Many on the right are hoping to exploit a pregnant political moment to advance a host of antidemocratic policies. Principled dissent is never more necessary than when it is least welcome. American history is replete with examples of red scares, racist hysteria, political censorship and the indefensible curtailment of civil liberties that derive, in part, from excessive and abusive forms of superpatriotism.

…we pretended that we live outside history. We pretended to live in a space where economies rose forever and death could not visit us unless we were old or unlucky (or uninsured, which is another issue), and now the illusion has come to an nasty end. We were told – and I believed, somewhere in my heart, without even knowing I believed it – that America was done with all the messy cycles of the past, all the depressions and long, miserable battles, and that we would now be able to lead the rest of the world by our deeds.

• More bizarre identity theft — found via The Obscure Store
• It looks like this is not a joke: holistic computer medicine — found via memepool
• You may ask yourself: does the world really need fluorescent pigs? Well it’s got ’em. — found via Metafilter
• Three asteroids, Compassion, Solidarity and Magnanimity, have been named as September 11 memorial. — found via randomWalks
• I just received a memo on what to do in case someone calls in a bomb threat. Yippee. Let’s just hope it never comes in handy.