I am from tobacco-land and I've inhaled and it didn't lead to other drugs. My mom is 82 and she has smoked -tobacco - since she was 14. She's in decent health for her age, but her condo stinks and her car stinks. I can barely believe I lived in the same house.  I have lots of friends who work in the tobbacco business or made their money that way. We've joked that legalizing marijuana and treating it like tobacco would reduce its usage. Maybe its not a joke. I think they are both distructive and disgusting  habits. I'd be better off if I hadn't smoked pot in college and I know people who probably were injured badly by it but I've come to believe that addiction is different and probably in the genes. I suspect that wider use could eventually lead to social obprobrium but the cost of that to society is probably not worth making that music sound really, like totally awesome. Might be good for taco bell's 24hr biz though.

Isn't it interesting how we remember and judge Presidents mostly on the basis of foreign policy even though that is rarely the most important factor in electing them. Bush did the right thing but failed to sell it and now we've got this bloody mess of a community organizer. As Ken Langone said on tv yesterday, "we elected this guy who never did anything but go around making speeches so why should we be surprised that that's all he does". I think he continued Bush's policies, more or less, because it was easier and he didn't know what else to do.

I should've mentioned that I have not actually watched that episode but I agree. Different Hollywood take.

I never would have believed that I'd enjoy that show but I do. I think its because the actors are all first rate and so is the writing. However, I fear I must take issue with the idea that one should stay married "for the kids" Both of my parents would have been better off if they had not done that. For about half of my failed, 11 year  first marriage, I vowed that I would not be like my father. At first I thought that meant not cheating but at some point I knew it also had to mean doing the honest and right thing and ending it. Jay and Marse Robert might be right that Duty is the sublimest word in our language and the notion of duty to one's self seems hideously pop-psyche but I have only my personal experience to go on. Lamenting the high divorce rate is popular for conservatives but I think there are many more lamentable stats such as illigitimacy that it makes more sense to decry.

I sent the column to my freshman daughter with the following note:

Now that you’re free you can catch up on all the valuable cra..uh stuff I’ve sent. Is yahoo like google and you don’t have to delete anything? I’ve come to love that even though I thought it was crazy at first. This is interesting because we talked about it at the Country Club lunch table and because its NOT written for the class of 2012…its written for parents of the class of ’12 who can use it to scold their worthless children…for whom they are ultimately responsible. Its worth reading despite or even because of that fact because it gives you a view of what some people think about “college kids these days” unlike back in my day when we had to walk 10 miles through ice and snow to get to the beer truck, don’t worry we only hate the ones who voted for Obama, maybe not even all of them.

A close friend of mine escaped as a boy. We worked together in the years before and after and before the wall fell he went back to visit relatives but one cousin was married to a woman who worked as a police dispatcher so they would have no contact with him. She feared for her job. He said to me, imagine if all these buildings - we worked in a downtown area - had received no maintenance for 50 years. You wouldn't take the elevator.

I'm in the  midst of a fascinating book called _Why Nations Fail_ about the history of economic development and the importance of pluralisim and competition among various interests. The developed world created institutions that fostered these things. I can think of no better example of creating these insitutions than our Consitution so we  have an opportunity to shape the rest of the world with agreements that continue this tradition...I sure hope the people involved are aware of this fact. 

Obama girl on Youtube was more than just a silly occurence in the campaign, it was a sign of the times and the public's hideously misplaced rapture with B.O. I take this as a sign of the times as well and hope its a metaphor for a groundswell of public opinion.

You've gotta love an economist who uses simple declaritive statements like that. I'm very sympathetic to Austrian economics although I really became interested in the subject when I read Milton Friedman in '81 but I'm also sympathetic to the Fed for what they did in the crisis...not since then but I think they saved us from a worse fate at that moment. I have enough respect for the hawks, Fisher, Lacker et al. that I don't believe they'd be as sanguine if the situation were that dire. I feel sure we'll have inflation but I think it will slow and insidious.

We refer constantly to tight and easy monetary policy... the currrent steriod-enhanced ease notwithstanding...and yet nobody talks about fiscal tightness especially regarding regulatory burden. Too hard to measure I suppose but we are certainly in the equivalent of double-digit-volkerized-tightness when it comes to the regulatory regime.

I think there is a subset of women who not only like Jane Austen but have actually read her and of that set of women I dare say most would like O'Brian's books.

Given my nom de ricochet I fear I must comment on this post even though I have not had time to read eveyone's learned response; with regard to Boston being the well of true English I must tell you I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Patrick  O'Brian at the Mariner's Museum in Virginia in the mid 90s and to thank him for his very realistic depiction of me and my particular friend Dr. Maturin. At the meeting a rather portly fellow who wore a beard and one of those too tight polyester shirts that one sometimes sees in the west Indies asked a question in the accent of the typical Bostonian. He was unconvinced of  Dr Maturin's ability with the sword to which Mr. O'Brian said, "What can I say, Sir, you think one thing, and I another." Later on I mentioned the fellow to him and said it was obvious from his accent that he was not a Virginian. Mr. O'Brian then said, "oh ,yes, that was very clear...wretched creature."

This exchange might be a metaphor for our political life and the wretched creatures we must abide every day. 

Thanks for this post. It made me recall watching the Simpsons religiously in my mid twenties and how funny it is...back when my glasses were huge and I enjoyed Pat Buchanan's editorials. Brilliant satire.   

Had to make a connection. No other reason.

It is simple envy and it will never be repealed. I was on a plane from Phoenix to Detroit recently and the fellow seated across the aisle and back one row had to put his bag over my head since I had only a single briefcase. Gray-hair and beard, little nebish with Michigan T-shirt tucked into his blue jeans, pulled to mid-navel, might as well have worn a neon sign that said "college professor"...come to think of it he looked a bit like Karl Marx but as we waited to - ugh I hate the word - "deplane" they let the first class passengers go first.  Someone said, "they're no different than me except I guess they paid twice as much" and Professor Marx shrugged and said, "the one percent". I was too tired and too rushed to make my connection to Richmond to turn around and throttle him although he deserved it.

Big time college football is an arm of the entertainment industry that happens to be contained inside of Universities. Of course some of the men who play are intelligent enough to get decent educations as well. On the other hand, most of these institutions are in the vocational education business in reality anyway so the odds are against most of them playing in the pros but that is what their vo tech is teaching them. None of this changes the fact that football is a wonderful learning experience and a way for young men to learn - experientially - about teamwork, leadership, competition and mental toughness. One can learn this as well in Thucydides and Shakespeare but when it happens on the field it really sticks to the ribs.