In a mad world it always seems simpler to obey.
Graham Greene, Our Man in Havana (1958).
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Graham Greene
Author: Redactor
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John C. Calhoun
It is harder to preserve than to obtain liberty.
John Caldwell Calhoun, speech in the U. S. Senate (1848). Calhoun’s image (above), a detail from a portrait by George Peter Alexander Healy.
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After Porto
On September 15, 1820, an uprising occured in Lisbon, Portugal, following similar insurrection in Porto the previous month. This was no bloodthirsty mob, but, instead, a popular demand for constitutional government. Unfortunately, the country was beset with imperial and monarchical problems for some time to come.
The United Nations established September 15 as International Day of Democracy, in 2007. An Independence Day is celebrated on this date in Guatemala (a Patriotic Day), El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, commemorating independence from Spain in 1821.
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Stephen Cox
It takes imagination to identify an economic principle. It takes still more imagination to follow the implications of the principle outside the context of commercial activity and explore its psychological, social, and political meanings.
Stephen Cox, in Cox and Paul Cantor, Literature and the Economics of Liberty: Spontaneous Order in Culture (2010).
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2 . . . 14
In 1752, throughout the British Empire, September 2 was followed, the next day, by September 14, as the government adopted the Gregorian calendar, skipping eleven days.
On September 14, 1944, Maastricht becomes the first Dutch city to be liberated by allied forces.
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John Calvin & Desmond Tutu
John Calvin [pictured above] returned to Geneva on September 13, 1541, after three years of exile. His subsequent work in church reform and theology became known as Calvinism, and profoundly influenced the course of European and (eventually) American civilization, including several concepts of servitude and liberty.
On the same date in 1989, Desmond Tutu led South Africa’s largest march aganst Apartheid.
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Chelsea Clinton
Even during my father’s 1984 gubernatorial campaign, it was, ‘Do you want to grow up and be governor one day?’ ‘No. I am four.’
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Switzerland federalized
On September 12, 1848, Switzerland became a unified federal state with a constitution limiting central government powers and providing decentralized state (canton) power patterned on the U.S. Constitution.
In 1880 on this date, H.L. Mencken was born. One of his earliest books was a debate with a socialist, The Men versus The Man (1910); his greatest lasting contribution was probably The American Language (1919) and its supplements (1945, 1948). His work has been collected in numerous anthologies, such as Alistair Cooke’s Vintage Mencken (1955) and the author’s own Mencken Chrestomathy.
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John C. Calhoun
The interval between the decay of the old and the formation and establishment of the new constitutes a period of transition which must always necessarily be one of uncertainty, confusion, error, and wild and fierce fanaticism.
John Caldwell Calhoun, A Disquisition on Government (1851), p. 90. Calhoun’s image (above), a detail from a portrait by George Peter Alexander Healy.
Ah, the Most Interesting Election Year just became more interesting yet. Click on over to Townhall, then come back here for a little R & R (Research and References).
- MSNBC: Gary Johnson Asks, “What Is Aleppo?”
- Red State: It’s official – Gary Johnson Is Now on Ballots in All 50 States
- Ballot Access: Rhode Island SoS Says Three Independent Presidential Petitions Have Enough Valid Signatures
- CBS News: Do the debates unfairly shut out third parties?
- FairVote: FairVote Joins Lawsuit to Open Debates
- NPR: Listeners Ask – Where’s The Third Party Candidate Coverage?
- The Hill: Third-party candidates face uphill climb to get place on presidential debate stage
- The Intercept: Donald Trump Once Wanted Third Parties in Presidential Debates, But Not Now
- YouTube: Trump, Ventura on CPD’s 15 Percent Threshold
- Daily Beast: Trump – No Third Parties in Debates
- Common Sense: The Stupidity of 15
- Common Sense: President Johnson?