The Perils of Moderation

William Saletan at Slate writes about the middle way amidst the land mines of abortion.

Words of a Blogger

From Ta-Nehisi Coates:

Either way, this past week has crystallized why I write. I am not here to think for people. I'm not here to respect all opinions. Some ideas about the world deserve honest debate and others deserve scorn. Each person must decide for themselves which is which. Even as I am aware of my own limits, I will not hesitate to make the choice. We can't talk our way out of everything.

(After heated discussions on race, and Gates, and ....)

Homesteading Hickory, Goodbye Ron

Ron and family have had their ups and downs homesteading somewhere in the Ozarks, mostly chronicled on this site. I risk reading too much into this, the penultimate post on the site, but the agrarian/locavore lifestyle seems sometimes to be a temporary fix, not something which today's generation is willing to endure/enjoy for a lifetime. People such as Ron and his wife have options, and they can use them. That's good; that's better than being stuck in a rut.

5 Million Dutch Paintings?

That's from a Smithsonian article on shell collecting--the claim Dutch painters of the 17th century produced over 5 million paintings. Apparently the Dutch collected tulips, paintings, and sea shells, paying more for some tulips and shells than for paintings.

The Most Important News of the Day

A small item in the NYTimes reports East Africa now has fiber optic connections to the Middle East and Europe.

PART and the Obama Administrations

Government Executive has an article on performance evaluation of federal agencies, with the hook being the confirmation hearings of Jeffrey Zients, OMB deputy director for management and chief performance officer, who is revising the Bush's PART system. I'm disappointed because there's no indication that Zients is trying to sell Congress on using any system. If the people who hold the purse strings don't use the system, it's mostly a waste of time.

My Investment Earned 23 Percent

From the Post:

"Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams said the government received an annualized return of 23 percent on the $10 billion in rescue funds it gave to Goldman Sachs last year."

Of course, this factoid won't get the ink the bailout did.

Reciprocity of Licenses

Yesterday there was a vote in the Senate on whether states should be required to honor the concealed-carry licenses issued by other states. Pro-gun Senators argued one way, pro gun-control Senators argued another way.

If there were a vote in the Senate on whether states should be required to honor the marriage licenses issued by other states, the positions of most would be reversed, as would the argument.

My point?

Principle is fine, but usually politicians use principle only to justify a position.

Humans are not consistent, nor should we expect politicians to be.

The USDA Blog and Garden

I wonder why they don't allow HTML syntax? Seems rather behind the times to me (although I've forgotten most of the HTML I learned in the 1990's).

And I wonder if the People's Garden at USDA has harvested its first tomato. The last list on the site is June 2.

There Are Some People With Whom You Can't Compete

Tyler Cowen being one:

"Cowen readily acknowledged he’s an atypical library user, visiting four times a week libraries in three systems near his home in Virginia: Arlington Public Library, Fairfax County Public Library, and Falls Church Public Library. “I am drowning in wonderful public libraries,” he said, though he also noted, “I probably buy more than a book a day.”

Fifteen years ago, Cowen said, he was more likely to go to academic libraries. (He teaches at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.) What he finds useful at public libraries, he said, “is not really books per se, but the way of organizing information.”