Friday miscellaneous (7/5)

We hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July celebration yesterday. In case anyone's patriotism quota was not satisfied, here is some over-the-top patriotic fan art (personally, I think the Andrew Jackson piece almost looks authentic).

Oh, Obamacare Obamacare. We hardly knew thee. Betrayed by Massachusetts, rejected by the hobbyists, and kept at arms length by thy most ardent supporters. We passed thee, but still don't know what thee can do.

President Obama came into office promising to restore the relationships with our allies. Germany, however, is souring. Egypt isn't happy either. And in Africa, well, he can't quite measure up to George W. Bush (this sort of personal touch might be part of the reason why).

Conservative opponents of immigration reform keep saying the proposed bill is a sell out to liberals. That would be news to some liberals.

And speaking of the left, some are wondering if there are any progressive causes other than gay marriage (and the Conservatives are accused of only caring about the culture war). Part II gives some other issues that the left could work on.

Trying to keep up with the NSA, the USPS is tracking physical mail.

Amazon and Apple are in a price war for ebooks which, if nothing else, shows how antitrust laws can be manipulated by the very companies they're designed to regulate. (I'm ripping off both, since, since so far I have used my kindle exclusively for free public domain works.) And while on the topic of Amazon, here's a fascinating look at how their robotic warehouses work.

Homeschooling is often equated with the religious right. But there are a growing number of atheists who also choose this educational model.

This week's lost and found. Lost: toothpaste in hotels. Found: an abandoned giant space gun.

Utopian alert: both III Arms Company and Glenn Beck are planning their own libertarian communities (because we all know that those always end well). But if neither of those appeal to you, you can always fall back on Paulville (which is exactly what it sounds like). I wonder if any of them will have toothpaste--probably not. Giant space guns, however, are much more likely.

I put this at the end, for fear that if you read it you wouldn't read the rest of my post. But here it is: news is bad for you.

And finally, I had never realized the hazards of being a sneezing snowman. It's almost as bad as news.