And, to speak in general, we can produce no example wherein our fathers got any success by war, or failed of success when without war they committed themselves to God.
Flavius Josephus (A.D. 37–100), De Bello Judaico (The War of the Jews), Book 5, Chapter 9.
The Oregon Treaty, signed June 15, 1846, established the boundary between Great Britain’s Canadian territory and the United States of America, from the Rocky Mountains to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, using the 49th Parallel as the handy marker. However, the treaty was not exactly clear on the territorial status of the San Juan Islands, so exactly 13 years later, to the day, a war erupted . . . over a shot pig.
An American farmer shot a pig rooting through his garden. The pig belonged to an Irishman. The two did not agree upon compensation, so “the authorities” were called in, with infantry mustering from the south and the Governor of Vancouver Island instructing marines to land on San Juan Island — though the rear admiral in charge refused to comply with the order, on the reasonable grounds that war over a pig was not worth it. Local troops from both sides lined up against each other, each commanded to defend themselves only, not shoot first. All that resulted? Insults. It turned out to be a bloodless war, discounting the pig, so it might qualify as the best war in American history.
Yesterday, Paul Jacob implied that Senator Rand Paul and Representative Tom Massie, both of Kentucky, could have observed the turning of the federal debt to from thirty-six point-something trillion to $37 trillion at the White House picnic. Considering that the picnic is already over, and the debt, as calculated by USDebtClock.org, still lingers under $36.98 trillion, that was obviously not possible. Of course, with such ritual observances, exact markers of the exact moment are hardly required.
But it does call attention to a mildly interesting question: when?
A quick consultation with the artificial intelligence called Grok3, supplied by X, suggests that the $37 trillion mark will be reached around June 19th, with June 15th or 16th well within the realm of possibility. But Grok also adds some caveats as well as this piece of useful information:
The Congressional Budget Office and other sources estimate the federal debt will reach $37.1 trillion by the end of fiscal year 2025 (September 30, 2025). However, real-time data from USDebtClock.org and posts on X indicate the debt is growing faster than some projections, with some analysts predicting $37 trillion well before the fiscal year-end. A Joint Economic Committee report specifically projects $37 trillion by approximately October 31, 2025, based on a three-year average daily growth rate, but current trends suggest it could happen sooner.
Grok3, consulted June 13, 2025.
A fact to bring up at this summer’s family picnic, no? Be the life of the party. We dare you.
In three moments a laborer will remove an obstructing rock, but three moons will pass without two wise men agreeing on the meaning of a single vowel.
Ernest Bramah, in “The Story of Wong Pao and the Minstrel,” Kai Lung’s Golden Hours (1922).
On June 14, 1777, U.S. Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as the United States Flag.
The federal government’s official debt rushed to the $37 trillion mark — but Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) took a few moments to shake his head over how he and his grandson were singled out by not being invited to the White House picnic.
“I just find it so incredibly petty,” Senator Paul said. “It’s really kind of sad that this is where we are.”
Politics is a petty business, too often, and this sure looked like one of those moments to upgrade the word with a capital P. Or with a T, for You-Know-Who.
Oddly, though, often it was the senator who was besmirched with the P word, not the prez!
“His complaint has sparked bipartisan mockery online,” explains Newsweek. “Vince Langman, a self-described member of the MAGA movement, told his 381,000 followers on X, formerly Twitter: ‘Rand Paul crying like a school girl because President Trump uninvited him from the White House picnic is the funniest thing I’ve seen on X in weeks.’”
I don’t know. Is it funnier than the Deep State admitting that it had been faking and fanning the flames of the UFO craze all along?
Or blaming Senator Paul for noticing and not the White House for the actual snub?!?
The attack on Paul is dumb: the Kentucky senator has always been an equal opportunity critic.
Thankfully, Rand Paul and his grandson — and, presumably, Rep. Thomas Massie, another Big Beautiful Bill critic — are back on the picnic list.
Maybe they can hold a moment in silence, amidst the fun, as the debt hits $37 trillion.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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The young have less charity for aged follies than the old for those of youth.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Wedding Knell” (1837) from Twice Told Tales (1837, 1851).
On June 13, 1774, Rhode Island became the first British colony in the Americas to prohibit the importation of slaves.
She’s referring to Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy’s “retiring” of the entire 17-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
You know, the group that did such a bang-up job for the Centers for Disease Control during the pandemic.
“After the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves vaccines based on whether the benefits of the shot outweigh the risks,” the BBC explains, “ACIP recommends which groups should be given the shots and when, which also determines insurance coverage of the shots.”
A lot of money rides on what this board determines, you see.
Which is a big element of Kennedy’s complaint against the whole of the Big Pharma/Big Government complex. “The committee has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine,” he wrote in the Wall Street Journal prior to what he calls a “clean sweep.” “Most of ACIP’s members have received substantial funding from pharmaceutical companies, including those marketing vaccines.”
Various newspaper reports quote a lot of experts expressing their shock and worry, but — in the articles, mind you — avoid Kennedy’s key points.
After the corruption of “science” by Big Government during the pandemic, sweeping out the old board gets an enthusiastic thumbs up.
Let’s hold the new board members fully accountable; perhaps they could break with tradition by not holding any meetings in secret.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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It is the magician’s bargain: give up our soul, get power in return. But once our souls, that is, ourselves, have been given up, the power thus conferred will not belong to us. We shall in fact be the slaves and puppets of that to which we have given our souls.
C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (1943).