It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, and another to put him in possession of the truth.
John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book IV, Ch. 7, sec. 11, 1689.
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John Locke
“One thing that we’ve done,” Dennis McBride of Support our Schools-Wauwatosa told a crowd at a free event hosted by the non-profit Wisconsin Public Education Network, “is we’ve made sure every time one of our legislators pops up his or her head above the foxhole, we’re there to shoot at them.”
The crowd laughed, reports the watchdog John K. MacIver Institute, which ran the story under the headline, “Panelist Jokes About Shooting Legislators at Public Education Summit.”
No worries, though: it was just a metaphor.
The genuinely kooky thoughts were less figurative.
One speaker encouraged the audience never to say the two words, “Scott Walker,” for fear of giving “the Wisconsin governor” higher name-recognition.
“Some of the first voucher supporters,” asserted Jonas Persson of the Center for Media and Democracy, “outside of this kind of new right core group of ideologues and wealthy entrepreneurs, were white supremacists. . . .”
Incredibly, he insisted that this movement “drew most of its support from, quote, ‘white flight areas*.’”
Somehow, no one mentioned voucher program successes, or the grassroots support for vouchers in African-American communities.
“The ultimate goal is about breaking down public schools and to be honest with you,” said Jennifer Epps-Addison of Wisconsin Jobs Now/Schools and Communities United, “it’s about profiting off of the education of our kids.”
Heavens! Making a profit by serving parents and children “consuming” education? Unthinkable.
Meanwhile, Epps-Addison pushed the “Wisconsin Freedom Compact,” which calls for doubling the tax dollars going to public education.
Will she guarantee that no one will profit from that?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
*Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article contained the term “white flight Aryans” in Jonas Persson’s quote. After review of notes and audio recordings, the phrase has been corrected to read “white flight areas.” The context and overall significance of Persson’s statements are not changed, but the quote is updated for accuracy.
When does the same old song-and-dance, performed by yet another self-selected committee of the political elite, become “a unique process” that “Nobody’s ever done . . .”?
When the much-liberal Denver Post reports the “much-respected” Daniel Ritchie saying so.
Every election cycle for a decade, it seems, a cabal of big-spending politicians and big-receiving special interests form a “prominent” and “bipartisan” group to propose making citizen initiatives more difficult, weakening term limits, and circumventing the state’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights (or TABOR, which limits spending and requires voter approval for tax increases).
This cycle’s iteration is “Building a Better Colorado,” now being formed for a September launch by Ritchie, the former Denver University chancellor.
Sunday’s Post provided the group of “prominent civic and business leaders [not to mention politicians]” ample coverage: “The project — developed behind the scenes for months and detailed in exclusive interviews and documents obtained by The Denver Post — is perhaps the most concerted effort in recent memory to address what organizers see as inherent conflicts in how the state is governed.”
Conflicts?
“Those conflicts, they say, are impeding Colorado’s ability to build new roads, put more money in classrooms, engage an increasingly disenchanted electorate and prepare for the future.”
“I’ve seen this game played too often in Colorado,” remarked the Independence Institute’s Jon Caldara. “It’s like a Kumbaya committee. We are going to get all these people who are marginally diverse and at the end of this long process . . . the conclusion is to raise taxes.”
While the “new” group isn’t “advocating any specific policy outcome” and plans to engage the public at town hall meetings, the meetings’ agenda has been pre-set . . . by “experts.”
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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John Locke
“He that uses his words loosely and unsteadily will either not be minded or not understood.”
John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book III, Ch. 10, sec. 31, 1689
The over-riding reason to end the War on Drugs is to re-establish the rule of law in this country.
From Nixon and Reagan to the present time, America has vastly increased the population of prison inmates, many of them for drug offenses. The “land of the free” shouldn’t boast a larger population (per capita and total) of unfree persons than any other nation on the planet.
Further, in the mania to apprehend contraband drug users, producers, and traffickers, we’ve pretty much lost Bill of Rights protections on our lives and our property.
We’ve armed nearly every conceivable division of government against us, turning local, state and federal police “services” into police state apparatuses that hound and steal from portions of our population — which turns them from citizens into fearful, resentful, servile subjects. Meanwhile, the use of civil asset forfeiture and other policing for profit schemes corrupt our police forces in a serious and fundamental and “King Georgish” way.
Sam and John Adams, Toms Jefferson and Paine — they’d all be aghast at what we have become.
But what of the growing tide to legalize/decriminalize marijuana? Reading a report by Steven Greenhut in Reason, it becomes apparent that not every step moves us towards a rule of law. Some steps in “regulating and taxing” cannabis may be more about using crony capitalism to choose winners and losers.
Let’s use some common sense from lessons learned with alcohol — er, with regulating alcohol, that is. Keep marijuana away from the kids and keep the over-regulation of marijuana away from adults.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
The final leg of the persecution/prosecution of Dr. Annette Bosworth is coming up quickly. The state medical advisory board has spoken.
And it is of a piece with the rest of the prosecution: the state insiders are arrayed against her.
Click on over to Townhall, then come back here for more background.
- “SDBMOE Hearing Examiners Findings”: Aug. 20, 2015
- South Dakota State Medical Board Punishing Dr. Annette Bosworth for Having Opinion on Licensure Policy,” CNN iReport
- “That Evil Annette Bosworth,” Right Side Blog
- “Indiana Dem official sentenced to prison for ’08 ballot fraud in Obama-Clinton Primary,” Fox News
- “Report on the Prosecution of Dr. Annette Bosworth,” Citizens in Charge Foundation
- “An Egyptian Crackdown in South Dakota,” Paul Jacob, Townhall.com: January 11, 2015
- “Minor Infraction, Felony Prosecution,” Paul Jacob, Townhall.com: May 10, 2015
- “No Part Justice,” Paul Jacob, Townhall.com: June 2, 2015
- “Bosworth Sentenced,” Paul Jacob, Common Sense: July 8, 2015
- “First, Do No Harm,” Paul Jacob, Townhall.com: July 31, 2015
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Video: A Traffic Stop Gone Horribly Wrong
While the young man who was stopped by the police officer in this video was obviously foolish in several ways, he wasn’t evil, or even acting “against the peace.” The officer, on the other hand, lied from the beginning, and eventually shot the young man. See what you think:
https://youtu.be/L6nvc8CcQb8
The more laws and order are made prominent,
The more thieves and robbers there will be.
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
Most modern welfare states have a huge problem: their politicians promise more than government revenue covers. So they borrow and borrow until they can borrow no more.
And then they go down. Like Greece has gone down. Banks are closed there, and the people suffer.
The problem is over-spending and over-promising (the latter being merely committing to future over-spending, so let’s just call it all over-spending). But when you confront a partisan of such extravagance — whether that person be a politician or a constituency beneficiary or an ideological socialist or social democrat — the most common defense is: THEY WOULDN’T LET US TAX ENOUGH.
The “they” in such defenses could be an opposition party, or a constituency, or . . . “the evil rich.”
But anyone with something other than a lump of coal for a brain knows the real truth: responsible people don’t make such defenses. If a political difficulty gets in the way of the extra revenue needed for something promised, it’s practically the same as an economic difficulty, so the excuse falls apart.
Say again?
If you cannot get enough revenue for your favorite program, it doesn’t matter whether the people who are the source of your “needed” revenue are broke — have nothing to give — or they simply balk at giving. The point is, you don’t have the revenue. The responsible reaction would be: cut back on spending.
Responsible people budget; irresponsible people blame others for not having the wherewithal to spend and spend and spend.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Dante Alighieri
“Therefore the sight that is granted to your world penetrates within the Eternal Justice as the eye into the sea; for though from the shore it sees the bottom, in the open sea it does not, and yet the bottom is there but the depth conceals it.”
Però ne la giustizia sempiterna
la vista che riceve il vostro mondo,
com’ occhio per lo mare, entro s’interna;
che, ben che da la proda veggia il fondo,
in pelago nol vede; e nondimeno
èli, ma cela lui l’esser profondo.
Dante Alighieri, Paradiso, Canto XIX, lines 58-63.