[Quote]:

After learning that Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan lists Rage Against The Machine as one of his favorite bands and currently on his iPod, fans of the band quickly barraged the band’s most outspoken and socially active member with Tweets demanding a response. Tom Morello, the band’s guitarist, not only stepped up to the task but quickly published a scathing op-ed piece via Rolling Stone.

Morello, confused and upset by Ryan’s choice in music begins, “Paul Ryan’s love of Rage Against the Machine is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades.”

Morello continues, “Ryan claims that he likes Rage’s sound, but not the lyrics. Well, I don’t care for Paul Ryan’s sound or his lyrics.”

“Don’t mistake me, I clearly see that Ryan has a whole lotta “rage” in him: A rage against women, a rage against immigrants, a rage against workers, a rage against gays, a rage against the poor, a rage against the environment.”

[Quote]:

Insurance company Progressive felt the wrath of the Internet this week after the brother of a policyholder who died in a car crash posted a startling missive about how the family’s claim was handled. Progressive has now reached a financial settlement with the family.

[..]

The family’s attorney, Allen Cohen, told CNN it was a monetary settlement for “tens of thousands of dollars” more than the $75,000 claim balance that the family was originally seeking.

The payment “is for their failure to exercise good faith towards their insured,” Cohen told CNN. “While I cannot tell you the amount, they did pay 100% of what we asked in this regard.”

[..]

As one commenter wrote on Progressive’s Facebook page after it announced the settlement deal: “Hey look at that, you agreed to pay off the claim the family was originally entitled to. All it took was losing a trial, a media firestorm, and the impending loss of countless customers.”

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The U.S. presidential debates are like a “Best Beer in America” contest where only Bud Light and Coors Light are invited.

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Steve Baldwin, former Republican Whip of the California State Assembly, said recent journalism about the actual date of Romney’s departure from Bain Capital “has almost certainly revealed the real reason Romney refuses to release any more than two years of personal IRS data: Bain’s craven investment in Stericycle corporation – a vendor to Planned Parenthood – lined Romney’s pockets with profits from the incineration of aborted human fetuses. Mitt, it’s time to disclose your tax returns and everything else about Stericycle.”

Ben Franklin was right. This truly is America’s bird.

[Quote]:

Ten years after Commodore Matthew Perry first visited Japan with four war ships and a letter from President Fillmore, Japan sent out a third Embassy to Western Nations (following the first Japanese Embassy to the United States in 1860, and the first Japanese Embassy to Europe in 1862). The third tour had the same goal as the first two: learn about Western cultures, and try to postpone the opening of Japanese ports to foreign trade. During that third tour, the group were on their way to France when they stopped in Egypt. On this stop, the members of the mission were photographed posing before the Sphinx, dressed in winged kamishimo costume and jingasa hats, carrying their feared long (katana) and short (wakizashi) swords.
The photo of the shoguns with the Sphinx was taken by Antonio Beato, a commercial photographer who used the albumen print method. Antonio was the brother of the more famous photographer, Felice Beato.

And if you like the juxtaposition of interesting tourists in front of the Great Sphinx of Giza, check out Albert Spalding, the Chicago White Stockings and All-Americas exhibition team lounging over the Sphinx, captured in 1889 as part of a tour around the globe to promote baseball.

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The Constitution and laws of the United States forbid all interference with the religious or political concerns of other nations.

– President Millard Fillmore’s letter to the Emperor of Japan
(presented by Commodore Perry on July 14, 1853)