Ghost in the Machine has the story, really, “U.S. History for Dummies.” Well worth clicking over to read it in full.
But I also want to call attention to this brilliant graphic — a sort of photographic political cartoon, and it’s quietly, subtly, savage:
What things in this photograph were paid for by taxes?
Oh, there are a couple of inaccuracies — the phone lines were probably paid for by the telephone company, but eminent domain was used to get the easements in many cases. (Who did the photo and the captioning? Anyone know?)
Ben Sargent was a little less subtle, in the Austin American-Statesman, using that Oliver Wendell Holmes quote we looked at some time ago.
Ben Sargent, Austin American-Statesman, copyright 2009
Posted by Ed Darrell 
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 