Blog Watch, where are you?

Everybody’s eyes are closed

I can’t see why I miss you so

So Blog Watch, where are you?

Ted Barlow: Iraq now vs. Vietnam then (good roundup post); Islamic banking restrictions, and how people get around them.

E-Pression: Lots of good stuff, including a link to this pro-life Catholic feminist guy (who likes Artemisia Gentileschi!), and thoughts on parental divorce and religious conversion.

Unqualified Offerings: Arguments for privatizing libraries. I spent a summer as a volunteer assistant children’s librarian, and I really haven’t found any problems with the DC public library system. (I know three libraries pretty well–one branch in a ritzy neighborhood, one in a middle to lower-middle class neighborhood, and the main library, MLK.) None of the problems described in the article UO cites (they’re ugly, they’re never open when you want them, they have no selection) could be found in the libraries I know. Those libraries have a lot of books (not everything, but inter-library loans get you pretty much everything you can reasonably expect from a non-university library), friendly and knowledgeable staff, and interesting book sales. I enjoyed my time in the Chevy Chase children’s section immensely. However, I fully realize this could be one of those suburban “My kid’s public school is great, I don’t get why all those people want vouchers” problems with anecdotal evidence.

On the larger question, the for-profit booklending outfits sound great, the private charitable libraries (how the US public library system started, if memory serves–another example of public aid killing private charity, or of the government relieving the rich of their responsibilities, or of the government attempting to “equalize” charity and ending with inequality and big free-speech hissyfits) also sound terrific, and building a private library foundation or network might be a really interesting project. Just as there’s no hope for welfare reform without a vigorous network of small private charities, so there’s no point in talking about privatizing libraries unless you already have the skeleton of a working private system. (The article UO cites is too sunshiney about the difficulties involved in this project, though. One of the biggest hurdles, I would guess, is the need for informed and enthusiastic librarians–at least for the larger libraries.) And a working private system is one that serves poor and rich alike. If the libertarian arguments are right, such private libraries should be able to do better at serving the poor than the government has. Let’s find out if that’s as true of libraries as it is of welfare.

The Widening Gyre is back.

The St. Blog’s Drinking Game; and the funniest Jonah Goldberg column in a long time (and I don’t just say that because of the libertarian undercurrent).

Why? Because emus can’t fly.