Paul Jacob is president of Citizens in Charge, a non-profit, non-partisan group working to protect and expand voter initiative rights, and the Citizens in Charge Foundation, a charitable foundation conducting research on the initiative process, educating the public and litigating to defend the petition rights of Americans. "The best way to assure freedom of expression, no matter where it may be threatened," Pulitzer-prize winning columnist, Paul Greenberg, wrote recently, "would be to have an army of utterly determined Paul Jacobs fighting for it." For more than a decade, Paul was the term limits movement's leading voice, running U.S. Term Limits, the nation's largest such group. For his work to bring term limits to Congress, columnist Robert Novak good-naturedly called Jacob "the most hated man in Washington." Campaigning for term limits, as well as for spending caps, property rights measures and candidate ballot access, Paul has been involved in over 175 statewide petition drives. Currently, Paul Jacob hosts Common Sense, an online, radio, and print opinion program, which reaches tens of thousands of e-mail subscribers and is aired daily by more than 125 radio stations nationwide. Paul writes a weekly column for Townhall.com that appears each Sunday. His writing has also been featured in USA Today, The Washington Times, The New York Daily News, Roll Call, Human Events, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Examiner and other publications. He has appeared on numerous television programs and is a consistent guest on talk radio. Paul has been named "a rising star in politics" by Campaigns & Elections magazine, received the Society for Individual Liberty's "Phoenix Award" for "contributions to the advancement of liberty in America," and was dubbed one of "The Best and the Rightest" by National Journal. Paul lives with his wife Rhonda and their three children in Woodbridge, Virginia. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob http://media.townhall.com/TownHall/icons/TH-feed-icon-128x128.gif http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob TownHall.com, Where your opinion counts. 128 Copyright (c) 2012 Townhall.com, A Salem Communications Web. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED jim.dearras@townhall.com (Jim De Arras) Sun, 20 May 2012 04:08:25 GMT Sun, 20 May 2012 04:08:25 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ When times get tough, the tough . . . switch currencies. A fascinating report by Eric Garland in The Atlantic tells of the upswing in “local currencies.” In the United Kingdom, the Brixton Pound is... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2012/05/20/the_next_thing_in_money c9484b4d-4c7a-4631-9599-c7c1bbba8d3c Sun, 20 May 2012 04:08:25 GMT Republicans are under attack from the highest towers of official Washington — the gnashing of chattering-class teeth now even more pronounced following Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock’s decisive victory... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2012/05/13/the_elephant_crazy_like_a_fox cc1c51d7-30ff-4cbb-801b-21970926f725 Sun, 13 May 2012 04:00:55 GMT “The best,” Milton Friedman liked to remind us, “is often the enemy of the good.” Last week I expected one of my readers to cite the great economist against me. On Wednesday I had offered... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2012/05/06/bad_to_worst 716e8942-ce29-469d-93b0-668e4b222fd7 Sun, 06 May 2012 04:01:18 GMT The first rule of No Fight Club is that there is no fight. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) went to the well of the U.S. House of Representatives to indignantly declare, “There is absolutely no fight.” Mr.... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2012/04/29/no_fight_club 3477d23b-bed9-443e-a451-ea167e322311 Sun, 29 Apr 2012 04:00:28 GMT It’s Earth Day, so . . . half a cheer. Though I appreciate the pagan holidays as much as the next fellow (Arbor Day, Independence Day, Halloween — all good fun), may I express some worry over those... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2012/04/22/rationally_green 1eee9331-6cd1-4b9f-8b77-00b0c7021ec2 Sun, 22 Apr 2012 04:00:30 GMT Sometimes men should shut up and be good listeners. Especially when the issue is about women. What do men know? Look, I’ll be the first guy to plead guilty for my gender, that we don’t know anything... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2012/04/15/shut_up_and_listen c63ada5f-9e7c-466e-8264-b07f1a452b96 Sun, 15 Apr 2012 04:00:29 GMT When you hear the word “unprecedented,” reach for your . . . dictionary. But when you hear someone say we should be “petrified” of “democracy,” what do you reach for,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2012/04/08/nonsense_precedented_and_petrified 3be593ca-befa-4878-80c5-fee99192d247 Sun, 08 Apr 2012 13:00:00 GMT It’s April Fools’ Day, and who better to celebrate it than our federal governors? To help us prepare for the holiday, The Washington Post ran an article, last week, headlined, “If you’re... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2012/04/01/365days_a_year_fools 46de4656-8de0-446c-b58c-961679216fde Sun, 01 Apr 2012 04:00:16 GMT A young man was shot dead by a neighborhood watch captain a month ago in Sanford, Florida, a town I’ve only driven through during a vacation or two. The particular facts of the case, at least as they’ve... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2012/03/25/another_skittlesrelated_death 26f84d68-e43f-4b71-ad77-b9d273e05eba Sun, 25 Mar 2012 04:00:07 GMT A man murders 16 innocent people. Yet, I can’t help but feel sorry for him. The “him” in this case is Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, a husband and father of two. The 38-year-old signed up to serve in the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2012/03/18/diving_for_pearls e072e1f1-1c58-4897-ba95-f226be839e2e Sun, 18 Mar 2012 16:53:17 GMT The light bulb serves as the symbol for invention, for that Eureka! of inspiration. It seems somehow fitting that Congress has slated the Edison filament bulb for extinction. Socialism is the promotion of stasis;... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2012/03/11/another_forcedinnovation_fiasco df5e3e4a-6f64-4052-bbb0-a7e7a765e875 Sun, 11 Mar 2012 05:09:44 GMT Must the public square be so sordid? The political circus over government-mandated health insurance coverage of contraceptives burst out of the Big Top last week, when Rush Limbaugh called 30-year old,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2012/03/04/tis_a_pity_hes_a_boor 2de713f4-c836-436c-ad20-18f36e788746 Sun, 04 Mar 2012 05:00:32 GMT Venture capitalist Eric X. Li, in an op-ed for The New York Times, “Why China’s Political Model Is Superior,” credits the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre with producing the “stability” that... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2012/02/26/be_like_china 795c1527-c8e2-46cf-823c-02bcf82a0cdb Sun, 26 Feb 2012 05:00:37 GMT Congress finally acted in bipartisan fashion this past week, extending the 2 percent payroll tax cut through the rest of 2012. President Obama praised the effort, proclaiming, “It is amazing what happens when... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2012/02/19/our_world_this_week 7c1d8885-c321-4bf3-b44d-abc05443c99b Sun, 19 Feb 2012 05:00:50 GMT “No Child Left Behind.” That’s the stated policy of our nationalized, near-monopoly public school system. The slogan is the usual grandiose utopian mumbo-jumbo we’ve come to expect from... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2012/02/12/public_school_privilege 07b24622-d0cc-4cec-8f0a-54e474b53463 Sun, 12 Feb 2012 14:24:35 GMT In election result after election result, poll after poll — whether Republican, Democrat or independent; male or female; black, white, yellow, red or green — Americans by large margins want term limits for... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2012/02/05/the_flyover_states_stinger 2c2ce291-235b-4609-8cbb-317f02d091a4 Sun, 05 Feb 2012 05:00:30 GMT “Life,” my parents often told me, “isn’t fair.” But President Barack Obama isn't so negative: yes it can be fair. “We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2012/01/29/the_fickle_finger_of_fairness 26a8b6ba-b18a-47d9-822c-54290603a221 Sun, 29 Jan 2012 13:45:20 GMT More than a million Wisconsinites signed a petition circulated by Democrats to recall Republican Governor Scott Walker. Or, perhaps several folks signed the recall hundreds of thousands of times. It is very... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2012/01/22/the_right_to_recall_and_in_wisconsin_the_wrong 12feac41-58b1-4b49-9b7c-708a4b35ce32 Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:00:32 GMT Exceptions test the rule. Ron Paul is an exception. We might have to revise some rules. One rule in politics is: Don’t obsess about arcana unfamiliar to voters; stick to issues they care about. Ron... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2012/01/15/ron_paul_was_right 4a4689b9-b535-4529-94ea-a7ac5c242063 Sun, 15 Jan 2012 19:43:26 GMT Promises, promises. Politicians love to make ’em. But who has to fulfill those promises, and how? The tendency to rely upon political assurances without establishing workable, reasonable plans and... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2012/01/01/pensions_and_promises_and_perfidy f1cf247f-94bb-409a-8e95-b21cdc1e95e5 Sun, 01 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT There’s a big difference between the U.S. Congress passing legislation and a hustler playing three-card Monte on a city street: No citizen is forced to hand money over to the street hustler. Yesterday, in... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/12/18/washingtons_threecard_monte ec2552fe-b9c2-42e7-bf5a-60ace5843e9d Sun, 18 Dec 2011 05:00:35 GMT One hates to disagree with accomplished professionals. And yet it’s obvious that the experts of this great Age of the Accredited Professional (AAP) have really blown it. They assured us that they could manage the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/12/11/reading_list_for_the_end_of_an_age 0864a288-4c9b-49a5-9a56-7c1285cfbadc Sun, 11 Dec 2011 16:05:24 GMT Scientific theories cannot be confirmed, an eminent philosopher of science has argued; they can only be falsified. But facts can be confirmed. And here’s a fact about a famous (now infamous) social... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/12/04/nonscience,_a_cautionary_tale a7875847-e897-441a-997b-6c57327fe885 Sun, 04 Dec 2011 05:00:23 GMT Not everything we are taught in school is accurate. In school, as in the papers, when truth and legend vie with each other, too often the legend wins out. Take Thanksgiving. I was taught that it was all about... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/11/27/beyond_thanksgiving 5a73f371-f903-48ab-8b63-f95133f4ab30 Sun, 27 Nov 2011 05:00:23 GMT Nothing speaks to the out-of-control nature of government more loudly and clearly than the lavish pension benefits promised to public employees. The extravagance centers on their underfunded nature: The pensions’... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/11/20/benefits_for_the_few,_bankruptcy_for_the_many 5b174599-7639-4e56-8243-bfc802048356 Sun, 20 Nov 2011 16:26:18 GMT President Barack Obama is not a Muslim; he is not foreign-born; and he’s not taxing Christmas! Glad we cleared that up. The president is, however, taxing Christmas trees. Or, at least, his... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/11/13/the_usda-approved_christmas_tree_cartel 10d88b6a-20bc-4089-a301-ef8b39c11b53 Sun, 13 Nov 2011 05:00:09 GMT Has the country gone mad? No need to answer; the question is rhetorical. (In other words, I know the answer, too.) According to the Bureau of Labor, 14 million Americans together make up our dismal national unemployment... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/10/30/occupied_with_jobs,_jobs,_jobs 2d8d037e-af7d-4375-a889-497cef1fc635 Sun, 30 Oct 2011 04:00:53 GMT While Californians recently celebrated the centennial of their state’s full-bodied system of citizen initiative and referendum, the Associated Press pushed a story headlined, “Corporations, wealthy dominate... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/10/23/do_corporations_dominate_statewide_ballots 01e8e7fb-57d1-4d75-bc59-a8ac1e792000 Sun, 23 Oct 2011 04:00:06 GMT My week began with a celebration: The centennial of California’s initiative process. I wrote about it at Common Sense, the daily commentary I’ve penned since 1999 (you can sign up for the email... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/10/16/the_one-in-a-million_problem ad07aea7-b7d2-4f5a-a8b6-2b316245642b Sun, 16 Oct 2011 04:00:09 GMT “Rush Limbaugh’s Occupy Wall St. Rant Proves The Protesters Are Winning,” claims Politicususa.com, a blog boasting “Real Liberal Politics — No Corporate Money. No Masters.” On Friday,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/10/09/occupied_america d8224785-3344-4167-a217-5db8b305743a Sun, 09 Oct 2011 14:33:24 GMT Are Republicans mean-spirited, blood-thirsty, evil? Lawrence O’Donnell thinks so. The host of “The Last Word” on MSNBC — that ever-so-GOP-friendly and fair-minded network — argues that... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/10/02/the_soulless_opposition e8e7fcc1-eccc-459e-b5a1-9f09c0147495 Sun, 02 Oct 2011 04:00:06 GMT What fools we were to revolt against King George! Instead of installing a constitutional republic with democratic checks on government, we could have found a wise philosopher king or an enlightened House of Lords to... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/09/25/think_longer 7c1d28d6-721c-46d9-98f9-95d58bd6a6b2 Sun, 25 Sep 2011 04:00:48 GMT Question authority. Usually taken as advice to doubt, why not take the slogan literally? Whether you harbor niggly little suspicions or a big fat, full-form dubiety, always ask questions. Probe. And direct those queries... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/09/18/the_authority_for_questions 794e2864-55f4-45ec-839c-1f48d612599a Sun, 18 Sep 2011 04:29:16 GMT California State Senator Loni Hancock calls it “good government.” You decide. On the last day of California’s legislative session — a paradoxical event combining the horror of horse-trading... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/09/11/an_attack_on_good_government bab9e664-b936-4fb6-a6e2-f69f5efefb9a Sun, 11 Sep 2011 04:00:33 GMT A memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr., was unveiled recently in Washington, D.C. Derided, in his day, for being an “outside agitator,” King persevered, and in so doing helped right a long history of wrong,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/09/04/outside_agitators cc1e7923-3cd3-4773-84cf-06241d03ccda Sun, 04 Sep 2011 04:00:00 GMT The flag and the Great Seal of my home state, Virginia, feature the Roman goddess Virtus holding a spear and a sword, standing tall with her foot on the neck of a fallen tyrant. Below this is inscribed the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/08/28/sic_semper_tyrannis 86ed741b-01cb-4e9a-820a-1919f1e6f4ad Sun, 28 Aug 2011 04:00:26 GMT Billionaire Warren Buffett created a stir last week, writing in the New York Times, “My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress.” “It’s time for our... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/08/21/a_billionaires_mouth_where_his_money_isnt b4be64d5-0796-405c-9d0f-483bb1ab67c2 Sun, 21 Aug 2011 04:00:14 GMT Yesterday’s front-page Washington Post headline screamed: “Proposal to slash horse & buggy jobs blasted by unions.” The Post went on to discuss a plan by horse-and-buggy management to “lay... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/08/14/to_go_postal_or_not_to_go_postal 0efba0ae-e333-476e-9e92-3ece32d44722 Sun, 14 Aug 2011 04:00:20 GMT Early last week, insider Republican and CNN columnist David Frum lashed out at the GOP’s Tea Party wing, writing: “You can’t save the system by destroying the system.” I responded on This is Common... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/08/07/rogue_government,_usa 4a08bb17-bf57-4d4a-b5f1-eecb4112a6fa Sun, 07 Aug 2011 04:00:57 GMT In the Dr. Seuss tale, the Grinch kept pressing himself, “I must find some way to keep Christmas from coming!” Then, the Grinch “got a wonderful awful idea.” The same thing happened last week in... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/07/31/crying_fire_in_a_crowded_democracy 8100243e-555c-4111-9ccd-95ea7107f1cd Sun, 31 Jul 2011 04:00:08 GMT It’s tedious to discuss the federal government: one soon runs out of synonyms for “spineless,” “reckless” and “out-of-control.” But as the clock ticks on world fiscal thermonuclear... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/07/24/our_two_cents bd1030d0-a607-49c0-b953-3c7a551d00b6 Sun, 24 Jul 2011 04:00:39 GMT Can you name five formerly poor countries that have grown rich through wealth transfers from more economically advanced nations? No? Okay, then just name one. Still stumped? As you probably suspect, not a... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/07/17/un-economics b65950c5-9265-4417-887d-6d5feacddfb5 Sun, 17 Jul 2011 14:16:07 GMT In a Wall Street Journal profile of Michele Bachmann, last month, the Minnesota congresswoman claimed to adore economist Ludwig von Mises. She said she liked nothing better than to take a Mises book with her to the be http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/07/10/beached_economists 0f321d79-b93a-4486-abe5-9d8d646d12de Mon, 11 Jul 2011 00:21:14 GMT …and to the refrigerator for which it stands, one cooling unit, under electric power, indivisible from the side by side freezer, with cold drinks and frozen TV dinners for all. It seems silly to pledge... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/07/03/i_pledge_allegiance_to_my_refrigerator_warrant e9c147b9-8b4e-4ea0-94f6-e2006825ebcc Sun, 03 Jul 2011 04:00:28 GMT The camera eye is not minatory. It is not, by itself, menacing, or evil. It merely aims, focuses, and (if the mechanisms behind it are sound) records. And yet, in some contexts, it seems alien, like the red orb of... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/06/27/transparency_and_totalitarianism 96aa7f30-6567-4e58-831f-aac3c9e0a0d0 Mon, 27 Jun 2011 04:00:01 GMT What do you call a “representative government” that enjoys the approval of less than one in four of the people it is charged with representing? Unrepresentative. In California, legislators... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/06/19/unrepresentative_government 73a2cc26-f0bd-4ff4-911d-9c5ca86c660e Sun, 19 Jun 2011 04:00:19 GMT The Weiner is starting to make sense. He — that is, Anthony Weiner, Democratic congressmen from New York — has found the problem. It’s him. He’s a bad guy. So, he’s seeking... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/06/12/help_for_the_lascivious 3a9067bf-9f5b-4452-bd32-8c69dd77a2a8 Sun, 12 Jun 2011 04:00:42 GMT Savannah Guthrie is awfully cute. Smart, too. Not as cute or smart as my missus (by a long shot — don’t try to cause trouble), but still. Last Thursday, on Guthrie’s second-to-last day on... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2011/06/05/gutting_it_out 23fdec3c-fbee-477a-abd2-2fd99f318c9a Sun, 05 Jun 2011 04:01:39 GMT