Now we take the human function to be a certain kind of life, and take this life to be the soul’s activity and actions that express reason, and the function of a good man to be the good and noble performance of these. Each function is completed well when its completion expresses the proper virtue. Therefore, the human good turns out to be the soul’s activity that expresses virtue. And if there are more virtues than one, the good will express the best and most complete virtue. Moreover, it will be in a complete life. For one swallow does not make a spring, nor does one day; nor, similarly, does one day or a short time make us blessed and happy.
In Fargo, North Dakota, a company called Aldevron applied to the city council for a tax exemption. If given, it would spare the company from handing $4.6 million dollars to the city government over the next ten years.
Now, Aldevron isn’t just a company with a name seemingly out of a sci-fi movie. It is science-fictional in its mission, providing “high-quality plasmid DNA, proteins, enzymes, antibodies, and other biologicals to help our partners achieve ground-breaking science,” and so on.
Sounds very interesting. But is it $4.6 million interesting?
That is subjective. A more objective question was asked of the company’s representative by Commissioner Tony Gehrig: “If you didn’t get the incentive would you still expand?”
The answer was revealing: yes.
That is when another commissioner, Dave Piepkorn, got a bit peeved.
He “accused Gehrig of ‘bitching’ about the subsidies,” explains Rob Port of the Say Anything blog. Then Piepkorn went on to “bitch” . . . about Gehrig. “It really bothers me when he puts words in people’s mouths.”
So Commissioner Piepkorn asked Aldevron’s rep if the company would go somewhere else sans the special privilege.
The company man, looking a tad uncomfortable, as Port notes, said no. Businesses have to take a long view of their relationships with local government, and tax breaks are just one element in overall “friendliness.”
After all, businesses have to go somewhere.
Rob Port concludes that “the subsidies occur because they’re expected, not because they’re needed.”
Fargo’s voters might consider an initiative to take away politicians’ ability to make creative use of their taxing authority.
The media won’t have my favorite Democratic presidential candidate to kick around anymore.
“Mike Gravel drops out of 2020 race,” Voxheadlined Catherine Kim’s report. “He never wanted to be president anyway.” A subhead continued: “The former Alaska senator simply ran to get other candidates to talk about American imperialism.”
It was largely a Twitter campaign, which, as The New York Timesfeatured months ago, was run by two teenagers, David Oks and Henry Williams. “It wasn’t exactly a bid for the presidency,” the paper cautioned, “but neither was it really a prank.”
The goal? Launch Gravel — and, moreover, his issues — onto the debate stage. Though the campaign garnered enough individual donors to qualify, his lackluster polling results kept the former U.S. Senator out of prime time.
During the Vietnam War, Sen. Gravel workedto end the military draft and had the courage to read the Pentagon Papers into the Senate record in order to inform the public about the war. After leaving the Senate, Gravel continued his battle against U.S. military intervention, as well as advocating for initiative and referendum.
Back in 2008, in another quixotic presidential bid, he succeeded getting into the debates, lobbing in a few much-needed zingers. He was 77-years-old then; today he is 89.
Oks’ and Williams’ “real goal was to inject Gravel’s far-left views,” informedFiveThirtyEight.com, “into the primary.”
Though I disagree with Mike Gravel on a number of his “far-left” issues — and for endorsing Bernie Sanders for president — he has my utmost respect.
And if “ending ‘imperialist’ wars, legalizing drugs and enacting dramatic political reforms” be “far left,” make the most of it.
On August 13, 1831, Nat Turner witnessed a solar eclipse, which he interpreted as a sign from God. Eight days later he and 70 other slaves killed approximately 55 whites in Southampton County, Virginia.
Elevation of purpose, though a condition of the best achievements, is also a condition of the worst. The maximum of evil is never done save by the agency of men and women of disinterested lives and virtuous intentions.
Some news stories serve more as inkblot tests than as first runs at history. With the Jeffrey Epstein story we find sightings, Rohrschach-like, of both Minotaurs and unicorns, depending on the viewer.
I am not seeing the sad unicorn of suicide in his story. Are you?
Of course, there’s a maze of information to wade through, and we on the outside possess only the grossest of clues about whatever insider life Epstein lived.
And speaking of clues, maybe the key to the story can be found in how it plays in the headlines.
Before:
The question that must be asked: Was Epstein running ‘honey traps’ and blackmailing the power elite?
Alex Acosta Reportedly Claimed Jeffrey Epstein ‘Belonged to Intelligence’
‘IN DANGER’ Jeffrey Epstein’s life ‘in jeopardy’ as powerful pals ‘don’t want their secrets out’, victim’s lawyer claims
Jeffrey Epstein on suicide watch after accused sex trafficker is found injured in New York jail
After:
JEFFREY EPSTEIN DEAD BY HANGING IN JAIL … Taken Off Suicide Watch
Jeffrey Epstein Dead in Suicide at Jail, Spurring Inquiries
Former MCC inmate: There’s ‘no way’ Jeffrey Epstein killed himself
Jeffrey Epstein’s jail guards were working extreme overtime shifts, source says
Jeffrey Epstein was not on suicide watch before death, official says
Epstein suicide sparks fresh round of conspiracy theories
Jeffrey Epstein’s death is a perfect storm for conspiracy theories
Who doesn’t roll their eyes, just a bit, when a news story in a major media news source confidently labels Epstein’s demise “suicide”?
Who wasn’t making jokes about Epstein’s suicide (often with pointed mention of the Clintons) before his first attempt?
Now the joke is the news media’s blithe acceptance of the official narrative.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
N.B. All the stories, headlined above, can be found by searching DuckDuckGo, the safe and non-creepy search engine. No joke.
On this day in 1898, an Armistice ended the Spanish-American War, a war best commemorated by sociologist and economist William Graham Sumner in his classic essay “The Conquest of the United States by Spain.”
Commerce presumes two things: surplus production on the one hand, and on the other consumption to be made.
Commerce and Government considered in their mutual relationship, by the Abbé de Condillac of the Académie Française & Member of the Royal Society of Agriculture of Orléans (1776).
