Author: Redactor

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links

Townhall: The Ism at the Heart of the Racial Schism

At Townhall, the question this weekend is whether racism might be less of a factor than we think in today’s re-emerging racial divide. Your Common Sense column is greatly expanded — hugely! — from a Common Sense last week — worth reading, and debating. I hope.

Click on over, then come back here for more background. I ask more questions than I answer, but I do give the general form I think the best answer takes. There is a lot to consider. Here are some relevant links:

 

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Today

The Ides of March

March 15 was “the Ides of March” in the Roman calendar, and in 44 BC, Julius Caesar, Dictator of the Roman Republic, was stabbed to death by a handful of prominent senators on that date.

On the same date in 1783, General George Washington eloquently entreated his officers not to support the Newburgh Conspiracy. His plea was successful and the threatened coup d’état never took place.

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video

Video: The Movie the FEC Censored

When Democratic politicians complain about the Citizens United decision, what they are complaining about is their loss of the power to censor political thought and media in America. This is the movie that the FEC prohibited from being shown in America during the 2007–2008 presidential campaign.

Citizens United is a non-profit corporation, which made Hillary the Movie, a documentary critical of Hillary Clinton, then a candidate for president. The Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. FEC overturned the portion of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law that allowed the government, in this particular historical case, to stop a movie from being shown in America.

Imagine what Democrats would say (rightly) had the Federal government tried to prohibit Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 911.

As a proponent of free speech and the press, you may even be, ahem, obligated to watch this artifact of our history — which is timely once again now that Mrs. Clinton is in the news, considering another run for the presidency.

The Citizens United website has links to the full decision and more.

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Thought

Anders Chydenius

The more opportunities there are in a Society for some persons to live upon the toil of others, and the less those others may enjoy the fruits of their work themselves, the more is diligence killed, the former become insolent, the latter despairing, and both negligent.

Anders Chydenius (1739 – 1803) was a Swedish priest and politician born in what is now Ostrobothnian Finland. This quotation is from The National Gain, §20, 1765.

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Today

Gold Standard

On March 14, 1900, the Gold Standard Act was ratified, placing United States currency on the gold standard.

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Today

Slavery in America, landmark

On March 13, 1862, the U.S. federal government forbade all Union army officers from returning fugitive slaves, thus effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation.

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Thought

Anders Chydenius

“Our wants are various, and nobody has been found able to acquire even the necessaries without the aid of other people, and there is scarcely any Nation that has not stood in need of others. The Almighty himself has made our race such that we should help one another. Should this mutual aid be checked within or without the Nation, it is contrary to Nature.”

Anders Chydenius (1739 – 1803) was a Swedish priest and politician born in what is now Ostrobothnian Finland. This quotation is from The National Gain, §2, 1765.

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crime and punishment education and schooling folly Second Amendment rights

Pop Gun Tart

Pop Tart Criminal

America is often said to be a land of second chances.

Just not for 7-year-olds. At least, not when they’re in the public school system.

Back in 2013, a boy then in second grade in Anne Arundel, Maryland, was suspended for two days for what was deemed a “gun-related” offense.

It was also a Pop Tart-related offense.

No, he didn’t shoot a Pop Tart; he bit his Pop Tart into the shape of a gun. There’s a dispute as to whether he then pointed the high-calorie weapon at the ceiling or at other students. Either way, unless the strawberry filing was piping hot (it wasn’t), there wasn’t really anything to fear.

Still, school officials pretty much freaked out.

Of course, the incident did occur just months after the Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting, when six- and seven-year-olds were feeling the full weight of adult hysteria about guns, pastries, pointed fingers, etc.

Fast-forward to the present: the Maryland lad’s parents are still fighting to clear this gun-related black mark from his permanent record, fearful it could damage him even decades from now.

I don’t blame them.

Unfortunately, last week the Maryland State Board of Education upheld the suspension. A spokesperson for the local schools claimed it was warranted because of the lad’s “long history of disciplinary issues,” adding that the school “has gone to every conceivable length to assist that student.”

The attorney for the family says they will appeal.

My kids have been homeschooled, but next year my youngest will attend a public high school. I just hope we can find a good, inexpensive attorney to go with her.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Thought

William Cobbett

“Men of integrity are generally pretty obstinate in adhering to an opinion once adopted.”

William Cobbett (1763-1835), British pamphleteer, 1796.

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Today

Disgraced!

Disgraced New Yorkers

On March 12, 2009, financier Bernard Madoff pled guilty to pulling off perhaps the biggest swindle in U. S. history. One year earlier to the day, in the same city, New York, the state’s governor, Eliot Spitzer, resigned a mere two days after reports had surfaced that he was listed as a client in a high-end escort/call-girl prostitution ring. The cause of freedom is advanced with every criminal nabbed and every hypocritical illiberal politician disgraced.