Woodstock is a curious place. It is famous for a concert which it never held and as the spiritual epicenter of free thinking in the 60's. Yet despite the occasional sign saying 'hippies welcome', on a snowy December evening before Christmas it looks more like a Republican fantasy of small town America. The setting for 'A wonderful Life', perhaps.

The hippies are old now, and they line up to protest the Iraq war as the bus to New York passes through.

In the background, an apathetic youth with hoodie and baseball cap perches on a mountain bike: gormless, slack-jawed and vacant.

If young people are less radical than their grandparents, society is abnormal compared to historical trends. More importantly, the historical precedent is that this kind of society is more likely to stumble into large scale conflict.

A very good speech, on the things that matter. Perhaps the Democrats will get their sorry act together at last.

Think Progress » Remarks of Senator Barack Obama, 4/3/06

Scott Kiesling of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Pittsburgh analyses the word Dude

Full of such classics as:

"Next we turn to investigate how this term is used in contextualized interactions among college-aged men in 1993, and to view some examples of its use in interaction, to understand how these indexicalities are put to use. I’ll first outline where dude appears, and then the various functions it fulfills in interaction..."

Reconstruction: The Second Civil War, explores what happened after the Civil War, a time when the Republicans were liberal and the Democrats conservative.

Boundaries of the Contiguous United States is a fascinating animation sequence that shows US state and national boundaries as the US and US colonies grew westwards from 1650 onwards.

Want to buy a real piece of history? Muscle Shoals (the whole kit 'n caboodle) is ffor sale on Ebay for $650,000. OK its not the original location, but having been its home since 1978, this is still a piece of American heritage. It would be a great shame if this were torn down to make space for condos as David Hood has suggested.

Steve Bowbrick for the Guardian:

"The American way of life is not for everyone - especially in times of war. But it's hard to avoid falling for its optimism, openness and possibilities for self-creation."

Guardian Unlimited | Online | States of attraction

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