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Thought

William J. Casey

We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.

CIA Director William J. Casey (1981-1987) to Ronald Reagan, as related by Barbara Honegger and first publicly stated by Senior White House Correspondent Sarah McClendon, said in response to the president’s query as to what success for the Central Intelligence Agency would look like. The interchange took place in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in February 1981.
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by Paul Jacob video

Watch: The Weird Weeks Ahead

The video version of the weekend podcast. It’s a doozy, folks!

This Week in Common Sense for the last full week of August, 2020.
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audio podcast

Listen: The Weeks Ahead

Paul expects this next week to be quite eerie indeed. He explains why by looking back at last week:

This Week in Common Sense, final full week of August, 2020.
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audio podcast

Listen: They Must Not Be Allowed to…

Paul has words for the Powers That Be:

This Week in Common Sense, August 17 – 21, 2020.
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Thought

Herbert Spencer

The fact disclosed by a survey of the past that majorities have usually been wrong, must not blind us to the complementary fact that majorities have usually not been entirely wrong.

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Thought

William Wilberforce

If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large.

William Wilberforce was Britain’s most important anti-slavery activist.

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First Amendment rights Second Amendment rights

Students Fight Back

Everywhere, assaults on freedom and free speech are going full blast. Violent True Believers are on the march as others, even if less overtly barbaric, provide cover, an excuse.

For example, the State University of New York at Binghamton has cooperated with left-wing thugs to suppress conservatives.

The mob stole or destroyed posters and the table students were using to promote an appearance by Arthur Laffer, the noted supply-side economist. The same mob also disrupted the lecture itself. A lawsuit brought by the victimized students accuses officials of failing “to take action to defend College Republicans’ constitutional rights” and supporting the “physically abusive actions of the College Progressives.”

Another student under attack is Austin Tong. Recently, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has been going to bat for Tong, a Fordham University student suspended for social media posts.

One is a picture of Tong holding (not pointing) a legally owned rifle, intended to draw attention to the Tiananmen Square massacre. The other shows black police captain David Dorn, who was murdered by looters. Its caption chastises members of the Black Lives Matter movement for apparent indifference to Dorn’s fate.

Before suspending him for “bias” and “threats,” university personnel showed up at Tong’s house to interrogate him about the posts.

Tong is unapologetic, and FIRE says that Fordham has “acted more like the Chinese government than an American university, placing severe sanctions on a student solely because of off-campus political speech.”

Far from isolated cases, unfortunately.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


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nannyism paternalism too much government

Five-Hundred Hour Shampoo Sham

Given everything that has happened over the last several millennia, you can’t be surprised by anything. But still.

I had to check the text of the bill, A06578 in the New York State Assembly, to make sure the stories are accurate. It checks out: some lawmakers really do want to compel aspiring “shampoo assistants” to take 500 hours of training before they suds up your hair. (Apparently, though, you will still be allowed to give yourself a home-shower shampoo, even without training. Maybe future legislation will close this loophole.)

The culpable assemblymen are Carrie Woerner, (518) 455-5404, and John T. McDonald III, (518) 455-4474. A companion bill, S8862, is sponsored by co-conspirator State Senator Jen Metzger, (518) 455-2400.

According to the legislation, certificate holders may shampoo and rinse but not, you know, perform delicate surgical procedures like waxing or placing artificial braids.

One odd thing about the bill is this stipulation: “All shampoo assistant certificates shall expire one year from the date of issuance.” So . . . every year, shampoo assistants must put in another 500 hours?

On the other hand . . . come on, man. Think of the risk.

What if the water is too hot and the shampoo assistant is brand-new and hasn’t had the 500 hours training, so she gets burned and burns the head of the customer, or even heats the water on a stove until it boils and then pours it over her own head and the customer’s head? 

How would she know not to do that without any training whatsoever?

This is . . . I’m Paul Jacob.


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by Paul Jacob video

Watch: Facts Matter, Don’t They?

The video version of this week’s podcast. Technical recording difficulties led to a less-than-glamorous presentation…

This Week in Common Sense, August 8, 2020.
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Thought

Aristotle

The vices respectively fall short of or exceed what is right in both passions and actions, while virtue both finds and chooses that which is intermediate.

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book Two.