The View from Abroad
Hard hitting commentary from an American living overseas
Kenn Jacobine
- Bio
- Kenn Jacobine is an international educator currently teaching History for the American School of Doha, Qatar. He has also taught at international schools in Ecuador, Mali, and Zambia.
His political transformation took place over the course of many years. Starting out naively as a big state liberal, he became a Reagan Republican in 1982. Disillusionment set in with the realization that small government rhetoric rarely translated into limited government actions.
On Christmas day 1992, he became a libertarian. In 1994, Kenn ran for the State Senate in Pennsylvania on the Libertarian Party ticket garnering 5 percent of the vote. He has been active in freedom causes ever since.
MY RECENT COMMENTS
- “Kathy,
It has
more than $40 trillion of
unfunded liabilities for
the
babyboomers.…”
November 16, 2009 11:24PM - “The revolution in
America is coming! Join it and
support only
leaders that you
a…”
November 16, 2009 10:58AM - “Argue with this, Morgan
Tsvangirai in Zimbabwe would
have
been a worthier
choice…”
October 11, 2009 10:36AM - “Wow, what can I say? You
said it brilliantly.”
October 04, 2009 12:53PM - “Paul,
I must
admit that I am unaware of the
program you state. However,
I
could b…”
September 13, 2009 03:33AM
Kenn Jacobine's Links
NOVEMBER 24, 2009 11:32PM
It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again
Ben Bernanke has apparently added a little stand-up comedy to his bag of tricks. This past week, Chairman Bernanke indicated his belief that there are no <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091116-711846.html">“obvious” </a> asset bubbles in our economy right… Read full post »
NOVEMBER 16, 2009 9:27AM
Hassan Attack Could Have Easily Been Avoided
The primary responsibility of government is to protect its citizens
from internal and external threats. Last week,
that basic trust was shattered with the attack by Major Hassan on
his comrades in arms at Fort Hood. Many ask the
question, “How could this tragedy
happen?” … Read full post »
NOVEMBER 8, 2009 11:17AM
Congressman Watt – Charlatan or Economic Imbecile?
Congressman
Mel Watt
(D-NC) is either a charlatan or ignorant of basic
economics. Either way he is unfit to serve in
Congress let alone serve as chairman of the Domestic Monetary
Policy and Technology Subcommittee. This week
Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) announced that Watt took the knife
t/… Read full post »
NOVEMBER 1, 2009 9:20AM
Using the Criminal Justice System to Reward Political Suppor
Last Wednesday, President Obama signed a bill
into law
which adds acts of violence against the disabled, gay, lesbian,
bisexual, and transgender folks to the list of federal hate
crimes. This increases coverage of the federal
hate crimes protections which previously only included race,
rel/… Read full post »
OCTOBER 23, 2009 8:39AM
New Federal Medical Marijuana Policy Fraught with Peril
On Monday Deputy Attorney General David Ogden issued
a memo
to federal prosecutors in 14 states regarding the Obama
Administration’s position on medical
marijuana. The memo declared that prosecutors
“should not focus federal resources in your states on
individuals whose actions/… Read full post »
OCTOBER 17, 2009 7:08AM
Bernanke-between Overheated Printing Press & a Hard Place
Recent actions of the world’s central banks have sent a warning shot across the bow of the ship known as the Federal Reserve. Since July, 63 percent of all new cash going into foreign central banks have been euros and yen – not U.S. dollars. The greenbacks share of new cash,… Read full post »
OCTOBER 10, 2009 2:53PM
The Nobel Peace Prize has become a Politicized Joke
The inventor of dynamite, Alfred Nobel, stipulated in his will that
a huge part of his fortune would go toward a peace prize awarded
“to the person who shall have done the most or the best work
for fraternity between nations and the abolition or reduction of
standing armies and the… Read full post »
OCTOBER 4, 2009 12:59PM
Trillions More in Debt with Nothing Good to Show for It
It is easy to get caught up in all the hype of the media pundits,
Ben Bernanke, Joe Biden and Barack Obama that the economy is slowly
but surely recovering from the worst recession since the
1930s. It’s not. And
what is even worse is that we are deeper in debt/… Read full post »
SEPTEMBER 26, 2009 2:34PM
Obama Violates the First Amendment
Famous Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black once stated, “I am
for the First Amendment from the first word to the last. I believe
it means what it says.” In part, what it
says is that, “Congress shall make no law…abridging
the freedom of speech.” To prove how
se/… Read full post »
SEPTEMBER 21, 2009 5:42AM
Peter Schiff for U.S. Senate
For the first time in a long time, Connecticut voters will actually
have a real choice when voting for their U.S.
Senator. This past week economist and financial
advisor
Peter Schiff
announced his Republican candidacy for the Connecticut senate seat
currently held by Democrat Chris Dodd. … Read full post »
SEPTEMBER 12, 2009 12:58PM
Dennis Kucinich: Poster Child for Non-Existent Constitution
Last week I blogged on how non-existent Constitutional rights
granted by Congress and presidents alike were responsible for the
bankruptcy of America. Thus, over the years,
some of us have been given the right to a job, a certain wage, free
food, retirement income, financial bailout for irrespo/… Read full post »
SEPTEMBER 4, 2009 8:46AM
Non-Existent Rights Have Bankrupted America
Back in May, President Obama rightly said that our
current deficit spending
as a nation is “unsustainable”. He
stated that high interest rates would be the result for borrowers
if we continued to borrow money from other countries to finance our
debts. In the President’s/… Read full post »
AUGUST 28, 2009 2:56PM
Obama Couldn’t Care Less What America Thinks
Barack Obama showed his true colors in a recent trip to
Montana. The president was in Bozeman,
Montana earlier this month to conduct a town hall meeting with
“citizens” on his healthcare reform
plan. Naturally, most of what was really news
was ignored by the press. … Read full post »
AUGUST 21, 2009 3:02PM
A History of Cost Overruns Should Squash Government Run Heal
Why on earth would anyone believe that the federal government
running healthcare will cure the high cost problem in the
industry? I mean what has government ever run
that even works well? Our monetary system is a
mess. The economy is in the
toilet. Our schools are
subpar. … Read full post »
AUGUST 13, 2009 9:40AM
Abolishing the Fed, Not a Radical Idea
The Federal Reserve system needs to be abolished – placed on
the scrapheap of financial/economic history. I
realize this is a radical, you might even say a fringe
idea. But, it you think about it, it is no more
an extreme idea today than the abolition of slavery was in
the/… Read full post »
JULY 30, 2009 7:46PM
Government’s Benevolence Equals Higher Costs
Have you ever noticed that our federal government is always
venturing out of its jurisdiction in trying to make things more
affordable for all of us? Our paternal/maternal
leaders in D.C. never pass up a chance to try to do something to
make our lives easier. Their examples of
benevolence/… Read full post »
JULY 21, 2009 7:18PM
The Minimum Wage is Subterfuge, Repeal It!
The Greenspan/Bernanke recession has made things bad all over. Last Tuesday, I drove to my local Convenience Center for Collecting Residential Trash and Recycling only to find it closed. In an effort to further cut costs during these economic hard times, my county has cut back on the numb/… Read full post »
JULY 13, 2009 12:38PM
Uncle Sam is a Subprime Deadbeat
As of this month, California is insolvent. It
does not have enough money to pay its bills and has resorted to
covering its expenses by issuing IOUs to
creditors. Washington is also
insolvent. It has been for a long time –
since at least 1971 when Richard Nixon defaulted on Ame/… Read full post »
JUNE 30, 2009 3:59PM
Cap and Trade is Obama’s Smoot-Hawley
History repeats itself. It is amazing how
similar the 1920s and 2000s have become. First,
were the unsustainable economic booms; then came the
busts. Of course the easy money policies of the
Federal Reserve caused both busts. Then there is
the government’s response to bo/… Read full post »
JUNE 14, 2009 2:29PM
HR 1207 Must Become Law!
Contacting your congressperson to ask them to cosponsor legislation
you believe in does work. Oh, we are always told
that members of Congress care about the views of the folks back
home. But, being a libertarian, I am usually on
the other side of every political decision that is made. I/… Read full post »
JUNE 8, 2009 2:02AM
House Republicans Must Be Joking
Thomas Jefferson said, “I predict future happiness for
Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the
labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of
them.” Certainly, our current unhappiness
as a nation can be partially attributed to the fact that for at
le/… Read full post »
MAY 30, 2009 2:51AM
Could Fed Style Banking Save California?
As was mentioned in this column last week, given the defeat of tax
hike propositions in California, the state is in a real quandary to
find $24 billion dollars by July to close its budget
gap. Without those funds or new debt guaranteed
by the federal government, California will face insolvency/… Read full post »
MAY 24, 2009 12:52PM
Let California Fail
It is ironic that the federal government is substantially meddling
in the financial affairs of other entities given the dilapidated
state of Washington’s own finances. First,
there were the banks, investment houses and insurance companies
– the most notorious being AIG. Then
t/… Read full post »
MAY 16, 2009 5:56AM
Rothbard as Prophet Part 2
As documented in Rothbard’s classic piece
America’s Great Depression,
the similarities of the 1920s and 2000s did not end with the
beginnings of each crisis in 1929 and 2008
respectively. It gets much scarier than
that. Washington responded in very similar ways
to both crises./… Read full post »
MAY 10, 2009 4:29AM
Rothbard as Prophet Part 1
Federal Reserve Bank chairman Ben Bernanke is touted as an expert
on the Great Depression. Many would say we are
fortunate to have him heading our central bank at this time when
our economy is suffering through its worst crisis since that
dreadful epoch 80 years ago. Yet others believe Bernanke/… Read full post »
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