“Knowledge is the conformity of the object and the intellect.”
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Cinco de Mayo
In 1862, troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza stopped a French invasion in the Battle of Puebla in Mexico — an event leading to the popular “Cinco de Mayo” celebration.
No cause for civilization, however, is the bicentennial of Karl Marx’s birth.
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James O’Keefe
You have to use deception to a degree. Either you deceive your source or you deceive your audience. The problem with journalism and the reason why it’s in decline is because these ‘leakers,’ these ‘sources’ in government and elsewhere intentionally transmit stuff to the media [who] parrot it to the masses.
James O’Keefe on the nature of modern major network and cable news, and Brian Stelter’s recent confession that CNN doesn’t do investigation, in conversation with Dave Rubin, The Rubin Report, May 3, 2019.
On May 4, 1796, American historian William H. Prescott was born. Prescott’s History of the Conquest of Mexico and his Conquest of Peru remain classic works of well-researched, ”scientific history.” Prescott, Arizona, was named in his honor.
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Brave New Jeopardy World
Answer: Television’s most intelligent game show.
Question: What is Jeopardy?
The show tests non-trivial knowledge, with the twist being that contestants are given the answer and must buzz-in quickly to supply the question.
Longtime viewers are most concerned these days about beloved host Alex Trebek’s battle with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. But, like Trebek, fans are talking about James Holzhauer, the 34-year-old professional sports gambler from Las Vegas, who has amassed over $1.6 million by winning 21 games in a row.
That puts him in second place for consecutive victories all-time — surpassing Julia Collins, with 20 straight wins in 2014, and moving toward Ken Jennings, who triumphed in 74 consecutive games back in 2004, earning over $2.5 million during that streak.
Most amazing are the massive amounts of money Holzhauer garners night after night.* “He has no weaknesses,” Trebek told Good Morning America, noting that Holzhauer “has a strategy” and “he’s a gambler.” “He has forced me to change a view that I’ve had for many years . . . that the Ken Jennings record will never be broken.”
There are detractors. “It’s just not fun,” argues Washington Post columnist Charles Lane.
Others may take the thoroughly postmodern view that Mr. Holzhauer didn’t really “build this” success on his own. If not for public education and libraries, how could he have amassed such knowledge? How did Holzhauer get to LA for the program? He certainly didn’t build those roads or airports.
I think James Holzhauer is an incredible individual, deserving his success. And some of my best friends are librarians.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* Holzhauer’s talents also bring out the best in others. Earlier this week, contestant Adam Levine ended with an impressive $53,999 . . . only to finish second to Holzhauer’s $54,017. In his fourth contest, Holzhauer smashed Roger Craig’s single-game record of $77,000. Today, Holzhauer’s is the only name on the Top 10 List of highest single-game scores — his best a whopping $131,127
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Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
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Between the crosses
In 1791, the Constitution of May 3, the first modern constitution in Europe, was proclaimed by the Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
On May 3 in 1915, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae composed the poem “In Flanders Fields,” the most famous poem of World War I. The Canadian physician wrote it after presiding over the funeral of friend and fellow soldier Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, who died in the Second Battle of Ypres. It is in the form of a rondeau.
“The Democratic Party leadership is choosing machine politics,” charged Alexandra Rojas, the young executive director of Justice Democrats, “over ushering in a new generation of leaders and the fundamental idea of democracy.”
She specifically assails the DCCC’s blacklist of political professionals working for Democratic Party candidates who dare to challenge Democratic incumbents in next year’s Democratic primaries.
The Intercept reports that “at least four consultants dropped” challenger Marie Newman’s campaign “under pressure from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s new policy to cut off vendors working with primary challengers.”
Newman is formidable, having come within 2 percentage points of Rep. Dan Lipinski in the 2018 Illinois Democratic Primary. The National Abortion Rights Action League, Democracy for America and other progressive groups are decrying a DCCC “blacklist policy that protects anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ, corporate Democrats like Dan Lipinski.”
And progressives have reason for disgust. Lipinski is a protected insider.
For the last 36 years, there has been a Lipinski in Congress. Bill Lipinski, the current congressman’s father, held the seat for 22 years before giving it to his son. And yes, “giving” is correct.
In 2004, two months before the November election, while running unopposed for a 12th term, the incumbent resigned — too late to trigger a special election wherein voters could make a choice. Instead, Bill’s replacement was hand-picked by the Illinois district’s Democratic Party Committee.
Controlled by — you guessed it! — Bill Lipinski.
That insider group chose Bill’s son, Daniel, who was then living in Kentucky.
“It was an open process,” claimed the father.
Today, per the blacklist, “[t]he DCCC says the policy doesn’t discourage primary challengers.”
Well, I guess no one expects truth from a political machine.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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An English traveller relates how he lived upon intimate terms with a tiger; he had reared it and used to play with it, but always kept a loaded pistol on the table.
Stendhal, The Red and the Black (1830).
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Run for the border
On May 2, 1989, Hungary began dismantling its border fence with Austria, allowing a number of East Germans to defect.