The Humble Libertarian original

We will stand by our Korean allies, says President Obama. And with our security treaty and 28,000 U.S. troops in South Korea, many on the DMZ, we can do no other. But why, 60 years after the first Korean War, should Americans be the first to die in a second Korean War? Unlike 1950, South Korea is not an impoverished ex-colony of Japan. She is the largest of all the “Asian tigers,” a nation with twice the population and 40 times the economy of the North. Seoul just hosted the G-20. And there is no Maoist China or Stalinist Soviet Union equipping Pyongyang’s armies. The planes, guns, tanks and ships of the South are far superior in quality. Why, then, are we still in South Korea? Why is this quarrel our quarrel? Why is this war, should it come, America’s war? Read the rest of Pat Buchanan's article at The American Conservative . Carl Wicklander , Regular Columnist, T H L Articles | Author's Page | Website

Before Republican senators vote down the strategic arms reduction treaty negotiated by the Obama administration, they should think long and hard about the consequences. In substance, New START has none of the historic significance of Richard Nixon’s SALT I or ABM treaty, or Jimmy Carter’s SALT II, or Ronald Reagan’s INF treaty removing all intermediate-range missiles from Europe, or the strategic arms reductions treaties negotiated by George Bush I and Bush II. The latter cut U.S. and Russian arsenals from 10,000-12,000 nuclear warheads targeted on each nation to 2,000 — a huge cut.If Republicans could back those treaties, what is the case for rejecting New START? Barack Obama’s treaty reduces strategic warheads by 450, leaving each side 1,550. Is this not enough to deter when we consider what the Chernobyl disaster did to the Soviet Union and what the knockdown of two buildings in New York has done to this country? Ten hydrogen bombs on the United States or Russia could set us back de...

If it is the first responsibility of the Federal Reserve to protect the dollars that Americans earn and save, is it not dereliction of duty for the Fed to pursue a policy to bleed value from those dollars? For that is what Chairman Ben Bernanke is up to with his QE2, or “quantitative easing.” Translation: The Fed is committed to buy $600 billion in bonds from banks and pay for them by printing money that will then be deposited in those banks. The more dollars that flood into the economy, the less every one of them is worth. Bernanke is not just risking inflation. He is inducing inflation. Egging Ben on is the Nobel-prize winning New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. Fed policy is too timid, says Krugman. He wants to panic the public into believing the money they have put into savings accounts and CDs will be rapidly eaten up by Fed-created inflation, so they will run out and spend that money now to get the economy moving again. Whatever the economics of this, the morality of it is ap...

Sunday, on the eve of All Saints’ Day, Nov. 1, 2010, the faithful gathered at the Assyrian Catholic Church of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad. As Father Wassim Sabih finished the mass, eight al-Qaeda stormed in, began shooting and forced him to the floor. As the priest pleaded that his parishioners be spared, they executed him and began their mission of mass murder. When security forces broke in, the killers threw grenades to finish off the surviving Christians and detonated explosive-laden vests to kill the police. The toll was 46 parishioners and two priests killed, 78 others wounded, many in critical condition after losing limbs. Within 48 hours, al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia issued a bulletin: “All Christian centers, organizations and institutions, leaders and followers, are legitimate targets for the (holy warriors).” Why is Christianity being murdered in its cradle by Muslim fanatics? Read the rest of Pat Buchanan's article at The American Conservative . Carl Wicklander , Regular ...

The message America sent Obama and the men and women America sent to Congress to replace his allies impel one to ask: Why would he want a second term? Why would the most liberal president since FDR wish to preside over the major surgery on the social safety net that must be done in the era of austerity we have entered? The liberal hour is over. Why would the Party of Government not prefer that Republicans do the painful work of paring back programs for which Democrats have fought since the New Deal? Read the rest of Pat Buchanan's article at The American Conservative . Carl Wicklander , Regular Columnist, T H L Articles | Author's Page | Website

Though Obama “may lose control of Congress,” says columnist David Broder, he “can still storm back to win a second term in 2012.” How does Broder suggest Obama go about it? “Look back at FDR and the Great Depression. What finally resolved that economic crisis? World War II.” Conceding the prospect of a new war is “frightening,” Broder goes on to list the rich rewards of Obama’s emulating FDR. “With strong Republican support in Congress for challenging Iran’s ambition to become a nuclear power, (Obama) can spend much of 2011 and 2012 orchestrating a showdown with the mullahs. This will help him politically because the opposition party will be urging him on. And as tensions rise and we accelerate preparations for war, the economy will improve… “(T)he nation will rally around Obama because Iran is the greatest threat to the world in the young century. If he can confront this threat and contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions, he will have made the world safer and may be regarded as one of the mo...

"'The lessons of history … show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.' "These searing words about Depression-era welfare are from Franklin Roosevelt’s 1935 State of the Union Address. FDR feared this self-reliant people might come to depend permanently upon government for the necessities of their daily lives. Like narcotics, such a dependency would destroy the fiber and spirit of the nation. "What brings his words to mind is news that 41.8 million Americans are on food stamps, and the White House estimates 43 million will soon be getting food stamps every month. "If you would chart America’s decline, this program is a good place to begin. As a harbinger of the Great Society to come, in early 1964, a Food Stamp Act was signed into law by LBJ appropri...

"Before the Tea Party philosophy is ever even tested in America, it will have succeeded, or it will have failed, in Great Britain." "For in David Cameron the Brits have a prime minister who can fairly be described as a Tea Party Tory. Casting aside the guidance of Lord Keynes — government-induced deficits are the right remedy for recessions — Cameron has bet his own and his party’s future on the new austerity. He is making Maggie Thatcher look like Tip O’Neill." "Two headlines Thursday testify that the Tories have seized the Tea Party banner. First was the headline in The Washington Times , 'Tea Party Urges Drastic Cutting,' that carried a caveat subhead, 'Economists Question If Move Is Wise at This Time." "Second was the Financial Times banner, 'UK Unveils Dramatic Austerity Cutbacks.' The FT story begins, 'The U.K.’s conservative-led coalition has announced the most drastic budget cuts in living memory..." ...

"The great issue uniting and motivating the Republican Party and Tea Party is the deficit-debt crisis, a national debt nearing 100 percent of gross domestic product and a deficit of 10 percent of GDP. "As to the cause of the deficit that could precipitate a run on the dollar, double-digit inflation, even a default, the Tea Party and GOP also agree — federal spending that consumes 25 percent of GDP. "This means spending must be slashed. But to cut the budget to 20 percent of GDP, where it was before George W. Bush and Barack Obama, requires spending cuts of an astronomical $700 billion a year. Even then, the 2011 deficit would be $700 billion. "But a Democratic Party, brutalized and bled on Nov. 2, returning to Capitol Hill with its moderate wing annihilated, is unlikely to collude with a resurgent Republican right and Tea Party caucus in hacking away at social programs that are the Democratic Party’s pride and joy, and the reason that party exists. "Which leave...

"To stampede us into war, the neocons told us that Saddam was tied to al-Qaeda and had a role in 9/11, that he had VX gas, botulism, mustard gas, sarin and anthrax, and was acquiring nuclear weapons. What further proof must you have, demanded Condi Rice, 'a mushroom cloud over an American city'? "The truth. Saddam had no tie to al Qaeda, no role in 9/11, no chemical weapons, no biological weapons, no nuclear program. "We attacked a nation that did not attack us, did not threaten us and did not want war with us — to strip it of weapons it did not have. "We were misled. We were deceived. We were lied to. "The cost: 4,400 dead, 35,000 wounded, $700 billion sunk. "But was the war worth it? Some 72 percent of Americans said in a recent CBS poll that it was not worth the price in U.S. war dead. "What does the secretary of defense think? "'It really requires a historian’s perspective in terms of what happens here in the long ru...

"In 21st century America, institutional racism and sexism remain great twin evils to be eradicated on our long journey to the wonderful world where, at last, all are equal. "What are we to make, then, of a profession that rewards workers with fame and fortune, yet discriminates ruthlessly against women; an institution where Hispanics and Asians, 20 percent of the U.S. population, are neither sought after nor widely seen. "In this profession, white males, a third of the population, retain a third of the jobs. But black males, 6.5 percent of the U.S. population, have 67 percent of the coveted positions — 10 times their fair share. "We are talking of the NFL. "In figures reported by columnist Walter Williams, not only are black males 77 percent of the National Basketball Association, they are 67 percent of the players in the NFL. "Yet no one objects that women are not permitted to compete in the NFL. Nor do many object to the paucity of Asian and Mexicans, or...

"In the dog days of August, with temperatures in D.C. rising above 100, Nancy Pelosi called the House back to Washington to enact legislation that could not wait until September. "Purpose: Vote $26 billion to prevent layoffs of state, municipal, and county employees whose own governments had decided they had to be let go if they were to meet their constitutional duty to balance their books. "Workers their own governments thought expendable, Congress decided were so essential, it borrowed another 26 thousand million dollars from China to keep them on state and local payrolls. "Consider, too, the states deepest in debt and facing the largest cuts in employee ranks, pay and benefits: California, Illinois, New York. "In these states, public employees earn at least $10,000 per year more in pay and benefits than the average America worker, who is bailing them out. "Hence, we have a situation where private sector workers in Middle America are being taxed, their...

Editor's note: Here at The Humble Libertarian , we are dedicated to getting the state out of our bedrooms by getting it out of the marriage issue altogether. Our mantras are de -legalize straight marriage, privatize marriage, and stop using the tax code or any other government policy to penalize people on the basis of sexual orientation. We agree however, with Buchanan's assessment below, that finding anything about marriage in the U.S. Constitution requires a tortured reading thereof, which is why a federal judge recently- and rightly- struck down the Defense of Marriage Act on the basis of the 10th Amendment. Constitutionally, marriage is an issue for the states, not Washington. And morally, marriage is an issue for individuals, not the states. ------------- "Federal Judge Vaughn Walker is truly a visionary. "Peering at the 14th Amendment, Walker found something there the authors of the amendment never knew they put there, and even the Warren Court never found ther...