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Relevance: 41% Posted on: June 3, 2018
The biggest story of the week, of the month, perhaps of the year. And, so far, it has gotten no coverage. Except at Townhall this Monday, courtesy of your own Humble . . . Paul Jacob. Click on over. Then come back here to drill down further into this most amazing…
Relevance: 40% Posted on: August 25, 2023
A perennial bill in the California Assembly, Constitutional Amendment 1, would make it harder for voters to block local tax increases in accordance with the provisions of Proposition 13, which voters passed in 1978. ACA 1 would shrink the percentage of voters who must approve certain tax increases from two…
Relevance: 40% Posted on: October 15, 2013
The war on democracy is ongoing. One of the ironies some folks note is that the biggest opponents of citizens’ direct say in government tend to be sitting Democratic politicians. But Democrats who earnestly support democracy can take heart, for not only can they remind Republicans of recent GOP-led jihads…
Relevance: 40% Posted on: March 3, 2012
Venture capitalist Eric X. Li, in an op-ed for The New York Times, “Why China’s Political Model Is Superior,” credits the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre with producing the “stability” that “ushered in a generation of growth and prosperity.” No question about the growth: China’s economy has been experiencing double-digit expansion…
Relevance: 40% Posted on: December 30, 2021
When politicians seeking to stay in power use distortionary policies to force out their political opponents, the more elastic response renders bad policies more, rather than less, attractive.Edward L. Glaeser and Andrei Schleifer, "The Curley Effect: The Economics of Shaping the Electorate,” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 21 (1):…
Relevance: 40% Posted on: May 3, 2021
The watchdog group Judicial Watch has obtained evidence that the government of California and the Biden camp violated the First Amendment rights of Americans during the 2020 presidential campaign. In at least a couple dozen cases, social media companies complied with governmental requests to delete posts containing “misinformation,” the new…
Relevance: 40% Posted on: January 29, 2018
How much should we fine waiters who destroy our planet? For how long should they go to jail? I don’t know where you would hold such an evildoer after the earth has been destroyed. Or where he’d go when released. But we’re speaking hypothetically. Assume that planet-destroyers can be imprisoned…
Relevance: 40% Posted on: May 22, 2016
On May 22, 1995, in the case U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Arkansas’s congressional term limits law, 5-4, overturning the congressional term limits then the law in 23 states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New…
Relevance: 40% Posted on: November 29, 2023
When bad outcomes are obvious, we can no longer call them “unintended consequences,” can we? Take the case of California’s double-barreled attack upon “fast food”: last year’s push through the legislature of Assembly Bill 102 and Assembly Bill 1228. These regulatory schemes would have introduced collective bargaining into fast food franchises and…
Relevance: 40% Posted on: July 29, 2015
“Propaganda in favor of action that is consonant with enlightened self-interest appeals to reason by means of logical arguments based upon the best available evidence fully and honestly set forth. Propaganda in favor of action dictated by the impulses that are below self-interest offers false, garbled or incomplete evidence, avoids…
Relevance: 39% Posted on: April 27, 2014
Over at Townhall.com, an expansion of Friday's "pension tsunami" Common Sense. And, if there is anything less commonsensical, it's out-of-control government employee pensions. Consider: Pension Tsunami website Paul Jacob on Townhall: Debtroit: Coming to a City Near You Paul Jacob on Townhall: Over the Cliff? Common Sense: One Day of…
Relevance: 39% Posted on: June 16, 2017
Did anyone really need this? Last year, California’s Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Assembly Bill No. 1570, which concerns collectibles, particularly signed-by-author or artist books. But it doesn’t mention books, and is confusingly written. What a mess. Who asked for it? It certainly wasn’t the struggling booksellers who have…
Relevance: 39% Posted on: September 15, 2023
Enthusiasts for prohibiting political dissent must know that the First Amendment protects the right to utter controversial speech. They must know that there’s no constitutional loophole for speech that they disagree with. Another “must know”? That calling the public statements of political opponents “misinformation,” “disinformation,” “hate speech,” etc. is no…
Relevance: 39% Posted on: June 29, 2020
“I was born without representation, but I swear,” Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser vowed last week, “I will not die without representation.” She has a point: 700,000 D.C. residents lack a voting representative in Congress. On Friday, the U.S. House passed legislation — 232 to 180 with 19 members hiding…
Relevance: 39% Posted on: December 28, 2021
By differentially taxing different groups of voters, the incumbent leader can encourage emigration of one of the groups, and maximize the share of the voters who support him. While benefiting the incumbent, these taxes may actually impoverish the area and make both groups worse off.Edward L. Glaeser and Andrei Schleifer,…
Relevance: 39% Posted on: July 17, 2022
On July 17, 1938, pioneer aviator Donald Corrigan took off from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn — New York City’s first municipal airport — with a flight plan for a return trip to his previous disembarkation point, Long Beach, California. His official story was that he got confused after ten…
Relevance: 39% Posted on: July 17, 2023
On July 17, 1938, pioneer aviator Donald Corrigan took off from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn — New York City’s first municipal airport — with a flight plan for a return trip to his previous disembarkation point, Long Beach, California. His official story was that he got confused after ten…
Relevance: 39% Posted on: November 10, 2016
Entering his campaign’s homestretch, underdog Donald J. Trump gave an important speech at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He emphasized his support for term limits in what he called his “100-day action plan to Make America Great Again.” “[R]estoring honesty, accountability and change to Washington” is the top item on Trump’s agenda, along…
Relevance: 39% Posted on: May 22, 2022
On May 22, 1995, in U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Arkansas’s congressional term limits law, 5-4, overturning the congressional term limits then the law in 23 states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North…
Relevance: 39% Posted on: August 31, 2018
It is hard not to miss the ideological left’s inconsistency regarding “diversity”: demanding diversity of race and gender, they enforce a monoculture that somehow cannot tolerate intellectual and political competition. We see this in higher education, dominated by left-of-center professors and administrators; in the news media, overwhelmingly filled with Democrats;…
Relevance: 38% Posted on: May 22, 2020
On May 22, 1995, in the case U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Arkansas’s congressional term limits law, 5-4, overturning the congressional term limits then the law in 23 states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New…
Relevance: 38% Posted on: June 12, 2008
As fuel prices rise, a few things become obvious: We begin to conserve more; Many industrious folks look for energy alternatives; And many politically-minded folk hector us about using less of some type of fuels, more of another. How useful is this third category? Well, they are the ones driving…
Relevance: 38% Posted on: May 29, 2012
We’ll know soon enough whether foes of [Gov] Scott Walker made a bad bet on the recall, but either way, Wisconsin made a bad bet years ago in initiating America’s public-sector union movement. The incentives thus established — with concentrated benefits for state employees and dispersed costs for taxpayers —…
Relevance: 38% Posted on: September 25, 2003
Bill O'Reilly of "The O'Reilly Factor" sometimes gets it wrong. On one issue, I think he's half right and half wrong, so I'm going to play Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde here. O'Reilly complains that people in public life, including him, often get unfairly bashed by their critics. He mentioned…
Relevance: 38% Posted on: January 15, 2018
A few Babylonian, er, California cities going bankrupt — Stockton, Vallejo, and Bell — should be seen as more than dead canaries in a coalminer’s care. Indeed, you don’t need special prophetic gifts to see the dangers posed by over-promising cushy pensions to government workers. Californians are coming around. And…
Relevance: 38% Posted on: June 11, 2020
Propaganda in favor of action that is consonant with enlightened self-interest appeals to reason by means of logical arguments based upon the best available evidence fully and honestly set forth. Propaganda in favor of action dictated by the impulses that are below self-interest offers false, garbled or incomplete evidence, avoids…
Relevance: 37% Posted on: August 5, 2008
Do you support negative action programs? I didn’t think so. But you might be more inclined to support such programs if they’re labeled “affirmative action.” Around the country citizens have been fighting to stop government programs that grant preferences to some citizens over others on the basis of their race…
Relevance: 37% Posted on: February 11, 2021
Over the last year, we have learned that the risk to children and teachers of being infected by the COVID-19 virus while in classrooms is relatively low. Although precautions are warranted to keep that risk as low as possible, resuming in-person classwork is feasible. Many parents therefore want their kids…
Relevance: 37% Posted on: May 16, 2016
President Obama and other politicians are taking a wide stance over the nation’s public restrooms. Important bathroom policy will finally be determined at the highest levels. Last week, public educators nationwide received a legalistically-worded letter from the Departments of Justice and Education explaining how to legally treat transgender students under…
Relevance: 37% Posted on: May 22, 2023
On May 22, 1995, in U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Arkansas’s congressional term limits law, 5-4, overturning the congressional term limits then the law in 23 states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North…
Relevance: 37% Posted on: December 19, 2016
Today the Electoral College meets to elect the 45th President of these United States. But if they fail to cast the required majority for a candidate, the contest goes into the House of Representatives, where each state gets one vote — Wyoming and California equally weighted — and a state’s…
Relevance: 36% Posted on: August 20, 2012
One thrill of my lifetime occurred soon after I helped launch U.S. Term Limits in 1992, when radio commentator Paul Harvey phoned me to fact-check a story he was doing. Harvey, king of radio back then, was a huge fan of term limits. And I was a big fan of…
Relevance: 36% Posted on: August 7, 2017
I’m sure I disagree with most of the policies California Governor Jerry Brown seeks to propose and impose. But let’s give credit where credit is due. He’s right that people should not be treated like criminals when in a burst of celebratory excess they commit the sin of unleashing helium…
Relevance: 36% Posted on: December 29, 2009
Bribery, insider deals, political influence — must this be how we do business? No. Horror stories abound, featuring developers and governments in dark collusion, grabbing stunned innocent persons’ private property. This corrupt, banana-republic way of getting things done hardly serves the public interest. It serves, instead, the dealmakers and the…
Relevance: 36% Posted on: August 25, 2008
How many homes do I own? Just one. That’s all I can afford. But what if I had more money and bought a vacation home or two? Would that somehow make me a bad guy? Not in my book. I don’t hold wealth as a strike against someone. Rather, it’s…
Relevance: 36% Posted on: May 21, 2001
Ed Crane, President of the Cato Institute, tells a story that I love hearing. It's about a career politician and this career politician's career-politician mentality. Seems that in the early '90s Ed was at a conference debating term limits with a California assemblyman named Tom Roos. Crane made what he…
Relevance: 36% Posted on: November 14, 2003
One of my favorite writers is the economist and social thinker Thomas Sowell. Sowell is a professor, but hey, he can think straight. So he's one of those weird hybrids. One thing I like about him is his stand on term limits. Sowell is in favor. I guess it helps…
Relevance: 36% Posted on: February 15, 2008
Rampant abuse of eminent domain by government! I’d be happy to drop the subject . . . which I’ll do just as soon as property rights are universally honored, held sacrosanct. Until then, well, you know what to expect from me. What’s the latest? Harrison Sheppard’s article for California newspapers…
Relevance: 36% Posted on: September 23, 2020
The top federal income tax rate is currently 37 percent. It’s been higher — 94 percent at one point during the Second World War, 91 percent in the 1950s . . . on income above a certain threshold. Back in the 1890s, the federal government briefly taxed income at 2…
Relevance: 36% Posted on: September 17, 2008
You’ve heard of “gateway drugs.” What about “gateway capitalism”? The mayor of Clayton, California, apparently believes that two little girls selling zucchinis and melons by the roadside is the start of something bad. The city cracked down on Katie and Sabrina Lewis’s veggie stand. Mayor Gregg Manning defended the bust,…
Relevance: 35% Posted on: March 17, 2020
New crisis, old reactions. The market has failed, we are told, to handle the coronavirus pandemic . . . even though it has just begun. We hear demands for vast public takings (California Gov. Gavin Newsom commandeering hotels to add quarantine stations and hospital beds), huge transfer programs (including gargantuan…
Relevance: 35% Posted on: April 26, 1999
They say no one's life, liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in session. Well in Arkansas it's safe now; the legislature has adjourned. But even while they were in session, this year was a whole lot safer than in the past. That's because the Arkansas Legislature has…
Relevance: 35% Posted on: November 19, 2002
What an election! Close races for governor and senator. It kept me tuned in late watching the election news. Yet, when it came to the House of Representatives, the one body our Founders said should most closely reflect the sentiments of the people, well, election day was a bore. The…
Relevance: 35% Posted on: April 30, 2001
Forget about the rolling blackouts in California. Forget about our shaky relations with China, the federal debt, that F your kid just got on his math test or your trouble paying the rent this month. Yeah, we've got a real crisis on our hands, folks. I know you will be…
Relevance: 35% Posted on: December 20, 1999
The millenium: it's not this New Year's Day, as the media's been telling us, but next year January 1, 2001. So rather than grapple with a thousand years of history, why not consider this decade. It's the term limits decade. So far in the 90's, term limits have been placed…
Relevance: 35% Posted on: May 25, 2009
California voters are said to be in big trouble. You see, they didn’t vote the way their newspapers and politicians told them to vote on the six ballot measures on the May 19th ballot. The first five measures — a combination of tax-raising and spending shifts to cover a $21…
Relevance: 35% Posted on: November 28, 2003
Losing an election is not the same thing as getting your head chopped off. The Manchester Guardian had a headline recently: "President Puts Head on Block." The story is about how South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun "put an electoral gun to his head" by calling for a national referendum on…
Relevance: 34% Posted on: November 1, 2001
O, the humanity! Again and again, I've talked about the unfair process of congressional redistricting. Why won't they listen? Here's the deal: Every ten years, using the new census numbers, brand new political boundary lines are fashioned. These new lines are used to elect representatives at the state and congressional…
Relevance: 34% Posted on: October 25, 1999
What should be done when corruption is rampant? Ask the U.S. Congress that question and you may be surprised by the answer. Congress is a HUGE supporter of term limits. Yes, that's right. They LOVE term limits. No, I haven't skipped a dose of my medication. Congress is lecturing the…
Relevance: 34% Posted on: June 14, 1999
In Florida, fresh-squeezed orange juice flows like water. And so does support for term limits. In 1992 Florida citizens passed term limits by a record 77 percent vote. Florida legislators, worried about being squeezed out of power, are now suing the people of Florida who passed term limits by that…
Relevance: 34% Posted on: October 23, 2000
What if they held an election and nobody came? Well, it happened several weeks ago, in New Ashford, Massachusetts. But before folks start wringing their hands about voter apathy, they should take note of the fact that there wasn't anything to vote for. Oh, sure, candidates were on the ballot…
Relevance: 34% Posted on: March 19, 2001
You had to know they've been looking for it. Well, they've found it. Proof that term limits don't work. Oh, forget all the arguments politicians made when term limits were first being debated that it would create utter chaos, that state and local governments would simply grind to a halt…
Relevance: 34% Posted on: September 27, 2011
California’s initiative process gets blamed for every political problem the state confronts . . . that is, by many legislators and political insiders. Two measures receive the bulk of the ire: Proposition 13 and Proposition 98. Liberals bemoan Prop 13’s requirement of a two-thirds legislative vote to raise taxes, preventing…
Relevance: 34% Posted on: May 12, 2008
Honest people with income and bills know that it’s possible to cut spending. We don’t always do it when we should. Sometimes we’re undisciplined. But we suffer costs for that lack of discipline. We suffer them directly—as individuals and as families. In the world of government expenditure, however, it’s always…
Relevance: 34% Posted on: July 5, 1999
Term limits are taking effect all over the country and the results have been more competitive elections with new people getting involved in the process. That's a very good thing, unless of course you're a career politician who hopes to stay in office forever. Let's face it, the people and…
Relevance: 34% Posted on: March 12, 2001
Sometimes you just have to do it yourself if there's a way. For term limits and many other reforms, the citizen initiative process is a way that the people, not the politicians, can lay down the law. In 24 states, initiative and referendum allows citizens to propose a law and…
Relevance: 34% Posted on: July 30, 2016
On July 30, 1419, the First Defenestration of Prague: Jan Želivský, a Hussite priest at the church of the Virgin Mary of the Snows, led his congregation on a procession through the streets of Prague to the New Town Hall, on Charles Square. While they were marching, a stone was…
Relevance: 34% Posted on: July 30, 2017
July 30, 1419, the First Defenestration of Prague: Jan Želivský, a Hussite priest at the church of the Virgin Mary of the Snows, led his congregation on a procession through the streets of Prague to the New Town Hall, on Charles Square. While they were marching, a stone was thrown…
Relevance: 34% Posted on: July 30, 2018
July 30, 1419, the First Defenestration of Prague: Jan Želivský, a Hussite priest at the church of the Virgin Mary of the Snows, led his congregation on a procession through the streets of Prague to the New Town Hall, on Charles Square. While they were marching, a stone was thrown…
Relevance: 34% Posted on: March 26, 2001
Experience. You know what that is. What you collect when you're a career politician looking for ever more clever ways to spend other people's money and complicate other people's lives. "Oh, we need experienced legislators here!" cry the expert denizens of our state capitol buildings. "It takes decades to get…
Relevance: 34% Posted on: October 31, 2001
I think you remember how Congress and the President pass so-called "continuing resolutions" whenever they can't agree on a federal budget. It's not hard. You just take the five minutes you need to conduct a roll call and you do it. That's why it's so annoying that Congress says it's…
Relevance: 34% Posted on: August 7, 2000
One claim made by term limits supporters is that limits will provide more opportunities for women and minorities to play a larger role in the political process. Term limits also promise greater representation. As a white male, I have nothing against white males, believe me. I also think someone's principles…
Relevance: 34% Posted on: December 10, 2003
Sometimes people say that term limits are irrelevant. It's not that they oppose term limits. It's just that they think political process as such doesn't matter at all. As one skeptic puts it, "the central problem is American culture, not legislative culture. The country wants to spend without paying, and…
Relevance: 34% Posted on: March 29, 1999
There they go again. Career politicians in Washington are conspiring to grab another pay raise. Little do they seem to care that most of us the folks who pay the bills and the ones they're supposed to be representing believe Congress is already overpaid, over-perked and over-pensioned. The base salary…
Relevance: 34% Posted on: April 16, 2001
It's great to have protection. I think you know what I mean. The right of initiative and referendum. The right to directly pass a good law or knock out a bad one. The right to govern your governors. Maybe you remember Proposition 13, the California law passed in the 1970s…
Relevance: 34% Posted on: February 21, 2000
In football, it doesn't get any better than the NFL. That's what it means to be a pro. In politics, to be "a pro" means something very different. Missouri State Sen. John Schneider has been in office for 30 years. He doesn't like the term limits that 75 percent of…
Relevance: 33% Posted on: October 8, 2003
The apocalypse . . . Armageddon . . . the California recall. Well, that's one down. And I feel good about it. The recall was called all manner of wild and crazy names by elitist bipartisan hipsters. However, it turned out to be just another example of the American-as-apple-pie process…
Relevance: 33% Posted on: April 30, 2001
What's the point of democracy? Isn't it to delegate authority to representatives who then discuss and debate the issues, vote their conscience and so forth? Or are these so-called representatives just supposed to follow the orders of one guy at the top? Californians still remember how Gray Davis groused about…
Relevance: 33% Posted on: February 19, 2008
Are you like me? Are you interested in the right of direct democracy, of initiative and referendum? Do you wish we had some nifty collaborative way to aggregate fast-changing facts about citizen initiatives and other ballot issues? No sooner do I wave my magic wand than somebody else has done…
Relevance: 33% Posted on: May 29, 2019
The logic for drug prohibition is direct: to keep people from hurting themselves with recreational drugs, we must prevent them from accessing those drugs. Voilà! There are a number of things wrong with that, though, and one is this: governments cannot even keep illegal drugs out of prisons. In California,…
Relevance: 33% Posted on: July 30, 2020
July 30, 1419, the First Defenestration of Prague: Jan Želivský, a Hussite priest at the church of the Virgin Mary of the Snows, led his congregation on a procession through the streets of Prague to the New Town Hall, on Charles Square. While they were marching, a stone was thrown…
Relevance: 33% Posted on: July 30, 2019
July 30, 1419, the First Defenestration of Prague: Jan Želivský, a Hussite priest at the church of the Virgin Mary of the Snows, led his congregation on a procession through the streets of Prague to the New Town Hall, on Charles Square. While they were marching, a stone was thrown…
Relevance: 33% Posted on: July 30, 2021
July 30, 1419, the First Defenestration of Prague: Jan Želivský, a Hussite priest at the church of the Virgin Mary of the Snows, led his congregation on a procession through the streets of Prague to the New Town Hall, on Charles Square. While they were marching, a stone was thrown…
Relevance: 33% Posted on: July 30, 2022
July 30, 1419, the First Defenestration of Prague: Jan Želivský, a Hussite priest at the church of the Virgin Mary of the Snows, led his congregation on a procession through the streets of Prague to the New Town Hall, on Charles Square. While they were marching, a stone was thrown…
Relevance: 33% Posted on: April 12, 1999
Doctors take the Hippocratic Oath which says, "Do no harm." Politicians should really have something like this. When it comes to the First Amendment, they do. Our Founders took no chances in protecting the ability of citizens to speak out, assemble, petition government and communicate politically. The First Amendment guards…
Relevance: 33% Posted on: May 12, 2017
Yesterday, the chief sponsor of a Washington State legislative bill withdrew it. He said it was “a joke.” His co-sponsor wasn’t laughing, however . . . even proclaimed an intent to introduce the bill again next year. The legislation’s purpose? Split the state into two. The eastern, drier half of…
Relevance: 33% Posted on: November 13, 2000
Seems everybody has the right to make a deal except the American voter. This election season, some voters wanted to boost Ralph Nader's vote count without hurting chances for Gore. So they visited web sites that let Nader supporters living in states where the race was tight trade votes with…
Relevance: 33% Posted on: December 1, 2003
I don't get too excited about either major political party. When the Democrats are in, I think, "Oh my goodness, the Democrats are in!" With the Republicans in, I think, "Oh my goodness, the Republicans are in!" When everything is nice and bipartisan, I think: "Oh my goodness, another pay…
Relevance: 33% Posted on: May 21, 2001
Like gum under a bus seat. That's how Congressman Ric Keller describes wasteful and unfair federal programs that America's taxpayers just can't seem to get rid of. All thanks to career politicians afraid of offending some narrow special interest or other. Representative Keller is a freshman from Orlando, Florida who…
Relevance: 33% Posted on: May 10, 1999
The Empire is striking back. The American people voted and voted for term limits. This decade 23 states placed limits on their congressional delegations. Eighteen states (40 percent of the population) now have limits on their state legislatures. Thousands of local officials across the country have mandated rotation in office.…
Relevance: 33% Posted on: July 10, 2009
We are so shocked by the skyrocketing spending and taxes at the federal level — and by mammoth expansion of government control of our lives being attempted at the federal level — and by the nonstop huffing hubris of federally fumbling politicians eager to solve problems caused by past policy…
Relevance: 33% Posted on: August 16, 1999
In a democratic republic, we control our government largely by voting. That's why it's a so sad to see the low voter turnout in so many elections. Is there a way to fix this? Some people argue we should slap fines on people who fail to vote or even throw…
Relevance: 33% Posted on: September 4, 2001
Do term limits help? I mean, do they really, really help our political leaders behave in a more responsible manner? Well, my goodness they would have to, at least insofar as they show the door to the most corrupt careerists and make way for new people, more idealistic people. If…
Relevance: 33% Posted on: June 24, 2010
What do you do when your town’s politics has been bitter and internecine for years, when your police force is best known for hiring disgraced cops from other departments, and when your town budget is nearly half a million bucks in the red? Give up. Well, not quite. The town…
Relevance: 33% Posted on: August 31, 2011
Our country is divided politically — or so we hear — right from left, liberal from conservative, progressive from libertarian. Nothing new. Yet, don’t we all agree on the main points? Certain truths remain self-evident: Government must have the consent of the governed. ‘We, the People’ are the boss. Our…
Relevance: 33% Posted on: April 23, 2001
Gosh, it's tough having to run for office without already being a permanently entrenched incumbent who can just snap his fingers and instantly command vast resources and firepower. These out-of-work career politicians really have my sympathy. Consider, for example, the plight of former California Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa. He's running…
Relevance: 32% Posted on: April 18, 2008
Do citizen initiative rights give voters or give special interests "too much" power to pass bad laws? Sure, bad initiatives sometimes pass. But as Eric Dixon points out at the Show-Me Institute blog, our intermittently esteemed representatives do not religiously avoid passing bad bills. Lawmakers enact lousy laws galore. Dixon…
Relevance: 32% Posted on: July 30, 2023
July 30, 1419, the First Defenestration of Prague: Jan Želivský, a Hussite priest at the church of the Virgin Mary of the Snows, led his congregation on a procession through the streets of Prague to the New Town Hall, on Charles Square. While they were marching, a stone was thrown…
Relevance: 32% Posted on: March 31, 2010
Hurray for John Smelser! After five months of unfailing footwork, in late February, the 67-year-old celebrated his 5,500th signature for a petition to limit the terms of council members in Menifee, California. That’s over 2,000 more than the 3,382 he needed to qualify the measure for the ballot. But he…
Relevance: 32% Posted on: July 8, 2018
This weekend’s Townhall foray is, yes, an expansion of Tuesday’s Common Sense, “Freedom Weaponized,” but is perhaps more shareable, because it gets a bit deeper. Check it out. Share it. Then come back here for the R&D: New York Times: “How Conservatives Weaponized the First Amendment” United States Supreme Court:…
Relevance: 32% Posted on: December 9, 2014
Cain was a witty fellow. He asked one of the best-known rhetorical questions, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Of course he was not. But that was irrelevant. He was covering up something. About what he had done to his brother. So, when I hear the phrase “my brother’s keeper,” I…
Relevance: 32% Posted on: September 17, 2001
Every 10 years we take a census so that new political lines can be drawn for Congress and the state legislatures. It's the state legislatures that draw the lines, which are then ratified like any other piece of legislation. These lines really matter. As the Center for Voting and Democracy…
Relevance: 32% Posted on: July 16, 2001
In George Orwell's Animal Farm, the farm animals overthrow the human farmer and set up a society of strict equality. Yet, no sooner is the society established than the political leaders become a special class. The slogan, "All animals are equal," gets an amendment: "But some animals are more equal…
Relevance: 32% Posted on: October 7, 2019
On October 7, 1691, the charter for the Province of Massachusetts Bay was issued. Also on a seventh day of the tenth month, King George III issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which closed Indigenous lands in North America north and west of the Alleghenies to white settlements. On October 7, 1792, George…
Relevance: 32% Posted on: April 16, 2021
Some stories linger in the background, under-acknowledged, never really addressed, driving us a bit crazy. Example? Deficit spending and debt accumulation. The problems that deficit financing inflicts upon us are many and devastating. We would be a lot wealthier, healthier, and wiser were the federal government not so madly out-of-control.…
Relevance: 31% Posted on: October 7, 2020
On October 7, 1691, the charter for the Province of Massachusetts Bay was issued. Also on a seventh day of the tenth month, King George III issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which closed Indigenous lands in North America north and west of the Alleghenies to white settlements. On October 7, 1792, George…
Relevance: 31% Posted on: October 7, 2021
On October 7, 1691, the charter for the Province of Massachusetts Bay was issued. Also on a seventh day of the tenth month, King George III issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which closed Indigenous lands in North America north and west of the Alleghenies to white settlements. On October 7, 1792, George…
Relevance: 31% Posted on: June 7, 1999
New York's Legislature is a mess. It's like the California State Assembly before citizens there passed term limits and cleared out the career politicians and their partisan back-stabbing and backroom deals. Hofstra Law Professor Eric Lane says: "The New York legislature is the closest thing to non-representative government you'll find…
Relevance: 31% Posted on: March 15, 2011
We’ve had debit cards for most of my adult life. Regularly, people sign their names on electronic pads to obtain medication, credit, what-have-you. You can order books and music and nearly anything online, from your computer, your smartphone, or your new iPad. It’s high time to take democracy into this…
Relevance: 31% Posted on: December 24, 2001
What's the greater danger: a cancer patient in California or a member of al-Queda in Jersey City or the Middle East? We all know the answer to that one. But though the war on terrorism is so much more urgent, the U.S. government keeps throwing billions of tax dollars at…