Category: individual achievement

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ideological culture individual achievement local leaders

Your Just Rewards

Political systems work best when good behavior is rewarded and bad behavior punished.

Unfortunately, the level of punishment demanded by today’s politicians too often outpaces our ability to deliver sound thwackings. But thanks to the Sam Adams Alliance, at least good behavior gets its rewards.

Since 2007, the Chicago-based group has promoted grassroots citizen action through their annual awards program, the Sammies, which include an impressive $60,000 in cash prizes.

John Stossel will be a special guest at the awards dinner this Friday, April 8th, in The Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station. Stossel, who hosted 20/20 on ABC and now hosts “Stossel” on Fox Business, has captured 19 Emmys. Yet, he’s never won a Sammie, “an award,” he says, “that matters”

The Sammies go to people doing the most important political work of all, and not often recognized for it. As Stossel puts it, “The Sammies celebrates citizen leaders, who take extraordinary steps to advance our freedom.”

Awards are given for Rookie of the Year ($10,000), Messenger, ($10,000), Reformer ($10,000), Watchdog ($10,000), Public’s Servant (no cash prize because it goes to a public official), and Modern Day Sam Adams ($20,000).

I’ve been honored to present an award and also to receive one. I’m excited to attend this year’s ceremony. If you attend, find time to introduce yourself — and, more important, think of projects in your town or region that might earn you an award next year. While saving America.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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ideological culture individual achievement

A Literary Giant, a Giant of Liberty

Had we but world enough, and time . . . we’d read all the books on our reading lists.

Last week I contemplated the classics of political liberty and a book I hadn’t read. After that, the days of the week clicked off, as they do, and a writer I was familiar with (but had never read) won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

I wonder: Will I ever make time to read his books?

They don’t exactly look like my cup of tea. But, perusing the list of novels of Mario Vargas Llosa, 2010 Nobel Laureate in Literature, there seems to be something for nearly everyone.

What I knew Vargas for, mostly, was his notorious move away from trendy communism and towards an appreciation of freedom. Individual freedom. Liberty. He even ran for the presidency of his country on a limited-government platform, and raised quite a lot of interest, only to be beaten by a sly, dark horse of a candidate who went on to stay in the news for quite some time.

Success or no, by standing up for constitutional limitations and private property and civil liberties as one coherent package, Vargas made an important contribution to world culture that almost deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. Too often, literary types feel (like his friend-enemy-frenemy Gabriel Garcia Márquez obviously feels) destined to ally themselves with “the Left.”

Mario Vargas Llosa broke that tradition.

So, congratulations to an eminent man of letters . . . and liberties.

Too bad he lacks a North American counterpart.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
education and schooling free trade & free markets individual achievement

High Marks for Marko

I wish 9-year-old Marko Calasan had the office next to mine. Then when something goes wrong with my computer — through no fault of my own, I assure you — I could yell “Hey Marko, come fix this!” Alas, he lives in Macedonia.

The CNET website has a nice profile of this genius. We learn that Marko is “perhaps” the youngest system engineer Microsoft has ever certified. He snagged his first credential as a systems administrator when just six.

Marko works for a living. He remotely manages a computer network for a nonprofit organization. The employees tell him they are “very glad that that there is a good administrator.” But he seems a little unsure of it, saying, “I think that’s true, but who knows.”

Marko also teaches computing to other kids at his school. When I heard this my spidey sense tingled ferociously. What? Has he put in his years at a teaching college? Mastered the latest labyrinthine educational theories? Where’s his teaching certificate? The kid’s an outlaw!! At least, he would be stateside.

Marko works when he works and plays when he plays. He doesn’t indulge in computer games because, as he puts it, “there is nothing serious about playing games on computers. . . . If you want to play, go outside and play with your friends.”

Yes sir! I will do that.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
individual achievement responsibility

That Ol’ Double Standard

On Townhall.com I discussed the ominous parallels between giving an award to a statesman who’s accomplished almost nothing and Hollywood insiders’ weirdo defense of international, jet-setting rapist Roman Polanski. My point was that people tend to relax their standards for the people they like, remaining harsh to the people they oppose.

Though I picked on the liberalish mindset, I want to make one thing perfectly clear: This is not a problem limited to the Left.

I remember Republicans of my younger days thinking that Richard Nixon got a raw deal. True enough. Nixon’s two predecessors did nearly everything he did. But let’s remember: Nixon got justice. Or nearly so.

What he’s getting right now is none of my business.

There’s also the delay that I saw in conservative reactions against Tom DeLay’s obvious corruptions. And I’m not talking about his recent stint on Dancing With the Stars. I’m talking about his fancy footwork — and that of his supporters — in Congress.

The tendency to support a double standard — leniency for friends and cohorts, hanging judgments for enemies and opponents — is not new. It will never go away. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t surprise ourselves by sticking up for principle especially for those on our side.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
individual achievement media and media people

A Prince, Indeed

Richard Nixon once called him “the enemy”; he was my favorite columnist and TV talking head.

Robert D. Novak passed away in August. I’ll miss him. Not only was he a tremendous advocate for term limits, he was a great guy.

While Novak was certainly a conservative, he wasn’t in the tank for anyone. A columnist from 1963 to 1993 with writing partner Rowland Evans, and then until last year writing alone — as well as in 25 years on CNN — Novak broke a lot of stories, and made more than a few politicians angry.

No wonder. Never a fan of  politicians, Novak wrote in his autobiography that his initial negative “impression of the political class did not change appreciably in a half-century of sustained contact.”

Early in his career, Novak was tagged as the “Prince of Darkness” for his bearish attitude on politics. The name stuck.

But Novak was really a prince of open-mindedness, or that’s how it seems to me. Born Jewish, he spent most of his adult life as a Protestant, and then converted to Catholicism in his late sixties. Few of us remain open to profound change so late in life.

And in other ways he was simply a regular guy. Whenever I see a Corvette, the car he loved so much, I’ll think of Bob Novak.

And whenever I see a politicians pinned by a pundit, then too, I’ll remember Bob.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
individual achievement term limits

Minnesota Common Sense

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty is a stepping down after two terms.

At a news conference to announce his decision, Pawlenty said, “I still have a lot of ideas and energy left, but being governor should not be a permanent position for anyone. . . . It’s time to give someone else a chance.”

Partisan Democrats are quick to charge that Pawlenty doesn’t think he can win a third term. They point to a poll wherein 57 percent of Minnesota respondents think the governor should not run for a third term.

But hey: That poll may show more about the public’s thinking on term limits than on Pawlenty. A Rasmussen Reports poll shows the governor with a 53 percent approval rating.

Pawlenty told

Sean Hannity on Fox News: “In Minnesota, we don’t have term limits, but we do have common sense and good judgment and we’re also good about taking turns. . . . [L]ike with everything else, there’s a season in life and eight years is enough. . . . I think we’ve got a lot done and now it’s time to pass the baton to someone else.”

Pawlenty was on John McCain’s short-list for Vice President and is now being talked about as a likely GOP presidential contender come 2012.

Asked to speculate on his next position,

Pawlenty offered, “My dream job is to be an NHL defenseman, but at 48 and having no skill, it’s tough.”

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.