case closed

Satan!

a lot of promise in these moments

You would think that people in positions of great power would recognize the kinds of things that can go wrong once they decide to repress the uprising with violence.

Our authority is challenged -- quickly, flood the streets with guns! Ramp up the chaos! We must secure order!

Yeah, what could possibly go wrong with that?

...that we've been funding for decades

"While the Legislature has agreed to enact many of the cuts sought by the governor, we are unwilling to completely eviscerate programs for the poor and middle class, or to raid the already bare cupboards of cities and counties. One of our proposals is to eliminate the agency level of state government, which is an unneeded layer of bureaucracy."

State Senator Fran Pavley, having an amazing breakthrough

huh?

What the fuck?

Sadly, no.

elsewhere

New post at Cliopatria.

future nco

A certain tiny lady at Team Cherkis-Bray World Headquarters has a kind of jack-in-the-box thing with a sock monkey inside. Twist the crank, play the song, trigger the spring-loaded trap door, and the sock monkey pops out. The dad has been trying to show Our Tiny Lady how to play the song, trigger the spring, and release the sock monkey, yadda yadda, see how there's this whole process to it?

So, okay: she watches intently, a dozen times, then reaches down, grabs the trap door, rips it open with her fingernails, grunting audibly, and drags the fucking sock monkey out by his hair.

Greatest thing I've ever seen in my entire life.

there's this one dude at the office who might know

In the last few months of 1814, Congress debated a proposal from Secretary of War James Monroe to use state militia rolls as the basis for regular army conscription, cutting out the states and requiring local militia officers to report the names on their rolls directly to federal officials. Many details follow, but the part I enjoy is this: Anticipating debate on constitutional terms, Monroe's proposal includes language that tries to guess at the intent of the framers ("The fair inference seems to be..."), talking about the framing of the Constitution as an event in the obscure historical distance.

Monroe was James Madison's war secretary.

Funny for other reasons, but that's the really good one.