Shading Mount Rushmore

Check out this lunacy.

From AdAge.com:

Proshade, a 3-year-old consumer-eyewear company headquartered in Florida, offered to pay $4 million to adorn the presidential faces on the Mount Rushmore National Monument with larger-than-life Proshade visors.

The company said they wanted to draw attention to the need to preserve the monument and -- um -- well, yeah, and do a little advertising too. Yeah, that's it. It's for preservation. That's the ticket.

In saying no, Gerard Baker, Superintendent of Mount Rushmore National Monument, remarked, "I don't want to put anything on those to deviate from what they mean. I will not make it commercial." I'd also bet that some rules have been established regarding the care of national monuments which would preclude turning them into billboards.