Why they won't let me be an astronaut.

(via boingboing)

Regarding trust-fund socialists

From an otherwise slightly carping Esquire article.

And it's unlikely that all the pseudo-hipsters who buy their Che T-shirts at Urban Outfitters will stop wearing them. No. These T-shirts send a message, which effectively boils down to this: I have vague left-wing sympathies but don't read history. I am educated enough to want nonconformity but not intelligent enough to avoid conformity. I believe in supporting the wretched of the earth but happily purchase products from multinational corporations.

Before it disappears

From Wikipedia's article on Paxton, IL (where at least one bored young person has internet access):

Paxton, as well as several other communities in East Central Illinois, is home to a Semi-Professional Baseball Team called the Paxton Swedes. The Swedes got their name from the town's Swedish Heritage. The Swedes are part of the Eastern Illinois Baseball League which has eight teams. The Swedes were league champions in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2007. The Swedes play their home games at beautiful Memorial Field in Paxton. Memorial Field is also home to the PBL Panthers High School Baseball Team. Memorial Field stands out as one of the top baseball fields in East Central Illinois. Paxton is home to many rednecks.

This is real, pt 300

For fuck's sake, if you work at a place called the John Locke Foundation and invoke the founders, it behooves you to know a wee bit about 18th century British (& colonial) politics. This Sanders fellow, callously using Independence Day to score political points*, claims that:

"the Declaration of Independence does mention Obama's kind of government. Consider especially this part about King George III: "He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.""

Not quite. See, under the Hanoverians, political appointments were mostly hacks and placemen, plums used to reward the politically (and/or financially) loyal.

Someone's kind of government, for sure.

*ooh, using false outrage is fun.

Morning Video

This is real, pt 299

Via LGM, from a piece on the John Birch Society:

With Mr. Nowak were Ray Tisch, 37, an electrical engineer, and Matthew Yamakaitis, 49, a warehouse worker, who said they had joined the John Birch Society within the last two years because they shared its concerns about the North American Union, the mainstream media and the conspiracy of elite insiders.

“At the highest levels there are controls in place,” Mr. Tisch said. Mr. Yamakaitis agreed, saying that if the insiders succeed in creating a new world order, “It basically means less power for us.”z

“And more for the elite,” said Mr. Tisch.

“The Rockefellers, the Morgans, the Rothschilds,” said Mr. Nowak.

“Ssssssssss,” said the sausage cooking on a nearby grill.

It seems as if it went from a story on paranoid conspiracy-mongers to a children's book at food in the blink of an eye.

Edit: Story from the NYT

This is real, pt 298

Apparently, having the military remove a sitting president is "defending democracy." To be fair, it's a messy fucking situation, but I think one of the commenters over at Sadly, No said it best "Looks like a non-victory for democracy when unconstitutional acts are foiled unconstitutionally."