A satellite link-up allows Edward Snowden to appear before a New Zealand conference. And receive a standing ovation. And deliver a message.
http://youtu.be/PWAZ8fr4MUE
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Nov 15 Articles of Confederation
On November 15, 1777, the Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation — after 16 months of deliberation.
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Will Brits Outlaw Speech?
Actually, the proposal is not to outlaw speech. Just some speech.
Which? “Extreme.”
That is, speech that conveys ideas too fundamentally orthogonal to authorized ideas, or that too brusquely nettles sanctioned sensibilities.
Who’s the censor? Some minor shire functionary? No, it is Theresa May, Home Secretary, who is proposing the “extremism disruption orders.”
Ms. May complains that at present, British officials “will only go after you if you are an extremist that directly supports violence.” (It’s not a bug, it’s a feature, Madam Home Secretary.) Under her plan, if you’re an “extremist” served with an EDO (Extremist Disruption Order), you must obtain an official go-ahead, in advance, for anything you wish to publish in any public forum.
Would pen names also be banned? Then what?
Even the most strenuous society-wide efforts to regulate speech don’t stop people from speaking. They still shop, give directions, exhort children, argue about soccer. The most severely repressive regimes permit plenty of public communication along approved channels on approved topics. People learn what not to say or think to skip a trip to the gulag for re-education. But the freedom to say anything you want if only the censors let you means that you have no government-respected right to say anything.
The British proposal may go nowhere. Like comparable assaults on either side of the Atlantic, if enacted it may be only partially or briefly effective. But all such efforts are baleful in their immediate consequences.
And they pave the way to worse.
As illustrated by May’s gall in advancing her “anti-extremist” program.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Photo courtesy of Stephen Mcleod, under Creative Commons License; altered.
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P. J. O’Rourke
When a government controls both the economic power of individuals and the coercive power of the state … This violates a fundamental rule of happy living: Never let the people with all the money and the people with all the guns be the same people.
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nov 14 czech
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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World Kindness day, November 13
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., nor of the United Nations. But individuals are free to be kind this day . . . or any day, for that matter.
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Keep Targeting the IRS
We’re still unraveling the IRS’s prolific crimes.
I mean, those pertaining to its ideological targeting of conservative applicants for non-profit status.
I’m satisfied that the various individuals and organizations suing the IRS or publishing commentaries on this still-unfolding scandal (Day 552 now) will keep on keepin’ on. I’m a little worried, though, about Congress.
Granting that congressional investigators have been reasonably if imperfectly diligent, my hope is that they’ll prove even tougher in the coming session.
Some chairman must step down soon because of the GOP’s term limits on committee chairs; these include Darrell Issa of the Oversight and Reform Committee. TaxProf Blog’s Paul Caron, scandal tracker par excellence, says Issa’s successor should be one who “has done as much as anyone to shine a light on IRS abuse of the President’s philosophical opponents, both in hearings and behind the scenes.”
The man he means is Representative Jim Jordan. Long before we ever heard of pivotal IRS malefactor Lois Lerner, Jordan had been “seeking answers from the IRS’s tax-exempt organizations chief on political targeting allegations.”
Indeed, Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer for victims of the IRS, believes that without Jordan there would have been no Treasury investigation to get the ball rolling “and no public admission that, indeed, conservative groups were being subjected to unprecedented scrutiny and mistreatment.” (Plus, see the congressman’s recent press release lamenting a dismissal of charges against the IRS.)
I’m convinced; let’s have Jordan. And let’s pursue this investigation to the bitter end.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Thomas Sowell
The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.
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Nov 12 Norway Austria republics
On November 12, 1905, Norwegians established, by referendum, a monarchy not a republic. Exactly 14 years later, to the day, Austria became a republic.
The contest? Uneven, in a sense. My side was outspent more than 17 to one.
But, in another sense, the odds were closer, maybe even on my side.
Well, our side.
That is, Liberty Initiative Fund, my 501(c)(4) outfit, was the largest contributor to a referendum campaign in Massachusetts.
In 2013, the legislature had passed a bill to turn a fuel tax of 24 cents per gallon into a more permanent rate structure, increasing the tax every year as the Consumer Price Index rose.
Citizens of “Taxachusetts” objected to the idea of automating tax hikes. Perhaps thinking about their wallets, they were hardly amused by their state government piling further taxes on whenever prices, including fuel prices, rose. It’s one thing to have to pay more when supplies get tight or demand bids up prices, making gasoline and diesel more expensive. But why pay extra to the government?
Automatically. Without a legislative vote on the record.
So citizens petitioned to have the law referred to a general vote. The measure became Question 1 on last week’s ballot.
It won with a 53 percent majority. The automatic tax hike was nixed.
So, who outspent us? Who wanted the permanent, automatic tax hike? The extra tax revenues, I wrote before the election, “are slated to go toward road construction and maintenance in the Bay State. And — surprise, surprise — the biggest opponents of Question 1 are construction companies doing business with the state.”
But, despite special interests dumping tons of money, citizens won.
The money spent by Liberty Initiative Fund was leveraged effectively. Because, on issues like this, siding with the people is no long shot.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.