Hugo Chavez and American Conservatives and Liberals by Jacob G. Hornberger March 6, 2013 I’m having a good time reading the reactions of American liberals and conservatives to the death of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Their reactions to Chavez’s death provide a window into the statist mindset that has brought such serious maladies to the United States. Consider, for example, an op-ed entitled “In the End, an Awful Manager” by Rory Carroll, which appears in today’s New York Times. After detailing the enormous economic mess in Venezuela, Carroll’s thesis is summed up with both the title of his op-ed and this quote by a senior official in Venezuela’s state-owned oil company: “Chavez doesn’t know how to manage.” I don’t know whether Rory Carroll is a liberal or a conservative, but I can be sure of one thing: He’s no libertarian. How do I know that? Because it’s clear from his op-ed that he embraces the idea of a state-managed or presidentially managed economy, something that both liberals and conservatives endorse but that is anathema ...
Private: The Evil of the National-Security State, Part 12 by Jacob G. Hornberger March 1, 2013 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3| Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 In his Farewell Address in 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower issued a stark warning that must have shocked Americans at that time. He said that the vast U.S. “military-industrial complex” constituted a grave threat to their democratic processes. Eisenhower’s successor, John Kennedy, was so concerned about the power of the military in American life that he recommended that the novel Seven Days in May, which was about a military coup in America, be made into movie to serve as a warning to the American people about how powerful the military establishment had become in the United States. Thirty days after Kennedy was assassinated, the Washington Post published an op-ed by the former president Harry Truman pointing ...
The Power to Assassinate a Compliant and Submissive People by Jacob G. Hornberger February 25, 2013 President Obama’s nomination of John Brennan is being held up over Brennan’s refusal to state whether the president’s power to assassinate Americans (and others) extends to American soil. The controversy is summed up in a great article by Glenn Greenwald. The fact that Brennan could not bring himself to immediately say that the president doesn’t have the power to assassinate Americans (and others) right here within the United States is revealing. He undoubtedly knows that the president does claim to wield such power and that the president just doesn’t want to alarm Americans by informing them that he now wields the power to assassinate anyone he wants, including Americans here in the United States. I can’t see how there’s any room for doubt here. Ever since President Bush claimed extraordinary powers after the 9/11 attacks, we here at The Future of Freedom Foundation have been pointing out that the powers were not limited to foreigners or to foreign lands. When ...
The Omnipotent Power to Assassinate Any of Us by Jacob G. Hornberger February 12, 2013 Suppose an American citizen who is openly critical of governmental policy decides to take a trip overseas, say to Yemen. Suppose that President Obama orders the military and the CIA to assassinate him while he is traveling within Yemen. Suppose the order is carried out and that that American is, in fact, assassinated. Most Americans would consider such an assassination ...
What Were the Standards for Executing Charles Horman? by Jacob G. Hornberger February 8, 2013 While Americans are seeking to determine the standards, if any, for President Obama’s assassination of American citizens, would it be too much to ask about the standards that were applied in the U.S. national-security state’s execution of American citizen Charles Horman? After all, in principle is a state-sponsored extra-judicial execution any different from a state-sponsored assassination? Why shouldn’t Americans ...
Private: The Evil of the National-Security State, Part 11 by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2013 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3| Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 On September 11, 1973, the democratically elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende, was ...
Taxi Tyranny by Laurence M. Vance February 1, 2013 One of the most prevalent and persistent myths about the American economy is that it is based on the free market, or laissez-faire capitalism. True, when compared with much of the rest of the world, the United States appears to have a relatively free economy. The truth, however, is that in some sectors of the American economy, government intervention ...
Gun Control and State-Sponsored Rape by Jacob G. Hornberger January 31, 2013 Who can ever forget the scene in Braveheart in which a husband is required, under force of arms, to surrender his new bride to the noble who has been given the legal right by the English king to rape the woman on her wedding night? Given that the husband was not permitted to own a sword, there was ...
Could a Military Coup Happen in the United States? by Jacob G. Hornberger January 30, 2013 Uh, oh! The Egyptian people might well be learning a lesson about standing armies that America’s Founding Fathers tried to impart to the American people. Egypt’s standing army, which has long been built up and fortified by U.S. foreign aid, is sending a not-so-subtle message to Egyptians that if the civilian authorities are unable to bring the current crisis ...
Crises: A Gun-Grabber’s Best Friend by Jacob G. Hornberger January 17, 2013 After President Obama’s election in 2008, gun buyers went on a buying spree. Prices of assault rifles, ammunition, and high-magazine clips soared. The buying continued unabated for the four years of Obama’s first term. Throughout that time, gun-control advocates ridiculed the gun buyers. They called them overreacting paranoids, pointing out that Obama was doing nothing to initiate gun-control measures and ...
Guns and Tyranny by Jacob G. Hornberger January 4, 2013 There are three important things to remember about the Second Amendment. First, it doesn’t give people the right to own guns. Second, it is an implicit acknowledgement that the U.S. government is the biggest threat to the freedom and well-being of the American people. Third, the rationale for enacting the Second Amendment was to ensure that the American citizenry ...
Private: The Evil of the National-Security State, Part 10 by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2013 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3| Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 Everyone knows that the military and the CIA will do whatever the president ...
