Hornberger's Blog

Clinton’s Democracy Delusion

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 15, 2012

This evening we kick off our College Civil Liberties Tour with a program at the University of Washington at Seattle. If you’re able to tune in, it will be live-streamed here. This week’s schedule is there too. If you can’t make it, we’ll be posting the video on our website (fff.org) at a later date. The program ...

We Are Psyched About Our Tour!

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 11, 2012

Our second College Civil Liberties Tour kicks off this Monday, October 15, in Seattle. Then, we’re off to Davis, California, and San Diego. Then on to Tucson. And then we wrap it up in Boulder. We are psyched! A supporter called me this week from California to ask whether the events were open to the public. (They are, and admission is ...

Hugo Chavez and the 47 Percent

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 10, 2012

An article in last Friday’s New York Times about Venezuela’s presidential election provides some fascinating insights into America’s welfare-warfare state and the reason that U.S. officials love the welfare-warfare state way of life. The article, which was written before election day in Venezuela, was entitled “Fears Persist Among Venezuelan Voters Ahead of Election.” The article delved into the ...

Conservatives and Chavez

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 9, 2012

Conservatives are on the warpath over the reelection of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. They’re saying that Venezuelans have made a huge mistake in extending Chavez’s term as president, pointing out that Chavez’s socialism is destroying Venezuela’s economy. They’re also pointing out how unfair it is that Chavez used the powers of incumbency to buy votes with federal money in ...

Catholic Dependency on the Dole

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 8, 2012

A classic example of the horror of dependency that comes with a dole society comes out of Germany. According to a fascinating article in the New York Times, Germany’s Catholic bishops are up in arms over a decision of a German court to permit Catholics to leave the church. What do the courts have to do with ...

The Real Debate We Should Be Having

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 5, 2012

Imagine a society in which there is no income taxation, one in which everyone keeps everything he earns and then decides what to do with his own money — invest, spend, lend, save, or donate it. Along comes someone who exclaims, “I’ve got a great idea. Let’s change the system to enable the federal government to confiscate 10 percent of ...

Interventionism’s Out of Control Spiral into Death and Destruction

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 4, 2012

The New York Times reports that the Pentagon and the CIA are preparing plans to target suspects in the murder of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and two colleagues in Libya with assassination by drone. The process is a classic example of how interventionism spirals out of control. Notice that it wasn’t a Swiss ambassador who got attacked. It ...

Atlas Shrugged, The Movie, Part 2

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 3, 2012

Last night, I had the good fortune of attending the world premier of Atlas Shrugged, Part 2, in Washington, D.C. I say good fortune because it was an absolutely awesome film. It had everything — action, adventure, suspense, great acting, wonderful cinematography, a fantastic cliffhanger, and, most important, a clearly drawn battle between the looters and moochers of the ...

Squeezing the Iranian Citizenry

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 2, 2012

The New York Times reports today that the value of Iran’s currency has fallen 40 percent in the last week alone, another sign of the horrible economic pain that the U.S. government is inflicting on the Iranian people with its brutal regime of sanctions. It only goes to show what we have long argued: the sanctions and embargoes that ...

The War against Ourselves

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2012

Both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, along with their vice-presidential running mates, are fighting hard to convince voters that they will support and defend Medicare to their dying day. All of these political candidates understand an uncomfortable truth about the welfare state: Once people are placed on the dole, they will be unlikely to vote for any political candidate ...

Statism Is Finished

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 28, 2012

Two separate articles in the mainstream press provide good examples of how proponents of the welfare-warfare state are getting so desperate over the failure of their beloved statist paradigm that their thinking is getting ever more muddled. The two articles are “Europe’s Austerity Madness” by Paul Krugman in the New York Times and “Give Egypt’s ...

Imperialspeak: Is Egypt an Ally or an Enemy?

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 27, 2012

President Obama’s pointed observation that Egypt is no longer an ally of the United States reveals the imperial mindset that characterizes U.S. officials. Obama was recently asked in a television interview, “Would you consider the current Egyptian regime an ally of the United States? The president responded, “I don’t think that we would consider them an ally but we don’t ...