The View from Abroad

Hard hitting commentary from an American living overseas

Kenn Jacobine

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.

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Salon.com
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 »
6 Comments
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 »
3 Comments
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 »
2 Comments
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 »
1 Comments
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 »
5 Comments
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 »
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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 »
5 Comments
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 »
2 Comments
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 »
2 Comments
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 »
1 Comments
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 »

1 Comments
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 »
2 Comments
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 »
1 Comments
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 »
1 Comments
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 »
1 Comments
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 »
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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 »
9 Comments
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 »
1 Comments
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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MAY 1, 2009 2:45PM

Obama and Doublethink

Happy May Day weekend everyone!  Just a salutation to get you used to the observance of a communist based holiday in light of the fact that the process to turn the U.S. into a totalitarian state is accelerating under our new comrade Obama.  With the military becoming more engaged in our/… Read full post »
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APRIL 26, 2009 7:00AM

Ballot Access Laws are Detrimental to America

This past week a panel of judges in North Carolina heard the appeal of a 2005 case filed by the state’s Libertarian Party over its loss of ballot access following the 2004 elections.  Even though the Libertarians have regained ballot status the suit has gone forward on behalf of other mino/… Read full post »
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APRIL 19, 2009 4:08AM

End the Embargo and Bring Back the Cigars

On February 2, 1962, President John Kennedy called his press secretary, Pierre Salinger, into his office and instructed him to immediately find and purchase one thousand of his favorite Cuban cigars - H. Upmann Petit Coronas.  A perplexed Salinger spent the better part of that night scoping out/… Read full post »
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APRIL 13, 2009 9:07AM

An Open Letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary

Dear Secretary Napolitano,

It is with a heavy heart that I write this letter to you.  I am an American citizen who has lived and worked overseas for the last eight years.  My wife and I teach for American international schools.  During our annual summer break we look forward to flying b/… Read full post »
1 Comments
APRIL 6, 2009 8:23AM

A Crisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste

Stanford economist Paul Romer has coined the term, “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.”  Unfortunately, the statist Obama Administration has adopted this mantra in implementing its radical positions on the rest of us.  No, I am not talking about how the President is about to/… Read full post »
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MARCH 31, 2009 2:32PM

The View from Abroad

Trouble in Paradise

All relationships hit rough patches.  There is no better proof of this than in our schools.  One day the happy young couple is oblivious to the rest of the world as they are lost in each other’s loving gaze.  By/… Read full post »

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