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‘Common Sense’ at 250, by John Derbyshire – Brown Pelican Society of Lousiana

‘Common Sense’ at 250, by John Derbyshire

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Paine-with-his-Common-Sense. Digitally restored and colorized William Sharp engraving of Thomas Paine from a portrait painted by George Romney. (image from: Alethian51, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

By John Derbyshire, Chronicle, February 2026

John Derbyshire is a writer, journalist, and mathematician living on Long Island, New York. He’s written for VDARE, The American Conservative, Chronicles, The New Criterion, The Washington Times, and The National Review.

Idly browsing social media is not a total waste of time. Now and then, some post that offers no particular insight by itself will set your thoughts on a certain track, leading you to read something you should have read years ago as part of a general education, but never did. You think; you read; with luck, you come out wiser.

So it was in mid-January, as I was scrolling through X over my morning coffee. A tweet from the Department of Homeland Security scolded Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for having released 470 criminal illegal aliens back onto the streets of his state instead of helping ICE detain them. “It is common sense,” said DHS. “Criminal illegal aliens should not be released back onto our streets.” …

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