Categories
Today

He’s Our Huckleberry

On December 10, 1884, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was first published. This novel, narrated in the first person by the title character, is a dark comedy of the antebellum South and slavery, and has been considered by more than one literary critic as the “Great American Novel.”

On this date in 1901, the first Nobel Peace Prizes were awarded — to economist Frédéric Passy (pictured above), co-founder of the Inter-Parliamentary Union; and to Henry Dunant the founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Passy was an admirer of Richard Cobden and an active member in the French Liberal School of Political Economy that developed in the tradition of J. B. Say, Destutt de Tracy, and Frédéric Bastiat. His published works include Leçons d’économie politique (1860-61); La Démocratie et l’Instruction (1864); L’Histoire du Travail (1873); Malthus et sa Doctrine (1868); and La Solidarité du Travail et du Capital (1875).

Categories
international affairs

Dictator Down

Donald Trump, diplomacy, foreign relations, isolationism, world police

After 13 years of civil war, a rebel force seized the Syrian capital over the weekend, toppling more than half a century of the Assad dictatorship, with despot Bashar al-Assad fleeing to safety in Russia. 

Good riddance. But what next? Will any semblance of freedom come to Syria and be sustained? 

“Syria is a mess,” President-elect Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, concluding: “THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!”

He’s not wrong.

Still, events in Syria add to the foreign policy challenges, increasingly military challenges, awaiting the new administration — from the war in Ukraine, Lebanon, Gaza, to the threat of Chinese aggression across the Taiwan Strait against economically and geographically strategic Taiwan. 

Or conflict might erupt in the South China Sea — a body of water that China claims more than 90 percent of . . . an outrageous, illegal contention, which nonetheless the PLA Navy increasingly enforces.

Recently, Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping gave President Biden — meant for the President-elect, of course — four red lines that America was not to cross. The first two are instructive: “the Taiwan question” and “democracy and human rights.” 

In short, it would be bad manners and really ruffle tender Beijing feathers were the U.S. to continue to arm and protect free, democratic Taiwan and to raise the issue of the numerous genocides the CCP regime continues to inflict on ethnic and religious minorities. 

And everybody else. 

It’s a dangerous world. Much of which the United States has pledged to defend. Good luck, Mr. Trump.

No wonder there is “a record high” percentage of Americans who “want the government to spend more on the military.”

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Categories
Thought

Mark Twain

The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that’s what an army is — a mob; they don’t fight with courage that’s born in them, but with courage that’s borrowed from their mass, and from their officers. But a mob without any man at the head of it is beneath pitifulness.

Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Chapter 22.
Categories
Today

Three Johns + the Anarchist Prince

On December 9, 1958, the John Birch Society was founded in the United States. December 9 also marks the birthdays of

  • Poet and anti-censorship advocate John Milton (1608), author of Paradise Lost (1667), the masterpiece of blank verse narrative, and a classic prose defense of free speech and the press, Areopagitica (1644).
  • Russian prince and anarchist theoretician Peter Kropotkin (1842), author of Mutual Aid and other books and pamphlets.
  • Filmmaker John Malkovich (1953), who directed The Dancer Upstairs (2002) and starred in the odd eponymous film Being John Malkovich (1999).
Categories
Update

Pandemic Report Places Blame

Last week, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released its major report. The press release, “FINAL REPORT: COVID Select Concludes 2-Year Investigation, Issues 500+ Page Final Report on Lessons Learned and the Path Forward,” shows that at least some people in high places are coming around to answering questions — and taking positions — similar to those you’ve read in past entries on this website, Common Sense with Paul Jacob.

Here are a few passages:

COVID-19 ORIGIN: COVID-19 most likely emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. The FIVE strongest arguments in favor of the “lab leak” theory include:

  • The virus possesses a biological characteristic that is not found in nature.
  • Data shows that all COVID-19 cases stem from a single introduction into humans. This runs contrary to previous pandemics where there were multiple spillover events.
  • Wuhan is home to China’s foremost SARS research lab, which has a history of conducting gain-of-function research at inadequate biosafety levels.
  • Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) researchers were sick with a COVID-like virus in the fall of 2019, months before COVID-19 was discovered at the wet market.
  • By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin it would have already surfaced.

… 

EcoHealth — under the leadership of Dr. Peter Daszak — used U.S. taxpayer dollars to facilitate dangerous gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China. After the Select Subcommittee released evidence of EcoHealth violating the terms of its National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) commenced official debarment proceedings and suspended all funding to EcoHealth.

… 

NIH’s procedures for funding and overseeing potentially dangerous research are deficient, unreliable, and pose a serious threat to both public health and national security. Further, NIH fostered an environment that promoted evading federal record keeping laws.

… 

The Paycheck Protection Program — which offered essential relief to Americans in the form of loans that could be forgiven if the funds were used to offset pandemic-era hardships — was rife with fraudulent claims resulting in at least $64 billion of taxpayers’ dollars lost to fraudsters and criminals.

… 

Fraudsters cost the American taxpayer more than $191 billion dollars by taking advantage of the federal government’s unemployment system and exploiting individuals’ personally identifiable information.

… 

At least half of the taxpayer dollars lost in COVID-19 relief programs were stolen by international fraudsters.

… 

The WHO’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic was an abject failure because it caved to pressure from the Chinese Communist Party and placed China’s political interests ahead of its international duties. Further, the WHO’s newest effort to solve the problems exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic — via a “Pandemic Treaty” — may harm the United States.

… 

The “6 feet apart” social distancing recommendation — which shut down schools and small business across the country — was arbitrary and not based on science. During closed door testimony, Dr. Fauci testified that the guidance, “sort of just appeared.”

… 

There was no conclusive evidence that masks effectively protected Americans from COVID-19. Public health officials flipped-flopped on the efficacy of masks without providing Americans scientific data — causing a massive uptick in public distrust.

… 

Prolonged lockdowns caused immeasurable harm to not only the American economy, but also to the mental and physical health of Americans, with a particularly negative effect on younger citizens. Rather than prioritizing the protection of the most vulnerable populations, federal and state government policies forced millions of Americans to forgo crucial elements of a healthy and financially sound life.

Categories
Thought

Mark Twain

When a prisoner of style escapes it’s called an evasion.

Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Chapter 39.
Categories
Today

Greek Monarchy Ended

On December 8, 1974, a plebiscite finalized the abolition of the monarchy in Greece. The last Greek king, Constantine II, had ceased any royal pretensions while in exile on June 1. The December referendum was something of a formality.

Categories
Update

Falun Gong Targeted 

“In October 2022, Chinese leader Xi Jinping held a secret meeting instructing top state officials — overseeing political, intelligence, and influence operations — on a new strategy to target the Falun Gong religious group internationally,” reports The Epoch Times in a new 2000+ word report.

“At the core of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s new anti-Falun Gong strategy is launching disinformation campaigns via social media influencers and Western media outlets; and using the American legal system to go after companies started by Falun Gong practitioners.”

The report concludes by quoting Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) on the need to counter-act the CCP’s anti-Falun Gong initiative. “‘The Communist Party of China is essentially a criminal organization running a country,’ Perry said, adding that since the United States doesn’t allow criminal organizations to use government systems to persecute adversaries or violate basic human rights, ‘we certainly shouldn’t let the CCP do it either.’”

Categories
Thought

Kenneth Arnold

If our government knows anything about these devices, the people should be told at once. A lot of people out here are very much disturbed. Some think these things may be from another planet. But they aren’t harming anyone and I think it would be the wrong thing to shoot one of them down — even if it can be done. Their high speed would completely wreck them.

Kenneth Arnold, as quoted in “‘Flying discs’ called real by 2 air veterans,” Chicago Times (July 7, 1947). Businessman and aviator Arnold had reported seeing nine mysterious flying objects speeding by Mount Rainier in Washington State, on June 24, and thereby starting the modern UFO craze.
Categories
Today

Blue Marble

On December 7, 1972, Apollo 17 launched, the last of the Apollo Moon missions. Later that day, one of the astronauts — either Ron Evans or Harrison Schmitt — snapped the photo that would later become famous as “The Blue Marble.”