Roadside Attractions

(JOHN F. KENNEDY) TYPED LETTER AS PRESIDENT

Here we see another example of the famous "Kennedy wit." It was real and it was genuine. Can anyone imagine a collection of the witty sayings of Barack Obama coming out unless it is ghost-written. I, for one, don't recall the current President as being particularly witty in unscripted situations. But I'm willing to take pointers.

• Fascinating and illuminating: One year after Hurricane Ike - The Big Picture @ Boston.com Collected here are a series of before-and-after photographs - which (starting with the second one below) will fade between "before" and "after" when clicked.
• Shannon Love on the Acorn child prostitution scandal. Three Times is Slavery and Treason

  "Acorn was promoting slavery. Sexual slavery. The sexual slavery of children. Is that overwrought? Well, it isn’t in my book but then I have a low tolerance for the sexual enslavement of children."

• No jobs? Get used to it. Adviser: High unemployment for years “The level of unemployment is unacceptably high,” National Economic Council Director Larry Summers said Friday. “And will, by all forecasts, remain unacceptably high for a number of years.”
• The Mandate of Heaven "is a traditional Chinese philosophical concept. Tian would bless the authority of a just ruler, but would be displeased with a despotic ruler and would withdraw its mandate. The Mandate of Heaven would then transfer to those who would rule best.... The Mandate of Heaven had no time limitations, instead depending on the just and able performance of the ruler. The Mandate also does not require that a legitimate ruler be of noble birth...."
• I don't want to know how they know: "[C]arrion appeals to those who hate waste and, as one prolific UK roadkill consumer puts it, out of 40 carcasses found here, 20 will be edible." -- davidthompson: Them’s Good Eats
• Mercer Caverns | Murphys, California | Atlas Obscura "Visitors should wear clothes which they never expect to wear to a wedding afterward. A candle is to be carried in one hand and it is prudent to have a supply or matches in one's pocket."
• Overcoming Bias: What Do Nature Lovers Love? "While nature shows and nature lovers often give lip service to the wonders of natural selection, in fact they mainly love the particular species alive now."

Posted by Vanderleun at September 14, 2009 10:42 AM