You should read about this, it’s pretty rad.

And so the Idea of Progress was mortified to realize he had posted the following photo and not attributed it to the owner:

The photograph originally came from John Baird’s Flickr page. I don’t remember if I took it from there, or if I found it on Google after someone else stole it (I assume the latter, but I can’t remember for sure).

The Idea of Progress would like to extend an apology to Mr. Baird.

In light of this disclosure, tIoP would like to make the following admissions:

-I did not write the second uncredited draft of the Geneva Convention, the one where Harry Potter dies in the end.

-I did not create the beloved character of Jar-Jar Binks.

-I only won the Tour de France three times, not four. I was doping for one of those.

-I was not the governor of Nevada. I just told that to girls as a pickup line.

-While I am an ordained reverend (thank you, internet!), I am not the Pope.

-My tears are not diamonds, merely cubic zirconium

-I was not the fifth Beatle. I was the 17th (after Donovan but before Frampton)

-While I can fly higher than an eagle, I am not the wind beneath your wings.

I apologize for any inconvenience caused by previous statements.

Two problems with this.

First, the CTA has told everyone that construction was happening on the weekends. They actually closed the Blue Line during the weekend of the Pitchfork Music Festival, and since all of the hipsters live off of the Blue Line, general pandemonium/apathy ensued. This is Tuesday night, which in case you’re wondering is not the weekend.

Second, we sat for thirty minutes. Riders were eying each other in case we had to result to cannibalism. Good thing I’m a skinny vegetarian, we make for stringy eating.

I didn’t get home until nine o’clock.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because I didn’t have a post for today, and I didn’t want anybody to start hating. So I bring you a picture of a bunny, as is the tradition here at The Idea Of Progress, and the realization that this non-post has become, in fact, a post.

By the way, is that the most narcissistic photo you’ve ever seen?

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Rove, Lying, and Voter Fraud

File this under the catagory of, “Yeah, that’s what I figured.” Have you been paying attention to the whole voter fraud thing? Probably not. Here’s the deal. Republicans are notorious for trying to deny minorities the ability to vote, citing voter fraud as being especially prevelant in areas where people vote Democrat (Jim Crow never died, he just got politically correct). The last election, the one that Kerry folded so quickly on, hinged a little bit on what the Republicans called voter fraud. There wasn’t that big of a stink about it, but when people are contesting votes in states that were as close as Ohio, every one counts.

Where am I going with this? A supposedly non-partisan non-profit group called the American Center for Voting Rights began a ‘civilian’ investigation into what those dastardly minorities were up to. The Justice Department was ordered to make it one of their top priorities. When a bunch of the attorneys came up with the fact that there really wasn’t any voter fraud at all. Then they got fired.

Then Gonzales got caught.

It appears, like the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, that Karl Rove was behind the whole thing. What a non-surprise. Every time something pops up on the political landscape that attempts to manoever the Republican party into a more favorable position of power, but claims to be distinct from the government, well, it’s always this bastard. What, Valerie Plame is unmasked by a newspaper columnist Hmmm….whose work is that?

Ever heard of Cardinal Richelieu?

So, it looks like the American Center for Voting Rights has just vanished, according to Slate. Kind of odd, don’t you think?

Rove is running out of fall guys. I can only imagine the books and movies that will be about this guy in the years to come. He’s like Kissinger, I’m just waiting for him to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

—

Electric Cars For a Midlife Crisis

Why are electric cars only sought after by grad students, vegetarians and Al Gore? Because they don’t appeal to the real car consumer: the 40-something man going through a mid-life crisis. Electric cars aren’t something that men purchase to compensate for their thinning hair and expanding waistlines. That’s what a Corvette is for.

Until now.

There’s a company out in Silicon Valley called Tesla Motors that aims to change all of that. Rather than a bunch of guys from Detroit or Japan, Tesla (named after Nikola Tesla, who basically gave us all of our technology for the 20th century) Tesla is run by a bunch of computer guys, who figured they could do a better job of making an electric car than GM, who royally fucked the whole thing up.

The cars don’t look like those pink bunnies, by the way. Those were made by Tesla Motors for shits and giggles, I guess.

This is what the car looks like.

I don’t go for sports cars, normally, but that’s pretty cool. All electric. 0-60mph in 4 seconds. 250 miles per charge. And you can charge it from a solar station you can install in your house.

Now that’s cool.