Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest.
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Townhall: Let’s Repeal Freedom of Speech?
No one likes shackles. Especially certain members of Congress (all Democrats) who yearn to be free . . . of constitutional constraints.
Click on over to Townhall.com, for the latest attempt to increase the power of insiders at the expense of America’s democratic-republican heritage.
Then come back here for more reading, if you like.
- Senate Joint Resolution 19 – Text
- List of SJR 19’s Co-Sponsors
- LearnLiberty.org: Is Money Speech?
- LearnLiberty.org: This Prof. Will Challenge Your Perspective on Free Speech
- Breitbart.com: Harry Reid: Vote to Amend US Constitution to Limit Political Speech
- Washington Examiner: Professor warns of ‘alarming implications’ of joint resolution targeting political contributions
- Democratic Underground: SJR 19: The Most Important Phone Call You’ll Make
- Daily Kos: Schumer commits to vote on constitutional amendment on campaign finance
- Washington Examiner: David Freddoso, America can’t regulate its way to clean campaigns
- Common Sense with Paul Jacob: Abridge Too Far
An interesting discussion:
The video begins with a classy reminder. What was the motto on America’s first coin?
When I write about “government corruption” I usually mean one of three things:
- Government personnel breaking their public trust and “working for themselves,” as in taking kick-backs and the like. You know, like Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.) taking $2.3 million in bribes, and Hillary Clinton’s cattle future trades of a generation ago. This is what most people mean by corruption.
- Judgment and behavior modified by the practice of or access to power. In recent times, police have been engaging in SWAT team exercises, shooting innocents “by accident,” dogs on purpose — heart-rending examples of Lord Acton’s “power corrupts” maxim.
- Ideological corruption, whereby folks change their ideas — including abandoning principles — to fit into their new “class interest.” A balanced-budget talking, pro-term-limits politician enters office and Lo, a few years later, all he’s “learned” would be a shame to waste outside of office and every spending proposal deserves his vote.
But then there’s crazy stuff.
Environmental Protection Agency “Management for Region 8 in Denver, Colo., wrote an email earlier this year to all staff in the area pleading with them to stop inappropriate bathroom behavior, including defecating in the hallway.”
That’s according to Government Executive’s article “EPA Employees Told to Stop Pooping in the Hallway.”
Seriously.
Brian Doherty, at Reason, quipped that environmental bureaucrats “are just like us! If we like to leave feces around the hallways of our offices, that is.”
It’s a disgusting whiff of . . . something very rotten in the halls of government.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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George Washington
I have no lust after power but wish with as much fervency as any Man upon this wide extended Continent, for an opportunity of turning the Sword into a plow share.
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Bong Hits, Car Misses
Two social developments are about to collide — for our good?
First up, the relaxing of the Drug War approach, at least against marijuana use.
The Drug War didn’t work. Increased drug use, even in prisons, suggests there was something fundamentally wrong with the strategy.
With medical marijuana legalized in 19 states, and near-complete decriminalization in Washington and Colorado, we will see what happens when the black market is cut out of the social picture. Will people become less responsible? More? Will there be little change?
The worst thing about drug use is incitement to violence; the second worst thing is decreasing personal responsibility, perhaps especially relating to automobile usage. Marijuana’s violence-promotion seems completely a factor of the black market. But, like alcohol mis-use, marijuana imbibing can impair motor functions, and lead to traffic accidents, even fatal ones. That’s quite bad.
How to control this?
Well, Washington State’s decriminalization law, I-502, had built in a THC indicator for inebriation: the “five nanogram rule.” Alas, evidence suggests it’s, well, the wrong number. Too extreme, too picky, too low, as Jacob Sullum reports at Reason.
Obviously, how to incentivize good driving and responsible drug use, and dis-incentivize reckless driving and drug abuse, will continue to be a problem.
Still, a second social development may provide a long-term alleviation of the problem: driverless cars. The successes of the Google self-driving prototypes, and the legal preparation for this, may soon provide a real and safe alternative to inebriates driving around helter skelter.
Progress comes in unexpected ways.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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George Washington
My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.
The IRS has a “Love Story” relationship with citizens. Being the IRS means never having to say you’re sorry.
Actually, in real life, as opposed to cinematic catch phrases, people who care about each other do often feel a need to genuinely apologize about actual wrongs. But the IRS doesn’t care about us except insofar as we have wallets. And doesn’t feel sorry about anything they do to get our cash or to protect their turf except insofar as they get caught.
Getting caught isn’t so bad. The worst is a little public embarrassment and maybe having to fork over some of the money provided by all taxpayers to a subset of all taxpayers. Example: the agency has agreed to pay $50,000 in damages to the National Organization for Marriage, whose tax return and donor list the IRS illegally divulged to an opposing political group two years ago.
The guilty IRS employee has still not been identified. And the IRS is not really regretful. All spokesman Bruce Friedland will say is that privacy law “prohibits us from commenting.”
This isn’t the only recent occasion on which IRS has divulged private tax-return info for ideological purposes. What about an employee’s abuse of the private tax information of U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell during a political campaign? What about Lois Lerner’s illegal provision of tax data on tax-exempt organizations to the FBI?
Yes, the IRS targets us ideologically, in addition to the other ways they target us. And they’re not sorry.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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George Washington
A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends.
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George Washington
The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations And Religions; whom we shall wellcome to a participation of all our rights and previleges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment.