On November 15, 1777, the Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation — after 16 months of deliberation.
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Our Confederation
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Thomas Jefferson
“As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this gives a moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body, and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks. Never think of taking a book with you.”
Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to his nephew Peter Carr (August 19, 1785)
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Video: From Casablanca
A moment in the fight against murderous tyranny and the forces of inhumane ideology:
On November 14, 1918, Czechoslovakia became a republic. Born on the same date in 1947, American writer P. J. O’Rourke.
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Thomas Jefferson
A DECALOGUE OF CANONS FOR OBSERVATION IN PRACTICAL LIFE
Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.
Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
Never spend your money before you have it.
Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you.
Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.
We never repent of having eaten too little.
Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.
Take things always by their smooth handle.
When angry, count ten, before you speak; if very angry, a hundred.
Thomas Jefferson, in Henry S. Randall, The Life of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 3 (1858)
Arkansas State Sen. Jon Woods’s reign of trickery is ending. As reported Monday, he has chosen not to seek another term in the legislature.
It’s ironic. Woods defrauded Arkansas voters with a deceptively worded 2014 ballot measure. His successful scam weakening term limits allows him to stay in the Senate for 16 years, instead of just eight. But now, angry voters won’t allow Woods another term.
At least, that sure appears to be the case.
If voters in next year’s March primary could possibly be as uninformed about Woods’s record as they were about last November’s Issue 3, he would have gotten away with it. But Woods has made enemies: term limits supporters and Conduit for Action, a group sharply critical of him for gutting the Arkansas Ethics Commission, to identify two. He not unreasonably fears they would communicate with his constituents.
In effect, “tell on him.”
Fool the voters once, shame on Woods. Fool the voters twice . . . well . . . ’tain’t going to happen. That’s not to say the sly schemer didn’t have another unethical, underhanded, anti-democratic trick up his sleeve. Of course he did.
“I’ve had serious conversations with my family about leaving . . . since April,” Woods told reporters. Yet, the incumbent didn’t bother to announce publicly that he was vacating the seat until the November weekend before a Monday filing deadline.
Seeking to pick his replacement, Woods informed insiders of his intentions, while leaving the rest of his district in the dark until it was too late.
Luckily, Justice of the Peace Sharon Lloyd, had already stepped up to challenge Woods — and his insider political games.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
P.S. Circumventing meaningful elections to provide a leg-up to a crony by waiting until the last moment to announce a retirement, as Sen. Woods did, happens far too often. It’s another good argument for term limits.
November 13 is World Kindness Day, which has been celebrated in various countries since 1998. It is not an official celebratory day of the U.S.A., or of the United Nations. But individuals are free to be kind this day . . . or any day, for that matter.
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Jonathan Kozol
“Instead of seeing these children for the blessings that they are, we are measuring them only by the standard of whether they will be future deficits or assets for our nation’s competitive needs.”
Jonathan Kozol
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Trick-or-Merry Christmas?
So I’m sitting in Starbucks for a few hours, waiting for my youngest to emerge from a concert. I like Starbucks. Good coffee — at least “good enough,” though pricey. Good wireless Internet — at least good enough . . . and for free.
But, ’tis the season — the “Christmas Season,” if a tad early. And “the war against Christmas” season, too.
The brouhaha about the new seasonal red Starbucks cups has “gone viral,” but I’m pretty sure there’s more haha than brew here. We so feed off of taking offense, and (by extension) ridiculing others who have taken, or given, offense, that the current cultural tempest in a chai tea cup is more meta than earnest.
In case you haven’t seen it, a putative Christian man, vertically misusing his smart phone camera, records how he got around Starbucks’s alleged “anti-Christmas” policy, not by boycotting the coffee but by offering his name as “Merry Christmas,” thus forcing Starbucks employees to write the words on his red cup and say the allegedly prohibited greeting (one Starbucks website promises a future “Christmas blend”).
Funny? Sort of.
He misfired early, though.
Starbucks has never sported the words “Merry Christmas” on its seasonal cup, and this year’s design is minimal and elegant, red with the company’s green logo. Hardly worth a complaint, in my view, and I haven’t met anyone who thinks the cup is worth getting all riled up about.
As for “forcing” baristas to say the words, well, just how Christmas-y is that? Plus, it’s not Christmas yet. It is not even Thanksgiving.
Happy mid-November. This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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H. L. Mencken
“The final test of truth is ridicule. Very few dogmas have ever faced it and survived.”
H. L. Mencken, Damn! A Book of Calumny (1918)