[Political humor today from this guest writer. Want to trivialize tragedy through commerce? Never forget… to suggest your own patriotic t-shirt in the comments.]

Throughout history, enterprising men and woman have taken advantage of tragedy and despair to turn a quick denarius, pound, shilling and dollar. When tragedy struck, vendors of every age pulled out their screens, dusted off a few patriotic slogans and started printing t-shirts. And for some reason there were eagles on them.

The art of patriotic eagle t-shirt printing began in the last years of the Roman Republic, when vendors near the Capitol set up their tents and started selling black and white SPQR caps and these fashionable tunics.

More shirts through the ages after the jump.

Get it now…

(Or, see the full-size version.)

A few of the writers from this blog spent a weekend together waterskiing and grilling red meat by a beautiful lake on the Connecticut Massachusetts border.

Lesser men might have taken time to enjoy the outdoors, the dying gasp of summer, each day’s all-to-brief reprieve from the rain that Ike sent up to the northeast — or the companionship of friends rarely seen face-to-face.

Fortunately, these were not lesser men. And instead of talking, relaxing, enjoying the setting and one another’s compny, such was their dedication to popular culture and you, their loyal audience, that they spent the weekend coming up with new ideas for their online store. The first of these you can see at right. The surprising conclusion of this t-shirt and a few more funny products (some decidedly NSFW), after the jump.

Recently, your team of Overthinking It writers decided to celebrate Labor Day by creating a product line so irresistible to consumers that none of us would ever have to work again. Readers, I give you… Overthinking It T-Shirts.

You’ve subjected the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn’t deserve. Now, let that culture subject you to a level of scrutiny you probably don’t deserve, when you wear any of these fine creations out in public.

And, through Labor Day only, get free shipping or some such when you spend your cash money on our crap. Details on the individual shirt pages.

And stay tuned for our next line of merch, tentatively termed Underthinking It. They’re R-rated.

Every asshole with a cable modem thinks he can make a mint on the internet by selling useless crap. (Real grade-A douchebags call this a passive income muse. No joke.)

Why should be any different? Introducing the first offering of the Overthinking It Store. Buy quick, before this combination of memes expires, or before we get a cease-and-desist order from Mr. Serious. I give it 72 hours.