Tag: liberty

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Accountability crime and punishment general freedom local leaders moral hazard nannyism national politics & policies privacy property rights responsibility too much government U.S. Constitution

The Minimal Use of a Finger

Seattle, distracted driving, texting, overreach, government, freedom, eating, drinking, liberty

Drivers in Washington State have a new law to . . . swerve from?

“New distracted driving law starts Sunday, July 23,” the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) tweeted last week. “The law forbids,” Washingtonians were told,  “virtually all use of handheld gadgets such as phones, tablets, laptop computers and gaming devices while driving.”

The idea is to prevent accidents. Though distracted driving’s danger has been contested, texting while driving certainly seems a kind of crazy.  

Thankfully, it’s possible to talk “hands free.”

Which, it turns out, the new law does allow. Drivers may activate and de-activate hands-free devices (and apps) with the “minimal use of a finger.”

Eating and drinking while driving are also disallowed, but those are “secondary offenses,” which police are not allowed to pull you over for.

At this point, another meaning of “minimal use of a finger” may occur to some readers. What starts out as secondary offenses have been known to be upgraded, legally and practically, to primary offense status.

Does a shiver runs down your back?

Yet another rule! More fines!

More interactions with police.

And if all this doesn’t feel “police state-y” enough for you, there is argument in Seattle about whether pedestrians should be prohibited from “distracted walking.”

Yes, some are actually considering that.

I’m reminded of an argument against socialism: government-run enterprises tend to be run “ruthlessly and with special attention to prosecution (and overburdening) of the poor.” Why would anyone want such techniques writ society-wide, in every sector?

Meanwhile, we apparently must live and drive with more rules and more fines and more harassment.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Common Sense free trade & free markets general freedom initiative, referendum, and recall U.S. Constitution

Compatriots, We — For Liberty!

thanksgiving, Common Sense

Thank you. It’s Thanksgiving, a good day to say so.

What a great idea for a holiday — a thoroughly American one, unpretentious and unspoiled. Centered on family and friends, the day may be the most important of the year, something we all share, in no small part because it is when we count (and publicly acknowledge) our blessings.

First on the list?

The blessing of liberty, of course. The freedom to work and produce and to keep the fruits of your labor. In order to put food on the table (a LOT of GOOD food.)

And, because man does not live by bread alone, to do it your way, independently, by the sweat of your own brow and the work of your wits — not as any man’s slave, nor riding anyone’s back . . . including the taxpayer.

Thanksgiving thus serves to celebrate that quintessential American Dream: standing on one’s own two feet . . . with friends, family, and freedom.

I have a further reason to thank you, though, other than this date on the calendar.

And no, it’s not simply for reading Common Sense and allowing me to bring you heaping helpings of honest outrage, and resolve, stories of perseverance, commitment to principle, tales of “doing something about it,” offering a bit of humor, hopefully providing some good information and argumentative ammunition, a perspective on smart grassroots politics in this state or that, a lens on corrupt politicians and their latest schemes in a city or town all the way across the country.

I’m thanking you for something even more important.

Don’t get me wrong. Common Sense is important. I love riffing on the latest insanity, or success — especially presenting stories that can spur copy-cat campaigns, initiatives, legal actions and, in a word, ACTION.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, after all.

You and I: we’re the folks taking responsibility for the future of freedom. We’re committed to doing the hard work of political reform.

Right?

It ain’t easy. We need to support each other, learn from one another, and work together — even when we are many miles apart. We have to build a smarter, more united pro-liberty community.

That’s why I write Common Sense.

To communicate with you . . . and other important individuals. All of us hanging together — and not “hanging separately,” as old Ben Franklin once quipped — because our efforts are absolutely essential to protecting the values of freedom, responsibility and independence.

Friend, we pay our dues (and more) — for otherwise your children and grandchildren, and mine, will face a world without what we hold so dear.

I started Liberty Initiative Fund to help citizen activists place tax limits, term limits, criminal justice reforms, and other pro-liberty and anti-crony measures on state and local ballots. I also serve as president of Citizens in Charge Foundation, which protects our crucial ability to use the citizen initiative and referendum process to hold government accountable.

Thankfully, Citizens in Charge Foundation financially supports Common Sense, allowing my compatriots to make tax-deductible contributions to keep this communication network alive and kicking.

Of course, it all comes down to you. This program, this Common Sense network doesn’t exist without your caring and support.

You know, I adore the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. As I know you do, too. But words on paper don’t keep us free unless there are people, like you and me, standing up for those words.

Stand with me again today and support Common Sense by joining Team 1776.

What’s “Team 1776”? It’s a group of folks like you who believe in the values of liberty and in building a network around those values through this communication vehicle. Members of Team 1776 care enough to provide our financial foundation by making a one-time gift of $1,776. Or they donate more. Or less. Whatever they can afford to give.

Many join Team 1776 with a monthly pledge of $17.76, which doesn’t hit the checkbook so hard (less than 60-cents a day), but adds up big-time for Common Sense — especially with more people stepping up to make that commitment.

Between today and the end of the year, I need to raise $30,000 to keep the Common Sense coming. I hope you have a great Thanksgiving Day and that you’ll claim this Common Sense program as one of your blessings.

Thanks for all you do and for your consideration now.

This is Common Sense. You make it possible. I’m Paul Jacob . . . and mighty grateful.

P.S. Your gift to Citizens in Charge Foundation for Common Sense is fully tax-deductible and 100 percent will go to the support and expansion of this program. Be part of Team 1776 by making a contribution or a monthly pledge today. Click here to make a donation by credit card. If you prefer to mail a check, please write “Team 1776” in the memo line.

P.P.S. My rough draft of this letter was titled, “Hey Comrades — Send Money!” I chuckled. My Web guy chuckled. But “comrades” is a commie word. We’re not even socialists, right? Sociable individualists, I like to think of us. Patriotic Americans. Compatriots. The word “compatriot” means both fellow countryman and colleague. And most of my readers (though certainly not all) are Americans like me, and almost all of you are colleagues (“comrades” without the bad connotations) in an important cause, a cause that must triumph. So this may be a better way to think of us: Compatriots for Freedom! Let’s make an impact . . . by saving civilization.

P.P.P.S. Thanks again. Happy Turkey Day!

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Common Sense crime and punishment general freedom

Ultra Anti-Civilization

Against tolerance

The stabbing event at a Thursday “Gay Pride” march in Jerusalem reveals an element of the much-talked-about “clash of civilizations” not often discussed any longer. But it used to dominate the conversation.

Why? It was not a Muslim jihadist who stabbed six people and ultimately killed one of them, a 16-year-old girl (she died in the hospital this weekend).

It was an Orthodox Jew.

That is, the man arrested at the event, identified as Yishai Schlissel, certainly looked Orthodox, when I saw him on TV, briefly, in an early report. The BBC now refers to him an “ultra-Orthodox Jew” (“ultra” theirs; emphasis, mine). He had previously carried out a similar attack in 2005.

“Israel’s government would have ‘zero tolerance’ for Jewish extremists, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a security cabinet meeting on Sunday,” according to a BBC report.

What suspect Schlissel shares with other terrorists is not merely a rock-hard belief that certain other people are sinful and corrupt, etc. He somehow also believes that he may assume the role of judge and executioner . . . of people he only knows by their differences.

This is beyond “ultra.” Schlissel repudiates not only the rule of law (since he acts outside it), but a basic idea that has grown in Western civilization — from roots found in his own religion.

Liberty.

The essence of liberty? Leaving peaceful people you disagree with alone.

It is more than possible for the religiously orthodox to get along with the un-orthodox. We can all get along if we respect each others’ rights, regardless of our differences.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Against tolerance

 

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general freedom U.S. Constitution

An 800th “Birthday”

Magna Carta, free speech, collage, photomontage, http://cognitivebiasparade.prosite.com/, political, politics, King John

Something happened 800 years ago yesterday, something of note.

The much-loathed and legendary — but real-life — King John signed a document with his barons that limited his power. It was later called the “Magna Carta,” the great charter.

Strange history. It was signed, made a big deal of, and then quickly repudiated. But it was never completely dead, possessing a zombie afterlife, and eventually helping give birth to the Enlightenment idea of limited government, as well as to the United States Constitution.

Most of the document is concerned with the king’s relationship with his subordinate (and insubordinate) barons. There’s a lot of power-wrangling in it, it’s all about divvying up prerogatives and responsibilities and taxes and fees. But it does contain a few passages of note (I’ve listed them on my “Today in Freedom” feature, in the past, and revive one for today’s).

My friend Sheldon Richman quotes scholar John Millar (1735-1801), one of Adam Smith’s most illustrious students, to put the document in its best perspective: “A great tyrant on the one side, and a set of petty tyrants on the other, seem to have divided the kingdom . . . who, by limiting the authority of each other over their dependents, produced a reciprocal diminution of their power.”

They were selfish men, Millar notes, not much concerned with ordinary folk, “But though the freedom of the common people was not intended in those charters, it was eventually secured to them. . . .”

Britain and then America stumbled onto liberty — a general and shared freedom — by the jealousy of competing powers.

We, the people, win when our “rulers” are divided, not united.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Magna Carta

 

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Common Sense general freedom individual achievement meme U.S. Constitution

Everything That Could Be Done

Patrick Henry

Two hundred forty years ago, the situation was dire. In the Virginia Colony, not too far from where I live, representatives to the Second Virginia Convention were debating the problems they were having with their “masters” in Britain — and the more dangerous, violent situation that was developing to the north.

Several days into the convention, Patrick Henry spoke. His speech was rousing. And it changed minds, concluding with the famous words “give me liberty or give me death!” — an ultimatum quite stark indeed.

Mr. Henry was for action, and waiting no longer. Addressing himself to the president of the convention, he said, “Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on.” And they had done a great deal, engaging in

– petitioning

– remonstration

– supplication

and, Henry went on, had even “prostrated ourselves before the throne.” And they got worse than the cold shoulder for all their efforts. They got the brush-off, the turn of the cold robe. Along with troops of occupation.

Hence the need for serious action.

Then, Americans were wrestling with the world’s most powerful nation: the British Empire. Today we again face the world’s most powerful empire: our own.

A federal regime similarly out of control in terms of spending and debt, arrogance and corruption, intrusiveness and incompetence. As if dictated by a know-it-all king of old, or a cabal of insiders acting as oligarchs.

Then it was a far-off Parliament; today it is our own far out-of-it representatives . . . duly elected.

We are engaged in a sort of class war, insiders vs. outsiders, and it is the insiders who are bringing the country to the brink of collapse.

The biggest difference between 1775 and 2015? We haven’t done all we can. There is much more to do. And possibly even succeed before the doom of another financial collapse, sovereign debt crisis, or . . . worse.

It often seems a Herculean task, but as Mr. Henry implored, “Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power.”

Let’s join together to give ourselves, our loved ones, and generations hence liberty.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Read the entire speech here

Printable PDF of the entire speech here

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The Meaning of "Liberal"

 

Categories
First Amendment rights ideological culture

The Preposition Is “Of”

Freedom of speech is not the same as freedom from (disliked) speech. One contradicts the other.

Not that legal strictures against “offensive” speech would be consistently enforced even if the First Amendment were formally rescinded. In practice, whoever had the most political pull would be issuing the shut-up edicts. Although victims might well be offended by the uttering of those edicts, censors would be undeterred by the contradiction.

These thoughts are occasioned by Greg Lukianoff’s new book Freedom from Speech, and the review of same by Allen Mendenhall at Liberty. Lukianoff heads the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which fights the good fight for civil rights on campus. His book, says Mendenhall, is “a vigorous and cogent refutation of the increasingly popular notion that people have a right not to be offended.”

Lukianoff agrees that hypersensitivity to controversial speech in private institutions, too often punished by private sanctions that are arbitrary and unjust, does not per se violate anyone’s First Amendment rights. It nonetheless undermines the cultural tolerance needed for open discussion. “Only through the rigorous filtering mechanisms of longstanding deliberation and civil confrontation can good ideas be sorted from the bad. Only by maintaining disagreement at a rhetorical and discursive level can we facilitate tolerance and understanding and prevent the imposition of ideas by brute force.”

That is to say, cultural values and political values are not two isolated realms. One influences the other.

Who can disagree? I wouldn’t dare.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Video: You’re not the boss of me

The first in a series, “Common Sense Principles”: