April 19 is the anniversary of the battle of Lexington, the “shot heard ’round the world”. It has been remarked that the political establishment takes little notice of the occasion. This, I suggest, is as it should be. How sad if a momentous uprising against established authority should become yet another occasion for the politicians to glorify themselves!

Carol Moore passes along a column by Harvey Wasserman which contains this:

Anti-Defamation League Director Abraham Foxman has played the holocaust card for the Republicans, saying “It is hideous, outrageous and offensive for Senator Byrd to suggest that the Republican Party’s tactics could in any way resemble those of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party.”

Because no republic could ever be corrupted, or because the scapegoats this time around are not Jews or Communists?

The yellow star lobby’s moral standing is based on having suffered an uniquely gross crime; it is thus motivated to oppose any dilution of that uniqueness, including any observation of warning signs that anything remotely similar could happen again.

Joe Sobran’s view of Lincoln is more charitable than that of (say) Neil Smith or Thomas DiLorenzo, not that that’s saying much, but he still calls the war a tragic blunder.

Given the timing of that column (October 7), I wonder whether Sobran had the same thought as I, that the recent polarization of our politics should make talk of secession more palatable to the mainstream.

Thomas Babington Macaulay, quoted in The Economist Oct.30 p.48

If men are to wait for liberty till they become good and wise in slavery, they may indeed wait forever.

Saturday I bought yet another historical atlas: Muir’s (1927/52). I learn to my surprise that southern British Columbia was once called New Caledonia, and northern Manitoba (before 1912) was New South Wales. Why isn’t there a New North Wales or, for that matter, a New just plain Wales? (William Penn proposed to name his colony New Wales; the King disapproved, and Sylvania was Penn’s second choice.)

Mars has a crater named Vishniac. If you’re anything like me, you’re curious about the etymology of such a name: it doesn’t fit the spelling and morphology of any language that comes to mind.

Ephraim Vishniac tells all.

Saturday was Hayward’s hottest day this year, or so it seemed; so we went to a place where, for a fee, we could sit in coolth for a while. As a bonus, they showed us Hero (英雄), the most gorgeous piece of film we’ve seen in years.

Later: The following weekend was another scorcher, and we saw Vanity Fair, which stinks. Reese Witherspoon (who was so brilliant in Freeway) plays Becky Sharp on one note, and the plot is violently compressed for time. — Anachronism?: the regiment embarks for “Belgium” to meet Bonaparte. The kingdom of Belgium was created fifteen years after the battle of Waterloo; so what would the English have called that country at the time? Flanders, I guess, though Waterloo is not in Flanders proper.