We are beginning our library, starting out with the obvious entry, Tom Paine’s “Common Sense.” Right now we have this book available for you in HTML, on this website. Soon we will produce PDF and ePub editions as well. Happy reading!
Author: Redactor
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Jan 10, Common Sense
On January 10, 1776, Thomas Paine published Common Sense.
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Albert Camus
People hasten to judge in order not to be judged themselves.
Thomas Paine
COMMON SENSE
— published anonymously on Jan. 10, 1776
Open Yale Courses: A lecture by Dr. Joanne Freeman, Professor of History at Yale University. [45 min]
Discovery Channel: A segment about Thomas Paine [3 min]
Liberty’s Kids – “Common Sense” [22 min]
Episode 12: “James, Sarah and Henri meet Thomas Paine and learn of his belief that the common man can rule himself.”
(This is animated and great for kids. Paul liked it, too. )
The late Christopher Hitchens lectures on Tom Paine [60 min]
YouTube: Common Sense by Thomas Paine Sparked the American Revolution
By Constitution Man [10 min]
The Most Valuable Englishman Ever – Part 1 [60 min]
By Kenneth Griffith
And finally, why not read Common Sense for yourself? Indeed, you can read it on this site! Click here.
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Jan 9 Connecticut
On January 9, 1788, Connecticut became the fifth state to be admitted to the United States under the new Constitution. Connecticut was one of the first nine states of the original union, under the Articles of Confederation, to accept the Constitution, and thus officially ratify it. All 13 original states had ratified that new compact, officially, by May 29, 1790. The first state to be added to the original 13 was Vermont, in 1791.
According to Vice President Joe Biden, the debate is over. Health care, by which he means medical assistance, is a basic right — to be obtained through government, and made effective by the Affordable Care Act — not a “privilege.”
By “right” he means “something others are forced to provide,” in this case by taxes, regulations, and the full panoply of U.S. law. Today’s “liberals” like to use the word “privilege” to mean anything obtained without direct government assistance. And therein lies a huge problem.
In his first weekly address of the year, Biden touted how great the ACA, “Obamacare,” is. How affordable it is for families, for everyone! It’s a panacea, though Biden didn’t use the word.
Actually, he didn’t say that we have a right medical care. He said we have a right to health “insurance,” which we’re forced to purchase — and for which many are subsidized, too.
How far does he go with this?
“An awful lot of people who didn’t think they could or would find quality, affordable health insurance are actually able to get assistance from the government to help them pay for their health care plans at a cheaper rate,” he earnestly intoned. “A family of four with an income of around $95,000, they can still get a subsidy to lower their health care premiums.”
You can see where the problem is. If a household making $95,000 per annum can receive subsidies, who’s paying for all this?
Perhaps you.
Can you see why Obamacare’s a prescription for financial disaster?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Albert Camus
The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.
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Yet Another Term Limits Scam
It’s like a matryoshka, the Russian wooden doll hiding another doll hiding another until you finally reach a black hole in the “inside.” That’s what the politicians’ referendum, Issue 3 — to more than double Arkansas’s legislative term limits — turned out to be: nearly endless nested scams.
Among other layers of the Issue 3 con game that not enough Arkansans stripped off before voting day, the measure narrowly passed last November pretended to be “setting” term limits as if anew. So maximum tenure in a particular legislative seat has now been stretched from eight to 16 years in Arkansas’s senate, six to 16 in its house.
In short, the worst has happened.
Wait. The worst?
Not exactly. It’s dolls within dolls: each one smaller, but each more of a “doozy” than the previous.
Now Arkansas incumbents and special interests want the amendment to be understood as something more than massively expanded tenure. They also want to re-start the term-limits clock. If they get their way, the 16 years a lawmaker may serve would start with the passage of Issue 3 just months ago, rather than the 1992 amendment.
State Senator Jon Woods (who helped craft the measure) asked Arkansas’s attorney general to “clarify” the matter.
Did this notion just occur to Woods, or was it part of his original scam, er, strategy?
The Northwest Arkansas Times called Woods’s rationalization for super-sizing already elongated term limits “hogwash.”
Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel agrees. His just issued opinion lacks the word “hogwash,” but denies previous-serving politicians 16 additional matryoshkas — er, years.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Albert Camus
There are causes worth dying for, but none worth killing for.
On January 8, 1790, George Washington delivered the first State of the Union address in New York, New York.
In 1835, on this date, the United States federal government achieved a zero debt for the first and only time.
In 1867, African-American men were first allowed to vote in Washington, D.C.