Category: Common Sense

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Accountability Common Sense free trade & free markets too much government

New Prez Pleads for Common Sense

I like a president who pleads for common sense.

Here’s the story, headlined in the New York Times: “Obama Calls for ’Common Sense’ on Executive Pay.”

The president announced a salary cap for top executives working for companies garnering the greatest gobs of booty under the most recent federal bailout. The cap? Half a million bucks.

President Obama allayed a few qualms, right away. He said that “This is America, we don’t disparage wealth.…” And he said, “we certainly believe that success should be rewarded.”

But he does talk about the “height of irresponsibility” in Bush administration bailouts, with execs taking huge bonuses after running their companies into the ground. Who wasn’t sickened by this? Obama sees it as common sense to make sure we don’t reward massive failure with the usual rewards of success.

Still, America is also about respecting contracts. Those corporations had negotiated very explicit contracts with their execs regarding the big bucks. And — surprise, surprise —  Congress wrote up the law on the gargantuan bailouts without requiring those contracts be renegotiated.

And consider: Do we really want our politicians setting non-​government salaries?

This is all a side issue, though. Take the bailouts themselves. Where’s the common sense there? They do reward failure. They will not help the economy. If our leaders had acted according to common sense, the whole salary issue wouldn’t even have come up.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Common Sense

How to Spell “America”

In Franz Kafka’s famous-​but-​incomplete novel, Amerika, his protagonist treks to our brave new world only to repeatedly find himself persecuted by a bizarre assortment of authorities.

That was fiction. How’s our factual world?

Today, our governments — particularly our police and prosecutors — seem to treat Kafka’s nightmare as a blueprint for action. Accuse. Accost. Ticket. Jail. Innocence is no excuse. Sense is no criterion.

There has to be a better artistic model for our country. There is: The Andy Griffith Show.

Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry never used his toughness in a bullying or bureaucratic way. He was respectful of the public, interpreting both the rules and his own discretion with a healthy dose of common sense.

Unlike modern America, Mayberry was never Kafkaesque.

In searching about for standards, better to reach to Andy rather than Franz. Our enforcement culture sure needs something.

Still, many police are exemplary public servants providing necessary service. So let’s keep our cool, not over-​react. Every time law enforcement goes even slightly off the beam, someone, somewhere, starts spelling “America” with a “k” — as in Kafka’s novel. But remember, Kafka had an excuse: He wrote in German, and in German “America” is spelled with a “k,” not a “c.”

For me, I’d like to keep the “c,” and let it stand for … Common Sense.

I’m Paul Jacob.

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Common Sense

Change and Hope

’Tis the season of “Hope” and “Change.” All the more so, since those are the bywords of the President-Elect.

It’s too early to see whether his changes will match our hopes, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still hope for better days and ways.

This Common Sense program is all about hope. I hope that Americans will work together to restore citizen control of government. I share examples of citizens fighting to hold government accountable, hoping that regular folks doing unusually good deeds will inspire more people to join the cause.

For the last two years, we’ve been sponsored by the freedom fighters at the Sam Adams Alliance. The Alliance trains and links allies in the freedom movement. They’ve helped bloggers and activists throughout the country, emphasizing new online media.

I owe the folks at Team Sam a deep debt of gratitude. But change is good, too, and for 2009 this program is moving to a new sponsor, the Citizens in Charge Foundation.

I’m the president of the Citizens in Charge Foundation. We work to educate the public on the importance of voter initiative and referendum, and we defend the petition rights of citizens in the courts.

I’ll continue to speak out on the need for reform, for citizens to be empowered and politicians held accountable. I hope you’ll keep listening. In the end, what we think, what we decide, and what we do will make all the difference.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Common Sense general freedom national politics & policies too much government

Santa Speaks Out

Oh, sure, he’s a jolly old elf most of the time. But just ask Mrs. Claus: He’s got a temper.

Not long ago, I compared Congress to Santa Claus, because both hand out lots of goodies. Well, Santa was not amused.

“How in the name of the North Pole can you compare me with the politicians in Congress?” he wanted to know. “My elves and I produce our presents ourselves and we make a list so they go to the nice people. The Congress takes from others and often gives the loot to folks who are naughty.”

He’s got a point. And who wants to argue with Santa this time of year? Then there was the flap in Kensington, Maryland, where the long tradition of Santa lighting the town tree was ended after complaints from families who don’t celebrate Christmas.

Santa called and I was ready for an earful. But Santa wasn’t mad at the families who complained or the town officials. “Christmas is my holiday,” Santa said calmly, “and I’ll not let anyone turn it into something that’s forced on people. That’s not my style. I don’t want anyone forced to pay taxes against their will to celebrate Christmas. And that’s what’s been going on in this little town.

“I don’t need any government mandates; after all, hundreds of people in Santa suits brought their own holiday cheer to the Kensington tree lighting. The spirit of Christmas is something you give, not something you take. Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!”

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Common Sense free trade & free markets

Why Plant Crops?

With the financial crisis and bailout bill, our energy problems have been pushed off the front page. But they’re not gone. We still need energy to run our cars, homes, businesses, you name it.

So, I wanted to address a goofy argument that has been made a lot about drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, way up north in Alaska. Some say that we shouldn’t drill because it won’t do anything at all to help lower the price of gas now.

We’re continually told that it will take seven to ten years for the oil found there to be pumped out, processed and pumped into our cars as gasoline.

Not shocking. It’s true. Most things do take some length of time to fully accomplish.

Say you order an appliance. It’s days before delivery. Have an idea for a book? It takes time to write, edit, and publish it. You’ll have to wait to get your first copy.

You know, the price of food is up, too, in part because of America’s stupid ethanol policy, which we’ve talked about before. Apply the logic of anti-​drilling advocates and we won’t plant crops anymore because, after all, no food pops into existence ex nihilo, instantaneously. It takes months before harvest. Even longer for the food to trundle off to market.

So, why plant? Why drill? Why buy that book, knowing that you can’t read it until you get home?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Common Sense

Big Brother vs. Burger and Fries

Restaurants in some towns are now being forced to stop using trans fats. According to the latest biochemistry, trans fats are bad for you.

No doubt. Many foodstuffs are bad for you, can even kill you, at least in the long run. Maybe — if you eat too much of them, exercise too little, and don’t get flattened by a Mack truck before your vessels clog.

But what business is it of anyone in government what risks I take to enjoy my candy bar? And if it’s kosher to ban restaurants from using trans fats, what’s next, outlawing sugar, grease, and fast food?

Outlawing fast food? McDonald’s will always be with us.

Except in South Los Angeles, where a town council has just passed a year-​long moratorium on new fast-​food restaurants.

And so yesterday’s argument from absurdity becomes today’s compromise and tomorrow’s legislation. South LA is not facing an outright ban on fast food. But what the  nutritional tyrants are doing there comes close. And nudges us closer to the outright prohibition they would prefer. They just don’t want individuals to make their own choices about what food to eat or restaurants to patronize.

What’s next, a moratorium on … well, let’s not give these guys any more ideas, even absurd ones. What we can conceive as idiotic they can spiff up as policy. And somehow not laugh.

But then, I’m not laughing now, either.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.