Hornberger's Blog

A Philosophical Divide between Obama and Romney?

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 30, 2012

Earlier this month, the New York Times published a hilarious article. It was entitled, “Philosophic Clash Over Government’s Role Highlights Parties’ Divide” by Peter Baker. The article revolves around President Obama’s suggestion that people don’t really start their own businesses all by themselves. He pointed out that they actually have received the benefit of many other factors, for ...

Drug-War Regime Change in Venezuela

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 27, 2012

Uh, oh! While the focus is on U.S. foreign interventionism in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, and elsewhere in the Middle East, could it be that the U.S. Empire is ginning up for a regime-change operation over in this part of the world, specifically Venezuela, where the Hugo Chavez administration has long been the bane of U.S. officials? What ...

More Liberal Nonsense on the Minimum Wage

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 26, 2012

It’s a shame that libertarians still have to address minimum-wage articles written by liberals. You would think by now that the fallacies of the minimum wage would be so apparent to liberals that they would have abandoned the concept. Alas, such is not the case, as reflected in an article entitled “Raise the Minimum Wage to Raise ...

Should There Be a Federal Law on Tipping?

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 25, 2012

Suppose the Franklin Roosevelt administration had enacted a law in the 1930s that required every restaurant customer in America to pay a 15 percent tip to waiters. The argument in favor of such a law would have been twofold: to help the poor and to stimulate the economy by getting more money into circulation. The argument would have dovetailed ...

If Guns Are Outlawed, Who Protects Us from Criminals and Tyrants?

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 24, 2012

In yesterday’s blog, I stated that while Colorado permits the concealed carry of guns, the Aurora movie theater where the massacre took place has a policy prohibiting guns from being carried onto the premises. There’s a new twist to the story, however, According to this article by Michael Adams, the city of Aurora has a law prohibiting concealed ...

Indifference to the Sanctity of Life

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 23, 2012

While it’s too soon to know what motivated that Aurora, Colorado, shooter to kill and maim all those people, one thing seems clear: Whatever his motive was, it wasn’t personally directed toward the victims. It seems as though he didn’t care who he shot, who he killed, who he maimed. The shooter just had no regard for the sanctity ...

The Massive Failure of the Welfare-Warfare State

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 20, 2012

Everywhere you look in both the welfare state and the warfare state, you find massive failure. Social Security? Busted, like other Ponzi schemes. There isn’t a fund, and there never has been a fund. It’s a straight welfare program. Increasing taxes to fund the program place an ever-growing burden on the young. Medicare, Medicaid, and healthcare in general? A total mess. ...

Freedom vs. the Drug War

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 19, 2012

Oftentimes Latin American regimes blame the failure of the drug war on the U.S. government and the American people. They say that the fundamental problem is the demand for drugs among Americans as well as the failure of the U.S. government to reduce the demand. While emphasizing the continued importance of interdicting the supply of drugs coming out of Latin ...

The Domino Delusion

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 18, 2012

When U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently visited Laos as part of a U.S. government “friendship” mission to counteract the rising influence of China, she inadvertently reminded the American people of some of the horrors of U.S. foreign policy in that part of the world. Here’s a photograph in the Los Angeles Times of Clinton meeting with ...

Parking Lot Statism

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 17, 2012

Parking lots at local commercial establishments provide a good example of the difference between statism and libertarianism. Such parking lots provide parking places near the entrance of the store for handicapped drivers. Why do they do that? Because statists have employed the coercive apparatus of the state to force them to do so. If parking lot owners fail to ...

Hillary Clinton’s Trip to Egypt

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 16, 2012

During her trip to Egypt over the weekend, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was pelted by tomatoes, shoes, and chants of “Monica, Monica, Monica” from Egyptian protestors. Playing the role of the innocent as she met with the head of Egypt’s military council and Egypt’s newly elected president, Mohamed Morsy, Clinton pointed out that the United States doesn’t ...

The Communists Are Coming, Again!

by Jacob G. Hornberger July 13, 2012

Conservatives are at it again. Faced with the possibility that Americans are finally starting to realize that U.S. foreign policy is the cause of anti-American terrorism, conservatives are now reverting to their old stand-by position for justifying the continued existence of the national-security state: communism! No, I’m not referring to China, even though the Pentagon is now reorienting its focus ...