Presidents Day.

Today is Presidents Day, a time marked by having a Monday off and department store sales. If you look at the calendar, on today's date it says that it's George Washington's birthday observed. His actual birthday is in four days on the 22nd. Washington's fellow February president is Abraham Lincoln who was born on the 12th. But because Washington was the first president his birthday is far more important to observe.

This day is celebrated in schools with tales of "Honest" Abe Lincoln and Georgie "I can not tell a lie" Washington. They have become, due to their roles they played in American history, role models for children. These mythological political figures supposed to teach children that "honesty is the best policy," to coin a phrase. This to me is utterly hilarious because growing up in the Soviet Union I was bombarded with stories about Lenin, the founding father of my favorite failed experiment, listening to his parents, telling the truth, and generally being a good boy. As they used to say on Dragnet: "the stories are true, only the names have been changed." Propaganda, it seems, is the same everywhere.