“Charm is a way of getting the answer yes without asking a clear question.”
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Albert Camus
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A Freedom for the Nobles
On January 11, 1571, the freedom of religion was granted to Austrian nobility.
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Townhall: Stupid or . . . Worse?
It’s the corruption, stupid — not the stupidity. This weekend at Townhall, what is our biggest problem? Click on over, then come back here:
- Gallup: Government Named Top U.S. Problem for Second Straight Year
- Washington Post: Solyndra Scandal
- Common Sense: Stop Phony Crony Pay Grab
- CS Meme: Arkansas Pay Raise
- Ballotpedia: Alabama Legislative Compensation Amendment (2012)
- The Blaze: ‘Clinton Is in a League of Her Own’: Watchdog Group Names Most Ethically Challenged Politicians of 2015
- Common Sense: Democrats’ Own Private Government
- NBC News: Defense Secretary Ash Carter Used Personal Email for Pentagon Work
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Tom Paine’s Pamphlet
On January 10, 1776, Thomas Paine published Common Sense.
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Albert Camus
“A pestilence isn’t a thing made to man’s measure; therefore we tell ourselves that pestilence is a mere bogy of the mind, a bad dream that will pass away. But it doesn’t always pass away and, from one bad dream to another, it is men who pass away, and the humanists first of all, because they haven’t taken their precautions.”
Albert Camus, The Plague (1947).
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Video: Speaking to Us Across Time
Ancient Greek sculpture, when it got realistic and quite individual:
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Fifth to Ratify
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.
The King Canute Memorial Award for Clueless Legislation (Winter 2015-16) goes to Senator Bernie Sanders. He had stiff competition from ocean-lowering President Barack Obama, this season, but surely earned it these past few months.
Canute famously warned his advisors that he was no miracle worker. Standing by the sea and commanding the tide to turn only works on a regular schedule — set by natural forces, knowable in advance only after years of careful observation. All the hand-waving, incantations and official edicts cannot change the tide.
The award goes to those most in need of the Full Canute Object Lesson. Sanders’s latest ninnyism begs for just such a lesson: He wants to establish maximum fees for ATMs, down to $2 per transaction.
As everyone knows, some ATMs charge more than others. Why? It is not costless to provide electronic bank inquiries and withdrawals around the country . . . and the world. And profitability varies.
Supply and demand. Entrepreneurs do not offer these services out of charity. Close off profits in some areas, there will be corresponding effects.
From my experience, transaction fees range from about five bucks down to . . . Zero.
I usually pay nothing.
Outlawing fees above some arbitrary maximum will almost certainly ensure there will be fewer ATMs — particularly in low-use areas — and might even raise those zero-priced transactions to one- or two-buck fees.
Prices aren’t arbitrary, so no matter how loudly Bernie Sanders sputters “Unacceptable,” price ceilings aren’t magically going to produce the same service at less cost.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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State of the Union
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.
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Henry Ford
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”