False Coin:
Don’t Take This From Ben Stein 
A new front in the War On President’s Day! Cuddly Conservative Curmudgeon Ben Stein is trying to mobilize America’s unease at the vagueness of the holiday to somehow make a case against evolution. 
Let’s watch him go!
“Until the late 1980’s when the generic “President’s Day†became the official holiday that subsumed them, America used to celebrate the birthdays of both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
As a result, “Darwin Day†has now supplanted Lincoln’s Birthday in the popular imagination; both men were born on February 12, 1809.”
It falls to biologist P.Z. Myers to try an unravel this “dense array of concentrated stupid.”
“”President’s Day” did diminish awareness of Lincoln’s birthday and reduced the appreciation of a president in exchange for a 3-day weekend, but Darwin had nothing to do with that, and it did not replace Lincoln with Darwin in the popular imagination — ask most people what the significance of 12 February might be, and you’ll get a blank look.”
Joshua Rosenau joins the fun:
“The law moving that celebration to the third Monday in February was signed into law in 1971, during Richard Nixon’s presidency. Ben Stein was, of course, a staffer in that administration, and didn’t have to remain silent on the Lincoln snub for 37 years. He could have insisted that the day be known not as “Washington’s Birthday,” but as Lincoln’s and Washington’s Birthdays,” or some such construction (though that wouldn’t have gone over well with Nixon’s race-baiting Southern Strategy). He didn’t.”
Ultimately, of course, it all comes down to Beating the Reds, yesterday if need be.
“Pessimism is a malady to be overcome, not encouraged – and it is certainly not a quality (or a theory) to be celebrated. As history teaches us – inherently pessimistic scientific theories, like all decadent theories (socialism, communism) eventually give way to those that actually work.
The sixteenth President of the United States believed what our country’s founders believed and that The Declaration of Independence so clearly stated – that all men were endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Ship of Fools 
A Georgia Democratic Senate candidate says his failed efforts to keep the Presidential Yacht Sequoia safe for Washington cocktail parties are a credential for office. 
Josh Lanier was Executive Trustee of the Presidential Yacht Trust, one of the parade of troubled entities owning the yacht in the years since President Carter sold it. This collection of Washington worthies had visions of putting the ship back on the public tab after gussying it up, but the Sequoia ended up sold to a shipyard.
Since then another owner has gussied it up, rents it for parties, and flirts with selling it back to the feds.
Finely Marbled 
The Abraham Lincoln Observer points us to the story of an Illinois resident whose unhealthy obsession is photographing every Lincoln statue he can find.
Camelot Reloaded 
GunsAmerica is taking the bold step of evoking That Kennedy Mystique
in order to sell guns. For a mere $295,00.00 you may own the gun that lost the West.
“THE M16 THAT STARTED IT ALL
…Without a doubt the most famous and most documented Armalite/Colt M16 in existence, serial no 106 manufactured in 1959 (the 7th production gun) and of course the earliest known gun to exist. Yes, this is the gun that Gen Curtis LeMay shot the coconuts and melons with at the cocktail party and then turned to the Cooper-McDonald rep and said,”I want 10,000 of them and I want them yesterday!”. It is said this gun was also shot by Pres Kennedy (off the Presidential Yacht), Batista, MacNamarra, Diem, and a host of other important people. Traveling to Viet Nam twice, its history is part of America’s History, and I feel there is no other gun in existence as important as this firearm – at least as far as 20th century military firearms are concerned.”
From “It is said” to “I feel” they are giving themselves some wiggle room on the storied history they present. And they need it.
Kennedy is reported to have had two M16s, but Batista fled Havana on New Years Day 1959, and would be unlikely to need an M16 in exile.
Something about Guns ‘N Presidents shoots the facts all to hell. An auctioneer recently sold a pistol supposedly once owned by Richard Nixon, with a myth of origin thats false on it’s face.
From James D. Julia Auctioneers:
“Very rare cased engraved Colt 3rd Model London Dragoon, call 44, SN13 (cylinder replaced), originally belonging at one time to former President Richard Nixon. (Paul Sorrell Collection) Sold for $74,750… Paul had been told when he purchased the gun that it had originally come from a young lawyer by the name of Richard Nixon who later went on to become President of the United States. The details of which Julia discovered just before the sale. Sometime in the 1950’s, a Swedish gunsmith while in New York got a moving traffic violation. He went to the Nixon law firm to handle the matter, and in a later personal conversation with Nixon, Nixon discovered that he was a gun enthusiast; he took him back to his apartment and virtually gave him this rare gun as a gift.”
Except for the fact that in the 50s Nixon was a Senator then Vice President, not living in New York, and not practicing law, it all could be true. Or so I’m told.
Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here 
A new report on burial plans for Harry Truman daughter Margaret Truman Daniel raises a sub question to a larger question: if Presidents insist on pharaohic entombment in their Presidential Libraries, do we have to put up with their relatives as well? Margaret’s ashes are to be buried at the Truman Library along with her late husband’s.
Space is already set aside for Betty Ford 
and the Bush’s plans appear well advanced. 
Who gets the twins?
