This is Common Sense

Remember, remember the 5th of September, when jurors freed Penn of the knot. I know of no reason why Penn’s jurors’ treason should ever be forgot.

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is one of three governors who have honored September 5, officially, as Jury Rights Day. From her 2007 proclamation we learn that 338 years ago, in the trial of William Penn, his jury refused to convict him of violating England’s Conventicle Acts, despite clear evidence that he acted illegally by preaching a Quaker sermon.

In acquitting Penn, the jury acted against the judge’s explicit instructions, perhaps spurred by the judge’s own illegality, not allowing Penn to make a defense. So the judge threw the jurors in prison, on September 5th.

In my little ditty, my parody of the Guy Fawkes Day rhyme, I indicated Penn was in danger of hanging. I doubt that. It rhymes; that’s my excuse. But he was in danger of harsh imprisonment, at the very least, merely for gathering people so he could preach.

The jurors who resisted a bad law and a rogue judge risked a lot. But they not only freed Penn, who went on to found Pennsylvania, they established important principles to be found today in our Bill of Rights, and in the principle of jury nullification. They served justice by judging the law as well as the accused.

I know of no reason why Penn’s jurors’ “treason” should ever be forgot!

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Even the most careful athlete sometimes pulls a muscle. Does that mean that vigorous and sometimes even risky exercise is more dangerous than being a cordoned and cosseted couch potato?

Many of the gendarmes who oversee America’s playgrounds seem to think so. I don’t know how real the so-called “epidemic” of obesity is. (Is the fat infectious?) But it wouldn’t surprise me if kids banned from playing one “dangerous” game after another tend to accumulate more flab than when they were rambunctiously running around like they always used to do.

Even playing tag is outlawed in some places. Along with cops and robbers, monkey bars, and sliding into third base. Playground mats laid down to break possible falls are the latest terror. The sun sometimes makes them hot, and barefooted kids can burn their feet.

Playground activists are in an uproar over this latest bogus crisis. When are the canopies going up?

Philip Howard, the author of The Death of Common Sense: How Law is Suffocating America, says we’re teaching kids to be flabby in more ways than one. He notes that scrapes and bruises are one way “children learn their limits, and the need to take personal responsibility.”

Life is an inherently risky venture. You don’t learn to cope with those risks if you are never allowed to take even modest ones. And that’s dangerous.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that it is constitutionally okay for states and towns to grab property for pretty much any reason at all, citizens have been trying to prevent governments from doing so.

The track record is spotty. Officials and private interests who like to grab private property are aware of public outrage over the court’s decision. So they often support “protections” against eminent domain abuse with loopholes you could drive a truck through.

In a recent California election, two alleged property-protection measures were on the ballot. Proposition 98 was the real deal. Proposition 99 was the fake. Unfortunately, the phony measure was the one that passed. It was the measure that had by far the most advertising, being bankrolled (you guessed it) by land-grabbing special interests.

Friends of property rights can eventually try another ballot measure. Meanwhile, voters and elected officials in towns and counties can act independently to protect property owners, as the town council of Redding, California, has done. By a majority of three to two, the council voted to forbid officials from grabbing property just to flip it to another private owner.

Redding Councilman Ken Murray, who proposed the new law, says he wanted “to make it really hard for some future councilperson to willy-nilly take property from one person and give it to another just to jack up our revenue.”

Great move! Let’s hope it works.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Amy Oliver is a blogger after my own heart. In a post entitled “No taxation without information!” she reports that she is adopting the motto of a new campaign sponsored by the Sunshine Review.

The campaign promotes what Amy ironically calls a “crazy idea”: that taxpayers should know how government is spending their money.

To this end, the Sunshine Review, sponsored by the Sam Adams Alliance, is launching a collaborative “My Government” website. It aims to host Web pages on every city, county, school district, and state agency in all 50 states. Providing key information that governments should be making available already, but aren’t. (Speaking of full disclosure, I should probably admit that I’m a senior advisor with Sam Adams Alliance.)

Amy’s new mission is to persuade her town, Greeley, Colorado, her local school district, her county, and the state of Colorado to post their check registries on the Web in a searchable database. She wants to know where the money is going in precise detail — “not just from some annual report that breaks down a budget by category.” The check registries are already a matter of public record, but it can be cumbersome to gain access to them.

Amy thinks taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent. Also, of course, easy access to this information would allow citizens to take action if they spy expenditures that seem dubious or even downright dirty.

Good luck, Amy.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Governor Deval Patrick laid his cards on the table pretty plainly when he vetoed a home rule petition from the town of Amesbury, Massachussetts.

Had Patrick signed off, the town could have adopted tougher restrictions on the use of eminent domain than the state as a whole. In fact, the town would have banned the use of eminent domain to transfer property between private parties.

Patrick says he rejected the petition because of “significant opposition to this bill at the local level.”

That opposition certainly isn’t coming from property owners worried about developers trying to grab their land.

As for Amesbury voters, they passed the measure to submit this petition at the ballot box, and it was unanimously approved by the town council. Then it made it through the state legislature before reaching the governor’s desk. About a month before he vetoed it, Governor Patrick himself voiced support for the bill when he was in Amesbury.

Of course, the persons who want a free hand to grab property whenever they like are the ones who oppose the petition. These include the current Amesbury mayor, Thatcher Kezer, who says there’s “no need” for Amesbury to differ from the rest of the state when it comes to stomping on property owners.

Deval cites such opposition as if it could justify his contempt for Amesbury voters and their property rights. But politicians like Kezer will never voluntarily relinquish the power to rob their neighbors.

Unfortunately, that’s common sense.

I’m Paul Jacob.