I’m pretty sure the check-out guy at Target said “Happy Presidents’ Day” to me, rather than the customary “Merry George Washington Day”. Apparently, it’s all part of TWAG:
And yes, today’s federal holiday is still, and always has been, declared in federal law, as Washington’s Birthday, not any so-called amorphous “President’s Day” requiring celebrations of 43 Presidential oath takers:
[…]Their propaganda in academia and media is the reason for the so-called “strong hold” of the false name of the holiday on the public consciousness. The liberal that wrote the above let’s her guard down when she mentions her dismissal of the law. Their contempt for the real America and the Founders extends to the framers of the highest law that is the U.S. Constitution, so why would they have any respect for a “mere” statute? The only “law” they respect are those made up by activist judges that violate their Oath to uphold the Constitution.
Maybe the rest of you won’t be amused but some of the comments have me laughing so hard that I’m crying:
Do you hear me people? There was not a biography of George Washington at the library!!
Update: Per the comments, Sadly, No! apparently covered this earlier today.
Gus
Since when do wingnuts patronize libraries? Aren’t public libraries socialist?
MeDrewNotYou
I remember in US History when the professor would ask, "What do we celebrate on the February 16th?" A timid student would raise their hand and say, "George Washington’s birthday?" The class would then point and laugh as the professor singled them out for persecution of their conservative beliefs.
Marshall
The best way to honor George Washington right now would be to remove Reagan’s name from his airport.
DonkeyKong
DougJ, you need to post the whole comment for proper context.
Do you hear me people? There was not a biography of George Washington at the library that was scratch and sniff with the cool popups!!
Walker
Cribbing from Sadly, No, are we now?
The best part is this:
He believes the cherry tree story??
KCinDC
Who is this George Washington? I don’t remember hearing anything about him in school. Liberals must have removed him from our textbooks.
Marshall is absolutely right.
DougJ
@DK
He actually seemed to be looking for the biography in the Black History Month section. No kidding.
El Cid
@Marshall: Exactly!
There’s something about the last couple of days of conservative achievement which has really given me something to laugh about.
Ned R.
I kinda knew Gamecock would go off the deep end after the election but this appears to be a new level.
DougJ
@Walker
Was this on Sadly, No? I found it on Red State looking for crazy stuff about the Fairness Doctrine.
Walker
@DougJ:
Yes. It is their top post right now.
Just Some Fuckhead
Damn, finally capitalized all the words in yer post title.
They can be trained! Muhahahaha
John Cole
I can not tell a lie. These guys are morans.
Punchy
Shouldn’t it be Presidents‘ day?
/pedantic grammar nazi
DougJ
I hadn’t checked there since yesterday. I need to learn how to use RSS feeds or something.
El Cid
Clearly they’ve finally locked on the issue which will complete their victory after totally crushing Obama on the stimulus.
TenguPhule
Would this be the same Constitution Redstate was wiping George Bush’s runny ass with for the last 8 years?
Jeff
All white people are imperialists, especially G. Washington. That’s what they told me at G. Washington High School, anyway. No respect!
Rosali
I’m sure they’re still upset that Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays were combined in Feb to make room for MLK Day in January.
amorphous
I approve of this.
Also, from RetardState
Oh so you do care now!
lr
Maybe there were no Washington books because they were all checked out already. By schoolteachers preparing a lesson for their classrooms.
El Cid
Tee hee:
Perhaps Congressional Republicans can simply tell the Republican Governors whose states are cracking up that their War Against the War On Washington (WAWOW) will save them.
Tonal Crow
I love this stuff. GOPers are becoming measurably bigger whiners and more detached from reality every day. Pretty soon they’re going to be screaming about the "socialism" of public roads.
Mazacote Yorquest
"Liberals must have removed him from our textbooks."
No we didn’t. The man deserves a lot of credit for overcoming racial prejudice and discovering so many uses for peanuts.
Andre
@Mazacote Yorquest:
Bunk: [types in “Peanut” in database] 89? And that’s just the ones with Westside addresses.
Vernon: Man, you got to narrow that shit down. Find some way to work with all them "Peanuts."
Bunk: Motherfucker, do I look like George Washington Carver?
Mainer
In the world of what is quaintly known as "facts,"
1. The cherry tree story was made up in the 19th century by Parson Weems for his line of fictionalized stories of famous people. The parson sold lots of copies!
2. Presidents’ Day started as part of the legislation to create Martin Luther King Day. Congress didn’t want to add another federal holiday so they did away with the Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthday holidays, sort of merging them into Presidents’ Day.
Bonus facts:
1. Jesse Helms was against MLK Day because he thought King was a commie. He was one of 22 Republican Senators who voted against the King holiday. Bob Dole warned that would hurt Republicans with black voters and would make the party look intolerant.
2. Eric Cantor has a blog. If you want, you can go there and taunt him! republicanwhip.house.gov/blog/
Fulcanelli
These pricks really should just be shot. We spend far too much time, effort and money trying to reason with them or even trying to mock them into rational behavior. It’s a waste of time, as if the 28 years since St. Reagan’s beatification didn’t teach me that already. Ye Gods, what a pack of assholes.
Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist
Washington… Washington… hm, nope, can’t say I’ve ever heard of him.
Wait – wasn’t he the one who had a wooden leg? Or eyes? Or nuts that were actual nuts, or something?
Martin
They’re right. I spent all day calling around for someone to fit me with wood teeth, and NOBODY would do it! Bunch of goddamn traitors sullying the name of our founding president!
Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist
Teeth! That was it. Thanks, Martin.
Athenae
Okay, the world is actively burning down, the GOP is busy sacrificing itself on the altar of Joe the Plumber, and what gets Gamecock here worked up is … President’s Day? Really?
I mean it, he thinks somebody’s gonna forget all about George Washington? We’re gonna see past the state and the nation’s capital and the giant metaphoric penis we built in his honor and look at the dollar bill and go, "Huh, who’s that guy?" And that even if we did, this would result in … the destruction of civilization? What?
Here’s a smack with the cluebat, genius: If you want the children of America to know some particular fact about its history, you should teach them that fact, as parents and teachers and general grown-ups have done for generations, without all this public wanking about what our children IZ or IZ NOT learning.
Schmuck.
A.
El Cid
@Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist: You can read all about it in the famous account of Washington’s pirate attack on the Delaware river, where he took out a British officer with his wooden leg leading to his famous speech, "I regret that I had but one leg to give for our country," and went on to lobby for the need for summer solderers and sunshine atriums.
gnomedad
Another campaign in the wingnuts’ war on The Onion.
camchuck
Its a real problem. Because the libruls have stripped GW and the founding fathers from our libraries and schools, things like this happen (with video):
Missouri 9th Republican debate
Bhall35
Has anyone tried making sense of RedState’s comment section? It may be the couple of glasses of wine, but I don’t know who the hell is responding to who, or how their block quote system works, and when I tried to post a snarky rejoinder to his post, my browser got stuck in some weird refresh hell, before the comment could even be moderated. Is it because I’m using Firefox? Oh well, the Twitter revolution lives on…
Tonal Crow
@Bhall35: I don’t like the sound of that. You *are* running your browser in an unprivileged account, right? And you’ve denied that account access to everything except its own "documents and settings" folder, right? And you’re using an up-to-date virus scanner?
Please do practice Safer Hex. You never know what you might contract from those wingnut sites.
Fulcanelli
@Bhall35: Has anyone tried making sense of RedState’s
comment section…commenters… Oh, You mean the Walter Freeman Freedom Memorial Conservative PAC?They are a lively bunch!
freelancer
I would love to grant these guys their wish, and watch their heads asplode. What happened to White History Month?
Okay, lets cram all of European and North American History into January. We’ll give the Inuits December, the Tutse’s March, the Australian Aborigines April, and etc.
I heard this line of shit in 3rd grade, when it made sense to me, a la "Why can’t we have a White Entertainment Television cable channel?" But not since then.
Seriously? Who the fuck do they think is sitting around watching these reruns of Full House and King of Queens?
Tonal Crow
There’s a song by Ben Folds, much apropos GOPers:
Son, look at all the people in this restaurant:
What do you think they weigh?
And out the window to the parking lot,
at their SUVs, taking all of the space.
They give no fuck: they talk as loud as they want.
They give no fuck: just as long as there’s enough for them….
xyzzy
I haven’t read all the comments, and I mean no disrespect to DougJ, but things in teh Ole Blogospheres™ really are starting to sound like the proverbial (and ridiculed, when republican) echo chamber. I read about wingnuts ranting against president’s day on Sadly, No! in the morning, and by afternoon it’s here, Think Progress, Crooks and Liars, and god knows where else. Repeat daily, with variations as to the source. Maybe y’all need to diversify your daily blog reads.
The Grand Panjandrum
I was actually disappointed by the comments. Nothing really over-the-top by RS standards. Mostly standard drivel and a bit of barking at the moon in the thread. Yawn. But the journal itself was worthy of mocking.
Joshua Norton
It seems every year one group of wingnutz or another will fall prey to Liberal Derangement Syndrome about Washington’s/Lincoln’s Birthday, and find themselves wandering lonely and forlorn on the ragged outskirts of polite society, muttering as history passes by.
They feel compelled to claim it’s a liberal plot against Washington. I feel compelled to point out to them it’s a Republican plot – namely one Richard M. Nixon who started it all.
Suck. On. That. Wingers.
Tonal Crow
@freelancer:
"Asplode"? Perfect. Just perfect.
Ed Marshall
I work in media research, and there is this little Georgia paper where they have a recurring section where they have some small business guy who gets a stock set of questions. One of the questions is "Who was the greatest president". It’s always Reagan if they are white. The picture of the person is always there staring you in the face, but I swear you could do a blind analysis and If someone mentions Washington, Lincoln, anyone else other than Reagan the results would be 100% non-white for this section of Georgia.
DougJ
Very standard but parts to me very funny. I don’t know why but the screaming about ecoterrorists and no George Washington in the library cracked me up. It was understated craziness.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
@Fulcanelli: Hey, where is that quote from?
DougJ
Sorry about that on this one. I missed that it was in Sadly, No.
I realize it seems a bit boring when that happens.
The Raven
Lincoln, of course, doesn’t count.
Krawk!
Fulcanelli
@Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse: Link Here It appears the original from Capitol Blue was either scrubbed or archived down the memory hole. More here
Factcheck.org sez no, but who knows…
Davis X. Machina
George Washington has two birthdays.
He was born in 1732, before the UK adopted the Gregorian calendar, so you have your choice of 11 February O.S. or 22 February 22 N.S.
Comrade Jake
OT, but here’s the latest screed from Riverdaughter:
Oh the stupid, how it burns.
Joshua Norton
Wingnutz think Reagan has 2 birthdays, too. His regular one and Dec. 25.
ksmiami
yawnsville – where is a braindead woman on life support to really gin up the party faithful? I mean lets throw these guys more rope, more rope!
KLG
@ Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist
I think they were made of ivory, not wood.
different church-lady
OK, I’m pretty sure it’s not April Fool’s Day…
Mike G
yawnsville – where is a braindead woman on life support to really gin up the party faithful?
I wouldn’t describe Sarah Palin as being on life support, but you got the rest of it right.
Zuzu's Petals
We’re off the hook here in California. We just call it "The third Monday in February."
Walker
@xyzzy:
To be fair to DougJ, there is value add to having these stories posted here in addition to the other blogs. It allows us to discuss the story as a part of this commenter community.
Not all commenter communities are equal. Comments on Atrios’ blog are essentially worthless, and I am not a fan on the community on Sadly, No. Calculated Risk used to have one of the best commenter communities around, but the signal-to-noise has gone down as the blog has become more famous (and Tanta is no longer around to police comments).
Radio One
the best way forward for us would be to declare war on George Washington.
Fulcanelli
Are the Faux Outrage miners Unionized? Clearly this is good for the Obama Party.
Card Check please…
Martin
The year of his birth changed as a result – New Years moved from spring equinox to Jan 1.
The Moar You Know
You’re far too kind. I don’t even bother reading the comments section anymore. It has gotten completely out of hand over there. Really, really sad – and it only took a couple of months to go from "mostly informative" to "out and out shit".
CR needs to take his blog back, and I see no sign whatsoever that he ever reads his comments.
wilfred
How inane can you get? Washington’s life is actually worth knowing about since he’s arguably the only Founding Father who acted with complete disregard for self-interest and personal gain (personally, politically or economically). He was, in short, a man who completely deserves his reputation, and a hagiography. Reading about his life is as near to a cure for political cynicism an American can find, I would think.
An Americaan public library without a biography of Washington would be a pretty sad thing. Mason Weems and Douglas Freeman’s are both pretty good.
Wonk
@Mainer: Drat, no comments.
But then again, I did enjoy this post:
Heh. Mr Pounder said "Whip-Up."
Ninerdave
Washington deserves his own holiday. I mean the dude had like 30 dicks.
libarbarian
So-called by whom?
Did I not get that memo?
Mike S
@DougJ:
The best thing about the guy that was looking in the black history month section is his tag line.
I think he’d be the first to die.
Marshall
Don’t forget : Washington was first in War, first in Peace, and first in the growing of Hemp in Northern Virginia.
ukemi
George Washington bio video:
youtube.com/watch?v=sbRom1Rz8OA
Warning – some profanity – but what to expect from George Washington?
Ian
Ninerdave @63
That link is the only thing anyone needs to see today. It is the reason why the internet exists.
Even apart from the fact that he ate opponents brains and invented cocaine, Washington is one of the vanishingly small number of revolutionary Generalissimos who take off the uniform when the war is over. He stepped down from the Presidency after two terms as though peaceful democratic transfer of power were the most natural thing in the world. Washington > Lincoln.
wilfred
Thus setting the standard for the peaceful transition of power that is always bleated about on inauguration day.
One of his chief concerns was establishing genuine American economic independence, which is why he wore a suit made from American, rather than British, broadcloth at his inauguration. He hated all foreign entanglements and as a member of a class perpetually in debt to British bankers would have taken a far greater position on bank failures than his successors.
He was the least educated, least eloquent and the most visionary president we’ve ever had. That his life is no longer studied and considered, in terms of Americanness, is a damned shame.
kid bitzer
so your library doesn’t have a biography of washington. you think you’ve got it bad.
hell, i looked in my library, and they didn’t even have his autobiography!
Geeno
@Davis X. Machina:
Washington actually celebrated his birthday on February 11th his entire life. He didn’t shift it when the calendar changed.
Geeno
@Davis X. Machina:
Washington actually celebrated his birthday on February 11th his entire life. He didn’t shift it when the calendar changed.
Geeno
oops – sorry for the double there
Don
I feel a palpable jealousy of people whose lives are so otherwise free of issues that they have the energy to get outraged by something like this.
Capt. Jean-Luc Pikachu
Come on, you America-hating liberals! If you want to wage war against George Washington’s birthday, then you have to do it right!
NonyNony
@Gus:
That’s exactly right. A real conservative would never use the library. He’d buy every book he wants to read, and then never lend them to people for fear of depriving a business of its profits.
The only question is where to buy it from, since all of those hoity-toity bookstores are clearly liberally biased, with their fancy-pants coffee and their religion sections that carry books about non-Christian religions.
(One of our local wingnut reps here in Ohio actually wanted to defund libraries a few years ago because – and I kid you not – they were "stealing money from the bookstores and the video rental stores". Because "government should not interfere with companies making profits." People with this poor a grasp of economics should not be allowed near a credit card, let alone be allowed to vote on state budgets…)
Wile E. Quixote
Here’s my incredibly patriotic solution to the problem of "President’s Day".
1) We rename "President’s Day" to what it was originally, "Washington’s Birthday". This is celebrated on the third Monday after the first Sunday in February.
2) We start celebrating Lincoln’s birthday again (as a kid in California in the early 70s I remember getting both holidays off) as a federal holiday on the second Monday after the first Sunday in February. Hey, Lincoln preserved the Union, and he was a Republican, what are you a fucking commie for not wanting to take the day off and celebrate the man’s birthday? What, you’d rather work that day? Why do you hate America?
3) We move President’s day to the first Friday after the first Sunday in August, thus giving us a three day weekend in August. What, you don’t want a three day weekend to celebrate the birthdays of such great presidents as Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower and George W. Bush. What, you’d rather work that day? Why do you hate America?