Why Not Force People to Give Christmas Presents? by Jacob G. Hornberger December 29, 2010 Imagine if the Obama administration proposed a new federal law that required everyone to give Christmas presents to every member of his family, to at least 5 poor people in the community, and to at least one public official. Wouldn’t most everyone be offended? Wouldn’t most Americans say, “It’s no business of government to be telling me who I should ...
American Statism and North Korea by Jacob G. Hornberger December 28, 2010 Yesterday’s New York Times carried an interesting article about North Korea that in some ways reminds one of the United States. The country is suffering severe economic depression but the government is promising that prosperity is just around the corner. Meanwhile, everyone must sacrifice for the sake of the military, which protects the country from the ever-present threat of foreign attack ...
Shifting Toward Libertarianism by Jacob G. Hornberger December 27, 2010 People sometimes ask why libertarians have had a difficult time achieving success in the political arena. The answer is: Because libertarians are calling for an entirely new paradigm, rather than simply a reform of the status quo. Given the opposition that many people have toward major change, the task that libertarians have is much bigger and more difficult than ...
Imperial Terrorism in Italy by Jacob G. Hornberger December 17, 2010 What would happen if agents of the Venezuelan government entered the United States, kidnapped a person suspected of being a terrorist, and whisked him away to Cuba to have him tortured? I’ll tell you: U.S. officials would be hopping mad, along with all their statist supporters. “Bomb them into the Stone Age!” the statists would scream. “Nuke ’em! Nuke ’em ...
Bill of Prohibitions Day by Jacob G. Hornberger December 16, 2010 Bill of Rights Day was yesterday. Undoubtedly, American statists celebrated the fact that the Constitution and the federal government give them their rights and that the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are fighting to protect their politically granted rights. Actually, however, neither the government nor the Constitution gives rights to anyone. Rights are natural and God-given and pre-exist government. As ...
The Envy and Covetousness of Progressives by Jacob G. Hornberger December 15, 2010 Get a load of this op-ed in yesterday’s New York Times: “Give Up on the Estate Tax” by Ray D. Madoff, a professor at Boston College Law School. Referring to the estate tax, Madoff writes: “This tax, first enacted in 1916, was never intended to be simply a device for raising revenue. Rather, it was meant to address the ...
The Moral Relativism of U.S. Interventionists by Jacob G. Hornberger December 14, 2010 Consider this opening paragraph from an article in last Sunday’s edition of theNew York Times: After World War II, American counterintelligence recruited former Gestapo officers, SS veterans and Nazi collaborators to an even greater extent than had been previously disclosed and helped many of them avoid prosecution or looked the other way when they escaped, according to thousands of newly ...
A Stupid Debate by Jacob G. Hornberger December 13, 2010 In one of the stupidest political debates in modern history, liberals and conservatives demonstrate, once again, how worthless their joint commitment to statism is. Their current big debate centers around the liberal dream of extending jobless benefits to unemployed people and the conservative dream of extending tax cuts for the rich. Suppose you were on the Titanic and word spread ...
Why They Hate WikiLeaks by Jacob G. Hornberger December 10, 2010 The statist outrage against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks is rooted in the U.S. government’s imperial foreign policy. In fact, the entire war on terrorism and the ever-growing infringements on the fundamental rights and liberties of the American people revolve around the existence and the activities of the U.S. Empire. What’s the primary mission of the U.S. Empire? Diplomatic and military ...
Why Do We Need a Welfare State to Redistribute Wealth? by Jacob G. Hornberger December 9, 2010 One of the big reasons that liberals support the welfare state is the covetousness-and-redistribution factor. Liberals hate the fact that some people are rich while other people are poor. Moreover, the rich, liberals say, only get richer while the poor get poorer. Therefore, liberals claim, we need the government to confiscate wealth from the rich and redistribute it to ...
Close the Bases by Jacob G. Hornberger December 8, 2010 Last Sunday’s New York Times published an interesting article about U.S. military bases in Iraq that carries valuable lessons for America with respect to military spending, governmental dependency, and national bankruptcy. The article, entitled “As U.S. Leaves, Iraqis Suffer Economic Toll,” explains the travails of Iraqis who are suffering economic losses due to the closing of U.S. military bases in ...
WikiLeaks, Amazon, Paypal, and Mastercard by Jacob G. Hornberger December 7, 2010 While supporters of WikiLeaks are criticizing Amazon, Paypal, Mastercard, and other companies who are distancing themselves from WikiLeaks, we should at least consider why such companies might be doing so. When it comes to the U.S. government, everyone knows that we’re not dealing with pikers. This is a tough, ruthless, vicious gang of statist politicians and bureaucrats who will ...
