02/20 - World Day of Social Justice

It's World Day of Social Justice. I almost used a picture of Emiliano Zapata who famously said If there is no justice for the people, let there be no peace for the government. This is a UN holiday and it takes a lot of gall for them to speak of social justice when so many of the member states have no taste for it or examples of it whatsoever. Actually, I suspect that social justice isn't an identifiable thing or state but a sort of scale of attainment such as "you can have a minuscule amount of social justice, or an extemely tiny one or a tiny one or, theoretically even larger amounts, though no such have ever been documented in human history except is very small communities.

It is in fact a very strange type of thing. You can see that it is lacking everywhere around you and even far away and, in general, anywhere you look. Yet you cannot really define it except insofar as it is lacking damn near everywhere. People have been trying to define it for ages upon ages and have failed. Arguably it is the situation that would exist if each and every individual acted at all times and in all things according to some perfectionist maxim such as Kant's Categorical Imperative, or an alternative such as striving to generate the maximum benefit for the maximum number of people without causing harm or detriment to any. That's very easy to say but it requires all to have perfect knowledge of everything and its interconnectedness as well as an overabundance of good will. Heh. Suuuure. I suspect that existing in a socioeconomic milieu based entirely on competition, greed, and possessiveness does not portend well for such a situation to come to existence.

All the same, I guess that those of us who would like to see it exist must endeavor at all times to bring it about or at least facilitate it. Good luck to us all.

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On this day in history:

1521 – Juan Ponce de León set out from Spain for Florida with about 200 prospective colonists 1685 -- Rene-Robert Cavelier established Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay in what is now Texas 1792 -- The Postal Service Act, established the United States Post Office Department 1816 -- Rossini's Barber of Seville premiered in Rome 1872 -- The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in New York 1877 -- Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake premiered in Moscow 1909 -- The Futurist Manifesto iwas published in Le Figaro. 1931 -- Congress approved construction of the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge by California. 1933 -- Congress proposed the Twenty-first Amendment 1935 -- Caroline Mikkelsen became the first woman to set foot in Antarctica. 1943 -- Movie studios agreed to let the Office of War Information censor movies 1962 -- John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth, 1986 -- The Soviet Union launched Mir 2005 -- Spain was the first country to pass a referendum to ratify the Constitution of the EU.

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Some people who were born on this day:

Thermodynamics, correctly interpreted, does not just allow Darwinian evolution; it favors it.

~~ Ludwig Boltzmann

1705 – Nicolas Chédeville, musette player and composer 1774 – Vicente Sebastián Pintado, cartographer, engineer, military officer and land surveyor of Spanish Louisiana and Spanish West Florida 1802 – Charles Auguste de Bériot, violinist and composer 1844 -- Ludwig Boltzmann, physicist and philosopher 1844 -- Joshua Slocum, sailor and adventurer 1898 – Enzo Ferrari, you know, Enzo; founder of Scuderia Ferrari and Ferrari 1902 -- Ansel Adams, photographer and environmentalist 1904 -- Alexei Kosygin, commie rat, or so they say 1914 – John Charles Daly, journalist and game show host 1924 -- Gloria Vanderbilt, trust fund fashionista 1927 -- Roy Cohn, McCarthyite fascist SOB 1927 -- Ibrahim Ferrer, singer 1931 – John Milnor, mathematician and academic 1937 -- Nancy Wilson, singer and actress 1941 -- Buffy Sainte-Marie, singer, songwriter, and producer persecuted by feebs 1944 -- Lew Soloff, trumpet player, composer, and actor 1945 – Alan Hull, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1946 -- J. Geils, singer, songwriter and guitarist 1950 -- Walter Becker, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer 1951 – Randy California, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1953 -- Poison Ivy, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer (The Cramps) 1954 – Jon Brant, bass player 1967 -- Kurt Cobain, singer, songwriter and guitarist 1975 -- Brian Littrell, backstreet boy 1988 -- Rihanna, singer, songwriter, and actress

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Some people who died on this day:

“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”

~~ Frederick Douglass

1054 – Yaroslav the Wise, grand prince of Veliky Novgorod and Kyiv* 1524 -- Tecun Uman, Mayan ruler 1626 -- John Dowland, lute player and composer 1778 -- Laura Bassi, physicist and scholar 1895 -- Frederick Douglass, author and activist 1900 -- Washakie, Eastern Shoshone leader 1972 – Maria Goeppert-Mayer, physicist and academic 1972 -- Walter Winchell, journalist 1993 -- Ferruccio Lamborghini, founded Lamborghini 1996 – Toru Takemitsu, pianist, guitarist, and composer 1999 -- Gene Siskel, film critic 2005 -- Hunter S. Thompson, Gonzo journalist 2017 – Mildred Dresselhaus, physicist * aka Novgorod and Kiev

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Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such: World Day of Social Justice National Day of Solidarity with Muslim, Arab and South Asian Immigrants Love Your Pet Day National Cherry Pie Day

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