Marc Thiessen would like everyone in politics to please stop comparing their opponents to Nazis. Or rather, he would like everyone to stop evoking comparisons to Nazis, as the two politicians he calls out in his latest Washington Post column never actually said “Nazi” or “Hitler.” It’s not a very surprising or notable argument, really, especially from Marc Thiessen, whose continued participation in public life is dependent on enforcing a particular standard of “civility” in our political discourse.

Is anyone hiring experts in weights and measures? "L.F. Eason III gave up the only job he'd ever had rather than lower a flag to honor former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms. Eason, a 29-year veteran of the state Department of Agriculture, instructed his staff at a small Raleigh lab not to fly the U.S. or North Carolina flags at half-staff Monday, as called for in a directive to all state agencies by Gov. Mike Easley." So Eason was forced retired from the lab. We nominate him for a hundred Nobel Peace Prizes. [NewsObserver]

Precisely one good thing happened to America this July 4, the arbitrarily selected pretend "birthday" of our cursed nation: a vile bigot died at a very, very old age. While the country as a whole would've decidedly been better served by his having died many decades ago (we came so close!), it is at least some small comfort that former Senator Jesse Helms spent his last miserable years suffering from dementia alone in a nursing home. But don't take our word for it! The internet is alive with vitriol directed against the dead old bastard. Join us on a tour!

From the Times today: "An article today in Sunday Business about missed opportunities to reduce America's dependence on imported oil refers to a 1990 effort by Senator Jesse Helms, Republican of North Carolina, to block higher mileage requirements for vehicles and notes that Mr. Helms did not return calls seeking comment. The section went to press on Thursday, before Mr. Helms’s death Friday morning."

The long-time Republican senator from North Carolina—who died today at the age of 86—disliked using the term "gay" to describe homosexuals because "there's nothing gay about them." The Hands ad (featured here) during Helms' 1990 re-election campaign played into the most basic of white fears of black political power and racial quotas. And the cranky politico took seeming pleasure in opposing every cause dear to the liberal heart, such as foreign aid or support for the arts.