HAPPY DARWIN DAY

To many people this is Lincoln’s Birthday, the bicentennial of the birth of the man that many think our greatest president.

 

By coincidence or whatever, today is also the bicentennial of the birth of Charles Darwin.

 

Lincoln became president in 1861.  Darwin published Origin of the Species in 1859.  Both men became larger than life figures of the last half of the nineteenth century and continue to be so [albeit for much different reasons] today.  Advocates for racial justice have co-opted Lincoln;  atheists Darwin.

 

Lincoln was an American.  Darwin a subject of the Crown we had to get out of our lives to become free people.

 

Our mayor has chosen to proclaim today Darwin Day.

Okay Norm, How low do you have to stoop to have to quote that guy?

Skippy Humphrey has spent most of his life hoping, if not for complete confusion, at least enough error that people might confuse him for his father.  It looks like he succeeded with former Senator Norm Coleman who attributed a quote from him to his illustrious father.  Joe Kimball reports the story.  He notes that the former attorney general, who managed to place behind both Norm and Janos/Ventura in 1998’s gubernatorial election, claims that Norm also misuses the quote.

 

The quote:  “Government will either do something to you, or for you, but government is going to do something.”

Lincoln note for the day: 1860 compared with 2008

Eric Black of MinnPost has an interesting article comparing the campaigning and voting practices of 1860 which elected Abraham Lincoln with what we know now and how the election map has rotated almost 180 degrees.

 

He notes some of the differences in ballots between then and now.  The ballots were far from secret and arguing about stray marks and dangling chads would seem strange.

 

Sometimes it seems that our new president was taking extreme measures to compare himself with his fellow Illinoisian.  Black finds some comparison, noting that Obama carried every state that Lincoln carried while the South has become Republican territory and provides links to maps which show this.