Paul Jacob makes the case for a smart electorate, and — just for Father’s Day? — talks about his mother:
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Watch: A Smart Electorate?!?!?
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J. H. Levy
Socialism is essentially inimical to family life, which it regards as a bourgeois institution — to use its own favorite anathema. Socialism would make motherhood a State business or profession, would pay women for this sexual function, and deprive fathers of all status or recognition.
Joseph Hiam Levy, The Outcome of Individualism, Third Edition (1892).
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Juneteenth
“Juneteenth” (a portmanteau of June and nineteenth) also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Liberation Day and Emancipation Day, is a holiday celebrating the emancipation of those held as chattel slaves in the United States. Originating in Galveston, Texas, it has been celebrated annually on June 19 throughout the United States, and on June 17, 2021, it was made into an official national holiday when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law. It is commemorated on the anniversary date of the June 19, 1865, announcement of General Order No. 3 by Union Army general Gordon Granger, proclaiming freedom from slavery in Texas.
In June, 1941, Czech economist and politician Václav Klaus was born on the 19th (he died in 2011); other June 19 births include Salman Rushdie in 1947, Kathleen Turner in 1954, and Laura Ingraham in 1964.
Our politicians, they lie to us. But Paul Jacob has noticed something: the people are catching on!
“Right now, there is agreement, sort of, on both sides, or maybe even all sides, that . . . people are successful now not because they’re good, but because the system is rigged. . . .
“The difference is that the Left looks at a rigged system and says we need a bigger system.”
Andy Levy, February 20, 2016.
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Auberon Herbert
On June 18, 1838, Auberon Edward William Molyneux Herbert was born.
Auberon Herbert was a Liberal Member of Parliament who, after reading the writings of Herbert Spencer, became a radical individualist, authoring essays such as “The Ethics of Dynamite,” “A Politician in Trouble About His Soul,” and “The Right and Wrong of Compulsion by the State.” He termed his version of the political philosophy of liberty “voluntaryism.”
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Jane Jacob (1934–2022): In Memoriam
My mom, Jane Jacob, passed away yesterday, peacefully, at 88 years of age. She was the best person I’ve ever known and she loved life with a passion. I’ll miss her, but she will always be with me.
I could re-title this “My Mom for Heaven,” but as a good friend put it: “I just wish her a good trip; I’m certain her ticket is punched.”
In her honor, I’m re-publishing this commentary that first appeared on April 14, 2015.
My Mom for President
My musing, yesterday, about Hillary Clinton’s hat throw into the presidential ring failed to recognize that yesterday was also my mother’s 81st birthday.
Jane Jacob is not yet an announced presidential candidate, but when I think of a hard-working, organized, smart and always-optimistic woman — someone who keeps promises and looks out for the other person; someone with commitment to principle — I think of her.
Not Hillary Clinton.
Maybe Mrs. Clinton would have put in the hours playing catch with me as a tyke. But can Hillary even catch? My mom can. And throw too. (Not like a — well, incorrectly, either gender.)
My mom has a soft heart. I remember coming home from school and seeing her crying from watching a soap opera.
Nonetheless, she can dish out tough love. During a family clean-up effort (like a Bataan death march, but in English) she asked if one of us six kids could do something or other. I stepped forward to say, “I’ll try.”
Mom looked at me plainly and explained, “I need someone to do it, Paul, not just try.”
She is still full of fun and passion. Her deep love and concern for America’s freedom has certainly had an enormous impact on my life.
Too bad my mom’s not running.
Hillary Clinton has demonstrated none of the presidential timber my mom has, and yet Clinton is very likely to enjoy a large electoral advantage among women voters. So, here’s my idea: the Democratic Party’s competition should each nominate a woman for the top of the ticket. There are plenty of women qualified to serve as president. Not just my mom.
May the best woman win.
Have I started a stampede to office supply stores to buy binders?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Joel Feinberg
[T]rue understanding of human nature requires freedom, since without liberty there will be little diversity, and without diversity all aspects of the human condition will be ascribed to fixed nature rather than to the workings of a particular culture.
Joel Feinberg, Social Philosophy (1973), p. 22.
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The Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor on June 17, 1885.
On the same day in 1930, progressive Republican President Herbert Hoover — eager to please agricultural states, and confident that protectionism would yield greater wealth — signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff. The Great Depression deepened, ratcheting up as each provision of the bill took effect.
Three years later, investment author and two-time Libertarian Party presidential candidate Harry Browne was born
On June 17, 1944, Iceland declared independence from Denmark.
On this day in 1971, President Richard Nixon declared a “War on Drugs,” which steadily decreased civil liberty and the rule of law in America.
Exactly one year later, five men were arrested for attempted burglary on the offices of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., igniting the Watergate scandal that ultimately led to the resignation of U.S. President Richard Nixon more than two years later.
We have another indication now that the Internet of Things can be a mixed blessing. Perhaps not every gadget in our homes should be linked to the Worldwide Everything?
The great thing about a coffee maker with a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection is that you can set things up with a few taps on your smartphone. Brewing times, strength, temperature, etc., can all be arranged without ever having to trudge from bedroom to kitchen.
The horrible thing, though — in addition to the slim possibility that a hacker will take your coffee machine hostage — is that a Wi-Fi-capable coffee maker made in China may be spying on you on behalf of the Chinazi government.
This is the conclusion of Christopher Balding, a researcher who finds evidence that coffee machines manufactured by Kalerm in Jiangsu, China, collect a diverse array of data.
About their users.
Stuff like the users’ names and general locations as well as usage patterns.
Balding doesn’t know for sure that the company simply turns over such data to the government. But Chinese companies must cooperate with any government demands, and Balding notes that China often gathers as much data as possible and figures out what to do with it later.
The data-scavenging of the Chinese government is not exactly unique. Think Ed Snowden and the program he revealed, for example. But “the breadth and depth of their data-collection efforts” are in a class by themselves, Balding says.
It seems that my lack of a connected coffee machine, coupled with my chronic dependence on Starbucks, is proving very wise indeed.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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