On January 12, 1904, Henry Ford set a land-speed record of 91.37 mph on the frozen surface of Lake St. Clair in Michigan, driving a four-wheel vehicle, dubbed the “999,” with a wooden chassis but no body or hood. Ford’s record was broken within a month, but the publicity from Ford’s achievement was valuable to the auto pioneer, who had incorporated the Ford Motor Company the previous year.
The weekend podcast is available for playing and download:
Here the free spirit of mankind, at length,
William Cullen Bryant, The Ages, XXXIII.
Throws its last fetters off; and who shall place
A limit to the giant’s unchained strength,
Or curb his swiftness in the forward race?
This week’s podcast plunges deep into the insanity of our time:
Under a system of perfectly free commerce, each country naturally devotes its capital and labour to such employments as are most beneficial to each. This pursuit of individual advantage is admirably connected with the with the universal good of the whole. By stimulating industry, by rewarding ingenuity, and by using most efficaciously the peculiar powers bestowed by nature, it distributes labour most effectively and most economically: while, by increasing the general mass of productions, it diffuses general benefit, and binds together, by one common tie of interest and intercourse, the universal society of nations throughout the civilized world.
On January 11, 1571, the freedom of religion was granted to Austrian nobility.
Two years earlier, the first recorded lottery in England was held.
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the eleventh day of the first month of 1759, the first American life insurance company was incorporated.
On January 11, 1935, Amelia Earhart became the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California.
On this date in 2003, Illinois Governor George Ryan commuted the death sentences of 167 prisoners on Illinois’s death row based on the Jon Burge scandal.
How much longer does the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have to put up with freedom-loving loudmouths?
Thoughtful Party rulers can’t even entertain their subjects with NBA basketball or English Premier League soccer without fear that Chinese fans will then discover the tweet of some busybody droning on against Chinese repression in Hong Kong or complaining about a scant million or so Uighurs checked into friendly re-education camps.
Last month, Chen Chia-chin, a Taiwanese YouTuber known as the Potter King, with a “considerable following on both sides of the Taiwan Strait,” dared post a video featuring Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. She is the first female president of that island nation, and on the ballot for re-election this Saturday.
Moreover, she has quite ungraciously declined China’s magnanimous offer to take over Taiwan, by force if necessary, under the “One China, Two Systems” banner. And the CCP even offered to toss in tear gas for free!
Back to the vicious attack on Chinese sovereignty by this Potter King fellow, he also referred to President Tsai as . . . [are you sitting down?] . . . “president.”
“Chinese media avoids mentioning ‘Taiwan president,’” explains Mothership, a Singapore-based news site, “as it implies that Taiwan is an independent, sovereign country.”*
Bad enough to say something the CCP doesn’t want said, but the Potter King went further — refusing to un-say it. His videos are still watched by half a million subscribers on YouTube.
Of course, China beneficently bans YouTube. And Papitube, the Chinese agency marketing his program, has now nullified his contract.
Chen Chia-chin’s prioritization of freedom mustn’t be allowed. But what if the prioritization of Taiwanese voters tomorrow cannot be stopped?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* Not to mention that Taiwan suffers from the twin political ailments, in the CCP’s view, of freedom and democracy.
See all recent commentary
(simplified and organized)
See recent popular posts
On January 10, 1776, Thomas Paine published Common Sense.
La démocratie étend la sphère de l’indépendance individuelle, le socialisme la resserre. La démocratie donne toute sa valeur possible à chaque homme, le socialisme fait de chaque homme un agent, un instrument, un chiffre. La démocratie et le socialisme ne se tiennent que par un mot, l’égalité; mais remarquez la différence : la démocratie veut l’égalité dans la liberté, et le socialisme veut l’égalité dans la gêne et dans la servitude.
Alexis de Tocqueville, “Discours prononcé à l’assemblée constituante le 12 Septembre 1848 sur la question du droit au travail,” Oeuvres complètes, vol. IX, p. 546.
Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.
Alexis de Tocqueville, quoted in F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (1944).
They cannot help themselves. The actors and filmmakers who give and receive awards are driven against all advice to do two things:
Ricky Gervais, hosting the Golden Globes last weekend, put them in their place, rubbing their noses in Hollywood sexual misconduct (with Dead Jeffrey Epstein jokes) and greed (Chinese sweatshops) and tagging on an admonishment: “So if you do win an award tonight, don’t use it as a platform to make a political speech. You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything. You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg.”
The implied equation of “real-world knowledge” with school-time notwithstanding, the advice was sound. Later in the week Gervais explained. He shares their politics, he tweeted, but he “roasted them for wearing their liberalism like a medal.”
Gervais didn’t go deeper than that, but as a comedian — an actual funny one — I think he can see how poisonous many Hollywood stars are to their cause.
The futility of Hollywood Hyper Holiness can be seen in the earnest religiosity of Michelle Williams, who did not, alas, follow Gervais’s advice. In a stellar foray into pure cringe, she talked about women and choices and all but unfurled a banner for abortion.
A banner’s worse than a mere medal.
Suffice it to say, she didn’t do her “pro-choice” cause any good.
Maybe she should hire Gervais as a political consultant.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
See all recent commentary
(simplified and organized)
See recent popular posts