The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History reopens on Friday after a two-year renovation project, a ribbon-cutting and entertainment kicking off a weekend of events.

The museum is known for housing the Star Spangled Banner, the giant United States flag that hung over Fort McHenry the night of the British attack on Baltimore when Francis Scott Key wrote the words to the later national anthem.

The museum also maintains an impressive Industry and Manufacturing Collection:

The Museum’s collections document centuries of remarkable changes in products, manufacturing processes, and the role of industry in American life. In the bargain, they preserve artifacts of great ingenuity, intricacy, and sometimes beauty.

The carding and spinning machinery built by Samuel Slater about 1790 helped establish the New England textile industry. Nylon-manufacturing machinery in the collections helped remake the same industry more than a century later. Machine tools from the 1850s are joined by a machine that produces computer chips. Thousands of patent models document the creativity of American innovators over more than 200 years.

And many other related collections, including…

• Energy & Power
• Engineering, Building, and Architecture
• Health & Medicine
• Measuring & Mapping
• Natural Resources
• Science & Mathematics
• Textiles
• Transportation
• Work
   

Plus, the Bakelizer!

For anyone involved in the U.S. manufacturing economy, the museum is a must stop on a trip to Washington, D.C.

Heard the first Christmas carol of the year at a commercial establishment this morning at Caribou Coffee near NAM-HQ, ”Have yourself a very, merry Christmas.”

It’s November 13th. Used to be that the piped in Christmas songs would start after Thanksgiving, now it’s Veterans Day. Seems like they’re missing a good 10 days at the start of November.

Can we at least update the lyrics for this particular season?

Well, the economy outside is frightful

And credit markets, tightful

But as long as we bitch and moan

Let it loan, let it loan, let it loan!

Oh, c’mon. That’s better than, “GSEs, disorient are.”

In any case, the change of seasons allows us to link to our favorite journalistic cliche, “X got an early Christmas present…”

Being handed out at the Metro Center station today in Washington, D.C.

Elsewhere in the world of secondary markets and unintended consequences:

• CQ Politics, “New Crib-Safety Law Presents Possible Problem for eBay, Other Sites“
• AHN News, “California Senator To Write eBay To Stop Sales Of Obama Inaugural Tickets“
• Times of London, “Barack Obama inauguration tickets touted for $40,000“

So I ordered this crib online and it cost $40,000! But on the plus side, two free inaugural event tickets were included.

Anyway, D.C. is going nuts over the inaugural, which is still more than two months away.

We’ll be interested in whether the media play up the theme that it’s too, too lavish in a time of war and economic dislocation. Remember that critique? Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) wrote President a Bush a letter in January, 2005, arguing for restraint in Bush’s second inaugural:

The festivities surrounding your inauguration later this month are slated to cost $40 million – making this the most expensive inauguration in history. I urge you to re-direct those funds towards a use more fitting to these sober times – bonuses or equipment for our troops.

Our view: Inaugural spending will stimulate the economy. Go for it.

From President Bush’s remarks at the rededication today of the USS Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum:

The great ship’s keel was laid on December 1, 1941. Less than a week later, Pearl Harbor was attacked — and America entered World War II. In the years to come, as the United States Navy defended the freedom in the Pacific, the men of “the Fighting I” would be in the thick of the battle. The Intrepid participated in the invasion of the Marshall Islands. She played a key role in the amphibious assault on Okinawa. She was part of one of the greatest sea battles in history: the Battles of Leyte Gulf.

In that massive engagement, American forces faced some of the most formidable elements of the Japanese Navy. The Japanese fleet included the Yamamato [sic] and the Musashi — these were the heaviest and the largest battleships ever constructed. The Imperial Navy approached the coast of the Philippines from three different directions, and it was a fearsome challenge — but the men of this ship were ready. The Intrepid’s Air Group fought courageously and without rest. By the time the battle ended three days later, the United States Navy had sunk the Musashi to the ocean floor, and lifted hopes for victory in the Pacific.

Even before its refurbishing, it was a fascinating museum you could spend days at.

Patrick McDonnell, creator of the friendly comic strip, “Mutts,” has been running one of his occasional series encouraging people to adopt pets from animal shelters, using rock lyrics this week to make his point. From his “Shelter Rocks” series:

Wow! You’d expect any McDonnell reference to an Iggy to be to Ignatz Mouse (he wrote a book on George Herriman) but Iggy and the Stooges? How many McDonnell fans will recognize the reference to Iggy, the Godfather of Punk, the rock icon from Detroit, still touring at 61?

In any case, it allows us to link to a video of Iggy and the reformed Stooges doing “I Wanna Be Your Dog” live, 2007. For the animals…

Andromeda Strain was probably the best, one of his many intelligent books that inspired even better movies. Crichton also stood out as a man who identified the dangers of politicized “consensus science.”

From Iain Murray:

Michael Crichton has died “unexpectedly,” with reports suggesting a private struggle against cancer.  may he rest in peace.  He was one of the few people publicly interested in science with the courage to speak out against the direction environmental politics had pushed it.  All who want to honor his memory should read his Caltech speech, Aliens cause global warming.

Crichton was also a man of many talents, directing films and producing TV. His movie, “Coma,” was a heck of a thriller with the additional attraction of Geneviève Bujold as the lead.

UPDATE (Monday, 11:20 p.m.): Saturday Night Live has pulled the video of the skit described below, and bloggers including Michelle Malkin suspect that the Sandlers and/or their partisan allies put pressure on NBC to kill the segment. Interesting speculation. What a worthy topic for investigative reporting, eh, ProPublica? (The jibe being that this supposed crack, disinterested journalistic venture is funded by Sandler and has yet just once mentioned this fellow in its reporting on the financial crisis or other groups he funds, like ACORN.)

And we’ll leave the video up as a silent rebuke …
It first seemed like just another belabored, overly long skit this weekend on Saturday Night Live, although certainly timely. Mockery of them all in a mock news conference: A dull President Bush, a hyperpartisan Speaker Pelosi, Rep. Barney Frank, deadbeat homebuyers and speculative creeps.

But then SNL made fun of Herb and Marion Sandler, the multi-multimillionaires who ran the Golden West thrift in California until selling it to Wachovia in 2006. These are big names in the savings and loan business and Democratic Party politics, but otherwise the superwealthy duo are obscure as obscure can be.

Last time we saw the Sandlers in the news they were funding another liberal, “investigative” anti-business media outfit, ProPublica. Good thing for those journalists the Sandlers sold why the selling was good.

In any case, we’re so impressed with SNL’s writers, to be aware of such detail in the world of high finance. Now, it wasn’t particularly funny, but still…

Or is there perhaps an Adam Sandler connection we don’t know about?

On today’s House suspension calendar, i.e., two-thirds support needed for passage, is S. 3350, waiving federal claims to documents held by the estate of Grace Tully, FDR’s confidential secretary. He dictated the declaration of war against the Empire of Japan to her. Summary:

Grace Tully began working for Eleanor Roosevelt in 1928 while Franklin Delano Roosevelt was running for Governor of New York. She then worked in a number of capacities for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, including as his personal secretary when he was elected President. On December 7, 1941, President Roosevelt dictated to Ms. Tully a request to Congress for a declaration of war following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Environmentalists sue TVA on Colbert Plant Envi… « Thomason Tracts

Environmentalists sue TVA on Colbert Plant. Environmentalists sued the Tennessee

Elk River resort lawsuit: Environmentalists gather funds to sue…

Environmentalists gather funds to sue TVA, which is pondering approving marina. By

States, Environmentalists To Sue EPA Over Greenhouse Gases …

Full News Article · Back to States, Environmentalists To Sue EPA Over …. Air- quality issues related to TVA coal-fired power plants are again being hashed …
Environmentalists Sue Over Dickerson Emissions | Article from The …

Environmentalists Sue Over Dickerson Emissions …find The Washington Post … Nitrogen oxide emissions falling: TVA official says statewide ozone down. …
Mountaintop Removal Threatens Ecosystem and Economy | Project …

… direct attention to the perpetrators-TVA and the Office of Surface Mining (OSM). …

KnoxvilleTalks.com | Knoxville, TN | > TVA

Environmentalists want more info before signing off on TVA’s request to release more warm water back into the Tennessee River. …

Things you never thought you’d see on the Senate floor…

Sen. Grassley has just used a poster of Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” album cover to make a point about the tax extenders legislation, the nature of compromise and budget offsets.

The white light on the left side of the poster entering the prism is compromise. The multicolored beams are the various elements in the bill, including budget offsets. We must not break this prism into shards, Senator Grassley argues.

The Senator concludes: Use the prism that presents the opportunity to preserve tax relief for millions of middle-income families.

Which means this song must be used in news reports about today’s debate.

P.S. Perhaps it was in the way of a eulogy to keyboardist Richard Wright.

Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe speaks truth to “no-power” legislation using a Q&A format to explain why last week’s House-passed drilling bill actually discourages drilling:

A: This bill permanently bans all drilling within 50 miles of the US coast, which just happens to be where most of the recoverable oil and gas reserves are. It permits drilling between 50 and 100 miles out only if the adjoining states agree - which they won’t, since the bill denies them any share in the royalties the oil companies would have to pay, thereby eliminating any financial incentive for a state to say yes. Virtually all the oil off the California coast and beneath the Eastern Gulf of Mexico would be locked up for good. Don’t be fooled: The only offshore drilling this bill really opens the door to would have to be 100 miles or more out to sea, where the oil companies have no infrastructure.

Bonus musical reference: “Drill Here, Drill Now” by Aaron Tippin. Lyrics by Newt Gingrich? Well, no, but close.