[I]f two countries are placed under unequal conditions of production, it is that one of the two that is least favored by nature that has most to gain by free trade.
Frédéric Bastiat, from Economic Sophisms, “To Equalize the Conditions of Production.”
My musing, yesterday, about Hillary Clinton’s hat throw into the presidential ring failed to recognize that yesterday was also my mother’s 81st birthday.
Jane Jacob is not yet an announced presidential candidate, but when I think of a hard-working, organized, smart and always-optimistic woman — someone who keeps promises and looks out for the other person; someone with commitment to principle — I think of her.
Not Hillary Clinton.
Maybe Mrs. Clinton would have put in the hours playing catch with me as a tyke. But can Hillary even catch? My mom can. And throw too. (Not like a — well, incorrectly, either gender.)
My mom has a soft heart. I remember coming home from school and seeing her crying from watching a soap opera.
Nonetheless, she can dish out tough love. During a family clean-up effort (like a Bataan death march, but in English) she asked if one of us six kids could do something or other. I stepped forward to say, “I’ll try.”
Mom looked at me plainly and explained, “I need someone to do it, not just try.”
She is still full of fun and passion. Her deep love and concern for America’s freedom has certainly had an enormous impact on my life.
Too bad my mom’s not running.
Hillary Clinton has demonstrated none of the presidential timber my mom has, and yet Clinton is very likely to enjoy a large electoral advantage among women voters. So, here’s my idea: the Democratic Party’s competition should each nominate a woman for the top of the ticket. There are plenty of women qualified to serve as president. Not just my mom.
May the best woman win.
Have I started a stampede to office supply stores to buy binders?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
“The state can put its taxes to either a good or a bad use. It puts them to a good use when it performs services for the public equivalent to the value it receives from the public. It puts them to a bad use when it squanders its revenues without giving the public anything in return.”
Frédéric Bastiat, from Economic Sophisms (included in the Laissez Faire Books ebook edition, What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen, 2014)
Hillary Clinton announced, yesterday, that she wants to be the next president of these United States. She made it official via an Internet video, which starts off with all kinds of normal, regular folks expressing their hopes and plans for 2015.
The small boy singing about “little tiny fishes” steals the show.
After a minute and a half of innocence-by-association, Hillary Clinton comes on to say that she, too, has big plans: “I’m running for president.”
Mrs. Clinton continues: “Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times, but the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top.”
She should know, what with her family’s struggles after leaving the White House in 2000 — multiple mortgages on multiple multi-million-dollar domiciles. I’m sure we all relate to that.
“Everyday Americans need a champion and I want to be that champion,” she states, “so you can do more than just get by, you can get ahead and stay ahead.”
Apparently, without Hillary at the helm of our Leviathan federal government, all we can do is “just get by.” Barely. Never “get ahead” and “stay ahead.”
“Because when families are strong,” intones Clinton, “America is strong.”
Yes, the woman who wrote It Takes a Village now extols family strength.
“So I’m hitting the road to earn your vote,” she pledges. “Because it’s your time.”
Or so says this Everywoman, a former first lady, U. S. Senator, presidential candidate, Secretary of State, and savvy cattle futures trader.
Hillary Clinton has had a long career in government. It will be interesting to see what she runs on — what she identifies as accomplishments — as opposed to what she runs away from.
Or deletes.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
On April 13, 1743, Thomas Jefferson was born. Author of “Notes on the State of Virginia” and the first draft of the United States’ Declaration of Independence, Jefferson was also a scientist, philosopher, inventor, diplomat, and American politician who served as third President of the United States.
To maintain that human labor will ever come to want employment, would be to maintain that the human race will cease to encounter obstacles. In that case labor would not only be impossible; it would be superfluous.
Frédéric Bastiat, first essay, Economic Sophisms (included in the Laissez Faire Books ebook edition, What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen, 2014)
How best to describe a whopping campaign fundraising effort? How about not assume that big is bad, or that it is the voters who are being shortchanged? We know who really loses when candidates collect surprisingly huge donations.
This weekend, I point fingers at the real losers. Click on over to Townhall, then back here, for an eye-popping amount of further reading:
On April 12, 1914, American economist Armen Alchian was born. His contributions to economic theory and teaching were many, but is perhaps best known for his work on property rights.
Alchian died in 2014, in late February, at age 99.
A ceremonial bust of Ed Snowden was erected in Brooklyn, New York, by dissident artists. The reason? To honor the whistleblower who revealed an expansive, expensive data accumulation system carried on by the NSA against the American people — one that seemed not allowed by law, and previously denied by the government.
The sculpture, described in the press as illegal (mirroring how the artists have been designated as “guerrilla”) was expertly made as a mock-bronze bust. It was taken down later in the day by city workers. Hours later, a hologram of Snowden appeared on the same war memorial.
Click here to get two 11″x17″ high-resolution printable Edward Snowden posters.
On April 11, 1945, the American Third Army liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp, near Weimar, Germany, a camp that would later be judged second only to Auschwitz in the horrors it imposed on its prisoners. Among those in the camp saved by the American soldiers was Elie Wiesel, who would go on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.
Shown in photograph: German citizens ushered to the camp by American soldiers, post-conquest.