Author: Redactor

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Today

Now Comes Good Sailing

On May 6, 1862, American author, philosopher and abolitionist Henry David Thoreau died, after many years of tuberculosis. 

Aware he was dying, Thoreau spoke his last words: “Now comes good sailing,” followed by two lone words, “moose” and “Indian.” Bronson Alcott planned the service and read selections from Thoreau’s works, and Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote the eulogy spoken at his funeral. 

His remains, as well as those of members of his immediate family, were eventually moved to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.

His most famous works are An Essay on Civil Disobedience (1849) and Walden (1854).

Categories
Today

Now Comes Good Sailing

On May 6, 1862, American author, philosopher and abolitionist Henry David Thoreau died, after many years of tuberculosis. 

Aware he was dying, Thoreau spoke his last words: “Now comes good sailing,” followed by two lone words, “moose” and “Indian.” Bronson Alcott planned the service and read selections from Thoreau’s works, and Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote the eulogy spoken at his funeral. 

His remains, as well as those of members of his immediate family, were eventually moved to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.

His most famous works are An Essay on Civil Disobedience (1849) and Walden (1854).

Categories
general freedom nannyism regulation

Killer Cars for Your Safety

“It is in my memory banks,” Eric Peters wrote last month, referencing an android on an old Star Trek episode, “the long-ago time when GM was a car company.”

Yes, in the “long-ago” they “made an almost infinite variety of vehicles to suit almost any need and budget, all of them designed and engineered to free their owners. Some were utilitarian. Others were beautiful. Some were arrogant. None were parenting. They were made by adults who respected other adults. What became of that GM?”

The answer? Government.

Specifically, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, as directed by Section 24220 of 2021’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. 

“By 2027, every new car sold in the United States could be required to actively monitor the person behind the wheel,” explained Shawn Henry, the Chief Security Officer at CrowdStrike until last year. “That means watching your eyes, tracking your behavior, and constantly evaluating whether you’re alert enough to drive. For a lot of drivers, that starts to feel less like safety and more like surveillance.”

The idea is for your car to remove you from control.

The excuse for this nanny-state totalitarianism — a human-made robot take-over! — is that it will save lives. If you are too tired, too excited, too sleepy, or just walking erratically, the idea is for your smart car to prevent you from taking the wheel. 

But it would only save lives under normal conditions. In an emergency, your actions — watched over with loving grace by your ultra-smart car — could look like you’re on drugs or worse, and the car, not understanding the emergency, blocks your escape.

That is, if the NHTSA ever finalizes the regulation.

In a world where the CIA can execute you by making your car drive off the road (yes, it’s a thing), adding more overriding tech?

The wrong direction.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Machiavelli

Comincionsi le guerre quando altri vuole,
ma non quando altri vuole si finiscono

Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please.

Niccolò Machiavelli, from the Florentine Histories — Istorie fiorentine (A.D. 1526).

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Today

Endings

    On May 5, 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte, former emperor of France, died in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.
    On the Fifth of May, 1945, a Fu-Go balloon bomb launched by the Japanese Army killed six people near Bly, Oregon.
   On May 5, 2023, the World Health Organization declared the end of the global health emergency that was the COVID-19 pandemic.

Categories
ideological culture political economy too much government

Super Under-Blown

Seattle, socialism, democratic socialism

Just 60 years ago, we were talking the end of ideology. Thirty years ago, we were talking about the end of socialism — and of history itself! — as capitalist democracies seemed triumphant after the fall of the USSR.

But here it’s A.D. 2026 and we have socialist mayors in New York and Seattle and . . . we don’t need to argue about definitions. They call themselves socialist.

While New York’s Mamdani has grabbed much of national attention, let’s not forget the Evergreen State’s Emerald City. Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson showed her defiance of economic common-sense in her defenses of many anti-business, anti-rich tax and regulation policies by her city and the state.

“I think the claims that millionaires are going to leave our state are,” she asserted, “like, super overblown.”

Her notion being that, since Washington State has a sales-tax-dominated “regressive tax system,” adding a progressive layer wouldn’t matter. New high-income-focused taxes would only make things better!

Not to those targeted by the tax, though. Not with socialists in charge. After all, she’s showing her true colors, taking photos with antifa terrorists, pooh-poohing welfare fraud (and refusing to investigate), expressing solidarity with Somali immigrants accused of fraud in Washington, and pushing for non-citizen voting.

Mayor Wilson’s response to those who have exited the soviet of Washington has been a chuckle, a wave, and a cheerful “bye.”

But then a major Democratic funder in the state, Nick Hannauer, wrote a think-piece for GeekWire suggesting that both the city, Seattle, and the state, Washington, were going too far. “Making the total tax burden here 5–10 times the alternatives isn’t progressivism; it’s stupidity.” The Daddy Warbucks, who’d promoted capital gains taxes and opposed Tim Eyman’s tax limitation measures, wants to put the brakes on Evergreen State spoliation — plundering— noting that “virtually every wealthy friend I have has either left or is planning to.”

Seattlites and Washingtonians sure seem stuck with “the usual Socialist disease — they’ve run out of other people’s money.” For the “other people” are fleeing fast.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

NOTE (first paragraph references): Daniel Bell, The End of Ideology (1960), Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (1992), and Robert Heilbroner, “The Triumph of Capitalism,”The New Yorker (January 23, 1989). Concluding allusion: Maggie Thatcher on socialism.

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Polybius

The only method of learning to bear with dignity the vicissitudes of fortune is to recall the catastrophes of others.

Polybius, as in The Histories of Polybius, trans. Evelyn S. Shuckburgh (1889), Book I, Chapter 1.

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Today

May Fourth Movement

In Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, approximately 3,000 students from 13 Beijing universities gathered on May 4, 1919, to protest the Treaty of Versailles, which transferred Chinese territory to Japan.

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Update

Artemis Astronauts Observed Explosions on the Moon

Artemis II astronauts saw meteors — micrometeoroids, specifically — hitting the far side of the moon during their eclipse-event view. This remains one of the more surprising findings of the mission.

On April 6, 2026, during the Artemis II mission, the Orion spacecraft flew over the Moon’s far side, allowing the crew to experience a unique “total solar eclipse” from their perspective (the Sun passing behind the Moon). In the resulting darkness, they observed six distinct flashes of light on the lunar surface, which NASA scientists confirmed were micrometeoroid impacts.

This was the first time humans traveling beyond Low Earth Orbit have directly witnessed micrometeoroid strikes on the Moon in real-time.

Key Scientific Takeaways:

  • Visibility: The flashes were visible because the Moon’s surface was in total shadow, allowing the bright impact flashes stand out against the dark regolith.
  • Data Value: These observations validate models predicting the frequency and energy of micrometeoroid impacts — critical for designing shielding for future permanent lunar habitats.
  • Frequency: Seeing six impacts in a short window suggests the flux of micrometeoroids in the lunar environment might be higher or more energetic than some previous models predicted.

Business Base:

Paul Jacob wrote about Artemis’s extensive use of corporate technology, contracting, and the bid-purchase system on April 22, 2026. NASA estimates that the Artemis program engages over 3,800 businesses across the United States. This includes small machine shops, software developers, material suppliers, and research institutions. But here is a list of the major corporate contractors responsible for the core systems of the Artemis program:

  1. Lockheed Martin: Prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft (crew module and service module integration).
  2. Northrop Grumman: Prime contractor for the Space Launch System (SLS) Solid Rocket Boosters and the Human Landing System (HLS) variant for the Gateway (though Blue Origin/SpaceX are also HLS competitors).
  3. Boeing: Prime contractor for the SLS Core Stage (propulsion and structural elements).
  4. Aerojet Rocketdyne: Provides the RS-25 engines (for SLS) and the Orion Service Module propulsion system.
  5. Blue Origin: Selected as a competitor for the Human Landing System (HLS) (National Team includes Lockheed Martin, Draper, Honeybee Robotics).
  6. Dynetics: Selected as a competitor for the Human Landing System (HLS) (part of the team with Sierra Nevada Corporation).
  7. SpaceX: Selected as the primary Human Landing System (HLS) provider (Starship HLS).
  8. L3Harris Technologies: Provides the Orion Crew Module avionics and communication systems.
  9. Maxar Technologies: Building the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) for the Lunar Gateway.
  10. Astrobotic Technology: Selected for the Peregrine lunar lander (CLPS program) to deliver payloads.
  11. Intuitive Machines: Selected for the Nova-C lunar lander (CLPS program).
  12. Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC): Partner with Dynetics for the HLS.
  13. Amentum: Provides mission operations and engineering support for the SLS and Orion.
  14. MDA (MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates): Providing robotic systems for the Lunar Gateway.

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Thought

Machiavelli

It is enough to ask somebody for his weapons without saying ‘I want to kill you with them,’ because when you have his weapons in hand, you can satisfy your desire.

Niccolò Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy (A.D. 1517), Book 1, Ch 44 (as translated by Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella).