I’m not usually conspiratorial, or even that paranoid generally, but there is a certain kind of eerie “shadow government” kind of aura to President’s Day in my mind.  The degradation of what it was – Washington’s Birthday, a holiday that the US began celebrating in 1879 – into what it is now – a way to offer sales and deals and a chance to have employees dressed as Uncle Sam – speaks to a kind of symbol-squashing that is far too pervasive in mash-up culture.  The President, a position of authority, held by so few Americans in our 200 plus history, now reduced to caricatures of these important figures, reduced to xerox-copy level interpretations of what the idea of leadership actually could be.