http://thisiscommonsense.com Citizens in Charge Foundation presents Common Sense with Paul Jacob Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:22:37 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Late in life, St. Augustine characterized his youthful, wayward ways in a droll prayer: “Lord, make me chaste and celibate — but not yet!” Today, politicians of both parties understand the sentiment. On Monday of last week, President Barack Obama unveiled his budget to Congress with this nicely worded maxim: “We ... http://thisiscommonsense.com/?p=5702 I wish 9-year-old Marko Calasan had the office next to mine. Then when something goes wrong with my computer -- through no fault of my own, I assure you -- I could yell "Hey Marko, come fix this!" Alas, he lives in Macedonia. The CNET website has a nice profile of ... http://thisiscommonsense.com/?p=5701 After Scott Brown captured the U.S. Senate seat Ted Kennedy had occupied for decades, we heard two different views of the event. One said the surprise victory of an obscure state senator over the anointed Democrat in such a Democrat-leaning state had much to do with growing antagonism to runaway federal ... http://thisiscommonsense.com/?p=5700 Could House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have spilled the beans, laid bare her party's vision of economic growth in one offhand utterance? A terrible tragedy in impoverished Haiti. An earthquake. The scope of the damage staggers the imagination . . . and spurs outpourings of charitable aid from America, and across the ... http://thisiscommonsense.com/?p=5699 Advocates of campaign finance regulation, what George Will calls "speech rationing," say letting corporations -- including non-profit corporations -- spend unlimited money on political speech corrupts democracy. Actually, muzzling speech is what corrupts democracy and the point of it: i.e., to protect our freedoms, including freedom of speech. Protecting these freedoms is ... http://thisiscommonsense.com/?p=5698 Last week, two major speeches caught our attention. Barack Obama wagged his finger at the Supreme Court and orated in front of Congress. He said the state of the union is sound. Apple's Steve Jobs gave the other big speech, presenting the new iPad, a portable device that accesses the Web, allows ... http://thisiscommonsense.com/?p=5697 The age of the glittery mirror ball and loud, simple dance music is over. According to Ian Schrager, as recorded in Vanity Fair’s recent oral history of disco, it “wasn’t AIDS that made the nightclub business difficult. Government regulations did it in.” Schrager and his partner set up their first nightclub, ... http://thisiscommonsense.com/?p=5696 Television theologian Pat Robertson attributes Haiti’s current woes to a two-century-old pact: [S]omething happened a long time ago in Haiti. . . . They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, “We ... http://thisiscommonsense.com/?p=5695 If you can’t pay your bill at a restaurant, management may set you to washing dishes to cover the cost of your meal. Or so it’s said — I’ve never heard of it actually happening. Clean dishes are a must for serving food to paying customers; restaurants simply can’t wait around ... http://thisiscommonsense.com/?p=5694 Haiti has suffered horrific devastation. It didn’t have to. There was no way to prevent the 7.0 earthquake itself. But estimates of as many as 200,000 dead? That didn’t have to happen. Economist Donald Boudreaux recalls that in 1989, an equally powerful quake hit the San Francisco Bay area. It caused lots ... http://thisiscommonsense.com/?p=5693 Just when you thought nothing could stop Congress from sucking another sector of American life and our economy into the dripping maw of government, a spark of hope. Scott Brown, the Republican candidate for Massachusetts’s open U.S. Senate seat, won. I’m sure I’d disagree with many of the senator elect’s opinions. ... http://thisiscommonsense.com/?p=5692 Over at Amazon.com there’s a discussion of Oscar Wilde’s essay “The Soul of Man Under Socialism.” Some visitors decry the horrors of socialism enabled by such wishful thinking. Others say, “Hey, be fair! The calamitous ‘socialist’ regimes of the 20th century aren’t what Wilde was talking about!” But not many volunteer for ... http://thisiscommonsense.com/?p=5689 When friends of mine started up the “tea party” protests last year, I wondered: Could large numbers of American take the common-sense, freedom point of view and really run with it? I had hopes. But for Democrat congressional leaders, and some in the media, there was mostly fear and loathing — ... http://thisiscommonsense.com/?p=5688 Our ability to vote directly on the chief issues of our time is a vital political power, a right. I think so, and most Americans agree. But for some reason some of those elected to “represent” us don’t. Last year, Missouri State Rep. Mike Parson introduced legislation to restrict petitioning to ... http://thisiscommonsense.com/?p=5687 For years, politicians and activists have declared that we have a right to medical care. Not a right to freely contract for medical services, mind you, but a fundamental right to medical care. This assertion serves as the moral force behind those pushing for nationalized, universal health care legislation. But ... http://thisiscommonsense.com/?p=5686 After years of abetting Chinese censorship, Google may finally take a stand. The world leader in Internet search may no longer be willing to help impose the Red regime’s repressive measures. The last straw? A cyber attack on Google that originated in China and targeted email accounts of Chinese dissidents. ... http://thisiscommonsense.com/?p=5685 State and local governments have been hard hit by the current depression. What to do? Cut. But where? Well, legislatures could simply repeal all increases and programs starting with the most recent, going back month by month, year by year to nix spending until total spending dips below current revenue. Legislatures around ... http://thisiscommonsense.com/?p=5684 You don’t need to commit violence to conduct a large, effective public protest of perceived injustice. The many Tea Party demonstrations against our federal government’s latest socialist excesses prove that. But what if violent and nonviolent protests are equated in the minds of peace keepers? In Reason magazine, journalist Radly Balko reports ... http://thisiscommonsense.com/?p=5683 You reap what you sow. That’s the lesson being taught to developers in Ozark, Missouri. A few years ago, a company called Hagerman New Urbanism benefited from Ozark’s use of eminent domain power to trample on the property rights of local citizens. The city shoved residents off their property. Hagerman got ... http://thisiscommonsense.com/?p=5682 Can somebody sue you for making something wonderful that might hurt somebody else who uses your product carelessly? Of course. This is America, land of the Bill of Rights, mom, apple pie, Chevrolet . . . and outrageous litigation. Some suits are sound, sure. But, on top of those you’ve got your ... http://thisiscommonsense.com/?p=5681