On December 14, 1819, Alabama became the 22nd state of these United States.
On the same December date in 1918, Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King Väinö I, renounced the Finnish throne. In 1939, the Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland and starting the Winter War.
“I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Resistance to Civil Government,” Aesthetic Papers, 1849 (republished in a variety of titles, including On the Duty of Civil Disobedience).
On Saturday, we regaled you with the video clip of Gov. John Kasich, more than straddling the proverbial fence, indeed . . . jumping around it like a rodeo clown — or perhaps someone in a tad less control.
Today, at Townhall.com, we aim to edify . . . with an analysis of same. Click on over, then come back here, for more Governor John Kasich fun!
“I would never have drawn my sword in the cause of America, if I could have conceived that thereby I was founding a land of slavery.”
Lafayette, as quoted in a letter by Thomas Clarkson (October 3, 1845), published in The Liberty Bell (1846), p. 64.
On December 13, 1636, the Massachusetts Bay Colony organized three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians.
The National Guard of the United States traces its heritage back to this event.
Asked about reforming Washington toward the end of a rambling hour-long talk yesterday to employees at C&S Wholesale Grocers in Keene, New Hampshire, presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich came out squarely against term limits.
And then, 100 percent for them.
“We put term limits in in Ohio. You know what its effect is? It means the staff’s running the place now.”
A minute later: “Do I favor term limits? I do.”
But he added . . . “I favor long — ours is eight years; it ought to be twelve. In Congress, it ought to be twelve. We ought to have term limits, okay. That‘s what we ought to have.”
“But that’s not going to fix anything,” Kasich declared. Before, in his next breath, he admitted, “It’ll fix a couple things.”
“You gotta understand,” the governor emphasized, “what fixes things is the character and the leadership.”
Kasich went on to say that he “could have stayed in Congress for a hundred years.” But that a “politician . . . should go in, do public service and get out.”
Okay, then.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH66fvi_u0g&feature=youtu.be&t=48m9s
On December 12, 1939, Finnish forces defeated those of the Soviet Union in the first major victory of what became known as the Winter War, in the Battle of Tolvajärvi.
December 12th birthdays include:
* Erasmus Darwin (1731) – English physician, slave trade abolitionist, inventor and poet
* John Jay (1745) — First Chief Justice of the United States
* William Lloyd Garrison (1805) — American abolitionist, editor of The Liberator
“What is called the Progress of Civilization has been marked and conditioned at every step by an extension of the opportunities, a greater facility in the use of the means, a more eager searching for proper expedients, and a higher certainty in the securing of the returns, of mutual exchanges among men.”
Arthur Latham Perry, Principles of Political Economy, 1891.
“Get a wriggle on,” New Zealand’s Electoral Commission is telling citizens
who want to cast a vote before today’s deadline to mail in ballots.
New Zealand is choosing a new flag.
Maybe.
In the referendum ending today, the first of two, voters will choose one of five proposed new flags. The second referendum comes next year when the chosen new design goes mano a mano against the current flag.
For years, Prime Minister John Key has itched to “scratch” the Union Jack, the United Kingdom’s flag, off the New Zealand national flag.
To assert some independence, I suppose. Hey, I can relate.
HBO’s John Oliver calls New Zealand “Australia’s Australia.” Glance at the two nation’s flags, they’re virtually identical. Populating a remote two-island nation, New Zealanders may share a desire not to live in any other nation’s shadow.
Granted, there were no demonstrations for the flag re-design, in the streets of Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch — or anywhere else, as far as I can tell. This was a referred measure, from politicians to the people — not an initiative.
And the referendums will cost $26 million, something not lost on the citizenry.
Furthermore, a flag is far less important than issues of war and peace, taxes, jobs, you name it.
But I really like that politicians didn’t give a designer a no-bid contract and do the choosing without the people. In fact, after whittling down to offer voters four designs in this referendum, a fifth entry was added after a petition for it on social media caught fire.
Could the flag chosen be as pleasing as the democratic process being used to get it?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
“Humanity has gained its suit; Liberty will nevermore be without an asylum.”
Lafayette, Letter to friends (1780), published in Memoirs de La Fayette, Vol. II, p. 50.