Lincoln and Darwin: 200 Years

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama were among the celebrants at the reopening of Ford’s Theatre in Washington.

February 12 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln.

Actor David Selby, of Dark Shadows and Falcon Crest fame, portrays President Lincoln in Ford’s Theatre’s new play The Heavens Are Hung In Black.

Ford’s Theatre has undergone an 18-month renovation and will reopen officially on Lincoln’s 200th birthday.

President Barack Obama greets actor David Selby.

February 12th also marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. Darwin’s On the Origin of the Species is still considered controversial today by religious conservatives in North America. But the rest of the world is celebrating his theories of natural selection and evolution.

It is Darwin’s daring theories that made Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation possible.

Darwin’s findings that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, and Lincoln’s fight to keep the Union intact and free the slaves, are some of the most important developments in modern history.

Celebrate two great thinkers today: Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin.

Celebrate

Cocktails for Inauguration Day

Celebrate the dawning of a new day with these three happy cocktails.

Baracktail (my own invention)

• 4 dashes blue curacao (for the color of the Democratic party)
• 4 ounces chilled champagne (for celebration)
• 1 pineapple chunk (for Barack’s Hawaiian birthplace)

Swirl the curacao around the sides of a champagne glass, fill with champagne and garnish with a cube of pineapple.

Chicago (for Barack Obama’s political base)

• 2 ounces cognac
• 1 dash curacao
• 1 dash bitters
• champagne

Stir cognac, curacao and bitters with ice. Strain into a wine glass and fill with champagne.

Gloom Raiser (for hope and change)

• 1 ounce gin
• 1 ounce dry vermouth
• 1 dash grenadine
• 1 dash Pernod

Stir gin, vermouth and grenadine with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass. Float Pernod on top.

Poll: What Issue Is Most Important To You In This Election?

Betty White Brilliance

Could You Be President?

If Sarah Palin can run for office, anyone can.

Take the Presidential Capacity Test.

Here are my results. I don’t really think I’m as slimy as this test would suggest.

Chief Legal Strategist
47% Values, 89% Charisma and 88% Judgment!

“In recent years, anyone in the government, certainly anyone in the FBI or the CIA … the main bad guy is the chief advisor to the president.” — Charlton Heston

You’re a bit too slimy. Some call you the puppet-master – the Presidential Adviser pulling the strings. Let’s be honest – you’ve got the charisma and the judgement; you’ve just got a few too many skeletons in the closet to sit in the Presidential highchair.

The public doesn’t trust you, and probably rightly so. You’re better suited behind the curtain, calling the important shots and spinning out perfectly-worded press releases. Many consider you to be the bad guy and certainly popular culture has painted you that way, but someone needs to make the decisions no-one else can. Keep pulling those strings.

Quote of the Day: Politicians

Politicians talk themselves red, white, and blue in the face.

–Clare Boothe Luce

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix

Bastille Day commemorates the storming of Bastille prison on July 14, 1789, the beginning of the French Revolution.

It is a national holiday in France, much like the 4th of July in the U.S., and marks the beginning of the great revolution and the birth of the republic.

Vive la France. Vive la Liberté.

18 Million Cracks

Some memorable quotes from Senator Hillary Clinton’s speech today:

To all those who voted for me, my commitment to you is unyielding. You have inspired and touched me. You have humbled me with your commitment.

Eighteen million of you from all walks of life — women, and men, young and old, Latino and Asian, African-American and Caucasian, rich and poor, middle class, gay and straight … you have stood with me.

I am a woman, and like millions of women, I know there are still barriers and biases out there, often unconscious, and I want to build an America that respects every one of us. We must make sure that women and men alike understand the struggles of their grandmothers and mothers.

Although we weren’t able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it has about 18 million cracks in it and the light is shining through like never before.

Children today will grow up taking for granted that an African-American or a woman can, yes, become the president of the United States.

Thanks, Hillary.

Get Your Half-Votes Here

Answer me this, Democratic National Committee:

If we vote for a woman or a black man, we only get half of a vote, but if we vote for a white man, we get a whole vote?