Tag: image

A boy is suspended from a New York City high school for carrying a metal ruler . . . a ruler issued to him by the school itself. A girl is handcuffed at a Metro train station in Washington DC and led away by the police. Her crime? Eating a sandwich on the platform. Another girl is suspended from a Virginia high school for having a pair of scissors. Scissors, of course, are sharp. There can be no debate about that. And yes, rulers can poke people in the eye. And maybe sandwiches can be lethal weapons too. I don’t know. I guess it depends on what kind of mustard.

The authorities call this kind of thing “zero tolerance.” I call it zero discretion and zero common sense. The concerns are legitimate enough. Students and teachers should be safe in school. Transit authorities shouldn’t have to clean up after messy food eaters. But when common sense is expelled from the rules, the rules themselves become an arbitrary weapon. None of these young people was threatening anyone. All the school officials had to do was say “Keep the scissors in your desk, Sally” or “What’s that ruler for?” All the DC police had to do was say, “Put the sandwich down . . . now!!”It’s easier to swat flies with a sledgehammer than to apply reasonable principles reasonably. But if the goal is a safer and more civil society not to mention justice let’s put the sledgehammer down.

These days corrupt politicians and their pals often seem to get away with anything. Why don’t we get tough on them, and leave the innocent kids alone?

This is Common Sense.  I’m Paul Jacob.

It’s all been a big misunderstanding.

For some reason, those of us in the term limits movement got the crazy idea that California politicians don’t like term limits. How silly of us! Maybe it was the nearly $6 million legislators raised to run ads trashing the 1990 initiative. One could easily perceive that as opposition.

Or maybe we got confused when the legislators sued the voters the minute the voters passed limits. Maybe that lawsuit was just their quiet way of making sure the term limits that politicians cherish so deeply wouldn’t be overturned later after legislators became even more emotionally attached to the idea. That sounds right.

And then when that second lawsuit came along . . . well, that did seem a little negative. Now these public-spirited legislators are working overtime to make dramatic improvements to California’s law: extend the limits by 50 percent in the Senate; double the House limit; nobody termed-out again until 2012; allow a total of 24 years in the Legislature, even if they’ve already served 14 years. It’s all becoming clear now.

They love term limits so much that they want to spend the rest of their lives serving under term limits. Sure, you and I don’t think that a 38-year career in the Legislature is a term limit, but we just don’t love term limits as much as these guys. God bless them, every one.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Remember college football bowl games before all the corporate sponsors added their names? What’s next the Crest Toothpaste Sugar Bowl?

At least corporate sponsors pay for the privilege. It can get worse. In fact, it has. Now Congress is talking about doing this with entire government agencies except the career politicians are putting their own names on government departments.

That’s Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii’s brilliant idea after 40 years in Congress. He proposes renaming The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the “Thomas R. Harkin Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” Harkin is a senator from Iowa.

The plan changes the National Library of Medicine to the “Arlen Spector National Library of Medicine.” Senator Spector is a 20-year incumbent from Pennsylvania.

To lengthen the names of government agencies is bad enough. But to name them after congressmen who presently sit deciding their budget that’s outrageous. Corporations pay big money to put their name on things. Whose money goes to get a congressman’s name on a federal agency? You know whose.

And these politicians are still perfectly able to do something rotten. Think how embarrassing it would have been had we named the U.S. Postal Service after Congressman Dan Rostenkowski who was later convicted of embezzling postage stamps.

What foolish pride in Washington! It makes me want to say, “Hey congressman, you’re name here!” Oh, it’s radio. I guess you couldn’t see that.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.