Common Sense with Paul Jacob

Count to Ten

Yesterday I argued that the Ten Commandments can and should be promoted — privately. Promoting one’s religion is expected . . . outside of government. But do that as a government official and suddenly what most folks consider good common sense morality sows discord.

Why? Simple. Your religion is yours. But the government is ours. It’s supposed to be. But since we don’t all share the same religion, your monument on public property or public commemoration seems nothing more than you shoving yours at us.

With the Decalogue, it’s even trickier. The Ten Commandments aren’t numbered as such in either Exodus or Deuteronomy. Jews, Catholics, and various Protestant denominations differ on ordering them. What one group calls the Fifth Commandment another calls the Fourth. What most American Protestants call the Tenth Commandment is numbered as the Ninth and Tenth by Catholics. And so on.

So any enumerated Decalogue is not merely Judeo-Christian-centric, likely to make Buddhists, Hindus, Yazidis and Sikhs at the very least uncomfortable. It would necessarily be denominationally preferential.

I bet most Ten Commandment listings promoted by American politicians are not the ones Catholics have memorized, by order — or Jews, or even Lutherans and Episcopalians.

These differences usually appear quite small, of course, especially in light of the overwhelming similarities. Accordingly, any disagreements about the Ten Commandments remain friendly, and will likely stay that way — unless government chooses one version over another.

In politics, the doctrine of enumerated powers is divisive enough. Add in multiple, competing enumerations of the Ten Commandments? Too much to divide us.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Tags law, politics, religion

Thought

Mario Vargas Llosa

“Good literature erects bridges between different peoples, and by having us enjoy, suffer, or feel surprise, unites us beneath the languages, beliefs, habits, customs, and prejudices that separate us.”

Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel Lecture, 2010

general freedom ideological culture

Commanding Controversy

Is “Thou shalt create controversy” one of politicians’ Ten Commandments? Is “Thou shalt pass a law to solve every problem” their eleventh?

Meet Arkansas Senate Bill 939, which would authorize placing a monument to the Ten Commandments on capitol grounds. It passed the state senate last week, 27-3, and is headed to a similar slam-dunk in the House.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that, according to authors Sen. Jason Rapert (R-Bigelow) and Rep. Kim Hammer (R-Benton), the effort “should be seen as a way to honor the historic role the biblical text has had in U.S. and Arkansas history and not seen solely as religious.”

No public dollars are involved, say proponents — private money is to purchase the obelisk. Opponents, many testifying, counter that the upkeep will still tap taxpayer money.

Not to mention the certain and certainly expensive litigation over the constitutionality of the endeavor.

I’m not one to shy from a constitutional battle, having launched more than a few of my own. But, well, I think the Ten Commandments might best serve as more than a prop.

Let me offer an alternative that (a) could actually get real people to read the Ten Commandments, no doubt with varied but valuable educational result, and (b) won’t cost the State of Arkansas one thin dime in maintenance or legal fees.

Download a copy of the Ten Commandments here. Share with others.

Reading and talking about the Decalogue has to be far better than picking an expensive fight about it.

No law necessary.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Tags law, religion, religious freedom

Thought

Lord Acton

“It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the masses which, if it is called into play, the minority can seldom resist.”

Lord Acton, “The History of Freedom in Antiquity,” 1877.

links

Townhall: Let’s Not Be All Wet About Water

Post author By Redactor
Post date March 29, 2015
No Comments on Townhall: Let’s Not Be All Wet About Water

Sometimes you write something, and think of the next thing to say . . . but realize you cannot say it in the space allotted. Or that the next thought should be “saved for next time.” Or maybe you merely wonder “Will the reader think of that too?”

In expanding on Friday’s water discussion, for Townhall this weekend, I wondered, “Will the reader think of Fourier?”

Fourier famously said that, with socialism, the oceans would be filled with lemonade!

Which would lead to a scarcity of water. A constituent of lemonade, but more important and versatile than the famous tart sugary fruit drink.

Actually, socialism leads to far worse scarcities than a dystopia of lemon-spiked seas.

As we now know. Read the column at Townhall. Come back here and click the links to Friday’s water Common Sense. And look up online the work of PERC, and of economists like these:

Armen Alchian
Ronald Coase
Harold Demsetz
Richard Stroup

Thought

William Shakespeare

“Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.”

William Shakespearen, Julius Caesar (1599), Caesar, Act II, scene ii.

video

Video: The Elusive, Illusory “Third Way”

Post author By Redactor
Post date March 28, 2015
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A simple and powerful statement from John Stossel.

Thought

Lord Acton

“The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern. The law of liberty tends to abolish the reign of race over race, of faith over faith, of class over class.”

Lord Acton, Letter to Mary Gladstone (April 24, 1881).

folly general freedom too much government

All Wet

Post author By CS Admin
Post date March 27, 2015
8 Comments on All Wet

Which is worse, paying for stuff you use . . . or being constantly harassed for using it?

One consequence of widespread failure to charge market rates for water turns out to be hyper-regulation of hydro-usage, and the penalizing — even criminalizing — of using “too much” H2O.

To deal with drought, California now regards it as criminal to “waste” water. Don’t hose down that sidewalk! Las Vegas tries to save water by paying people to rip out their lawns. The EPA is developing technology to force hotels to monitor guests’ specific water usage.

In unhampered markets, sudden and big drops in supply tend to cause sudden and big rises in prices. People economize without being forced. If you must pay more for orange juice because of frozen crops, you either buy less juice or buy less of something else (if orange juice is your favorite thing). But the shelves don’t go bare.

The worse supply problems are, the higher the prices, the more customers economize, the more producers produce. So when there’s a local drought, what will a water company do (as opposed to an overweening water authority)? Charge more. Pipe in water from other states. Other solutions I can’t think of offhand . . . because I’m not running a water company. I lack the direct incentive that the possible profit from solving the problem provides.

Let people cooperate with each other. That is how they’ll solve their water problems — without governmental bullying.

The water will come like rain.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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