Today is March 30th. On this date in 1867, the U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia for 7.2 million smackers. So if you win the lottery tonight, you can buy, like, 80 million Alaskas all at once, which is way more Alaskas than most people will own in a lifetime! Also on this date in 1981, Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley, Jr. in Washington, DC. He is the only U.S. President to have survived being shot in an assassination attempt. Reagan once said “facts are stubborn things.” Facts have repeatedly insisted that they are not. On this date in 1993, Charlie Brown hit his first home run in the Peanuts comic strip. To this day, allegations of performance-enhancing ink linger and cast a pall over his victory. And finally, today is National Pencil Day, in honor of which this entire post has been written in pencil. Consider this an Open Thead.

GAB sets historic recall elections for Walker, Kleefisch | JS Online
“State elections officials ordered a set of historic recall elections Friday, making Scott Walker the third governor in the nation to face a recall and Rebecca Kleefisch the first lieutenant governor to face one.”

The ‘flexibility’ doctrine | Charles Krauthammer
“First of all, to speak of Russian elections in the same breath as ours is a travesty. Theirs was a rigged, predetermined farce. Putin ruled before. Putin rules after.”

U.S. soldier dies saving Afghan girl | CNN
“The official Pentagon news release says he died “from injuries suffered in a noncombat related incident.” But there is much more to the story. Weichel, 29, of Providence, died saving the life of a little girl.”

The Franklin Center Fuels Rise of Citizen Journalism | Red Alert Politics
“The Franklin Center is a non-profit designed to work with non-traditional news sources like non-profit journalism groups, independent activists and bloggers to help fill the gap of shrinking media covering state capitols.”

Today’s Word of the Day comes via Merriam-Webster.
atavism (AT-uh-viz-um): noun 1. a : recurrence in an organism of a trait or character typical of an ancestral form and usually due to genetic recombination b : recurrence of or reversion to a past style, manner, outlook, approach, or activity 2. one that manifests atavism : throwback

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