Common Sense, 1776

The cauſe of America it in a great meaſure the cauſe of all mankind. ...

[excerpts]

Society is produced by our wants, and government, by our wickedneſs.

Society in every ſtate is a bleſſing, but government even in its beſt ſtate is but a neceſſary evil; in its worſt ſtate an intolerable one; for when we ſuſſer, or are expoſed to the ſame miſeries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting, that we furniſh the means by which we ſuſſer. Goyernment, like dreſs, is the badge of loſt innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradice. For were the impulſes of conſcience clear, uniform, and irreſiſtibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the caſe, he finds it neceſſary to ſurrender up a part of his property to furniſh means for the protection of the reſt; and this he is induced to do by the ſame prudence which in every other caſe, adviſes him out of two evils to chuſe the leaſt. Wherefore, ſecurity being the true deſign and end of government, it unanſwerably follows, that whatever form thereof appears moſt likely to inſure it to us, with the leaſt expenſe and greateſt benefit, is preferable to all others.

But Britain is the parent country, ſay ſome. Then the more ſhame upon her conduét. Even brutes do not devour their young, nor ſavages make war upon their families; wherefore the aſſertion, if true, turns to her reproach; but it happens not to be true, or only partly ſo, and the phraſe parent or mother country hath been jeſuitically adopted by the king and his paraſites, with a low papiſtical deſign of gaining an unfair bias on the credulous weakneſs of our minds. Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world hath been the aſylum for the perſecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe, Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is ſo far true of England, that the ſame tyranny which vrove the firſt emigrants trom home, purſues their deſcendants ſtill.

Even the diſtance at which the Almighty hath placed England and America, is a ſtrong and natural proof, that the authority of the one, over the other, was never the deſign of Heaven. The time likewiſe at which the continent was diſcovered, adds weight to the argument, and the manner in which it was peopled encreaſes the force of it. The reformation was preceded by the diſcovery of America, as if the Almighty gracioufly meant to open a ſanctuary to the perſecuted in future years, when home ſhould afford neither friendſhip nor ſafety.

Though I would carefully avoid giving unneceſſary offence, yet I am inclined to believe, that all thoſe who eſpouſe the doctrine of reconciliation, may be included within the following deſcriptions. Interested men, who are not to be truſted; weak men, who cannot ſee; prejudiced men, who will not ſee ; and a certain ſet of moderate men, who think better of the European world than it deſerves; and this laſt claſs, by an ill-judged deliberation, will be the cauſe of more calamities to this continent, than all the other three. ¶ It is the good fortune of many to live diſtant from the ſcene of ſorrow; the evil is not ſufficient brought to their doors to make them feel the precariouſneſs with which all American property is poſſeſſed.

Men of paſſive tempers look ſomewhat lightly over the offences of Britain, and ſtill hoping for the beſt, are apt to call out, “Come, come, we fhall be friends again, for all this.” But examine the paſſions and feelings of mankind, bring the doctrine of reconciliation to the touchſtone of nature, and then tell me, whether you can hereafter love, honour, and faithfully ſerve the power that hath carried fire and ſword into your land? If you cannot do all theſe, then are you only deceiving yourſelves, and by your delay bringing ruin upon poſterity. … Have you loſt a parent or a child, by their hands, and yourſelf the ruined and wretched ſurvivor? If you have not, then are you not a judge of thoſe who have. But if you have, and ſtill can ſhake hands with the murderers, then are you unworthy the name of huſband, father, friend, or lover, and whatever may be your rank or title in life, you have the heart of a coward, and the ſpirit of a ſycophant.

… there is ſomething very abſurd in ſuppoſing a continent to be perpetually governed by an iſland.

No man was a warmer wiſher for reconciliation than myſelf before the fatal nineteenth of April, 1775, but the moment the event of that day was made known, I rejected the hardened ſullen tempered Pharaoh of England forever; and diſdain the wretch, that with the pretended title of ғᴀᴛʜᴇʀ ᴏғ ʜɪs ᴘᴇᴏᴘʟᴇ can unfeelingly hear of their ſlaughter, and compoſedly ſleep with their blood upon his ſoul.

… the longer it is delayed the harder it will be to accompliſh.

The prefent ſtate of America is truly alarming to every man who is capable of reflection. Without law, without government, without any other mode of power than what is founded on, and granted by courteſy. Held together by an unexampled concurrence of ſentiment, which is nevertheleſs ſubject to change, and which every ſecret enemy is endeavouring to diſſolve, Our preſent condition is, Legiflation without law; wiſdom without a plan; a conſtitution without a name; and, what is ſtrangely affoniſhing, perfect Independance contending for Dependance. The inſtance is without a precedent; the caſe never exiſted before; and who can tell what may be the event? The property of no man is ſecure in the preſent unbraced ſyſtem of things. The mind of the multitude is left at random, and ſeeing no fixed object before them, they purſue ſuch as fancy. or opinion ſtarts. Nothing is criminal; there is no ſuch thing as treaſon; wherefore, every one thinks himfelf at liberty to act as he pleaſes.

We ought to reflect, that there are three different ways, by which an independancy can hereafter be effected; and that one of thoſe three, will one day or other, be the fate of America, viz. By the legal voice of the people in Congreſs; by a military power; or by a mob: It may not always happen that our ſoldiers are citizens, and the multitude a body of reaſonable men; virtue, as I have already remarked, is not hereditary, neither is it perpetual. Should an independancy be brought about by the firſt of thoſe means, we have every opportunity and every encouragement before us, to form the nobleſt pureſt conſtitution on the face of the earth. We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A ſituation, ſimilar to the preſent, hath not happened ſince the days of Noah till now. The birthday of a new world is at hand, and a race of men perhaps as numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their portion of freedom from the event of a few months. The reflexion is awful – and in this point of view, how trifling, how ridiculous, do the little, paltry cavellings, of a few weak or intereſted men appear, when weighed againſt the buſineſs of a world.

… independance is the only Bᴏɴᴅ that can tye and keep us together. … Let the names of Whig and Tory be extinct; and let none other be heard among us, than thoſe of a geod citizen, an open and reſolute friend, and a virtuous ſupporter of the ʀɪɢʜᴛs of ᴍᴀɴᴋɪɴᴅ and of the FREE AND INDEPENDANT STATES OF AMERICA,

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APPENDIX – To the Repreſentatives of the Religious Society of the People called Quakers …

We fight neither for revenge nor conqueſt; neither from pride nor paſſion; we are not inſulting the world with our fleets and armies, nor ravaging the globe for plunder. Beneath the ſhade of our own vines are we attacked; in our own houſes, and in our own land, is the violence committed againſt us. We view our enemies in the character of highwaymen and houſebreakers, and having no defence for ourſelves in the civil law, are obliged to puniſh them by the military one, and apply the ſword, in the very caſe, where you have before now, applied the halter. ——— Perhaps we feel for the ruined and inſulted ſufferers in all and every part of the continent, with a degree of tenderneſs which hath not yet made its way into ſome of your boſoms. But be ye ſure that ye miſtake not the cauſe and ground of your Teſtimony. Call not coldneſs of ſoul, religion; nor put the Bigot in the place of the Chriſtian.

O ye partial miniſters of your own acknowledged principles. if the bearing arms be ſinful, the firſt going to war muſt be more ſo, by all the difference between wilful attack and unavoidable defence. Wherefore, if ye really preach from conſcience, and mean not to make a political hobbyhorſe of your religion, convince the world thereof, by proclaiming your doctrine to eur enemies, for they likewife bear ᴀʀᴍs. Give us proof of your ſincerity by publiſhing it at St. James’s, to the commanders in chief at Boſton, to the admurals and captains who are piratically ravaging our coaſts, and to all the murdering miſcreants who are acting in authority under ʜɪᴍ whom ye profeſs to ſerve. … Ye would tell the Royal Wretch his ſins, and warn him of eternal ruin. Ye would not ſpend your partial invectives againſt the injured and the infulte only, but, like faithful miniſters, would cry aloud and ſpare none. Say not that ye are perſecuted, neither endeavour to make us the authors of that reproach, which, ye are bringing upon yourſelves; for we teſtify unto all men, that we do not complain againſt you becauſe ye are Quakers, but becauſe ye pretend to be and are ɴᴏᴛ Quakers.

Alas! it ſeems by the particular tendency of ſome part of your teſtimony, and other parts of your conduct, as if, all ſin was reduced to, and comprehended in, the act of bearing arms, and that by the people only.

Illegal aliens stealing work in 1991

From Breakdown, by Bill Pronzini (1991): 

Somewhere around a million illegal aliens from Mexico and Central America now live in California, thousands of them in San Francisco’s Mission District and in Daly City farther west; many have no jobs and no way of getting legitimate work without green cards from the Immigration and Naturalization Service. So the drive-by halls were born, and have flourished in the city and throughout the state.

On a dozen or more street corners in the Mission, illegals congregate early every morning, like cattle in pens, waiting for employers on the prowl for cheap labor to come driving along. A painting contractor, for instance, goes to a drive-by hall that specializes in illegals with painting skills; picks as many men as he needs for a particular job, or series of jobs, and hauls them to and from the sites; and pays them wages far below union scale – in cash, always, so there is no record of their employment. If the employer is a plumbing contractor, or runs a gardening business, or owns a factory that makes containers and requires the services of multipurpose workers, he goes to the street corner where his particular brand of illicit labor has assembled.

The police can’t do much about the drive-by halls except to disperse crowds of men that sometimes become unruly; they don’t have the jurisdiction. The INS has enacted a law carrying stiff penalties for employers caught hiring illegals, but they’re too understaffed and overworked to effectively enforce it. So both the illegals and the cheap-labor bosses make out fine: One side avoids the need for applications, interviews, union cards, and green cards; the other side avoids paying union wages, as well as withholding tax and FICA to the state and federal governments. But the big loser isn’t the IRS or the Franchise Tax Board or the INS. It’s the citizen and legitimate union worker, no matter what his race or job skill, who can’t find work to support his family because the positions have all been filled by illegals.

The real villains are the greedy employers.

Presque Isle, Maine, celebrates the nation’s 250th all year, causing pain and suffering amongst the righteous

Presque Isle, Maine, has a full year of events to celebrate the 250th birthday of our nation, organized primarily by Kim Smith, the town's resource development and public information officer. The New York Times wrote about it, nicely conveying the enthusiasm despite a mocking headline for the hate bait. And here indeed are some of the killjoy comments, miserable in their TDS and betraying an utter disgust for democracy and their fellow Americans. Back in January, the Bangor Daily News had written about it.

SJH · Portland, OR:

One way to “celebrate“ our country’s 250th is to get politically active and help restore, democracy, and integrity to federal governance. If you’re ready to a member of the boots-on-the-ground effort, then Google “how to help the Democrats win the midterms” and sign up for active political duty. Then choose wisely, depending on where you live and who you are.

If you live in a blue or red area, then consider helping out in swing states and closely contested elections. Organizations like Swingleft, Movementvote, and Voteforward can help you direct your efforts to best effect. But if you live in a pink or purple area than consider getting active locally. Contact your state/local Democratic committee and ask how you can help. There are some very good books on running and winning local elections.

No matter what you choose, tell your people and ask them to help. And post your experiences on social media sites like Facebook and Reddit. There are seldom-voting Democrats, independents, Newbies, even patriotic Republicans who need to be prompted to vote and vote blue in these midterms. Our country is in a deep crisis. It needs you. Now. Please help. It’s the right time and the right thing to do.

Daj · Bellvue, Colorado:

Sounds like she has gone all in and managed not to politicize our 250th. I however will be mourning the steady demise of all that is decent and good about America.

Robyn · Out west:

Perhaps we could concentrate on returning to democracy for all. I don’t see anything to celebrate on the direction our country is going at present.

W · U.S.:

Good for them! I’m looking forward to our small town’s celebration as well. I certainly will not be watching our President celebrating himself.

Proud Liberal · Netherlands:

I wish I could share in Ms. Smith’s enthusiasm, but the 250th anniversary of the founding of the US feels more like a wake than a celebration.

Eeryn · Florida:

This is interesting because I and so many others will not be celebrating at all.

Howards End: Excerpts

By all means subscribe to charities – subscribe to them largely – but don’t get carried away by absurd schemes of Social Reform. ... there is no Social Question – except for a few journalists who try to get a living out of the phrase. There are just rich and poor, as there always have been and always will be. Point me out a time when men have been equal ... Point me out a time when desire for equality has made them happier. No, no. You can’t. There always have been rich and poor. I’m no fatalist. Heaven forbid! But our civilization is moulded by great impersonal forces and there always will be rich and poor. You can’t deny it, and you can’t deny that, in spite of all, the tendency of civilization has on the whole been upward.

· · · · · 

Reaction against the Wilcoxes had eaten into her life until she was scarcely sane. … Paul had faded, but the magic of his caress endured. And where there is enjoyment of the past there may also be reaction – propagation at both ends. 

· · · · · 

London was but a foretaste of this nomadic civilisation which is altering human nature so profoundly, and throws upon personal relations a stress greater than they have ever borne before. Under cosmopolitanism, if it comes, we shall receive no help from the earth. Trees and meadows and mountains will only be a spectacle, and the binding force that they once exercised on character must be entrusted to Love alone. May Love be equal to the task!

· · · · · 

Hilton was asleep, or at the earliest, breakfasting. Leonard noticed the contrast when he stepped out of it into the country. Here men had been up since dawn. Their hours were ruled, not by a London office, but by the movements of the crops and the sun. That they were men of the finest type only the sentimentalists can declare. But they kept to the life of daylight. They are England’s hope. Clumsily they carry forward the torch of the sun, until such time as the nation sees fit to take it up. Half clodhopper, half board-school prig, they can still throw back to a nobler stock, and breed yeomen.

At the chalk pit a motor passed him. In it was another type, whom Nature favours – the Imperial. Healthy, ever in motion, it hopes to inherit the earth. It breeds as quickly as the yeoman, and as soundly; strong is the temptation to acclaim it as a super-yeoman, who carries his country’s virtue overseas. But the Imperialist is not what he thinks or seems. He is a destroyer. He prepares the way for cosmopolitanism, and though his ambitions may be fulfilled, the earth that he inherits will be grey.

· · · · · 

Howards End, E. M. Forster (1910)

“Daring and Dazzling” in LA

Macaulay (14 April 2026) comments:

As the article states, "ancient Greek sculptures, Indonesian batiks, old master paintings and midcentury automobiles presented on equal footing." Pretending that mediocre and trivial artworks are exactly as important as great and masterly artworks is the same tired, even exhausted, narrative that our worthless cultural institutions have been pushing for decades. 

It's entirely predictable that the feather-brained progressives in charge of LACMA would celebrate the elimination of all the frameworks and categories that allow for actual understanding of artwork in its specific historical context, in favor of an empty and meaningless "equality." 

It's why progressives are determined to eliminate all of the orders and structures that give life meaning and integrity -- [because] they stand in the way of "equality." Also not surprising that this lavish new building is simply a shapeless, ugly, concrete blob. 

What a pathetic and exhausted civilization.

Wind turbine diesel generators

At Genesal Energy, we have a strong international presence in the renewable energy sector, particularly in wind power projects. From the early stages of wind farm development, our generator sets have been part of the support system to ensure continuous operation in any contingency.

Wind farms are usually located in highly exposed areas. If the wind turbines stop generating electricity or disconnect from the grid, it is vital they can continue to orient themselves to prevent structural damage. This is where wind farm backup generators come into play, powering yaw and control systems when no supply is available.

 

These systems are not only used in emergencies. In many cases, wind turbine diesel generators are employed during wind farm commissioning, maintenance works, or as a stable power source for SCADA systems, hurricane-control systems, or communications.

We design each generator set individually to adapt to the environment, wind farm topology, electrical configuration, and customer requirements. In wind installations, the reliability of the auxiliary system is just as important as the main production.

See also: Dozens of giant turbines at Scots windfarms powered by diesel generators 

Democracy and humor are dying of the same disease

“Have Americans lost their sense of humor?” by Nicholas Lynch, The Spectator, December 22, 2025

Humor has become serious business. A nation of anxious primates trapped in a silicon casino of likes, retweets and dopamine-soaked drudgery, America is suffering from what the comedian Norm Macdonald called a “crisis of clapter.” Terrified of saying the wrong thing, needing punchlines to be spoon-fed – what was once the funniest place on Earth has become a tight-lipped, tongue-twisted society where jokes are rewarded with polite applause instead of genuine laughter. It’s the old stink of a well-mannered aristocracy, and very un-American indeed.

From his beginning, the ugly American – wild-eyed and rabble-rousing – rankled the Old World. A pandemonious lot of yahoos set loose upon a land of virgin forests and free-for-all plenty, Americans were insubordinate, with a sense of humor to match. As Matthew Arnold, disgusted by a people with too many kings and not enough crowns, wrote:

“If there be a discipline in which the Americans are wanting, it is the discipline of awe and respect … In truth everything is against distinction in America, and against the sense of elevation to be gained through admiring and respecting it … The addiction to “the funny man,” who is a national misfortune there, is against it.”

The tall tale – distinct enough to, for the first time, qualify as an original art form – gave shape to a new kind of nation. Unlike the satirical critiques of the British essay or the witty comedies of French theater, the American tall tale was funny without a point. It wasn’t social commentary. It didn’t exist to prove genius. It was laugh-at-me tomfoolery. As Mark Twain saw it: “To string incongruities and absurdities together in a wandering and sometimes purposeless way, and seem innocently unaware that they are absurdities, is the basis of the American art.”

Meant to be heard rather than read, the tall tale was a kind of story that – pretending not to know – brags big, falls flat, gets in its own way, speaks past the point, wastes the audience’s time and doubles back to waste it again, concealing its punchlines and playing dumb all the while. Twain contrasted this with the self-important European habit of advertising comedic effect with “whopping exclamation points” and explanations in parentheticals.

It was a “very depressing” thing, Twain explained, to find joy in the sublime, the beautiful, the useful and the orderly and yet be unable to find it in the incoherent, the elusive and the unexpected. The American sense of humor, in his view, was animated by a frank affinity for the imperfect, making sense of a people who preferred the patchwork pursuit of a more perfect union rather than the sterile fixity of a perfect one to start.

This democratic sense of humor was not some dainty old comedy of manners – a museum of wrongly-held forks, counterfeit airs and the thousand other fragile trinkets of aristocratic life, all such cultured amusements of a buttoned-up society where social climbing was a passion. No – the American creation was instead what historian Henry Steele Commager called “comedy of circumstance,” that made fun of every man, who “at one time or another aimed too high, adventured too boldly, boasted too loudly.” It mocked rich people like poor people, made fun of smart people in the same way as dumb people – because in the US no man is allowed to stay king. Only here was humor let off the leash, divorced from the polite understanding that jokes ought to leave the order intact. In Europe, mockery operated within a fixed aristocratic structure – as a pressure valve in a system not designed to change its fundamental hierarchy. Here, ridicule was integrated into a self-correcting democratic project – an informal mode of checks and balances powered by short memories, mixed company and freedom.

Monarchy, oligarchy, theocracy, Plato’s philosocracy – every way of government the human species has thought to design was, in the beginning, born of utopian aspirations; and in the end, kept alive with nothing less than first-rate hypocrisy. Believing we could perfect it all, we sought to codify a world without error – by purging its flaws, cleaning its mess and setting it all in stone. But in 1789, a new generation of men on a new continent chose to work with our flaws and use the mess and admit that our Constitution could not stay unamended forever.

Few of their ideas were original. Most of their genius took up no more than a dozen seats at Independence Hall. But so different was the character of all the men in Philadelphia and New York and Boston and Virginia from any nation of men so far conceived that the old idea of democracy, long trapped on paper, at last found a people funny enough to make it work. A people who laughed at pretension, heckled certainty and made a sport of nonconformity.

But now: a Botox-bleached nation of caped crusaders wearing noise-canceling headphones, deaf to anything but our own theme music and the imagined sound of unseen eggshells cracking beneath, Americans are slipping back into the Old World habits we once escaped. Democracy and humor are dying of the same disease.