History

The Kindle of its day, or maybe even the iPhone:

Wow. Take a look at that chart. So what happened in the last 200 years? Among other things:

You can get a better understanding of how American culture has changed in the last 100 years by looking at the changes in one organization, such as this fascinating comparison of the Boy Scouts of American 1911 and modern handbooks and merit badges:

Here we go deep into the constitutional weeds. Might be a good time for some of you to run to the refrigerator or take a bathroom break.

Rand Paul and father Ron don't  see the 14th Amendment quite the same way. They especially disagree on the amendment's chief effect of applying the Bill of Rights to state and local governments.

Rand:

Guess this is my day for clips. Margaret Thatcher has died, and dammit anyway. What can I say about somebody I thought enough of to name one of my cats after? There are tons of Thatcher clips I could post, but I like this one, in which she gives the socialists in Parliament a tongue-lashing over the so-called "income gap" that the liberals in this country still can't get over.

Many people have been justifiably derisive of President Obama's recent statements that we need not fear government because "government is us," and we don't need to worry about him, either, because he is "constrained" by the system put in place by the Founders.

Here's what's wrong with those statements:

Fascinating and a little sad -- How Federal Tax Law Killed the Swing Era and Spawned Bebop:

Wow. Humans are both social animals and socially constrained. Our constraints were important to our primeval ancestors to make them work cooperatively as a unit. But those constraints didn't lend themselves to such things as exploration and inventiveness that make for a vibrant civilization. So something was needed that could free us from the biological herd instinct. For our civiliazation to really floursih, we needed . . .

. . . beer:

President Obama, on Michelle's influence:

First Lady Michelle Obama has played the role of Felix to her husband’s Oscar during their entire 20-year partnership, President Obama revealed.

“I had this little bachelor apartment that Michelle refused to stay in because she thought it was a little, uh . . . you know, pizza boxes everywhere,” President Obama says in April’s Vogue.

Juxtaposition of the day. I see this online . . .