On Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to obey bus driver James F. Blake’s order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Categories
On Nov. 30, 1967, Democratic Senator Eugene J. McCarthy of Minnesota declared he would challenge Lyndon Johnson, the incumbent president of his own party, over the Vietnam War. McCarthy’s strong showing in the 1968 New Hampshire primary drove Johnson from the race.
On this date in 1835, writer Samuel Clemens, known as Mark Twain, was born. On this date in 1874, Winston Churchill was born.
Categories
Mark Twain
“Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”
Rob Walton is rich, $21 billion rich.
An email I received yesterday from the folks at Wal-Mart Watch (WMW) implores me to click to a website to vote for Mr. Walton as “the worst of the 1 percent . . . the person who is doing the most with their wealth to exploit the rest of the country.”
Could this be true?
“The Waltons inherited that wealth,” WMW says, “much of it was created by paying many workers at poverty-level wages, offering poor benefits, and lowering conditions in the supply chain by demanding ever-lower prices.”
Count me out.
Even Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, had the right to give his wealth to whomever he wished, especially his children. Besides, as chairman of Wal-Mart for 20 years now, Rob’s earned plenty on his own.
The email forgets to mention that Wal-Mart provides more to the poor through lower prices than the federal government provides through food stamps.
And hey, didn’t workers at Wal-Mart apply for — and freely accept — their jobs? How many “living-wage” jobs has WMW created?
The sentence in bold type signals the real gripe, I bet: Rob Walton has transgressed by supporting causes that “advance a right wing agenda.” The Walton Family Foundation (of which he’s a board member) has donated to the Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, school choice groups, and others.
Horrors! If Rob Walton is the worst of the 1 percent, the self-appointed vanguard of the 99 percent ought to occupy a mirror.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Categories
Frankly Speaking
Representative Barney Frank’s recently announced retirement is not exactly a shock. His sense of timing may be better than most of his incumbent colleagues. Perhaps he smells something repellent slouching towards Washington: a secondary bust, another kick in the economy’s collective pants.
Funny, his timing had been a little slow soon after the Crash of 2008, when he protested that it hadn’t been he who had been pushing cheap mortgages and a policy of lax mortgage standards — oh no! — or he who had just recently proclaimed Fannie and Freddie to be doing just fine, thank you.
The New York Times, dubbing him a “top liberal,” cited redistricting as the major spark for his decision. Then it went on to quote Rep. Frank as blaming Newt Gingrich and the “conservative news media” for uglying up the tone in Washington, calling the present ideological climate a “bitter divide.”
Of course, before the Internet and Fox News, a near-monolithic liberal slant dominated major media. Adding an offsetting bias might have made it tougher for Frank, but surely the new toughness reflects actual American opinion better than the previous left-leaning cultural hegemony ever did.
Frank amusingly claims he has, now, but “one ambition: to retire before it becomes essential to tweet.” I bet he tweets soon.
Summarizing the advantages of not running for re-election, he explained that he would no longer “have to try to pretend to be nice to people” he doesn’t like.
No more Mr. Nice Guy? No more Mr. Clean?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Categories
Joe Sobran
“The U.S. Constitution poses no serious threat to our form of government.”
On Nov. 29, 1775, in the hope of winning aid for the American war effort, the Second Continental Congress established a Committee of Secret Correspondence to provide European nations with the Patriots’ interpretation of events in the North American colonies.
Councilman Rick Roelle in Apple Valley, California, says that Wal-Mart “blackmailed the town.”
Blackmail is no small matter. So, what did Wal-Mart do, specifically?
Wal-Mart worked with citizens of Apple Valley, including supplying money, to gather enough petition signatures to place a measure on the local ballot for voters to decide whether Wal-Mart could build a store.
“The initiative process was an opportunity that allowed voters to voice their support for the benefits that Wal-Mart would bring their community,” a spokesperson for Wal-Mart argued, “including jobs, affordable groceries, increased tax revenue, and infrastructure improvements.”
Who’s right?
Aside from the fact that there are many issues the majority has no right to decide, including whether a law-abiding business can open its doors, why not let the people decide? At least a vote of the people is a clearer expression of the public will than a city council decision.
Some complain that even when a local petition qualifies the voters often don’t get a vote. Under state law, if 15 percent of the electorate signs a petition, the matter must be placed on a special election ballot . . . unless the city council enacts it, instead.
Special elections cost big money. Cash-strapped city councils have voted to allow Wal-Mart development, simply (they say) to save the expense of holding an election.
But such “caving in” doesn’t seem like blackmail in light of Menifee’s experience. The Wal-Mart measure there won with 76 percent of the vote.
Unless, like some politicians, you think doing the electorate’s will is “blackmail.”
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Categories
Frederic Bastiat
“Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.”
Categories
Czech Communist Party
On Nov. 28, 1989, with communist regimes in neighboring countries collapsing and growing protests at home, Czechoslovakian Communist Party officials announced they would give up their monopoly on political power. Elections were held the following month ushering in the first non-communist government in over 40 years.