The right to buy weapons is the right to be free.
Alfred Elton van Vogt, “The Weapon Shop,” in Astounding Science Fiction (December 1942).
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A. E. van Vogt
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David Crockett
On August 17, 1786, American backwoods hero and politician, David Crockett, was born. Famous as a politician, he brought personal principle and honor and a “common sense” approach in representing Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives. He later played a part in the Texas Revolution, dying at the Battle of the Alamo.
Crockett grew up in East Tennessee, where he gained a reputation for hunting and storytelling, which helped make him a legend in his own time. After being made a colonel in the militia of Lawrence County, Tennessee, he was elected to the Tennessee state legislature in 1821.
In 1825, Crockett was elected to the U.S. Congress, where he vehemently opposed many of the policies of President Andrew Jackson, most notably the Indian Removal Act.
Crockett wrote a number of books, including a biography of Martin Van Buren.
“Do not mess with Taiwan before 2028,” Vivek Ramaswamy instructed translators to tell Chinese ruler Xi Jinping, “before the end of my first term, okay?”
Responding to a question from Hugh Hewitt on his radio program, Ramaswamy — the entrepreneur, author, and GOP presidential candidate — urged a “move from strategic ambiguity to strategic clarity.”
The right idea, I guess, just not elaborated in the clear-thinking manner I have been hoping for.
You see, there was a “second part” to Ramaswamy’s foreign policy prescription. “That commitment is only as far as 2028,” he explained, “by which point I will have led the United States of America to achieve semiconductor independence, and we will not take the risk of war that risks Americans lives after that for some nationalistic dispute between China and Taiwan.”
“Some nationalistic dispute”?* Sure, between the democratic miracle of the last century and a genocidal totalitarian regime that claims it . . . along with claiming 90 percent of the South China Sea, the world’s busiest waterway.
A skeptical Hewitt heard Ramaswamy “saying ‘I will go to war, including attacking the Chinese mainland, if you attack before semiconductor independence. And afterwards, you can have Taiwan. So if you just wait until 2029, you may have Taiwan.’”
Let’s make the world safe for semiconductors!
But . . . not for people?
Ramaswamy’s transactional approach might make the Taiwanese feel less inclined to assist our efforts toward semiconductor independence. And what a terrible message to send other allies in the region!
As the democratic countries of Asia and the world are stepping up and coming together to push back against Beijing’s belligerence, the U.S. ought not jeopardize this by suggesting more convenient dates for calendaring in future Chinazi invasions.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* From the interview, Ramaswamy appears ignorant of Taiwanese history; namely, the fact that the Nationalist Chinese forces that fled to the island in 1949, as well as their offspring, comprise a distinct minority of the island nation’s population. Meanwhile, the native Taiwanese had been under Japanese colonial rule for the previous fifty years and, prior to that, never completely under Chinese control.
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William Gibson
The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.
William Gibson, repeatedly said on radio in 1993.
On August 16, 1841, U.S. President John Tyler vetoed a bill to re-establish the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members — feeling betrayed by the WINO* Tyler — gathered outside the presidential mansion in history’s most violent demonstration on White House grounds.
* “Whig In Name Only,” anachronistic joke term. A play on the contemporary initialisms “Republican in Name Only” (RINO) and “Democrat in Name Only” (DINO).
In a fascinating if vexing article courtesy of Reuters, we learn that political violence has risen in recent years.
Not shocking news, to those paying attention, but still worth thinking about.
The article focuses on a few stories of politically motivated violence by individuals against individuals since the fateful day of January 6, 2021. This conveniently stacks the deck of partisanship, ruling out of consideration 2020’s mass violence and multiple deaths during the riots following George Floyd’s death. With this limitation, the majority of violence is from “the right” against “the left.”
But the article’s most interesting passage regards a recent poll about the acceptability of violence. There the breakdown evens out: “In a Reuters/Ipsos poll of nearly 4,500 registered voters in May, roughly 20% of both Democratic and Republican respondents called violence ‘acceptable’ if committed ‘to achieve my idea of a better society.’”
A similar poll last year shows that these acceptability-of-violence levels are on the rise.
Why?
One thing is perception of news media and thrust of the media.
On the right, folks have noticed that the news regularly lies and spins in favor of the center-left establishment — demonstrated repeatedly in the article with what Reuters considers accepted facts. On the left, folks who trust their news sources and party follow the repeated narratives painting Trump and his supporters as wholly evil.
Of course you can fight evil with violence! — so a logic runs.
Also, the suppression of online social media stories and accounts that are perceived as “anti-left” has bred much distrust and disgust. Democracy only works in a context of free speech and open debate.
Dysfunctional democracy makes violence more likely.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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John Tyler
Wealth can only be accumulated by the earnings of industry and the savings of frugality.
President John Tyler (1841–1845), first annual message to Congress (June 1, 1841).
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The Signal & the Window
On August 15, 2012, a complex, high-powered radio transmission was sent from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico towards the constellation Sagittarius. The signal consisted of a digital stream of approximately 10,000 Twitter messages solicited for the purpose by the National Geographic Channel, bearing the hashtag “#ChasingUFOs” (a promotion for one of the channel’s TV series). The sponsor also included a series of video vignettes featuring verbal messages from various celebrities.
The transmission was sent on the 35th anniversary of the reception of a mysterious signal that was interpreted as an alphanumeric sequence, “6EQUJ5,” dubbed the “Wow!” signal, from the general direction of the star Tau Sagittarius. This signal was received by Ohio State University’s Big Ear radio telescope in the United States, and was noticed a few days after August 15, 1978, by astronomer Jerry R. Ehman.
On August 15 in 1971, President Richard Nixon ended convertibility of the United States dollar into gold by foreign investors. The dollar has remained fiat money ever since, but — mysteriously! — did not succeed in retaining its previous value.
But then, the dollar under the previous quasi-gold, Bretton-Woods Agreement wasn’t stable either, which is why Nixon felt compelled to close the gold window.
You don’t send a salamander to put out a fire or a leech to drain a swamp. Similarly, you don’t appoint David Weiss as a special counsel to “investigate” the Hunter Biden case.
Not if you want justice.
Weiss, who has been on the case since 2017, was responsible for the cushy plea deal that fell apart last month, in court. It was a novel, first-of-its-kind offering of immunity to all future prosecutions for unspecified charges. When pressed in court, the prosecutors had to admit it was “unprecedented.”
And the judge had to throw it out.
Now, with U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointing Weiss as special counsel, the questions mount:
- Why Weiss — considering his track record?
- What additional powers does he have — considering the AG’s past assurances that Weiss had everything he needed?
- And why now?
To answer that last query, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) admitted on ABC’s This Week — amidst many accusations against former President Donald Trump — that Hunter Biden “did a lot of really unlawful and wrong things” and that Mr. Weiss, “with the collapse of the plea agreement that he had apparently worked out with Hunter Biden,” now “wants to be certain that he’s got the authority to go bring charges wherever he wants.”
Which only further begs the question. Weiss says he didn’t ask for it. And if he in fact lacked what was needed, why didn’t Garland give it before?
What’s really going on?
“The Biden Justice Department is trying to stonewall congressional oversight,” explains House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), “as we have presented evidence to the American people about the Biden family’s corruption.”
And as Jonathan Turley, the renowned George Washington University law professor, adds, “The initial impact is to insulate Weiss from calls for testimony before Congress.”
Republicans are looking this Democrat gift horse in the mouth.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Robert A. Heinlein
[T]here are prices too high to pay to save the United States. Conscription is one of them. Conscription is slavery, and I don’t think that any people or nation has a right to save itself at the price of slavery for anyone, no matter what name it is called. We have had the draft for twenty years now; I think this is shameful. If a country can’t save itself through the volunteer service of its own free people, then I say: Let the damned thing go down the drain!
Robert A. Heinlein, Guest of Honor Speech at the 29th World Science Fiction Convention, Seattle, Washington (1961).