No This is Awful.

From Balloon Juice comes a French version of Dylan's I want You. It is especially bad and, indeed may be the worst cover in the history of the world.

Intellecutually Bankrupt

Over to the Crooked Timber there are a series of post dedicated to the proposition that Libertarianism is load of bullocks. The last link is especially fun as it  makes clear that, as I have mentioned, Tyler Cowen is a horrid little man.

Untheoretical Slippery Slopes

Over to the NRO's Corner they are all a twitter about religious liberty and threats to it. Meanwhile in the real world spurious claims of religious liberty provide bigots with ammunition to be bigots. For the third year in a row a "Christian" church holds an white only conference and its

founder of the church, Rev. Mel Lewis, complained that this year’s uproar shows a disrespect for religious liberty.

That's right the freedom to practice your religion as you see fit now carries with it the right not to be called a narrow minded bigot. When you think about the state's recent successful trial of Catholic Church officials for child raping and continued investigation of same is, perhaps, a violation of their religious liberty. If pangs of conscience are licit reasons for medical practitioners and pharmacists to refuse provision of legal drugs and procedures, surely the same religious liberty protects the Catholic hierarchy from fulfilling its moral and legal responsibilities to its parishioners.


And that is the problem with the rights misrepresentation of religious liberty, which does not exempt religious institutions from licit laws and regulations. This is an attempt to return to a world in which the church was an independent agent and rival with state for sovereignty. It is, in other words, an attempt by the "social conservatives" to out do the neoliberals, who - after all only want to go back to the 19th century, by returning us to the 18th or possibly the 17th century.

A Question

If the Mayans were smart enough to predict the end of our world, how come they couldn't predict the end of theirs?

How Hot Is It?

The crazy little dog:

has been seek indoor shade and some place less hot then where ever it is she is. Normally she would be either begging for a walk or trying to get me to toss a toy around. She thought I was going to get the leash and she ran crawled behind the stool legs thinking she had become invisible. The cat, meanwhile, has absconded altogether.

Points Tipped

Remember when John Kerry decorated war hero ran for president and the Republicans "swift boated" him? It would seem that calling a double-amputee from injuries sustained in one or another of our current conflicts not a hero is a bridge too far.

It remains, obviously, to be see what the actual fall out this event it; but by gosh by gory if it leads to the end of the Republicans and the Right more generally being able to lie and traduce at will the world will be a slightly better place.

Dogs and Cats

living together:

Also Fraenk Schlecht wins, while Paul and Phil remain adorably wrong or boring. Paul just provided a reasoned argument for train travel and, to hedge, if not Fraenk then Tommy Vokler.