Common Sense with Paul Jacob

Presented by Think Freely Media

Thought

Jacques Ellul

Propaganda does not aim to elevate man, but to make him serve.
Jacques Ellul, Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes (1962).

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Big Brother or Barney Fife?
Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Hampshire — these are …
Citizen Rights Emergency
It’s an emergency! You may not be able to finish …
Democratic Notion for Gotion
One problem with American politics? Far too many decisions get …
Another Protected Incumbent
It’s an impasse worthy of Joseph Heller. The author of …
SF Scheme Scuttled
The proposed tax was very popular. In San Francisco. It …

Hot in New York City
January 2, 2026
Paul Jacob cools to the New Year of politics in …Read More »
Have an Endurable New Year!
January 1, 2026
Paul Jacob on surviving 2025 and looking forward to 2026.Read More »
Learing in Minnesota
December 31, 2025
Paul Jacob on the sour joke worth billions.Read More »
That Non-Science Stink
December 30, 2025
Paul Jacob on who gets the shaft in a paradigm …Read More »
U.S. Bans EU Censors
December 29, 2025
Paul Jacob on one first step to thwart censors.Read More »

An Ideological Moment
We live in interesting times, as aliiances reshuffle their political …
Sweet Schadenfreude?
Yesterday, jurors convicted former Arkansas State Senator Jon Woods on …
Hat Hate
I will concede — at least “arguendo” — that President Trump is awful. But …
Chortling Evil
Kamala Harris laughed. She stood naked on the edge of a … Oops. …
Ever Again?
Today marks a solemn anniversary. Seventy-six years ago — on Feb. 22, 1943 — three …

On January 2, 1921, in a theater in Hradec Králové, Czech writer Karel Čapek’s play R.U.R. received its world premiere. The initials stood for “Rossum’s Universal Robots,” a fictional company that created a line of intelligent workers, and from which the word “robot” was coined.

In Czech, robota means forced labour of the kind that serfs were once required to perform on their masters’ lands; it is derived from rab, meaning “slave.”