell’s novel 1984, Oceania is in a state of perpetual war, with the official enemy shifting back and forth between Eurasia and Eastasia. Whenever a shift in official enemies is made, the people are expected to automatically conform their mindsets to the new reality — that Oceania now has a new official enemy, one that has always ...
Welfare and Regulation: The Scam That Protects the Rich by Jacob G. Hornberger December 4, 2013 In yesterday’s blog post, “Are the Minimum Wage and the Drug War Racist?” I pointed out how the federal government wages war against black teenagers with its minimum-wage laws and its drug laws. Actually, the problem is much worse than that. The entire panoply of programs in the welfare state and regulated economy are an attack against the poor ...
Are the Minimum Wage and the Drug War Racist? by Jacob G. Hornberger December 3, 2013 At what point can one legitimately call a government program racist? Segregation laws were obviously racist given that their expressed aim was to separate whites and blacks in public and private facilities. But what about government programs whose adverse effects, year after year, fall disproportionately on blacks? If such programs are knowingly kept in existence, notwithstanding their obvious adverse ...
Killing Unnamed Children in Afghanistan by Jacob G. Hornberger December 2, 2013 When I read this Washington Post article about the two-year-old child that U.S. forces just killed in Afghanistan, I wondered what the child’s name was. Nowhere was it to be found in the article. Maybe the Post hadn’t acquired the name. Or maybe it just doesn’t matter. It’s just one more death among the countless Afghan deaths at ...
The National-Security State’s Childishly Dangerous Taunt Against China by Jacob G. Hornberger November 27, 2013 It didn’t take long for the U.S. national-security state’s “pivot” toward Asia, after its disastrous 12-year foray into the Middle East, to produce a new crisis for Americans. In response to China’s decision to implement a new air zone involving a long territorial dispute with Japan over a group of islands, the U.S. military sent two B-52 bombers flying ...
No Radel Treatment for Poor Blacks and Hispanics by Jacob G. Hornberger November 26, 2013 Trey Radel must be counting his lucky stars for being white, prominent, influential, and powerful. He’s a Republican congressman from Florida who recently pled guilty of buying cocaine from an undercover narc in D.C. and received an absolutely sweetheart deal from the judge at his sentencing hearing. The judge deferred a judgment of guilty and placed Radel on probation. ...
Face the Nation Ignores Truth about the JFK Assassination by Jacob G. Hornberger November 25, 2013 For 50 years the mainstream media has scrupulously avoided confronting the ever-mounting evidence of conspiracy in the JFK assassination. A classic example of this phenomenon occurred last week on the CBS talk show Face the Nation, hosted by Bob Schieffer, who has been with CBS since 1969. Here’s what happened. Schieffer had three guests on his show to discuss the ...
Speaking the Unspeakable by Jacob G. Hornberger November 22, 2013 On today, November, 22, 2013, the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, we are certain to hear the same old pabulum that we have heard for the past five decades: “We will just really never know what happened to President Kennedy on that fateful day.” What a crock. Oh sure, we might not ever know the names ...
Speaking with a Forked Tongue on the Cold War by Jacob G. Hornberger November 21, 2013 In the 19th century, American Indians had an apropos term for U.S. officials: “speaking with a forked tongue.” The term can mean saying one thing and meaning another or also just being hypocritical. One could easily have applied the term to the New York Times yesterday. In its lead editorial, entitled “Vladimir Putin Clings to the Past,” the Times takes ...
