THE JANE GALT TAX PLAN. In case you somehow missed it. Very much worth your time. Read more

You’ve been watched. You’re going to get blogged. No uniform is gonna keep you warm… (I’ve been on a big Elvis Costello/Violent Femmes/Mendelssohn kick over here. Hope the neighbors don’t mind.) Body and Soul: Important post on DynCorp crimes (although she doesn’t draw the natural conclusion that free enterprise doesn’t do all the things she talks about at the beginning of her post when governments ally themselves with corporations, because free market pressures no longer apply). Plus a long series... Read more

“DEAR MISS MANNERS–I go to church for some peace of mind. I don’t understand why people bring their beeper/phones to this sacred place. These go off in the middle of the prayers, and one loses concentration. I have approached the minister, but with no success. Am I being unreasonable? One lady even accused me of being hostile towards her husband because he carries a beeper. “GENTLE READER–Miss Manners has heard many a claim of why it is more important to... Read more

HBO “CATHOUSE” REALITY TV: Not a joke. Note the way the ABC “news” story is basically a smirking commercial for the show. Click here for some stuff about a Nevada brothel (not the one on the show). Click here for some words from our sponsor, Poly Styrene. Read more

D.C. ETHNIC DINING GUIDE, which I think I got via the Volokh Folkh, and which includes the headings “Cajun-Thai” and “Chinese-Peruvian.” This list is much better for people who have cars–I have no clue how I’d haul myself to many of these places–and I’ve eaten at very few of even the DC restaurants listed. But the ones I can verify seem to be quite accurate; the reviews are witty (though laden with a bit more food-attitude than I can handle);... Read more

A VOLOKH CONSPIRATOR writes, “I am tempted to go farther and say that for an idea to conquer the world, it usually needs to be a metaphor, or to be presented as one; but this is not the place to develop that possibility.” I agree with him/her (this conspirator is pseudonymous), and would add that for an idea to conquer the world, you must be able to sing about it, in a robust drinking-song kind of way. I developed this... Read more

WHAT WOULD C.S. LEWIS SAY? (Uh, the title there is in reference to the stuff from The Problem of Pain about animals being perfected, thus attaining Heaven, via their masters. Lewis gets a bit weird there although much of the book is excellent. Sigh… if you have to explain the reference you probably shouldn’t make it. ANYWAY, it’s a picture of a chick with her head in an elephant’s mouth. Via The Rat, like the link below.) Read more

YOU KNOW, THE PIGS WERE NOT THE GOOD GUYS… “Animal Farm” being performed in the People’s Republic of China. Click if only for the funny costumes. Read more

REPUBLICS ANCIENT AND MODERN: The third volume was good. Not quite as nifty as the first one (on ancient Greece). Haven’t read the second one yet. (Thhhppppttt to order! Rah to chaos!) Rahe is definitely pushing a thesis–several, in fact. For example, he argues fairly explicitly that Alexander Hamilton’s desire for a more centralized government–more national, less federal–would indirectly have strengthened economic ties in the US to the point that the Civil War might well not have happened. Many libertarians... Read more

“During the Washington administration, a Secretary of State was forced to resign under suspicion of treason; other members of the cabinet carried on private dealings with foreign diplomats wich failed to disgrace them only because they remained unknown. A congressional leader was stabbed in a political argument. The year Washington retired from office, the Senate expelled a Senator for treason, and a Republican journalist accused Hamilton of scheming with James Reynolds, a small-time criminal, to speculate in Treasury certificates. Hamilton... Read more