Author: Redactor

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Today

Dec 24 silent night

On December 24, 1818, the first performance of “Silent Night” took place in the church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria. Father Joseph Mohr had written the lyrics some time earlier, commissioning nearby schoolteacher and organist, Franz Xavier Gruber, to compose a melody appropriate for guitar accompaniment. It is one of the world’s most recognizable songs, and a favorite Christmas carol.

Christopher Buckley, author of the satirical novels “Thank You For Smoking” and “Supreme Courtship,” was born on Christmas Eve, 1952

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Thought

J. H. Levy

Our intellectual and moral natures come into play only when we discriminate and decide for ourselves. Just so far as this discrimination and decision are taken away from us, we are deprived of the most essential element of our manhood and womanhood, and are turned into mere tools propelled from without.

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general freedom insider corruption national politics & policies

The Madness Method?

To those nattering nabobs of negativity who don’t trust government to do the right thing, or even to stop doing the wrong thing once discovered, I just want to say: “You’re right.”

Again.

Last April, a Washington Post exposé about a bizarrely tyrannical debt collection program caused the Social Security Administration (SAA) to publicly promise it would cease and desist from said program. The Social Security bureaucracy had been snatching the tax refunds of grown children — $75 million from roughly 400,000 victims — whose parents, many decades ago, had allegedly been sent excess money by this same incompetent outfit.

Due process? The SSA didn’t go before a judge to prove these people owed a valid debt, nor even bother to inform folks that their income tax refunds were being seized. Instead, the Social Security gang just flat-out took the money . . . surreptitiously, like a thief.

In some cases, the SSA wasn’t certain who exactly owed the money. In one case, the agency went after a child even when they could find the mother who supposedly owed the money. Why? The mother had already beaten them in court.

The SSA flouted more than common sense and decency. Children should not be held legally responsible for the debts of their parents.

Hasn’t this been settled law for at least the last couple of centuries?

After publicity back in April, the agency’s commissioner announced it would stop. Yet, now the Social Security Administration is right back at it, claiming Congress has given it the legal power to collect debts “as it sees fit.”

You see why governments need limits. Because they take liberties.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Thought

J. H. Levy

We seem to have come upon a time of utter infidelity to general principles, except that most vicious one that there are no general principles.

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Today

Dec 23 geo wash resigns

On December 23, 1783, George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland.

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local leaders term limits

Saving Term Limits

Most ballot measures to enact term limits triumph. According to U.S. Term Limits, 100 percent of such measures did so in last November’s elections. Voters also rebuff most attempts to weaken or repeal term limits.

But not all.

Politicians who loathe term limits often use all their resources and cunning to assail them. Occasionally they claw out a victory. Thus, last month Arkansas voters narrowly approved a multi-deceptive ballot measure with provisions to weaken the state’s legislative term limits. The measure passed despite everything pro-term-limit activists could do to expose the dirty tricks.

On the other hand, anti-term-limits forces in Prince Georges County, Maryland narrowly failed to flabbify term limits from two four-year terms to three four-year terms despite generous funding of the anti-term-limits campaign (primarily by local developers).

Much of the credit for saving Prince Georges term limits goes to University of Maryland sophomore Shabham Ahmed, creator of nothreeterms.com, who campaigned relentlessly against the measure. Ahmed believes that the vote was close only because some voters misunderstood what the measure would do; voters “do get caught up in the political propaganda.”

“People are tired of politicians in our county as it is,” she says. “Extending term limits would only increase the likelihood of creating a regime in politics, and voters don’t want that.”

No, we don’t.

But the politicians want that. And they’re not done yet.

Fortunately for the residents of Prince Georges County, defenders of term limits like Shabham Ahmed aren’t either.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Today

Nicolae Ceaușescu is overthrown

On December 22, 1989, Communist President of Romania Nicolae Ceaușescu was overthrown by Ion Iliescu after days of bloody confrontations. The deposed dictator and his wife fled Bucharest with a helicopter as protesters erupted in cheers.

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Thought

J. H. Levy

It is useless to consume our energies in mere verbal disputes. I must, however, caution students that definition is not a matter of indifference. Nine-tenths of the embarrassments which surround most philosophical questions arise from the difficulty of getting a firm hold of them. When this is done, the solution is comparatively easy. Until it is done no solution can be rationally hoped for.

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links

Townhall: Not Another Insider

This weekend at Townhall, a look at a “favorite son,” the latest “leader” to dip his toe into presidential waters. America doesn’t need that kind of leadership.

Click on over, give it a read, then come back here to make sure you’ve got a grasp on the extent of our mutual “insider” problem in these United States.

And did you see yesterday’s selected video? This is the kind of speech I’d like to hear from a newly elected president. On Thursday, “Another Insider?” covered some of the material in this weekend’s Townhall.com column.

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Thought

J. H. Levy

Taxation must be, potentially at least, co-extensive with government. The way to reduce it is to severely limit the function of government to the maximising of liberty, to abolish privilege, and to exercise due vigilance over the expenditure of the State revenue.