Author: Redactor

Today

Déchéance

With the Acte de déchéance de l’Empereur (“Emperor’s Demise Act”) of April 2, 1814, France’s Sénat conservateur officially recognized the downfall of Napoléon I of France. The original resolution to remove the Emperor was moved on the legislative body’s floor, by Thomas Jefferson’s friend Destutt de Tracy (according to Tracy himself — official records do not name the member), and was drawn up by Charles Lambrechts. The final paragraph summarized the new reality concisely:

The Senate declares and decrees as follows: 1. Napoleon Buonaparte is cast down from the throne, and the right of succession in his family is abolished. 2. The French people and army are absolved from their oath of fidelity to him. 3. The present decree shall be transmitted to the departments and armies, and proclaimed immediately in all the quarters of the capital.

Nine days later, after attempting to put his son on the throne, Napoléon abdicated unconditionally. The Allies exiled him to Elba, which was to be the whole extent of this reign as “Emperor.”

This arrangement proved unstable, with Napoléon staging a comeback, eventually leading to more war, his defeat at Waterloo, and his exile to an island in the South Atlantic.

American author, art critic, and commentator Camille Paglia was born April 2, 1947.

The Trump-Tariff Question

“To this day I cannot tell you what Trump truly believes about tariffs,” Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles recently confessed. “Does he want tariffs instrumentally, to increase trade? Does he believe in tariffs as a revenue-raising mechanism? And is he hard-core on tariffs? I couldn’t tell you; the man is inscrutable.”

In “Tariffs Are Awful, But The Income Tax May Be Worse,” economist Walter Block seems less confused. “Donald Trump supports them on the ground that the McKinley administration was prosperous, and relied upon tariffs,” Walter’s Eurasia Review op-ed posits. Our free-market economist notes that this rests on a fallacy: “since A precedes B, A must be the cause of B.”

Professor Block offers a better “historical episode to shed light on this matter, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930.” You know, the tariff hike that worsened the Great Depression.

The best part of Walter Block’s refutation, however, follows his explanation of the Law of Comparative Advantage. He discusses the gains to our economy if the expert workers Trump fires from the IRS were to find work in the private sector.

And, contemplating the idea of switching from income taxes to tariffs, our widely-published octogenarian notes that “it takes relatively little labor to run a tariff system. Hey, we already have tariffs in place. An increase in their level would hardly call for much more manpower, likely hardly any more at all.” The gains of nixing income taxes would be vast; the harms of higher tariffs would be comparatively minuscule.

An interesting argument? Sure. But I don’t see politicians giving up the income tax any time soon.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Thought

Aeschylus

It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish.
Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound (c. 478 BC), David Grene translation.

Today

April Fool’s Day

On April Fools’ Day, 1957, the BBC offered for viewers of the current affairs program “Panorama” the infamous spaghetti harvest report hoax.

By sheer coincidence (?), one definition of “noodle” is “fool.”

crime and punishment First Amendment rights international affairs

How We Tear Up

“We revoked her visa,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a reporter asking about Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student from Turkey, detained recently by plainclothes officers of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the process of deporting her.

“Her only known activism,” the Associated Press relates her friends saying, “was co-authoring an op-ed in a student newspaper that called on Tufts University to engage with student demands to cut ties with Israel.”

A federal judge is now preventing her deportation.

Citing those who “want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus,” is how Rubio explained the rationale for the ousting. “We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist, to tear up our university campuses.”

But there’s the rub, isn’t it?

Obviously, those who “tear up” by committing acts of violence and intimidation, breaking our laws, should be deported.

Yet, what about those merely speaking or writing words — whether you like them or loathe them, or their speaker — that tear up the university’s status quo in the minds of listeners? Or might, if allowed voice?

Any “alien” in our country legally has a First Amendment right to speak. Even our Highest Court has so ruled.

The Trump administration appears to have vast legal authority to remove aliens from U.S. soil . . . except perhaps the way they’re doing it. Deportation cannot be a selective punishment for speech, which is protected.

“America was built on free speech, so if we don’t have that, then what?” said Carina Kurban, a Lebanese American, at a recent rally in defense of Ozturk. “Then where do we go?”

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Elon Musk

DOGE is a threat to the bureaucracy. It’s the first threat to the bureaucracy. Normally the bureaucracy eats revolutions for breakfast. This is the first time that they’re not, that the revolution might might actually succeed, that we could restore power to the people instead of power to the bureaucracy.
Elon Musk, Joe Rogan Experience (#2281, 2025).

Today

The Bangorian Controversy

Post author By Redactor
Post date March 31, 2025
No Comments on The Bangorian Controversy

On March 31, 1717, a sermon on “The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ,” by Benjamin Hoadly, the Bishop of Bangor, provoked the Bangorian Controversy.

The sermon’s text was John 18:36, “My kingdom is not of this world,” and from that Hoadly deduced — supposedly at the request of King George I himself, who was present in the assembly — that there was no Biblical justification for any church government. Hoadly identified the church with the kingdom of Heaven, noting that Christ had not delegated His authority to any representative.

King George’s preference for the Whig Party, and for latitudinarianism in ecclesiastical policy, is widely thought to have been a strategic maneuver to degrade church power in political government.

Update

X to xAI

After Elon Musk purchased Twitter in 2022, the very American cause of free speech made a comeback. “Elon Musk’s sunlight on Twitter’s backroom censorship dealings,” wrote Paul Jacob on December 22 of that year, “has cast a black shadow upon the U.S. Government.” But that sunlight offered enlightenment, as well.

We learned just how bad it had gotten under Biden’s first two years in office. “In sum, the federal government made Twitter its b … uh … disinformation agent.”

The triumph of freer speech had ramifications, from the amusing — leftists leaving Twitter (now X.com) for alternatives such as BlueSky, where they did not have to interact with those whom they disagree — to the momentous — the return of Donald Trump to the presidency.

Elon and Twitter/X get much of the credit.

Now the latest news: “Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s xAI artificial intelligence firm has acquired his social media company X, formerly known as Twitter, for $33 billion (€30.5 billion),” writes Srinivas Mazumdaru. “Musk announced the transaction in a post on X, saying: ‘The combination values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B less $12B debt).’

“xAI and X’s futures are intertwined,” he wrote. “Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent. This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach.”

Much of the deal’s specifics remained unclear. Both companies are privately held, so they are not required to disclose their finances to the public.

It’s also not clear if the move will change anything for X users.
“Elon Musk sells X to his AI company xAI,” DW, March 28, 2025.

Let’s hope speech on X — and on the Internet generally — becomes even freer.

Thought

Josiah Willard Gibbs

One of the principal objects of theoretical research is to find the point of view from which the subject appears in the greatest simplicity.
Josiah Willard Gibbs, letter accepting the Rumford Medal (1881). Quoted in A. L. Mackay, Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (London, 1994).

Today

SpaceX Re-uses Rocket

On March 30, 2017, SpaceX conducted the world’s first reflight of an orbital class rocket.