OOPS!
The Smithsonian has torqued off a benefactor who is now withdrawing her $38 million "donation" because she doesn't get to tell the curators what to put in an exhibit dedicated to profiling individuals who have made a great impact on American society. Her suggestions included Martha Stewart and Dorothy Hamill (!?). For once I applaud the Smithsonian. I'm sure they'll fuck up again shortly.
"America was never innocent. We popped our cherry on the boat over and looked back with no regrets. You can't ascribe our fall from grace to any single event or set of circumstances. You can't lose what you lacked at conception.
"Mass-market nostalgia gets you hopped up for a past that never existed. Hagiography sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight. Our continuing narrative line is blurred past truth and hindsight. Only a reckless verisimilitude can set that line straight."
--James Ellroy, American Tabloid
Ensure a Free and Fair Election (Ban Paperless Voting Machines
"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words."