"Us rich white men cannot stand for this oppression."

Kids reenact the Revolutionary War! It goes a lot faster than I remember from 4th grade history, but I'm guessing they've got it right. British family across the pond, listen up! This is what happens when you try to tax us without giving us appropriate representation in Parliament: you get children in tricorn hats hitting you with baguettes! (mmmm, baguettes.)



Also, the kid at the end has it right: "Now let's party!" Happy birthday, America! Stay classy!

(Video from Babelgum, by way of Jezebel.)

"Today we celebrate our independence day!"

One last thing: on this most glorious of days, this celebration of a time when men threw tea into harbors and cried, "the British are coming, the British are coming,"* when they wrote that all men are created equal and are in fact endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, I think it is only fitting that we watch two short clips: one from the Lincoln Memorial festivities the day before Obama's inauguration, and the other from the greatest film ever made about an alien invasion on July 4th, Independence Day.

Bruce Springsteen, Pete Seeger and others at the Lincoln Memorial:



Independence Day, with Bill Pullman as the president FTW!



*no offense meant, obviously, to my lovely British family - I, for one, love it when the British are coming! Honest!

Happy Birthday, America

As I write this the street outside my house is going CRAZY with fireworks. Purchased in Indiana and set off in the middle of a residential street, they are the perfect symbol of what this great holiday is all about: fighting for the right to blow brightly colored shit up in front of your house.

No, but seriously, happy birthday America. As a present, I got you a list.

Some things I love about America:
1. The constitution
2. Jon Stewart
3. Waffle cones (you're welcome, world)
4. The 1st amendment
5. Stretching from sea to shining sea
6. mobster movies
7. Sufjan Stevens
8. Betsey Ross
9. Theodore Roosevelt
10. No taxation without representation, baby!

Stay classy, America!

Happy Birthday Mr. President...

In 19 minutes this will no longer be true, so I have to get it out quickly: today is Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday!

I'm now living in the land of Lincoln, and all of Chicago has been consumed by Lincolnmania. Nowhere is this more true than at the Chicago History Museum, where I'm working. There are cardboard Lincolns mounted all over the museum, balloons and streamers, one cent admissions, and we even had birthday cake today!

So happy birthday, Abe! Stay classy.

Love,
S