Of all the noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.
Samuel Johnson, as quoted in Jon Winokur’s compilation of aphorisms, The Quotable Curmudgeon (1987).
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Samuel Johnson
Author: Redactor
Western civilization’s first passenger-carrying airship, the Giffard dirigible, traveled under its own power 17 miles, from Paris to Trappes, on September 24, 1852.
The image is of a model on exhibit in the London Science Museum.
Last Friday (and Saturday), we supported the right of ABC’s corporate leaders to ignore bullying comments by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr and produce the late-night show, “Jimmy Kimmel Love!” to their heart’s content.
I’m happy to hear that ABC will bring Kimmel back tonight.
Not glad because I like him or will watch his show. I don’t. I won’t. I’d cancel him were it up to me. But freedom’s tops, so I get especially jazzed when people stand up to demand it.
And concerned when those in power attempt to take it away.
The very potent public backlash against the idea that ABC was muscled by the Trump administration into suspending Kimmel’s show is why it has returned. That’s a healthy sign of our political culture. Plus, take note that this pushback against the FCC chairman and President Trump hasn’t come just from the Left but also, as The Wrap reports, from many prominent conservatives including “Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro and Ted Cruz.”
What Kimmel alleged — that the murderer of Charlie Kirk was somehow MAGA — was not only “without evidence” but clearly contradicted by the evidence. As well as being asinine on its face. And more than a bit callous.
Still, freedom of speech means the freedom to say what you think, no matter how boneheaded, whether those in power like it or not.
Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of the largest chain of ABC affiliates, has already announced that its stations will not be airing Kimmel’s program. As is their right.
Stick with freedom of speech, Mr. President. For all.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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George Santayana
Life is not a spectacle or a feast; it is a predicament.
George Santayana, as quoted in Jon Winokur’s compilation, The Portable Curmudgeon (1987).
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Sweden minus Norway
On September 23, 1905, Norway and Sweden signed the “Karlstad treaty,” peacefully dissolving the union between the two countries.
The UK police picked the wrong elderly cancer patient to badger for exercising her right to freedom of speech.
Whatever Deborah Anderson said on social media, it wasn’t harsh enough to justify clapping on the irons and hauling her away. Just a knock on the door and a polite request to Do the Right Thing. But polite in the way a mailed fist in a marshmallow glove is polite.
Anderson: “I’m a member of the Free Speech Union and I’m an American citizen. . . . I’ll have Elon Musk on you so quick your feet won’t touch. . . . You’re here because somebody got upset? Is it against the law? Am I being arrested?”
Officer: “You’re not being arrested.”
Anderson: “Then what are you doing here?”
“My plan was, if you were admitting that it was you who wrote the comment, you could just make an apology to the person.”
“I’m not apologizing to anybody. I can tell you that.”
“The alternative would be that I have to call you in for an interview. . . .”
Somebody complained to the police, and somehow that’s enough all by itself, regardless of the nature of the complaint, for the police of the United Kingdom to leap into nonsensical action.
Anderson then asked whether there are “no houses that have been burgled recently? No rapes, no murders?” Good question, but ineffectual. Not his task at the moment, the officer said.
At least we can be proud of one of these two interlocutors.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Illustration created with Krea and Fireflly
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Wilson Milzner
Those who welcome death have only tried it from the ears up.
Wilson Mizner, as quoted by Jon Winokur, ed., The Portable Curmudgeon (1987).
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Emancipation Proclaimed
On September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. One curious thing about the document is its promise of compensation:
And the executive will in due time recommend that all citizens of the United States who shall have remained loyal thereto throughout the rebellion, shall (upon the restoration of the constitutional relation between the United States, and their respective States, and people, if that relation shall have been suspended or disturbed) be compensated for all losses by acts of the United States, including the loss of slaves.
The proclamation was signed by Lincoln and Secretary of State William H. Seward:
Done at the City of Washington this twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord, one thousand, eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.
The final version of the proclamation was delivered on January 1, 1863.
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Blaire White
They don’t kill you because you’re a Nazi, they call you a Nazi so they can kill you.
Blaire White (@MsBlaireWhite) on X (September 12, 2025).
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At Salamis
On September 21, 480 BC, Greeks defeated Persian forces in the massive naval battle of Salamis.