How to defeat terrorism? Don’t be terrorized. Don’t let fear rule your life. Even if you are scared.
Salman Rushdie, Step Across This Line: Collected Nonfiction 1992–2002.
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Salman Rushdie
On August 14, 1765, Sam Adams led the first rebel mob against enforcers of the Stamp Act in Britain’s American colonies.
On this day in 1980, Lech Wałęsa led strikes at the Gdańsk, Poland, shipyards.
Paul Jacob contemplates the width of the oceans, the depths of political perfidy, and the wisdom of philosopher Herbert Spencer.
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Mikhail Bakunin
A slave owner is not a man but a master. By denying the humanity of his slaves he also abrogates his own humanity.
Mikhail Bakunin, Man, Society, and Freedom (1871).
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A Slave Saw Something
On August 13, 1831, Nat Turner witnessed a solar eclipse, which he interpreted as a sign from God. Eight days later he and 70 other slaves killed approximately 55 whites in Southampton County, Virginia.
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Do Not Remove This Tag
Unless you’re the customer. Then it’s okay.
Once upon a time, the warning that now reads something like “Under penalty of law this tag is not to be removed except by the consumer” did not include those last four words.
The original wording has been the occasion of much not entirely genuine concern about the prospect that officers of the law will invade the homes of unruly tag-rippers. These renegades were celebrated in song by science fiction writer, libertarian, and singer L. Neil Smith. (You’ll find the lyrics in his novel The Wardove.) More famously, Chevy Chase, in the movie Fletch (1985), bluffed his way out of a tight spot pretending to be concerned about mattress tags.
But if you’re a company selling something with a tag, removing it can be deceptive. Especially if you remove it in order to replace it with another tag that gives customers a very mistaken idea about the product you are selling.
Such a fraud has apparently been committed by a company called Lions Not Sheep, which caters to lions (leaders). The company removed tags saying Made in China from clothing that it sells and replaced them with tags saying Made in USA. For this, the FTC fined the firm $211,335.
Lions Not Sheep understands its market.
Yes, when buying stuff, many people hope to avoid directly or indirectly supporting the Chinazi government to the extent possible. These folks create a substantial demand for goods made not in China but in America (or in other acceptably non-totalitarian countries).
But defrauding the buyer is, of course, not the way to meet this demand.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Herbert Spencer
To the question—What is representative government good for? our reply is—It is good, especially good, good above all others, for doing the thing which a government should do. It is bad, especially bad, bad above all others, for doing the things which a government should not do.
Herbert Spencer, “Representative Government—What Is It Good For?” in Essays: Scientific, Political & Speculative, Volume III (1891).
The Hawaiian flag was lowered from ʻIolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with the flag of the United States to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of Hawaii to the United States.
During Donald John Trump’s time at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, he expressed his displeasure with some documents by tearing them up.
Which is illegal, as CNN takes pains to make clear. His underlings would then scoop up the shreds of paper and tape them together.
Keyword: farcical.
This comedy might be funny to watch in a sequel to, say, In the Loop, the 2009 political satire. But it’s not so funny in the current iteration, with the FBI’s raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion.
The search for documents “illegally removed from the White House” has seems an obviously political ploy. Since Trump was legally allowed to de-classify documents, his taking of allegedly still-classified docs seem, well, a rather trivial matter.
Keyword: petty.
Right-leaning media and the left-ensconced media talk about all this very differently, of course, and I confess to finding the former a little more convincing than the latter. Focusing on documentation seems like an excuse to find some petty thing to disqualify Trump from running again in 2024.
While Trump not running again might be the best thing for the GOP, and America, that’s not really relevant: Republicans are stuck with the one champion, with few decent alternatives, and Democrats are in worse shape. Which is why they fret about Trump.
Using the Presidential Records Act of 1978 as a disqualifier for a Grover Clevelandesque re-run of a defeated president is on everybody’s lips. But there’s a problem: how could it possibly pass constitutional muster? The Constitution specifies the qualifications for the job. Congress cannot add or subtract to those qualifications by law.
That was the argument used to disqualify term limits in U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton: qualifications for candidates were specified in the Constitution. Neither states nor Congress could change it.
If Democrats seek to breach this principle . . . then let’s look at term limits again.
Keywords: do it.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Marcus Aurelius
Soon you will have forgotten the world, and soon the world will have forgotten you.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 A.D.), Meditations, Book VII.