It’s not everyday that you get to hold a really important piece of history in your own hands. And if you have a few hundred thousand dollars that’s burning a hole in your pocket, you can buy that piece of history for keeps too. Heritage Auction, based in Dallas, has put 530 artifacts from the Abraham Lincoln era up for bidding, on February 11-12, running in conjunction with Honest Abe’s birthday.

This includes the 13th amendment to the United States Constitution, which outlawed slavery. The bidding for this lot opens at $200,000. It was on February 1st, 1865 that Abraham Lincoln signed the Amendment, and his home state, Illinois, became the first in the union to ratify it.

[Read more…]

As has been well documented, especially so on this site, the patriotism gets ramped up to jingoism and then some at the Indianapolis 500 every year. Actually take that jingoism and square it, no wait- take it to the tenth power.  On one hand, we get it- this site’s colors are red, white and blue for a reason.

It is the nation’s biggest Memorial Day weekend gathering, as it draws over 300,000 people each year. On the other hand, come on- spare us the native advertising for the armed services; sponsored by Chevrolet. People showed up for an auto race, not a recruiting pitch, and certainly not for more Chevy ads.

[Read more…]