Normal's a Setting on Your Clothes Dryer
       
Today – Certainly a dramatic example of the stunning power of Big Government opposed by the Tea Party movement, the Federal Highway Act creating the Interstate Highway System was approved 55 years ago today under the Eisenhower Administration. Further, what Ron Paul might see as a monument to government spending run amuck, the nation’s Interstate Highway System today stretches nearly 47,000 miles, took some 35 years to complete*, and cost more than $425 billion dollars. (*New sections of the system are still being built.) Originally created to serve as a key element in America’s defense, the Interstate Highway System has played a major role in creating the nation’s suburban sprawl and spawning its decaying inner cities.
Dystopian Interstate Video Game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSX93DoM-g4&feature=related

Birthday Boy - Born into a French noble family 111 years ago today, Antoine de Saint-Exupery was a  pioneer pilot and world famous  author who was never found after being shot down during a combat mission toward the end of the Second World War. Saint-Exupery was the author of The Little Prince, a fantasy fable about the meaning of life as defined by who and what we love. Illustrated by the author, a worn copy of book the only thing I have that belonged to my older brother Peter who was one of the first to die of Aids in 1984 – months after his oldest daughter Charlotte was killed in an automobile crash. Tortured by his life-long struggle with his sexuality, Peter spoke five languages fluently – including Japanese. Aside from The Little Prince, Peter loved the Mozart musical bio Amadeus, his sobriety and those equal to his restless mind. Oddly enough, Peter as a young boy looked exactly like Saint-Exupery’s drawings of The Little Prince.  Yeh. I know this is more about the older brother I lost than an amazing  French pilot and artist born 111 years ago today. But what the hell.  
The Little Prince
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOA7CcVOFIs