American author, art critic, and commentator Camille Paglia was born April 2, 1947.
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Camille Paglia
The people of Ferguson, wherein the infamous Michael Brown shooting took place (followed by protests and riots), have a chance on the Fourth to do something regarding contentious police-citizen interactions:
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Dave Barry
Gravity is contributing factor in 73 percent of all accidents involving falling objects.
Levity from Dave Barry
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April Fool’s Day
On April Fools’ Day, 1957, the BBC offered for viewers of the current affairs program “Panorama” the infamous spaghetti tree report hoax. In the spirit of the day, Common Sense offers these “historic” events:
On April 1, 1787, James Madison, father of the Constitution, removed the General Welfare clause from his draft of the U.S. Constitution, telling friends that, “I fear future big-government-loving politicians will undoubtedly abuse the clause’s vague concept to drown the people in federal overreach.”
On April 1, 1918, Woodrow Wilson became the first and only President of the United States to be impeached and removed from office for lying about munitions being aboard the Lusitania in an effort to whip up war fever against Germany and push the nation into World War I.
On April 1, 2002, the U.S. Congress refused to grant President George W. Bush’s request for a declaration of war against Iraq.
On April 1, 2014, President Barack Obama admitted to being a Kenyan, er, Keynesian, but argued that the Constitution did not bar Keynesians from office.
As of April 1, 2017, President Donald Trump — often declared a fool or worse by the “Not My President” crowd — has proven himself foursquare for liberty, extolling the Freedom Caucus in Congress, and praising them from saving the nation from House Speaker Paul Ryan’s ObamaCare Lite plan.
Alas, only the first paragraph, above, is completely true.
When last we touched upon the strangely over-the-top Californian reaction to the Trump presidency, the secession movement, I took the occasion to bring up the rather less radical separatists in the north. “Already 21 of the 23 northernmost counties,” I wrote, “have made declarations to form the State of Jefferson.”
But now there is a new wrinkle.
“Former UKip leader Nigel Farage and Leave backer Arron Banks recently helped raise $1 million for Calexit, which would split California into eastern and western regions,” we learn from the Daily Mail and the World Tribune. Banks, citing the high disapproval ratings Californians give their government, said that “he and Farage wanted to show people in California ‘how to light a fire and win’ the Calexit referendum.”
Their proposal is distinct from complete secession. It would amount to a California split, with the west coast (Los Angeles and north to the border) splitting off from the rest of the state. This would form an East California and a West California.
Politically, this might appease the conservatives and moderates who live in more rural east and Southern California, especially since they are coming to increasingly despise Left Coast “liberals” (read: progressives). Whom they not implausibly blame for ruining the state.
But it leaves some Jefferson secessionists stuck with those “liberals.” This, if an oversight, is a big one. Would this not doom the scheme?
While the failed initiative effort of 2014 to split the state into six separate states was far too complicated to wrap one’s head around, the new Calexit effort seems too . . . simple.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.
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Bangorian Controversy
On March 31, 1717, a sermon on “The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ,” by Benjamin Hoadly, the Bishop of Bangor, provoked the Bangorian Controversy.
The sermon’s text was John 18:36, “My kingdom is not of this world,” and from that Hoadly deduced — supposedly at the request of King George I himself, who was present in the assembly — that there was no Biblical justification for any church government. Hoadly identified the church with the kingdom of Heaven, noting that Christ had not delegated His authority to any representative.
King George’s preference for the Whig Party, and for latitudinarianism in ecclesiastical policy, is widely thought to have been a strategic maneuver to degrade church power in political government.
Arkansas’s motto is Regnat Populus — “The People Rule.” Unfortunately, the people’s so-called representatives are demanding that this motto be made more fitting: Regnat Tyrannis.
I jest. The Natural State’s legislators aren’t nearly so honest. Just devious.
A few years back, the fine people of Arkansas (where I grew up) had arguably the nation’s most accessible-to-the-people petition process. With it, they enacted issues that legislators despise: term limits, for instance.
But in 2013, legislators passed several bills upping the difficulty and cost of the citizen initiative process.
They’re back.
Yesterday, Senate Bill 698 was passed and now goes to the governor.
Today, the Senate votes on House Joint Resolution 1003, a constitutional amendment for the 2018 ballot. It increases the petition requirement and raises the vote threshold to 60 percent to pass an initiative amendment.*
SB 698 is straightforwardly sinister. When groups gather the voter signatures to place a measure on the ballot, the Secretary of State is required to publish the wording in the legal notice section of newspapers throughout the state. Despite low readership. This bill would make the petitioners pay.
According to a report in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the state spent nearly $2 million publishing the language of these measures in 2016. The old requirement should be repealed, but the new one would be disastrous: Only citizens with deep, deep pockets could pursue ballot initiatives.
A veto is needed from Governor Asa Hutchinson — call him at (501) 682-2345.
As for HJR 1003, Arkansans can find their state senator here. Call early.
My adopted state’s motto is also Latin: Sic Semper Tyrannis.** The good people of Arkansas are welcome to it, until theirs is once again operative.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* At least, voters can defeat this measure at the ballot box.
** The precise English translation of Virginia’s motto is “Thus always with tyrants.” The common translation is “Death to all tyrants.”
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Economic vs. Political Means
On March 30, 1864, German sociologist and economist Franz Oppenheimer was born. This sociologist is most famous for his 1908 book The State, in which he elaborated some consequences of two means for acquiring wealth, the “economic means,” by which he meant private production or by trade, and the “political means,” by which he meant forcible extraction from one group or person by another person or group. Oppenheimer taught in Palestine in the mid-1930s, and fled the Nazis to the United States, via Japan in 1938. In 1941 he became a founder of The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, and died two years later.
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Brion McClanahan
“America is full of politicians but few statesmen. If you think this is a recent problem, think again. It has been discussed since the founding.
“Americans have also grown fond of political dynasties: Clinton, Bush, Gore, etc. Even if the last election appeared to repudiate that trend, don’t get too comfortable. Modern politicians are like cockroaches. You can exterminate a few, but there will always be more.”
Brion McClanahan, daily email letter of The Brion McClanahan Show, March 29, 2017.