I know people who are trying to set up their own countries. Folks at the Seasteading Institute, run by Milton Friedman’s grandson, Patri, are preparing for a floating civilization. But that scheme depends on homesteading the open sea.
Land would be easier, no?
Trouble is, there is not much land on the planet unclaimed by any modern state.
But there is at least one.
Which is where Suyash Dixit comes in. Mr. Dixit, described as an “Indian adventurer” at The Telegraph, “has declared himself the ruler of an unclaimed strip of land in North Africa and is encouraging interested parties to apply for citizenship,” writes Mark Molloy.
That “strip” of land (I’d call it a “patch,” since it looks like an irregular quadrilateral to me) is Bir Tawil. As a result of the vagaries of the British Empire’s map drawing and re-drawing efforts, and the subsequent push and pull of local politics, neither bordering nation (Egypt and Sudan) claims it as theirs.
Oops.
But their oops is Mr. Dixit’s opportunity. He hired a cab (paying a huge fare, he says) and travelled to and around the uninhabited region.
No one lives there. There is not much but desert sand and rock. But it is technically livable.
According to Dixit, the “ethics and rules” of ancient civilizations required that “to claim a land” one must “grow crops on it. I have added a seed and poured some water on it today. It is mine.” He calls Bir Tawil the Kingdom of Dixit, now, and has dubbed himself (à lá Game of Thrones?) “Suyash Dixit, first of my name.”
You can find him on Facebook as @KingSuyashDixit.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Hardy Johnson marked his 89th birthday by doing what he’s always doing, working as a cobbler at Custom Shoe Builders in Knoxville, Tennessee. His son, who manages the business that his dad founded in 1953, was out of town. The back orders had been piling up. And Johnson takes only one day off each week anyway.
In a profile for The Knoxville Focus, Steve Williams observes that many people make it to 89, but few “still work six days a week like Hardy . . . or on their birthday.”
Friends dropped by all week long, and on the day itself neighbors at Henson’s Automotive and Alignment swung by with cupcakes and coffee. Johnson also enjoys an ongoing sweet barter deal with the owner: Johnson supplies Steven Henson with shoe and other repair work, Henson supplies brake jobs and oil changes.
Henson testifies to the cobbler’s work ethic, saying he “can set my clock to Hardy every morning at 7:15 when he pulls into the parking lot. He’s the best neighbor I’ve ever had. He’s a great guy.”
Why didn’t Hardy Johnson take it easy on his birthday?
Maybe because doing work that he enjoys and does well is one of the things he’s celebrating as he enters his golden years. Maybe that — and being a great guy — is how you get to be 89 to begin with.
Not that he’s perfect. It doesn’t seem to bother him that his dog is an admitted Democrat.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Last Thursday, SpaceX successfully re-used a previously flown rocket to launch a payload into orbit.
Sure, NASA had re-cycled rocket parts before. That is, the U.S. space agency had recovered spent rockets.* But those were rebuilds.
SpaceX’s most recent triumph was to launch a “stage one” rocket that had gone into space before —and returned. Last April it delivered a payload to the International Space Station and then safely touched down vertically** — just like in 1950s sci-fi!
You could see the evidence: the weathered look of the rocket fuselage.
This Falcon 9 rocket not only placed its Luxembourg-owned SES-10 into orbit last week, it then returned — again! — to its ocean “drone ship” platform.
A new age in space commerce thereby hit a new landmark.
Or would that be “spacemark”?
Re-using a rocket is like how airlines re-use jet aircraft. Less waste, expense. Making the whole industry more viable. The technology and expertise to safely land and recover the rocket is astounding.
Alas, videocasting of the most amazing part of the effort, the landing and recovery of the Falcon 9 rocket, failed — noticeable by its lack in both the live Periscope feed and the YouTube archive. But we had seen that very same rocket land last April, onto SpaceX’s charmingly named droneship, Of Course I Still Love You.
Ocean mark? Drone mark? It hit the mark, whatever you call it.
Elon Musk, head of SpaceX, had every reason to breathe a sigh of relief, as well as engage in some apt exultation, after the mission.
We can, too. Space industry privatization and progress? Actually happening.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* The Space Shuttle was a different technology entirely, a re-usable spacecraft. What we are talking about today is the powerhouse stage-one booster rocket, like the old Saturn V that the Apollo program famously exploited.
** The Space Shuttle, remember, landed horizontally, like an airplane. Future re-usable manned spacecraft will no doubt do this. A private return-entry spacecraft, like Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShip Two, put into orbit by a re-usable Falcon 9 rocket, would be the next logical new achievement. Though, obviously, these are different companies with tech that is not, I think, meant to work together.
Yesterday marked a solemn anniversary. Seventy-four years ago — on Feb. 22, 1943 — three German students at the University of Munich were tried for treason by the Nazis, convicted and then executed via the guillotine, all in one day.
Days earlier, Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie had been caught distributing a leaflet at the university, which read: “In the name of German youth, we demand restitution by Adolf Hitler’s state of our personal freedom, the most precious treasure we have, out of which he has swindled us in the most miserable way.”
Hans had in his pocket a draft of another leaflet, in Christoph Probst’s handwriting. That seventh leaflet, never distributed, led to Christoph’s arrest and execution, along with Hans and Sophie.
The three were part of a small group of students who wrote and distributed leaflets under the name The White Rose — a symbol of purity standing against the monstrous evil of the Third Reich. The leaflets decried the crimes of National Socialism, including the mass murder of Jews, and urged Germans to rise up.
Three more members were later executed: Willi Graf, Alex Schmorell and Professor Kurt Huber. Another eleven were imprisoned.
Their resistance was ultimately futile, unsuccessful . . . but not pointless. They would not remain cogs in the killing machine that had taken the most advanced society in the world to the depths of depravity. They took a stand against what George Orwell later characterized as “a boot stamping on a human face, forever.”
Let’s remember, and say, “Never again.” And have the courage to make those words true.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
N.B. For an excellent account of The White Rose, consult the aptly titled A Noble Treason, by Richard Hanser. See also Jacob Hornberger’s The White Rose — A Lesson in Dissent. The Orwell quotation is from the dystopian novel 1984.
In the Show-Me State, an attorney is showing us government held accountable.
He leaves folks inspired about their freedom, wondering . . . who was that masked attorney?
Well, no. Against my advice, he won’t wear a mask to court, nor leave behind silver bullets. (He says they’re too expensive.)
David Roland is the Man from Freedom — er, the Freedom Center of Missouri, co-founded with his wife Jenifer in 2010. Every day, they defend “individual liberty and constitutionally limited government.”
I first heard about the Center when Dave Roland defended two Girl Scouts being harassed by the City of Hazelwood. “People would assume you have the right to have a lemonade or cookie stand in your yard,” he explained. “Here we have a city that says not only is it illegal, but you can’t even get a permit to do it.”
Last January, Roland won a verdict preventing St. Louis County officials from banning third party and independent candidates from special election ballots.
Earlier this month, our crusader* achieved another big victory, this time against the East Missouri [Drug] Task Force, which had been violating the open records law by blocking public attendance at its public meetings.
Yet, the judge failed to award the Center attorney’s fees. Hey, even super-heroes and super-lawyers have to pay the rent.
Let’s form “a posse”: click here† to support the work of the Freedom Center of Missouri with our own silver bullets, coins . . . or just pull out your plastic. Please.
The Man and Woman from Freedom will thank you (and so do I).
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* Darn it, if Dave doesn’t refuse to don the cape, too.
† This link goes to the Freedom Center’s main page — the PayPal donation button is at right.
