Today is February 7th. It is Laura Ingalls Wilder’s birthday. Wilder, born in 1867 in the “Big Woods” of Wisconsin, was the author of Little House on the Prairie, among other novels. She is best known for my being annoyed as a child, when my sister and mother wanted to watch the show based on the book. Also born on this date were: Frederick Douglass (1817), John Deere (1804), and Charles Dickens (1812). Each of whom annoyed me less. And least interestingly of all, on this date in 1943, the government announced there would be two days of shoe rationing. Many shoes starved to death.

Who’s progressive in Wisconsin | Washington Post

“The 2012 U.S. elections could be the most exciting and consequential in years. In Wisconsin, we might be looking at political Armageddon.”

Judge weighs PETA whale slavery lawsuit | U-T San Diego

“A federal judge appeared skeptical Monday of arguments that the killer whales that perform at SeaWorld are being held as slaves and that their confinement violates the constitutional ban on slavery.”

… APPEARED SKEPTICAL? YA THINK??

Update: Occupy plans mayhem for ‘dastardly’ CPAC | Washington Examiner

“Speakers will be physically assaulted, not just verbally confronted,” the source told Scribe in an email. Two Occupiers, who the source also identified as members of the New Black Panther Party, “said they would be disappointed if they didn’t get arrested and planned to ‘make it count.’”

Planned Parenthood’s Hostages | WSJ

“Faced with even the tiniest depletion in the massive river of funds Planned Parenthood receives yearly, the behemoth mobilized its enormous cultural, media, financial and political apparatus to attack the Komen Foundation in the press, on TV and through social media.”

Today’s Word of the Day comes from Merriam-Webster, and is awesome.
cacography (ka-KAH-gruh-fee): noun 1. bad spelling 2. bad handwriting