Happy 200th birthday to two people who piss off conservatives/racists: Lincoln and Darwin!

[zulchzulu]

Abe and Chuck, both born February 9th, 1809. Both kicked some racist/conservative ass that still have people in a twitch...

[sarge43]

1. Thoughtful, intelligent people tend to do that.

Happy Birthday, gentlemen. Thank you and rock on.

[bcoylepa]

2. second that

did you get to see the pbs special on Intelligent Design and the Dover Decision this week?
just wonderful!!

[sarge43]

3. No, the downside of giving up cable.

However, PBS releases its gems on DVD, so when it shows up on Netflix, I'll be there.

[AlCzervik]

4. i saw that 2 years ago and then i watched it again the other night, an excellent program.

[Zomby Woof]

5. Any way the wind blows for Lincoln

Lincoln the secessionist:

"Any people, anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable and most sacred right - a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can, may revolutionize, and make their own, of so many of the territory as they inhabit." - Abraham Lincoln, January 12, 1848.

Lincoln the racist:

In his new book, Forced Into Glory: Abraham Lincoln's White Dream, black American author, Lerone Bennett, presents historic evidence supporting the theory that Abraham Lincoln was, in fact, a devoted racist harboring a life-long desire to see all black Americans deported to Africa.

Bennett suggests that as a young politician in Illinois, Lincoln regularly used racial slurs in speeches, told racial jokes to his black servants, and vocally opposed any new laws that would have bettered the lives of black Americans.

Key to Bennett's thesis is the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation which, Bennett argues, Lincoln was forced into issuing by the powerful abolitionist wing of his own party. Bennett asserts that Lincoln carefully worded the document to apply only to the rebel Southern states, which were not under Union control at the time, thus resulting in an Emancipation Proclamation that did not in itself free a single slave.

At one point, Bennett quotes William Henry Seward, Lincoln's secretary of state, who referred to the proclamation as a hollow, meaningless document showing no more than, "our sympathy with the slaves by emancipating the slaves where we cannot reach them and holding them in bondage where we can set them free."

Henry Clay Whitney, a close friend of Lincoln, is quoted by Bennett as saying the proclamation was "not the end designed by him (Lincoln), but only the means to the end, the end being the deportation of the slaves and the payment for them to their masters - at least to those who were loyal."

More: http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa082800a.htm


Darwin's theories refuted racism. I don't think he and Lincoln would have been too compatible. Lincoln, in the end, was a politician, neither a visionary or a saint.

[zulchzulu]

6. I'll let the Emancipation Proclamation speak for itself...

Sure, Lincoln was a complex man with a few human traits here and there, but he essentially had a bullet waiting to kill him when he dared to write and speak the Emancipation Proclamation. No, it wasn't perfect either, but surely it set the stage for ending slavery.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

7. Lincoln was a complex character, which is why neither Bennett or diLorenzo are taken at face value

Both of those authors have a story they are trying to tell and use bad history, bad context and bad facts to make it.

And that's a shame because Bennett has an important dimension to Lincoln's character to share. But that is lost when you read through his book and come across fact after fact that is wrong, or out of context.

For example. In his book, Bennett claims that Lincoln was a racist because he had 38 Native Americans hung after an uprising in Minnesota. Bennett joyfully points out that this is the largest murder in history and that Lincoln approved it because he hated Native Americans. Bennett utterly fails to point out that originally 303 Native Americans were sentenced to die and that Lincoln took an incredibly unpopular step to review each case and commute the sentence of 265 of those prisoners.

[glitch]

8. That's quite a bit of context to leave out.

Historians revisioning progressive icons to their detriment and conservative icons to their benefit sure can find publishers.

[Hieronymus]

9. Lincoln and Darwin were both born on Feb. 12.... not the 9th.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

10. Rachel mentioned other famous people born on the 12th of February.

Ray Manzarek of the Doors is SEVENTY today!!! WOW!!!

Break on Through!!

Joe Garagiola is 83.

Arlen Specter is older than Gawd.

[Jennicut]

11. Good old Ray...keyboardist extraordinaire

[RushIsRot]

12. My grandson was also born on February 12. I am pleased he

chose such a momentous occasion.