Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos; the materials must, in the first place, be afforded: it can give form to dark, shapeless substances, but cannot bring into being the substance itself.
Mary Shelley, from the Introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein.
In 1776, on June 12, the Fifth Virginia Convention at Williamsburg, Virginia, unanimously adopted a Declaration of Rights, several weeks prior to the adoption of the state’s constitution. George Mason (pictured above), who drafted the document, stated clearly in the preamble that rights must be “the basis and foundation of Government.”
The first four planks run as follows:
I. That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.
II. That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them.
III. That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation or community; of all the various modes and forms of government that is best, which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration; and that, whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal.
IV. That no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consideration of public services; which, not being descendible, neither ought the offices of magistrate, legislator, or judge be hereditary.
That is, the pool of available professionals for advanced and general practice medicine is shrinking relative to demand.
A report last year at Definitive Healthcare provides a list of reasons:
What wasn’t mentioned? The COVID response debacle. When an elephant makes a deposit on the waiting room floor, don’t ignore it.
But, instead, the list of causes and cures was predictable: “too many administrative tasks” (need more assistants, or at least AI?); “poor work-life balance” (but that’s always been the case); “insufficient salary” (you could see that one coming a mile away, right?).
A study published in March, “The Complexities of Physician Supply and Demand: Projections From 2021 to 2036,” prepared for the Association of American Medical Colleges, dips its timid toes in that topic, but says little of significance.
And as I scrolled through a report on the study, I thought: this is none of my business. Just as it’s none of my business to fret much about the supply and demand for toilet tissue or garbage trucks. This is all supposed to be taken care of by “the market.”
Trouble is, we do not have a free market in medical care. We have an over-regulated, vastly subsidized healthcare system.
The key to the future supply of doctors is getting the government out of doctors’ business. Hesitating to turn that key, or saying that government “must do more,” merely makes the malady worse.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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If you think this world is bad, you should see some of the others.
Philip K. Dick, the title of a 1977 speech published in the collection The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick. Often improved by swapping out “world” with “universe,” but this seems not to be authentic.
On June 11, 1776, the Continental Congress appointed John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman to draft a declaration of independence from Great Britain.
On the same date in 1963, Thich Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk, doused himself with gasoline and set himself aflame in a busy Saigon intersection as a protest against South Vietnam’s lack of religious freedom.
Padilla is proposing legislation, SB1228, to compel social media companies to compel social media “influencers” who’d rather remain anonymous to identify themselves. A company that fails to comply would risk being penalized.
And I hear it often: why anonymity? Folks should own up to their speech!
But many people have good reasons for remaining anonymous when they publish their views. One is to protect themselves from harassment by private parties. Another is to protect themselves from harassment, or worse, by governments.
Tiffany Donnelly of the Institute for Free Speech observes that the United States has a long history of anonymous political speech.
Investigative journalism “often relies on anonymous sources. Americans use social media to express political opinions that might cause them to lose their jobs. Political dissidents who fled to the U.S. to escape tyrannical governments use social media to speak out against those repressive regimes.”
Once social media companies collect the ID data, then what?
Perhaps the information is supposed to just sit in the companies’ computers. But once it becomes known that certain anonymous but controversial writers are being forced to supply personal information, this information becomes a target — for hackers, state governments hiring hackers, disgruntled moderators who may decide to “out” the commentators they dislike.
The bill won’t stop “misinformation,” but it will discourage discourse.
Specifically, dissent.
It’s this bill that should be stopped.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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There was no substitute for reality; one should be aware of imitations.
Arthur C. Clarke, The Fountains of Paradise (1979).
David Boaz was a friend and mentor to many. We now learn, to our sadness, of his death on Friday.
Who was David Boaz? Here is the bare bones of his public identity, from Wikipedia, first paragraph:
David Douglas Boaz (/ˈboʊ.æz/; August 29, 1953 – June 7, 2024) was an American author, philosopher and editor. He was a distinguished senior fellow and the executive vice president of the Cato Institute, an American libertarian think tank.
To discriminating readers, Mr. Boaz was the author and editor of a number of books on individual liberty, including:
Brian Doherty, author of Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement (2007), published, at Reason, probably the most comprehensive obituary yesterday. After several paragraphs telling of Mr. Boaz’s early history with Young Americans for Freedom, the 1980 Clark for President campaign, his work at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Doherty focuses on the key position from which David Boaz affected American political culture:
Boaz began working at the Cato Institute when it moved to D.C. in 1981, where he became executive vice president and stayed until his retirement in 2023. He was Cato’s leading editorial voice for decades, setting the tone for what was among the most well-financed and widely distributed institutional voices for libertarian advocacy. Cato, with Boaz’s guidance, provided a stream of measured, bourgeois outreach policy radicalism intended to appeal to a wide-ranging audience of normal Americans, not just those marinated in specifically libertarian movement heroes, styles, and concerns.
David Boaz was, above and apart from his work at Cato, a respected individual: friend, mentor, citizen . . . and unwavering enemy of tyranny.
Whatever creativity is, it is in part a solution to a problem.
Brian Aldiss, “Apéritif” in Bury My Heart at W.H. Smith’s (1990).
On May 9, 1800, abolitionist hero and revolutionary (and, depending upon your point of view and certain definitions, insurrectionist, perhaps even terrorist) John Brown was born.
In 1883 on this date, Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset was born. He is most famous for his book The Revolt of the Masses.