Accurst be he that first invented war.
Mycetes, in Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine (c. 1588), Part 1, Act II, scene iv, line 1.
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Christopher Marlowe
Author: Redactor
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Nobel Prizes
November 27, 1295, the first elected representatives from Lancashire were called to Westminster by King Edward I to attend what later became known as “The Model Parliament.”
On the same date in 1895, Alfred Nobel (pictured) signed his last will and testament, thereby establishing the Nobel Prizes.
From Blondie to gratitude, with corporate corruption in between:
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Alexander Pope
A little Learning is a dang’rous Thing;
Alexander Pope, An Essay in Criticism (1709).
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring:
There shallow Draughts intoxicate the Brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
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A Grimké Day
November 26, 1792, saw the birth of Sarah Moore Grimké, American abolitionist and feminist. She was the elder sister of the equally famed Angelina Emily Grimké Weld.
In a world of almost universal assaults on freedom of speech, it is heartening when an avowed defender of it refuses to relent under pressure.
Rumble’s reason for being is to help people “control the value of their own creations.” The company creates “technologies that are immune to cancel culture.” Their mission is “to protect a free and open internet.”
A mission statement is one thing. Abiding by it in the face of major opposition is another. But Rumble has just told the French government to get lost for demanding that it deplatform certain sources of Russian news.
Stressing its policy that users with unpopular views “are free to access our platform on the same terms as our millions of other users,” Rumble has disabled access for users in France rather than acquiesce to the government’s censorship demands. Rumble will go back online there if it wins a lawsuit challenging the legality of the demands.
Like Elon Musk, who said that he wouldn’t block Russian news sources at the behest of governments “unless at gunpoint,” Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski says “I won’t move our goal posts for any foreign government.”
Rumble started out in 2013. By late 2021, Rumble.com was being visited by an average of 36 million active users per month.
If Rumble loses France, it loses less than 1 percent of its current users — but also an opportunity for substantial growth.
On the other hand, it holds on to what it is.
And what its customers value.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Note: This Week in Common Sense, the weekend wrap-up of this program, is published on Rumble as a video nearly every week. Last weekend’s episode is “It’s a Funny World.”
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Ambrose Bierce
anoint, v.t.
To grease a king or other great functionary already sufficiently slippery.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary (1911).
November 25, 1975, Suriname gained independence from the Netherlands.
On the same month and date 17 years later, the Federal Assembly of Czechoslovakia voted to split the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia (officially disjoined as of January 1, 1993). This split has been called “The Velvet Divorce” (following, in style and method, “The Velvet Revolution”).
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Master Zhuang
A frog in a well cannot conceive of the ocean.
Zhuangzi (perhaps more famously transliterated from the Chinese as Chuang Tzu), from the book called Zhuangzi (third century B.C.).
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Happy Birthday, Baruch!
November 24th marks the birthdays of philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632) and three influential Americans: ragtime composer Scott Joplin (1868), self-help writer Dale Carnegie (1888), and conservative editor, writer, and television personality William F. Buckley Jr. (1925).