It is of less important in youth what a man learns than how he learns it.
C. F. W. Jacobs, Vermischte Schriften, iii, § 27, p. 254 — as quoted by John Fiske, Darwinism and Other Essays (1879).
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C. F. W. Jacobs
Author: Redactor
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Birthday Boys
On October 3, 1919, James M. Buchanan was born. Buchanan would go on to an illustrious career in economics, developing the theory of “Public Choice,” and receiving the 1986 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work. His books include Cost and Choice, The Calculus of Consent (with Gordon Tullock), and The Limits of Liberty: Between Anarchy and Leviathan. Some of his most interesting research was into the realm of constitutional theory and practice.
In 1925, on this date, Gore Vidal was born. Vidal would go on to become one of the leading post-WWII liberal essayists as well as a major novelist and screenwriter. His most famous novels include Burr, 1876, and Lincoln, part of his American history series; his collection of essays, The United States, was one of his many bestsellers.
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Townhall: Show-Me Human Rights
“The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” At Townhall.com, Paul Jacob talks about today’s vigilant. Click on over.
- Missouri First: “Judge’s Ruling Against Missouri Ethics Commission Is Victory For Grass-roots Activists!”
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “Lobbyists, legislators aim to quash political activist’s free speech”
- Freedom Center of Missouri
- Center for Competitive Politics: Calzone v. Missouri Ethics Commission
- Common Sense: “Undefeated,” by Paul Jacob
- Human Rights Foundation: San Francisco Freedom Forum
- TED: “My Escape from North Korea,” by Hyeonseo Lee
- YouTube: “I Am a Ukrainian,” by Yulia Marushevska
- YouTube: “The Repression behind Rwanda’s Polished Image,” by Anjan Sundaram
- TED: “My True Story,” by Zineb El Rhazoui
- Washington Post: “Here’s what Cuba really needs, Mr. Obama,” by Rosa María Payá
- Common Sense: Crybaby, by Paul Jacob
On October 2, 1789, George Washington sent the proposed Constitutional amendments (the United States Bill of Rights) to the States for ratification.
On the same date in 1919, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson suffered a massive stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed, preventing him from reacting to the economic downturn following the Great War in a Progressive fashion, making his response de facto laissez faire. One insider, and skeptic of Progressive hubris, cattily referred to Wilson’s incapacitation as “a stroke of luck.”
His successor in office, President Warren G. Harding, would go on to massively cut spending as well as taxes, and take on regulation as well. He also released Woodrow Wilson’s domestic war prisoners — ranging from journalists, ordinary folk to Eugene V. Debs — who had dissented from Wilson’s involvement in the war.
The Depression of the early 1920s, though as deep as the early 1930s’, proved remarkably brief, thanks to Harding . . . and Wilson’s “stroke of luck.”
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Robert A. Heinlein
I also think there are prices too high to pay to save the United States. Conscription is one of them. Conscription is slavery, and I don’t think that any people or nation has a right to save itself at the price of slavery for anyone, no matter what name it is called. We have had the draft for twenty years now; I think this is shameful. If a country can’t save itself through the volunteer service of its own free people, then I say: Let the damned thing go down the drain!
Robert A. Heinlein, Guest of Honor Speech at the 29th World Science Fiction Convention, Seattle, Washington (1961)
No one knows more about how the major parties prevent competition than Richard Winger, the editor of Ballot Access News. Early on, in this interview, he relays an interesting fact: America did not have government-printed ballots until 1889.
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John Fiske
It is not true that “moral truths” have received no additions. It is not true, as Mr. Buckle says, that “the sole essentials of morals have been known for thousands of years, and not one jot or tittle has been added to them by all the sermons, homilies, and text-books which moralists have been able to produce.” It is not true, as Sir James Mackintosh says, that “morality admits of no discoveries.” It is not true, as Condorcet says, that “la morale du toutes les nations a été la même.” It is not true, as Kant says, that “in der Moralphilosophie sind wir nicht weiter gekommon als die Alten.” For what is Moral Philosophy but the science which is to determine the laws to which our conduct should conform? And if this is the case, we need only to look into Mr. Buckle’s work itself, to find a system of morality containing truths which only two centuries ago were not even dreamed of. Take, for example, the moral law that governments shall not interfere with trade. This is as much a moral law as that which forbids stealing; but we find Mr. Buckle reckoning it among the merits of Voltaire, that he was one of the first to perceive the justice of a free system of trade. Its justice is even now denied by opponents of reforms. This, then, is a case of “moral truth” which has not been known for thousands of years.
John Fiske, “Mr. Buckle’s Fallacies,” Darwinism and Other Essays (1879; 1902), p. 162.
On October 1, 1908, Ford produced the first Model T at a plant in Detroit. The auto could travel 40 miles per hour and ran on gasoline or hemp-based fuel. (As oil prices fell, Ford phased out the hemp option.) The Model T was the first car designed for a mass market, rather than as a luxury item. By 1927, Ford had built 15 million Model T cars – the longest production run of any car model until the Volkswagen Beetle surpassed it in 1972.
On October 1, 1918, Lawrence of Arabia (T.E. Lawrence) helped lead a combined Arab and British force that captured Damascus from the Turks during World War I.
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Blasphemy? Independence?
September 30 has served as Blasphemy Rights Day since 2009, when it was initiated by the Center for Inquiry.
Botswanans celebrate their independence from Great Britain with an official day on September 30.
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Robert A. Heinlein
Man is not a rational animal; he is a rationalizing animal.
Robert A. Heinlein, Assignment in Eternity (1953)