Healthcare Vote Day, U.S. Capitol Lawn

Walking past Cannon House to the Capitol Lawn

The pro-Socialized Healthcare squad

Dora the Explorer is a 'No' vote.

The East Balcony, just before 14:00

A make-up caked Charlie Rangel strode by, smiling and (not kidding) signing autographs.

An awesome rejoinder to those who confuse fighting for freedom in making personal decisions with judging people on immaterial accidents.

Life is distinctly not a pre-existing condition. For one thing, a pre-existing condition is used to differentiate amongst individuals in a pool. And one can't differentiate using a criterion that applies to every person in the pool. For another thing, if we all lived, pre-existingly, philosophy pretty much would have no questions to answer. As it is, we all came into being at some point...

In the land of opportunity and ambition, a special contempt is reserved for those who promise heaven and deliver hell. We Americans are not kind to latter-day Icarus.

Hmmm, love the sentiment, but doesn't the concept of recycling presume that it's possible to mash and pulverize garbage, or Congress, until it becomes valuable again...?

Meanwhile, some Socialist outfit was shilling books, threatening to ruin a perfectly lovely Sunday afternoon with quotes from, 'Castroism and the Politics of Petty-Bourgeois Nationalism'.

Socialists have got a nasty habit of stopping their thinking at whatever point in history suits them, but, seriously? Yugoslavia? Still?

Of course, the Socialists were out, giving away inspirational literature for their cause. If, by "giving" one means selling at grossly inflated prices.

Selling a dusty old paperback for $20 to the huddled, exploited, workers? What are they teaching the at kiddie komrade kamp these days? If it looks like Capitalism, and talks like Capitalism...

But not this guy. He was selling American flags out of a suitcase for $1 each - to the pinkos and the veterans, the fat Union members and the skinny drug reformers, to angry pubescent entitlement monkeys who wanted acne cream covered by Uncle Sam and angry middle-American housewives who couldn't understand why they were punished for working hard, to color-coordinated GLBTers and confused Japanese tourists. Welcome to America - all things for all people, for $1 each.

Stragglers at day's end.

The way this town has balconies, you'd think a production of Romeo and Juliet was in the offing.

LIVE FREE OR DIE.