On May 30, 1989, student demonstrators unveiled a 33-foot high “Goddess of Democracy and Freedom” statue in Tiananmen Square.
Author: Redactor
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Lord Acton
John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, “The History of Freedom in Antiquity,” published in Essays on Freedom and Power (1972)
It would be easy to point out a paragraph in St. Augustine, or a sentence of Grotius that outweighs in influence the acts of fifty parliaments, and our cause owes more to Cicero and Seneca, to Vinet and Tocqueville, than to the laws of Lycurgus or the five codes of France.
On May 29, 1790, Rhode Island became the last of the original United States’ colonies to ratify the Constitution and is admitted as the 13th U.S. state. On the same date in 1848, Wisconsin was admitted as the 30th U.S. state.
Hong Kong’s General Chamber of Commerce was founded on this date in 1861. In other commerce news — or, history — the pharmacist John Pemberton places his first advertisement for Coca-Cola, which appeared in The Atlanta Journal on May 29, 1886.
Parisian ballet-goers rioted at the premiere of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring on the spring day of May 29 in 1913. In 1990, the Russian parliament elected Boris Yeltsin as president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. The caricature, above, was drawn at the time to portray the event, which is a cultural landmark of the 20th century.
May 29th birthdays include
* 1736 – Patrick Henry, American lawyer and politician, first Governor of Virginia (d. 1799)
* 1874 – G. K. Chesterton, English essayist, poet, and playwright (d. 1936)
* 1906 – T. H. White, Indian-English writer, author of The Once and Future King (d. 1964)
* 1917 – John F. Kennedy, American lieutenant and politician, 35th President of the United States (d. 1963)
* 1929 – Harry Frankfurt, American philosopher and academic, author of On Bulshit (2005)
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G. K. Chesterton
Ideas are dangerous, but the man to whom they are least dangerous is the man of ideas. He is acquainted with ideas, and moves among them like a lion-tamer.
Click on over to Townhall for the full poop on the pugilistic representative. Then come back here to learn . . . even more:
- Guardian: Republican Greg Gianforte ‘body slams’ Guardian reporter in Montana
- Washington Post: GOP candidate in Montana race charged with misdemeanor assault after allegedly body-slamming reporter
- Washington Post: Republican wins Montana election one night after being charged with assault
- Vox: Republicans’ 7-point win in last night’s Montana election is great news for Democrats
- FiveThirtyEight: Montana’s Special Election Could Give The GOP Another Reason To Fret
- New York Times: Now Montana Knows Why Early Voting Is Bad
- Montana Secretary of State: Vote Results for 2017 Special Election for Congress
- New York Times: 2016 Presidential Results in Montana
- New York Times: 2016 Gubernatorial Results in Montana
- Wikipedia: United States congressional delegations from Montana
- Washington Post: Greg Gianforte’s win in Montana proves there’s no penalty in politics for media bashing
- Washington Post: What effect did Gianforte’s alleged assault have on the vote? It’s extremely hard to say.
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Greek voters
On May 28, 1952, the women of Greece gained the right to vote.
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Jorge Luis Borges
The flattery of posterity is not worth much more than contemporary flattery, which is worth nothing.
Jorge Luis Borges, “Dead Men’s Dialogue” in Dreamtigers (1960)
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Chelsea Clinton and Interconnectedness
A few days ago Chelsea Clinton, daughter of failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, proclaimed some trendy wisdom. About “interconnectedness.” How she missed “systemic” we are not sure.
Professor Gad Saad is not impressed.
Rush Limbaugh compares Ms. Clinton to a very different professor.
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The Model T Era Ends
On May 27, 1860, Giuseppe Garibaldi began his attack on Palermo, Sicily, as part of the Italian unification.
In 1927 on this date in May, the Ford Motor Company ceased manufacture of the Ford Model T, the last of this model coming off the line the day previous. Over 16 million Model T Fords had been sold, and was a world transformative product. On the 27th, the company began to retool plants to make the Ford Model A.
Exactly 70 years later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Paula Jones could pursue her sexual harassment lawsuit against President Bill Clinton while he was in office.
In 2015, 27 May, the commercial space company SpaceX was approved as a contractor to the U.S. military for satellite launches; SpaceX would go on to compete for contracts against the Boeing-Lockheed Martin United Launch Alliance, currently the primary military launch provider
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Lord Acton
The great question is to discover, not what governments prescribe, but what they ought to prescribe; for no prescription is valid against the conscience of mankind.
John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, “The History of Freedom in Antiquity,” published in Essays on Freedom and Power (1972)