Vive Le Revolution!

The people of France are celebrating a national holiday today that is popularly known as Bastille Day. (Wikipedia) Here's a little gift from Canada to help them commemorate it. (YouTube)

Rosie LaRose’s Top Six in the (Yes, It’s Still ) a.m.

1 UP IN SMOKE California is broke. (MSNBC) So how come they're still using tax dollars to go after pot growers instead of legalizing it and taxing the substance like cigarettes? (Mother Jones)

2 TWO MORE COUNTRIES P'OED AT US Harper's government today issued travel restrictions for Mexicans and Czechs wishing to visit our country.(CTV via msn.ca) Given Harper's recent erratic performance on the international scene (Inside the Queensway) it wouldn't surprise me to wake up one morning and learn we're at war with Antarctica. And losing. Gay penguins can really put up a fight, eh?

3 REGINA MAYOR NO LONGER A LITTLE SHORT WITH HIS INCOME Holy Mother of God, will someone think of the poor suffering taxpayer? Oh, it's going to Regina's Mayor Mullethead and his city council glee club. Okay, everybody, go back to sleep. But don't think for a moment that Regina's civil servants are going to get an 11 per cent wage hike. Four legs good, two legs better. (Leader-Post)

4 MONORAIL, MONORIAL, MONORAIL! One of the biggest problems with having a taxpayer-funded carnie an economic development officer as your premier is that you get someone who's anxious to make a sale – any sale – without realizing what he's getting into. Case in point – getting into the radioactive medical isotope industry (Leader-Post) just as Wall's buddy Stephen Harper wants out and the U.S. is developing its own market (and that's where 90 per cent of Chalk River's production went). (Impolitical) Wall's interest is like Tommy Douglas announcing a program to build avionics for the Avro Arrow the week after Diefenbaker scrapped the project.

5 GOLDENBALLS VERSUS LANDYCAKES Judging from the excerpts from Grant Wahl's new book on David Beckham (Sports Illustrated) it's going to be interesting times in the LA Galaxy locker room. (ESPN). My money's on Landon Donovan on this one. Not only is his wife better looking than Posh (Zimbo) but Donovan has a better attitude than some lazy-arsed Limey who's here for the elephant cheques. Ben Knight (former Globe and Mail soccer blogger, now doing it freelance) nails it: make Beckham sit on the freaking bench until he gets his head and his lazy butt working together for the Galaxy's greater good. (Onward!)

6 IF THEY WERE LOST IN THE STARS This week marks the 40^th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moonshot – one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind and all that. One of the more interesting things about Apollo 11 is that William Safire, one of President Richard Nixon's speechwriters, was ordered to make a ghoulish, if necessary, contingency plan. He had to write a speech for Tricky Dick in the event that the lunar module crashed, or if it didn't lift off, stranding Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon forever. Afterward, a clergyman would deliver an elgy to commend their souls to the deep, akin to a burial at sea.The transcript of that (never delivered) speech can be found here. (abovetopsecret.com)

The Ultimate Staycation

This week marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission that saw U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong become the first human to set foot on the Moon. In honour of that historic event, the J.F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum has created a special website that, through archival audio, video, photos and real-time transmissions, will allow people to relive the mission as it actually unfolded. Lift off is set for July 16 at 9:32 a.m. EST, with the lunar landing to occur four days later. To reserve your spot aboard the spacecraft, head to this website. (WeChooseTheMoon.org)

Shepard Fairey Update

Further to this post from awhile back, we received a press release in the office today about this new book that's been published in the United States. Yet another reason for conservatives to rail against public funding for the arts, I guess. (M&C Books)